Pop stars share the spotlight to broaden their fan base

I HAVE noticed something quite odd about today's popular music scene.

I HAVE noticed something quite odd about today's popular music scene.

I refer to the practice of a recognised performer releasing a song and accompanying video clip that features another performer.

Initially I questioned the logic of this approach: surely the practice of featuring has the effect of promoting another performer to your fan base. What if your fans cross over to the featured performer?

The answer comes down to demographic marketing. More performers with their own fan base collaborating together expands the market for a song. But this also means the alignment of talent must be carefully matched. If both singers appeal to the same fan base, there's a danger of the market being cannibalised. Far better to collaborate with someone who is likely to expand your appeal.

Consider for example the No 1-selling single in Australia in the third week of June, according to ARIA. California Gurls, by 25-year-old white anglo singer Katy Perry, features 38-year-old black rapper Snoop Dogg. No wonder this single is selling well. There's the youthful sex appeal of Perry combined with Snoop Dogg's cool factor.

But it goes further than this. Perry gets access to a black rapper fan base and Snoop Dogg gets exposure to a youthful white market. I have no doubt these collaborations don't just happen. I am sure they are engineered by market analysts looking to expand a performer's market base.

Featured performers appear in five of the top-10 songs in this particular week. The No 5-selling single Getting Over You, by 42-year-old Paris-born David Guetta, features no less than four performers, including Fergie of Black Eyed Peas fame. It simply makes marketing sense to multiply the featured singers: it increases the chances of a song connecting with more fans.

I have looked at the lyrics of the top-10 songs and am struck by how little has changed in popular music since the 1970s. The language might be crisper (four-letter words are not uncommon) and more repetitive (although I suspect this is in deference to the popularity of rap), but the themes of what connects with young people are much the same as they were a generation ago.

Usher's OMG is a story of love and lust (nothing unusual there), although its chorus does contain a decidedly non-rapper type of phrase: oh my gosh I'm so in love. B.o.B's Airplane is a story about love lost, whereas Jason Derulos's Ridin Solo and Guetta's Getting Over You are about the process of moving to another relationship.

This latter point is something that is quite unusual to post baby-boomer generations. Generations X and Y tended to progress through a series of monogamous relationships in their 20s in pursuit of what they call "the one". It is not surprising, therefore, to see this theme surfacing in contemporary popular music.

Another popular theme in top-10 selling singles is the "warning to a new love". British singer Taio Cruz explains in Break Your Heart that he is "like a big bad wolf . . . to be bad and bad to the bone". This is an old theme that is given a modern makeover. It seems bad boys, heartbreaking boys, have still yet to be eradicated from the fragile world of young love.

The only Australian single in the top-10, coming in at No 4, is the enigmatically named Yolanda Be Cool in collaboration with the equally fascinatingly named DCup. Interestingly, this Sydney-based duo has had success with a song called We Speak No Americano, which is sung entirely in Spanish.

I suspect a big part of the appeal of this song, together with others in the top 10, is its eclecticism.

A Sydney artist having success with a Spanish song in collaboration with a singer called DCup is, well, the reason why this song is a success. It's not the sort of logic that appeals to middle-aged people, which is precisely why Generation Y likes it.

My final observation about the modern music scene is the apparent requirement not just to feature, but to sell your name as a brand. Consider for example the black rapper born William James Adams Jr and who Usher features in his OMG song. William is such a boring name for a pop star, which is why Adams changed it to Will.i.am (pronounced Will-eye-am).

Kesha Rose Sebert is having success with a song called Your Love is My Drug and she goes by her given name, Kesha. But even Kesha needs to be embellished in the heady world of pop music. Kesha isn't Kesha, it's Ke$ha. It's all about packaging yourself as a unique brand and connecting with as broad a market as possible.

I might also add that of the 19 people engaged or featured in the surveyed week's top-10 selling singles, only five are female and most of these are in their early 20s. Women might be making inroads into medicine, law and finance, but it seems, with some notable exceptions such as our Kylie, the sisterhood still has a long way to go in the world of pop music.

Bernard Salt is a KPMG Partner

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