Bring Me The Horizon and the Effects of Commercialisation on their Audience’s Identification as a Fan and a Subculture Member.

 

The following research report is from a 1st-year theory module, Radio and Popular Music. I looked into the effects of commercialisation and a band's change in style, and the effects that has on their audience's loyalty as a subculture member and their participation as a fan. As my report included virtual ethnography, to conduct this in an ethical way I have not included full names or usernames of the source poster, in case any views/opinions were posted in confidence - however I included these in the appendix on the submitted assignment for marking purposes.

 

Introduction

A debate I find constantly deliberated and speculated recognises the changes that musicians make while progressing through the music industry, be it in style, attitude, musical sound or audience connection, among others. Although these adjustments may result in corporate success and increased mainstream popularity for the artists, it is often contested as to whether this has positive or negative implications for the consumer and how the artist's success and the audience's happiness relate to each other depending on different fan types. This leads me to consider possible implications for the audience if they find commercial changes to an artist they follow to be a bad thing. This report will study responses from fans of the band Bring Me The Horizon in relation to their considerable changes throughout their career that's led to their success and reflect upon the different audience types and fan characteristics.

This is an important topic to explore due to its intent of providing a clearer understanding of audience's consumption habits, their reaction to commercial changes and how this affects their sense of loyalty and fan community. Buss and Strauss emphasise the importance of fan communities, specifically online communities by saying:

“They are building an identity in your community culture, a network of relationships with other members, and even a body of content that they have published. Once customers are part of your community, it will be hard for competitors to lure them away” (Buss & Strauss, 2009, p. 20).

 

Theoretical Framework

The main theoretical framework that will be involved in my research is Sarah Thornton’s Subcultural Capital. Thornton created this theory through the idea of incorporating two existing theories from Bourdieu and Hebdige. Bourdieu’s work, influenced by Karl Marx, explains cultural capital to come in three forms “embodied, objectified and institutionalised” and, in summary, suggests that capital (for example, skills, knowledge, achievements experiences, possessions and more) was the foundation of social life, and fundamental in deciding the positions of character and hierarchy within social contexts and situations (Routledge, 2016). In addition, Hebdige explores the idea of subcultures and how they influence what is popular in style, saying "The meaning of subculture is always in dispute, and style is the area in which the opposing definitions clash with the most dramatic force" (Hebdige, 1979, p. 3). Thornton then integrates these two existing concepts, creating her idea of Subcultural Capital. Subcultural Capital is defined similarly to Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital, but its main theme is niche, early-adopting subculture’s, with subcultural capital’s opposition being the mainstream mass-media culture, rather than the respected, traditional art culture, and “grading up is not it’s standard route” (Thornton, 1994, p. 178).

 

Methodology

For my research I regard a suitable methodology to be ethnography, with an emphasis on virtual ethnography. This will be an effective aid to my research as it will give me the opportunity to immerse myself in the community of listeners (giving me a greater insight into their attitude and considerations as fans) and empowers me to provide the participants with freedom in their voice and opinions on a matter they are involved with. Hine supports this idea by saying that ethnography means “I should be able to provide an answer which is comprehensible in the cultural world in which my audience inhabits” (Hine, 2000, p. 147). For my research, I have immersed myself in situations that possible fans of the band, from various eras, observing public reactions to the band’s music when played at Rock bars. I will use virtual ethnography over platforms that my target participants use, consider and analyse their usage to determine their suitability for the research and then, depending on the participant, study their publicly accessible online activity, or their responses to a survey I have constructed covering my topical considerations. 

In order to keep my work reliable and credible, I will pursue a professional attitude, engaging and empathising with the data in order to make judgements based on the factual knowledge gained. A sensitive nature and understanding are essential with virtual ethnography due to participants incorporating elements of their personal history, experiences and opinions into their responses. This is a staple factor of ethnography, with Boellstorff stating that flawed ethnography fails to distinguish etic and emic data – "confusion regarding which claims are the researcher's etic conclusions and which are the emic understandings of the informants themselves" (Boellstorff, Nardi, Pearce, & Taylor, 2012, p. 16). Recognising the positive aspects and the drawbacks of this principle of ethnography will help me to ensure professionalism in my work – while applying the data, still allowing room for opposing views due to the data's source. Ethnography also has many ethical considerations. I will keep the content I use in coherent context and, while acknowledging that some of the content is knowingly made publicly accessible, I will adhere to the privacy of the participants by not including any names or usernames in my work, in case of instances where it was assumed by the producer that the content was published in confidence within their online community. When using data collected by direct interactions with the participants, for example requesting the complete the survey, the context in which their responses will be used will be clearly explained beforehand and an acceptance of the use, as well as a confirmation that they are at least 16 years of age, will be required. Due to the way of online publishing, virtual ethnographic data collected without direct interaction with the participant may not be able to have the age of the producer confirmed – another reason persona details will be concealed.

 

On a popular discussion website, sustained by user-generated content, Reddit, I posted a closed interview question on a sub-group entitled ‘Metalcore’, comprising of over 37,000 members. The responses will be considered in my research, with the post being titled: “Do you feel you have benefitted or not from the band’s increased popularity, and as they have become bigger, do you feel more or less involved as part of their fan community” (the full post is shown in the Appendix).

 

Context

Forming in 2003, the band Bring Me The Horizon have explored a range of styles. Their first releases were of the metal-core and death-core genre, with their first album, Count Your Blessings, being released in the UK on record label Visible Noise, a label focussed on British heavy metal and hardcore music. I have chosen to use this band as a case study due to their ability to progress in the music industry despite their early years showing them to be seen as controversial and frightening to the mainstream, to now being considered as part of the ‘pop’ genre and being featured on mainstream platforms such as Radio 1. Their first album, Count Your Blessings, reached 93 in the UK charts, and not charting in any other countries, with their chart positions gradually increasing especially with their latest two albums. Their most recent release, That’s The Spirit, charted at number 2 in the UK and the US, and number 1 in Australia and Canada. Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone entitled ‘Bring Me The Horizon on Ditching Metalcore for Poppy, Positive New LP’, songwriter Jordan Fish explained their change in style matched their change in personal attitude (Wiederhorn, 2015). The frontman of the band, Oli Sykes, also launched a clothing brand in 2005 called Drop Dead, with the band and the brand heavily promoting each other symbiotically and the popularity of both rising together. This may link in with the work of Traber, where it is suggested that some use subcultures as a way of constructing an exterior identity, without having to be an immersive, loyal fan – considering music artists/genres to be used as a fashion, allowing some to position themselves between the lines of certain genres or subcultures (Traber, 2008). While it is evident that the band have benefitted from their increased popularity, through my research I hope to find out if the fans of the band have also benefitted, or instead are at a loss since the commercialisation of the band.

 

Research (reception)

It has been said that for an artist’s to succeed, they must not only be able to define and know themselves as an artist, but to also know the audience that they serve, helping them “better target both existing and potential fans” (Macy, Rolston, Allen, & Hutchison, 2016, p. 91). This introduces the idea of an artist, such as Bring Me The Horizon, including and incorporating elements other than their music that may match the psychographic research they have of the style and characteristics of their audience -  relevant to the response received from Reddit User 1:

“I have been a fan for a while….I didn’t really find out about them until after I discovered Drop Dead Clothing. My entire friendship group picked up the style as well and they all talked about Oli and the band. I have quite an eclectic taste in music but BMTH was the first taste of metal music I’d had.” (RedditUser1, 2017)

 

Reflecting upon this emphasises my idea relating commercial success with having brand relations. This is theorised by Tunnicliffe by using “the term ‘brand-music partnerships’ to describe a more recently introduced set of strategies and business partnerships that bring together music and marketing” (Meier, 2017, p. 101). Reddit User 1 then furthered their answer by adding:

“As for how they’ve got more and more popular. I’ve enjoyed being exposed to a wider array of styles. It’s so much easier to randomly find other fans and have something to talk about and it’s so much easier to listen to them too. It shows how much they’ve grown and developed as a band and a brand that I see their clothes in high street shops and hear their music on Radio 1, which hasn’t had a reason to play metal music since the Nu-Metal days of the early 2000’s” (RedditUser1, 2017)

This is an example of how Bring Me The Horizon’s commercialisation, including their synergistic inclusion of the frontman’s clothing brand Drop Dead, have had a positive impact on a part of the fan community. It has provided fans with greater access to the artistry of the band, as well as greater social satisfaction. Frith supports this idea in his ‘Popular Music’ book, stating:

“Thus art and life are reconciled, and the mixing of media and their associated symbols provides a large number of people with the opportunity of working together. Situations such as these can provide a deep sense of personal satisfaction and group solidarity, and provide opportunities both for the creation of new artistic forms and for the popular presentation and performance of different musical traditions as part of social life” (Blacking, 2004, p. 19).

 

Alternatively, popular video sharing website, YouTube presents varying reactions to Bring Me The Horizon’s change in style. With the social media website largely consisting of ‘vloggers’, one channel, named for research as YouTube User 1 (real details shown for credibility in the Appendix), is themed around videos on the subject of heavy metal. Their video ‘5 Reasons People Hate Bring Me The Horizon’, and the comment responses from other users that it attracts, raise some opposing, negative reactions to the band’s style. He states his reason #4 as “They’re moving further away from Metal, and you’re seeing this a little bit more closely to the modern day”. They then further the information and opinion they give, including examples from the styles of their releases over time, before continuing to add:

“Based off of this, those that have been around since the deathcore days, and those that have modelled their bands off of Bring Me The Horizon’s trademark metal-core/death-core sound, are now starting to feel a little bit left off the boat. It’s kind of like the ‘sold-out’. Amazingly enough, there have been true fans that have stepped further and further away from the Bring Me The Horizon camp, considering this, just the same as Bring Me The Horizon seems to have stepped further away from the Metal camp.” (YouTubeUser1, 2016)

He evaluates his comment, by admitting that there will still be some fans to defend them and think it is just an experimental phase by the band, just as other bands have done, but nevertheless, some committed fans, that have been loyal for years have decided to step away from the band as a fan and decline their new music. The video has received 411 positive votes and 74 negative votes since it was posted on August 2016. Fellow users of the site gave their reactions by commenting on the video, receiving 338 comments altogether. One user, YouTube User 2, says they consider Bring Me The Horizon to be on of their favourite bands of all time, naming two of their albums as being some of their favourite albums of all time. However, they go on to say that they hate their most recent album and, although respecting that the band wanted to experiment, hate the fact they were abandoning the original scene that supported them (YouTubeUser2, 2016). This can be linked with Adorno’s work on The Culture Industry. Adorno explores the idea that music is being over-regulated, constructed and standardised due to an overwhelming focus on profit rather than artistic and/or cultural value - leading to it being dispiriting for both artists and audiences. (Adorno & Horkheimer, 2006)

 

Other considerations

It may also be considered that a change in direction from the band, one that makes then able to reach a wider audience through more platforms, can still be good for their older music of their original style. Reddit User 2 supports this with their response including:

“It was BMTH’s latest album that got me into metal-core and even deathcore. I heard one of their “mainstream” songs from their latest album on the radio…. I got into metal-core and death-core by listening to BMTH’s discography in reverse.” (RedditUser2, 2017)

This poses the consideration of audiences being active in their consumption. Abercrombie and Longhurst help to define this as allowing for a range of audience interpretations, due to seeing media texts as polysemic, rather than monolithic. (Abercrombie & Longhurst, 1998, p. 18)

 

Conclusion

Reflecting on my knowledge and research, it shows that there are many considerations regarding the effect on audiences from an artist's success or commercialisation. I have confirmed that the band's use of branding was a successful marketing method and that there is some resistance and negative response from fans when faced with a change from a band. However, I have learnt not to exclude the possibility of an active response from audience members, and that there may unique, positive opinions regarding the artist’s work and audience interaction and consumption. To further this study, it must also be considered from a political economy and textual rhetorical analysis point of view, to assess all the possible reasons behind the decisions for change and the construction of responses – are artists aware of negative responses and choose to create the effects of controversy. I may also reconsider whether the characteristics and qualifications of a ‘fan’ are changing.

 

Bibliography

 

Abercrombie, N., & Longhurst, B. (1998). Audiences. London: Sage Publications.

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Blacking, J. (2004). 'Let All The World Hear All The World's Music': Popular Music Making and Music Education. In S. Frith, Popular Music: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies (Vols. 4 - Music and Identity). Oxon: Routledge.

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Buss, A., & Strauss, N. (2009). Online Communities Handbook: Building Your Business and Brand on the Web. Berkeley: New Riders.

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Macy, A., Rolston, C., Allen, P., & Hutchison, T. (2016). Promoting and Buiding the Brand. In A. Macy, C. Rolston, P. Allen, & T. Hutchison, Record Label Marketing (3rd ed., pp. 83-107). New York: Focal Press.

Meier, L. M. (2017). Brands: The New Gatekeepers. In L. M. Meier, Popular Music as Promotion: Music and Branding in the Digital Age (pp. 85-125). Cambridge: Polity Press.

RedditUser1. (2017, April 24). METALCORE. Retrieved from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metalcore/comments/678yw7/bring_me_the_horizon_fans_past_and_present_do_you/?st=j1wo6du4&sh=ae565eb2

RedditUser2. (2017, April 24). METALCORE. Retrieved from Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Metalcore/comments/678yw7/bring_me_the_horizon_fans_past_and_present_do_you/?st=j1wo6du4&sh=ae565eb2

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TheOfficialChartsCompany. (2017). Bring Me The Horizon. Retrieved from Official Charts: http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/5240/bring-me-the-horizon/

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Wiederhorn, J. (2015, July 23). Bring Me The Horizon On Ditching Metalcore For Poppy, Positive New LP. Retrieved from Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/bring-me-the-horizon-on-ditching-metalcore-for-poppy-positive-new-lp-20150723

YouTubeUser1. (2016, August 15). 5 Reasons People Hate Bring Me The Horizon. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EalZ4dJc6ec

YouTubeUser2. (2016, September). 5 Reasons People Hate Bring Me The Horizon. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EalZ4dJc6ec