What’s wrong with this picture?
Can you see anything wrong with this picture? It’s an ad on the back cover of the excellent British Blues magazine Bluesmatters!
Just my opinion but it looks like what happens when the marketing dept. of a mainstream family holiday park try desperately to make sense of a rock and blues weekend on their hallowed grounds. For the rest of the year they’re advertising karaoke, red coats, cabaret and children’s entertainers. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when i saw the three young dudes with their “rock clothes” and “rock poses”.
This does bring up a serious point though readers, i wonder what the age group it is that actually visits that weekend? (looks like a great line-up).
I bet ya it’s not teenagers and people in their early 20’s like those air-guitaring, bandana wearing chaps in the advert, and that’s a shame.
I think we need to look at how roots music is marketed to the masses. Perhaps younger punters would be put off by the patronising and frankly naff nature of the ad and those of us who are 30+ would just go on the strength of the line-up (in quite small print).
We need more young Roots musicians, listeners and buyers. I don’t think this ad helps the cause.
Gave me a laugh though.
Martin
February 20th, 2008 at 09:42 pm
Haha! …Let’s go see Avril Levigne at Butlins, er… I mean, Matt Schofield…
May 3rd, 2008 at 09:46 pm
Martin et al - good to see other people share the same views I do; you’ve summed the poster up very well; they obviously haven’t got a clue!
I’m a young (24) blues addict and harp player, which is quite unusual I think, at least it is in the UK. I agree that this marketing approach is ‘naff’ and does nothing for promoting roots music (it could be a poster for any event - it’s almost off-the-shelf).
I can see where they’re coming from in that they are trying to make it more appealing to younger generations, I think they’ve gone too far though. There is something to be said for this approach in that I think the stereotype is that roots genres are all about boring depressing music played by 40yrs+ males (no offence intended to this part of society!). But as we know there is much more to it than that. And so I think a more intelligent thought-through approach is needed in promotion of these roots genres (ie no extremes such as the one above) that are, lets face it, unfortunately very specialist/obscure.
And unfortunately in times when music is fed via such dreadful mediums as Pop Idol, where instant fame is the only aim and talent is used in a very loose sense, we have a tough job. I think ultimately that a balance has to be struck between appealing to more people (not necessarily mainstream, just greater numbers) and staying true to what these genres are about. In a marketing sense I think intelligence and taste needs to be employed, while stereotypes, from both perspectives, are avoided.
Ian