A1 Professional identities within the music industry

Introduction – Identify 

I have always been interested in music since an early age. My mam used to listen to Linkin Park, Papa Roach, and similar bands, I really enjoyed the music and used to sing along all the time. My first music obsession was Bon Jovi when I was in primary   School. As I got older, I started to discover new music and I discovered Atreyu in year 7 and I was hooked on heavy metal. I was constantly searching for heavier bands. I was searching on YouTube for new music, and I found Motionless in White and for 2 years I was obsessed, and I listened to them every day exclusively. I realised I preferred the songs that were melodic and had clean vocals on the chorus with screams on a songs verse. 2017 I was told Chester Bennington had killed himself and I at first did not know who he was until I was told he was the lead singer to Linkin Park; I had listened to Linkin Park and Papa Roach a lot when I was in primary school, but I fell out of touch with them for years. I listened to Linkin Park for the first time in years and I immediately realised I was listening to the greatest band of all time; Chesters's vocals were insane. The roots of my inspiration stems from Atreyu, Motionless in White but Linkin Park are what got me interested in vocals. Recently I have been listening to Korn, as good as they are they cannot beat Linkin Park.  

  

Personal Quality's  

My personal qualities include good lyricism, motivation to learn vocals in both singing and screaming.  

Using organisational skills such as motivation, determination, perseverance, confidence in performing before an audience, stamina, and dedication to continue practicing every day, reliability, and flexibility to work long nights, creativity, self-discipline, sustainable time management, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, patience, understanding and resilience to criticism and rejection are all important to grow a career in music.  

  

Professional etiquette requires restraint against publicly insulting other musicians, complaining if you cannot play a show, expecting to borrow gear, being a sore loser and asking to be in someone's band. The expectations that fall upon you are that you must work hard to be successful, you will not always have time to focus on music. Expectations of how much you will get paid perusing a music career will vary.  

  

Creating your own opportunities consists of going to gigs to build a network, being ready to act on opportunities immediately, being ready to go all the time. Having a following online and promoting material and gigs/contacts creates a digital footprint. A digital footprint is consistency of what and when you post online, stick to platforms you know so you can create a larger presence there. Schedule your posts, distribute time and do not rely on social media.   

  

A SWOT report is a self-assessment that allows someone to list their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats so that they can improve and better themselves in their chosen field. I have listed my SWOT report.  

  

Strengths	High fry scream, wide vocal range (C#2- A6) sing able range (E2-E5), song writing.
Weaknesses	No experience, cannot play instruments, lack of confidence
Opportunities	Lessons in signing, learning how to scream better and properly
Threats	Anxiety I have stage fright and get extremely nervous around people I have realised that I am trying to learn too much at once

Table 1: shows my SWOT report  

  

Skills Analysis  

  

Skills	What I am practising	Where I am at	My plans to develop my skills
Lyricist	Writing my own lyrics	I have written my own lyrics	I plan to create my own music or collaborate using these songs
Cubase	I use Cubase in my lessons	I have created a few good small pieces of music	I plan to get better at Cubase by practise using it
Screaming	Practising the correct techniques at home for a few hours	I can safely do the correct technique easily. I can do the 17 second given up scream from Linkin Park consistently	I plan to learn how to false chord scream correctly
Singing	Practising at home and blending it with screaming	I have learned how to use good breath control and use multiple registers	I need to get singing lessons

Table 2:  shows my skills table  

  

A brand is a product that is created under a particular recognizable name which can also have a recognizable logo such as the Coca Cola logo, its distinct and recognizable. Within heavy music we have some big brands however some of these go unnoticed apart from all the big businesses, for example Zomba are a big music company who have huge bands assigned to them such as Linkin Park and iron maiden.  

  

  

  

My biggest influence is Chester Bennington because he was an amazing vocalist and lyricist. His music from Linkin Park was what got me interested in singing and screaming. Linkin Park was self-managed and before Chester Bennington was a part of Linkin Park, they were offered a publishing deal with Zomba they were ready to and sign with Jeff Blue from Zomba Music who saw their potential and they were given money for new instruments. This link is to the website for Zomba Records History of Zomba Records Ltd. – FundingUniverse.  

  

Looking at some of the other players in the heavy genre we have companies such as Qprime management deal with multiple bands such as Disturbed and Metallica, they update the bands page and inform their activities and projects so people can see what they are up to. This link is to Q Prime’s website, Q Prime – Q Prime Artist Management – New York, London and Nashville.  

  

Small management companies like RS promotions are ran by a small amount of people as consequence to this the company is ran like a hobby rather than a professional business leaving the information to be inaccurate, outdated, or irrelevant. This link is to the RS promotions website About - RS PROMOTIONS BAND MANAGEMENT (weebly.com).