Research brand identity, synergy and cmc: The 1975

The 1975

The band's origins trace to them all the way back to attending secondary school together and playing  as teenagers in 2002.Gigs organized by a council worker concluded them to  sign as The 1975. The name for the band was inspired by a poetry book. After a few teenager gigs where they performed covers, they finally thought about writing a song of their own.Before settling down on their current name, the band was called:  Me and You Versus Them, Forever Enjoying Sex, Talkhouse, The Slowdown,Bigsleep, and Drive Like I Do before their final name was finally decided.

The 1975 rely on the synergy of colour throughout every aspect of the album release and the package. The strong syngery of pastel pink, and their logo, a luminescent rectangle, often including their band name within. For the new album: 'I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It' which is also selling Vynils, CDs, Casettes and MP3 files in their official store they decided to promote the music with the pastel pink, purple and blues in their oficial store which is online, therefore enables for the decor to be of colour as well.

To create synergy for each song,  a pink neon sign was created and put against various locations for the tracks and the videos for them, the locations chosen carefully to represent the context and to help the consumer imagine what the band are when they perform the song and what connotations they see.
The neon sign for the band became iconic and now it represents them just as much as their name.







For example, the same bright neon pink is used within their track 'The sound' music video and the synergy is created through the props within the video.






Other things or items represent different songs within the album which give the loyal fan a clear message of what song is the merchandise for. For example, the shirts and sweaters with the block rainbow colours represent 'Loving someone' as those colours were used within their live performance for this specific track.





An example of their use of strong synergy not in just albums, but within singles is shown when they performed live and used the harsh rainbow for 'Loving Someone' in London, and the fans understood within a second what song is going to be performed next.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Star Image: Matthew (Matty)

Matthew portrays himself as an outgoing persona who does not take criticism from 'enthusiasts' which is actually shown in a music video 'The Sound' in which the band is within a box, and the outside criticism is given to them, and they seem to not be phased by it, which represents how the band feel about the hate that they receive. This video was created in order to show that the audiences that are not interested in the band but only criticise them for what they do will not stop the band from creating music.
During the more outgoing videos from the album: 'I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It' the pink colour scheme shows up and the unconventional appearance of the star: Matthew is shown   wearing makeup during the video which represents how diverse and accepting the band is of anyone and their personal choices, and how they represent them.
Matthew is seen dancing in quite a number of the videos released and shows that not every video has to have professional dancers and moves in them involved in order to be interesting for their audience.
A lot of smoking and alcohol is used within their filming of the videos, which can possibly be promoting smoking and drinking in a negative way, due to Matty drinking and smoking as himself in a lot of the videos in general. However, in some videos, he takes on a role to tell the audience a story, for example, in one music video he and a girl were doing cocaine excessively, and robbed a store in order to get more. This can be seen as promoting such activity which is frowned upon in the modern society, which is the theme the music videos seem to approach from time to time. However, not all of the topics that are approached within the music or the videos are negative, as a lot of the videos also discuss relationships and feelings such as love,heartbreak etc, and portray how some people deal with them. 

In my eyes this music video and lyrics seem  to be a judgement of the popular mentality which most people believe in; everyone wants to be famous, and they believe that will make them an idol, a god, but it doesn't change who you are as a person. 


How this research influenced my planning and creativity:

• I must consider the colour scheme that will take pace not only within the digipak, but also within the music video which will create an incredibly strong synergy
• Consider unconventional costumes, which will bring in a wider range audiences, such as a man with makeup, tattoos etc...
• Carefully think about choreography and how serious/ easy going to I want the video to look like in the end