IDEAS The horror of boybands...

A quick illustration of how wide your options are for music videos...

• two iconic US 90s boybands have announced they're teaming up on a...
• horror film production?!?!
• could be smart ... boybands primary audience = female, horror primary audience (although the gender gap is actually narrow) = male ... widening the market for these 'brands'?
• whilst not as old as acts from the 60s/70s/80s, such artists today would rely mainly on appealing to a 'mature youth' (25-44) female (and 'pink pound', ie male gay) audience
• keeping back catalogue sales ticking over is easier if you can attract an additional, younger ... new audience, female tweens and young teens being the dominant consumers of pop, and shapers of the charts
• so...if you were managing these acts, a new video with a campy horror theme, including an affectionate nod to Thriller, might be a smart way of building interest through the pre-production period (keeping gore to a BBFC 12 or, at most, 15 rating - although the uses and gratifications audience theory does include 'aspirational' as a key driver, and t(w)eens certainly do access 'older' age-rated media)
• the music video format being highly postmodern in its typical media language, elements of parody and utilising the media language of other media is not uncommon, while convergence between music and cinema is a loooooong-established idea

Read the article on this announcement here.