Differently Branded Artists

Kanye West

Throughout his career Kanye West has had to alter his brand and identity multiple times in an attempt to avoid going into decline and continue making music. He began as a typical rapper with a similar music and upbringing to most. For his first 2 albums he retained this persona but for his third when engaged in a sales war with 50 Cent, took a risk of rebranding in order to beat him. This involved collaberating with artists such as Daft Punk and Chris Martin, which also included various accounts of singing in autotune. Before recording the album he toured with U2 in an attempt to combine his hip hop background with a new genre. 

Kanye West then edged more towards the auto tuned indie sound and changed his appearance to suit during his forth albums release. He began to put greater emphasis on the background music and chorus rather than verse vocals and edged further away from rap. His image changed to the furthest above image and people saw him as an original recording artist. 
After multiple mistakes in dealing with press, fellow artists and bluntly giving his views, Kanye West declined in the public eye as sales began to diminish. He then uses his most recent album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' to complete his new image and apologise. He has now been renewed within the music industry and continues to move further away from the rap genre.


The Stone Roses

The Stone Roses one of the 80's leading madchester bands had a branding strategy which was very different to Kanye Wests modern branding strategy.  Their strategy was basically to have no strategy or at least appear not to, dress in baggy clothes and be openly blunt in their opinion of the modern music of their time. Said to be influenced by bands like The Smiths, their music is based on the indie music of the time collaborated with a newer acid house sound which many other madchester era bands based their sound on. Unlike Kanye West The Stone Roses didn't change their branding with time and were distant with the media, displaying no interest in the business.  However it was things like these which allow their brand influence to carry through today.


Cee Lo Green/Gnarls Barkley

Cee lo Green has been in the public eye since 1992, first as part of the hip hop group 'Goodie Mob' (Shown Above) which attained moderate success within their genre supporters. It wasn't until he removed himself from this group to be a solo artist that he received critical acclaim and grew in status. However in 1998 he began to collaborate with DJ/producer Danger mouse on the 'Gnarls Barkley' album 'S.T. Elsewhere'. He received international notification with this album, in particular with the 2006 single 'Crazy' which charted number 1 in 8 countries. This success was not only the highest point of his career so far, but marked a drastic change in style from his rap roots. As his music changed his image changed to the furthest above picture. 
Alongside his collaborations with Danger Mouse, Cee lo began to work on new solo material which was released in 2010 with the single 'Forget You', surpassing the success seen from his 'Crazy Single'. 


Ryan Kearney