We continue our look at the over saturated entertainment industry with some new examples such as superhero movies, musicians, makeover shows and brand marketing and blockbuster films.

-Superheroes are everywhere. We have always had comics, cartoons and the sporadic movie or TV show, but we are experiencing a huge boom lately. There’s’ Man of Steel’, ‘Iron Man 3’, ‘Thor 2’, ‘The Wolverin’e and ‘Kick Ass 2′, then’ Captain America 2′, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’, ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, ‘Ant Man’, ‘X-Men: Days of Future Past’, ‘Justice League’ and, of course, The ‘Avengers 2’ set for 2014 and 2015 respectively. Marvel has been leading the charge on this front. The company realized that the Marvel Universe is much large than simple superhero movies with linear plots. Instead, each Marvel film franchise is connected to the other in one way or another that forces audiences to want to watch each film so that they don’t get left out in the cold and miss unresolved issues from the previous flicks. Soon, Marvel will be taking that formula to TV with a new Netflix deal that will bring us TV shows based on their heroes. D.C. Comics is beginning to catch on as they’re branching out with the ‘Justice League’ and expanding their own universe rather than relying only on Batman and Superman films.

You have to wonder if people will grow tired of seeing so many superhero movies being shown at their local theater. Will one film simply be made as a marketing tool where people watching the film are told to stay tuned for another film coming out soon? And, will comic book nerds finally get fed up of seeing film directors ruin their beloved characters? One thing that we do know for sure is that comic book fans go nuts if you try to change main story line plots in a film that aren’t a faithful adaptation of what goes on in the comics. Another problem is that not all superhero characters are created equally. Some are darker characters who might not necessarily fit well if they were grouped together with a superhero who is funny and outrageous. As it is now, the superhero film could easily be called its own genre. As long as they keep making money, the answer is yes. And making money is something superhero films will most likely continue to do, at least for the foreseeable future.

-The home makeover show ‘Trading Spaces’ was once a ratings smash for Discovery Communications network ‘TLC’. At one point, the network show was airing as many as ten times a week. Other networks started to create their own shows. ABC created ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ with former ‘Trading Spaces’ star Ty Pennington. The show became an instant hit and got over 15.5 million viewers in its first week. At one point, there were over 28 makeover shows on different networks. It didn’t help that the same network that aired ‘Trading Spaces’ started to air other makeover shows similar to ‘Trading Spaces’ rather than trying to diversify their own programming lineup. The format for these shows are always the same. First, the show introduces the subjects in their current, less-than-ideal environment. They can either be poor or have a poor body image of themselves. Then, the subjects meet with a group of experts who give the subjects instructions on how to improve things. The experts offer aid and encouragement along the way. Finally, the subjects are placed back in their environment and they, along with their friends and family and the experts, rejoice in the changes that have occurred.

Other examples include shows such as ‘The Biggest Loser’ which deal with weight loss and ‘Pimp My Ride’ which deal with fixing up vehicles. It seems that the public is never satisfied with the status quo and experts will always find faults in others. It’s just human nature. We will always see others that aren’t satisfied with their current situation and want to try and improve themselves or improve something else and that might include their body, their living quarters or even their own personalities that could use some fixing up.

-We’ve always had brands integrated with films. Product placements have been in films for decades. it’s so pervasive we hardly even notice it. Tom Cruise wears Ray-Ban’s Wayfarer sunglasses in the film ‘Risky Business’, which became so popular as a result that 360,000 pairs were sold that year. In ‘Goldeneye’, the spy’s automobile of choice was not an Aston Martin. Instead, James Bond got around in a Z3 by BMW. Its appearance was the first in a three-picture deal that BMW had made with the filmmakers. Products that are integrated within the plot of a movie are better remembered than those that are not well integrated with the plot of a movie. In many cases, brands are taking on the personalities of the movies.

Brands are being woven into scripts as vital characters of their own. In the ‘Internship’, both main characters are given internships to work for Google. The entire film felt like one big high five for how great it was to work for the company and all the good that they do. In ‘Transformers’, GM donated tons of money to help market the Bumblebee Transformer as a Chevrolet Camaro. GM execs went as far as calling the cars the ‘heroes’ and real ‘stars’ of the blockbuster summer flick. In ‘Harold & Kumar go to White Castle’, the whole premise of the film was for two stoners to search for a regional fast food chain that many moviegoers didn’t even know about prior to the film’s release. As if this wasn’t bad enough; one of Apple’s employees works closely with Hollywood on so-called product placement so its gadgets are used in movies and television shows. Apple products appeared in 891 TV shows in 2011 alone. According to ‘Brandchannel’, iDevices were in 40 percent of movie box office hits. It’s not hard to see why companies continue to rely on product placement: They work really. In many cases, brand recognition for a product goes up and this leads to increased sales and profits. However, when the products themselves become the actual plot or title of the film -We think that things have swung way too far in one direction.

-There are more musicians creating more music than ever before in history, and most of history’s recorded music is accessible to anyone with a computer. In music, there’s always a niche that is begging to be filled. There’s always going to be some unexplored territory, especially with mashing genres together to create new ones. The trick is always to find your own niche and not follow what seems to be the path of least resistance. There are a myriad of venues across Europe and North America to perform music in. Thousands of bands/artists are on tour or are maintaining regular performances. Musicians make music because they want to express themselves. They want to communicate something and connect with people. It’s now easier to do this than at any time in history and even easier to market and gain exposure for yourselves.

These days the web gives individuals access to the same level of technologies as any organization. However, government cuts to public school music programs and corporate arts has made it more difficult to make a living as a classical musician and prestigious schools such as Juilliard are accepting less students and raising admission standards. The music landscape is flat and musicians are fighting each other for a minuscule share of music fans’ dollars. Musicians should be constantly looking over their shoulder as any individual could disrupt their way of life at any moment. Musicians have seen their lives transformed, largely for the better, by technology. But, musicians also need to learn to be enormously flexible. Some musicians prefer to ignore how segmented the music world has turned into. Musicians will need to understand that it costs money to purchase equipment, purchase recording space and venues, purchase recording time and other things but that expecting fans to pay for their music might not be a given. Musicians will need to figure out new strategies to stay one step ahead of the curve.

In our 5th edition, we’ll feature such gems as viral marketing, online music services, job searches and supernatural and paranormal reality television programs.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 3rd, 2014 at 8:02 pm and is filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.