Stars and Stardom: Kasabian

Introduction

• Kasabian are a UK band, featuring music that belongs to t he indie rock genre.

• The band's original members consisted of vocalist Tom Meighan, guitarist and vocalist Sergio Pizzorno, guitarist Chris Karloff, and bassist Chris Edwards.

Record label• Kasabian has been under the record labels

‘Columbia records’ (which is under ownership of ‘Sony music entertainment’) and RCA records. Both are American record labels which allows for the band to have their music to be sold more successfully globally. Unfortunately, these are flagship record labels in the US and therefore put creative pressure on Kasabian which limits their creativity and time.

‘Common values’• Their clothes are black and white dominant, which

conveys a common imagery in Indie rock stars with lack of colour.

• The facial expressions they use connote emotions of anger or hostility. This edginess is used regularly to intensify their indie rock brand identity.

• Most of their photoshoots consist of a blank white background. This shows that their music is raw and grounded. Most indie rock bands feature a similar look to connote a sense of bareness to their visual identity to say that ‘What you see is what you get’.

Richard Dyer’s features• The Kasabian members are an

image, constructed through magazines such as ‘NME’ and music videos.

• They are a commodity produced and consumed based on their strengths and meanings, which in this case is their edginess and humour.

• Their image is made up of meanings such as raw and simple but stark and unique, which is attracted to the young average demographic audience of the indie rock genre.

Richard Dyer’s 2 paradoxes• PARADOX ONE. The star must be simultaneously ordinary yet extraordinary for the

consumer. In Kasabian's case, They have to have a coherent brand identity so the audience so that they know what to expect from them but they also have to try something different such as in their new album “48:13” where they feature pink instead of white in order to not let the consumer become bored of their look.

• PARADOX 2. The star must be present and absent simultaneously for the consumer. Kasabian have been present in the media when promoting their albums. Between albums, when they are in the process of writing new music, they get very little or no media coverage and so they are absent whilst there is no news circulating around them but present when there is.