the marketability of celebrity eras

In recent years, we have seen many celebrities and musicians pivot into the marketing ploy of having an era. What was once a term used for artistic expression has been turned into a marketing ploy for new music. Let's talk eras, music, and merch.

My links!

If there are any products you would like me to try, topics you would want me to cover, or films, or series you would like me to review feel free to reach out to me!
Like, comment, subscribe, and share this video!
Thank you for watching and a special thanks to my patrons for supporting me!

My P.O. Box-
Swell Entertainment
P.O. Box 714
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

My Gear (I earn a commission from purchases)

Current subscriber count: 470,634
#swellentertainment

[carolinesch.]

Its sooo much clearer in stuff like kpop when you have for every Album a completly different styling, new hair colour, new concept etc.

[averyjeanne]

I initially read this as “celebrity ears”.

[TalentlessCooking]

This is Swells f1 era, vroom cars go fast!

[AsterSapphire]

Never question my dedication to this channel. I misread and thought you said celebrity EARS instead of eras and still clicked to listen to you talk about ears for half an hour

[henriquejambu]

0:45 "there's my proof" and there's nothing on screen lolol

[sophie]

A lot of wrestlers have an acting era to be fair. They don't tend to market it like musicians do with their music eras, but it does happen.

[citrinedragonfly]

First "era" I can remember living through was Prince changing his name because his label wanted him to sing things that weren't his vision, so he dropped them and went by a symbol for years. I feel like the music he wrote and produced during the "Artist Formerly Known As" is a different era to his previous sound, and to what followed after his contract expired and he started using his name again. Beatles had a whole new era with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Bowie went through several. I think it's more of an organic style shift for some artists, whereas for others it's a definite marketability thing. It isn't a recent phenomenon, though.

[Firecat_]

I certainly haven't finished the video yet, so this could very well be brought up later on, but feel like music eras now are things a musician kind of tries to define for themselves, whereas in the past it was something you could more-so see looking back? Which definitely would play into the ways in which its become a marketing tool more than anything else

[Ciara_Turner]

Very similar to why the superhero gets a new suit every film, except instead of toys, it's themselves that they're selling

[polygonvvitch]

David Bowie's Berlin Era is the oldest example of an very defined era I can think of, but someone can probably do the same for the Beatles.

[kaimactrash]

Gorillaz are probably my favourite band with "eras", which are referred to as "phases" in Gorillaz work, which I think works because the band is four characters who can change as needed, and can do absolutely crazy shit that makes said eras very entertaining vs real people just dressing and making media in a specific way for a bit.

[GrimmRiot]

back in the ol bandom blogging days we were always talking about MCRs different eras, fall out boy was literally separated into pre and post folie a deux hiatus staring in 2008 and their revival with save rock and roll in 2013, patd fans also consider that band to have vastly different eras. i know these are the big 3 from back then but they were literally all we talked about and if u were there u know we did that for literally every single one of those emo little boy bands we loved so much. its really so common like even the beatles are split into different eras by their fans

[HeavenlyFawn]

Kpop, jpop, jrock scenes have had eras forever and 100% as a marketing gimmick. Even counterculture scenes like Visual Kei do the “era marketing” thing it’s so baked into the music culture.

[Gen-nixb]

just started the video so idk if you mention her, but as far as modern artists go, i think beyoncé is a celebrity doing "eras" to their upmost expression. with self titled, then lemonade, then black is king, then rennaisance, and now cowboy carter; its been so perfectly defined while also meshing with each other without clashing or the change feeling fake

[Paulxl]

The concept of "era" have been used by art historians to refer to distinct periods within an artist work for ages. So. The whole "fans created the term and artists and record labels are co-opting it" feels kind of silly to me

[Peekaboodoo]

The band Ghost shows eras really well, there’s literally lore behind every album and costume and even were the band is placed on stage 😭

[Woozy.]

I really liked the way bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and David Bowie had very marked "eras" which were mainly associated with their live act in the past giving fans something to get hyped for when the bands came back around. There was merch, sure, but this is that on d-bol without all of the sonic benefits.

If "Out of the Woods" had been done in the style of the "Speak Now" era that'd be something interesting

[ToriR]

I think MCR was my first experience with artist eras in real-time, over a decade ago. Tumblr was full of aesthetic bandom blogs comparing each album’s era.

[tay-lore]

I'm in my 'paying off student debt' era. I might just stay in this one forever!

[cjane]

Marina Diamandis comes to mind with this, like creating an album with a certain persona and then dropping it so you can be marketed as "yourself" was a smart move. Marina & The Diamonds was the perfect project for the time, she wouldn't have been as popular without the caricature of it all back then. But now she has loyal fans and can experiment in a different way, however I think people expect her to make a major shift with every album and she doesn't really do that now. That might explain why she hasn't had the staying power of Lana