Researching a Label for my Artist – “Fueled

By Ramen”

History of “Fueled By Ramen”• “Fueled By Ramen” is an American record label owned by Warner

Music Group, with distribution from their main label – American Records.• It was founded in 1996, in Florida.• The history of the label links mostly with Pete Wentz – the bassist of

American rock band, “Fall Out Boy”. - in 2004, he joined forces with FBR to create the independent record label “DCD2 Records” (formerly known as “Decaydence Records).

Artists under “Fueled By Ramen”• Below is the list of artists who work with FBR (image taken from their website);

- 30H!3- Against the Current- Basement - Chef’Special - The Front Bottoms- Flor- Nate Ruess- ONE OK ROCK- Panic! At The Disco- Paramore - SWMRS- Twenty One Pilots- Vinyl Theatre - Young the Giant

Linking to my Chosen Genre of Music – Rock ‘n’ Roll• The genre of my artist (Decadence) is rock ‘n’ roll, and most of the artists signed

to Fueled By Ramen come under the subgenre of punk rock/pop punk. - However, I chose this label because in recent years most of the artists who came under this genre have delved out into more general rock.• It seems that modern rock music does not really have a specific genre.

- when listening to albums produced by ‘Panic! At The Disco’ (the original artist of the song I use in my music video), he has produced rock songs, pop songs, punk songs and so on.- ‘Twenty One Pilots’ are a punk rock/pop punk band whose music has become a hybrid with rap music too. • It is the link between these artists in particular that made me choose this label for

my artist.

Why I chose “Fueled By Ramen” for my Artist• When setting up his independent record label, the first artist that Pete Wentz signed was ‘Panic! At

The Disco’ – who released their debut album “A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” in 2005.

• The most important correlation between these artists and FBR links to the importance of fandom.

• Fans of ‘Panic! At The Disco’ are most commonly also fans of the artists ‘Fall Out Boy’ and ‘Twenty One Pilots’ – who are also signed to FBR. - and what is more important about this is the fact two of these artists (FOB and P!atd) make up the ‘Emo Trinity’ with another American rock ‘n’ roll/alternative rock band called ‘My Chemical Romance’ – an important stamp within the fandoms of these artists.

• As my artist is covering the song “Golden Days” by ‘Panic! At The Disco’, for me it seemed perfect for them to be signed to Fueled By Ramen, given the link to P!ATD and similar artists.

• This also links to the closeness of those who are in the fandoms of alternative rock/post-hardcore rock/emo music etc. - this is considered a highly niche genre of music. The history of rock ‘n’ roll is associated with music being created that increases suicide rates in young people; increase in depression and anger, and creating a recklessness amongst young people – however – for those within these fandoms, they highly disagree.

Contradicting the Stereotypes

• What is highly important about many of the bands under ‘Fueled By Ramen’ – and particularly the three bands that make up ‘the emo trinity’ is that their fans feel strongly connected to them.

• The bands have all made a stand against something at some point in their career, sharing positive, inspiring messages to do with; politics, sexuality, depression etc. - for this, they have actually been proven to save young people’s lives and drive creativity amongst the youth of our current society.

• For example, ‘My Chemical Romance’ started as a response to 9/11, when the members looked at the world in self-destruct and decided they didn’t want to not do anything with their lives, but create art that would share a message and give people something to stand for.- the members themselves have all gone through loss, depression and this has become the foundation of their music that has gone on to inspire millions of people to get up, make a stand, never give in and know they can be whoever they want to be.

Contradicting the Stereotypes – My Media Products;• The choices I made when creating my own my media products and how this connects to the

brand identity of my artist, links strongly to the media products I produced at AS.• When creating my music magazine, I had to research into the history and representation of

the topic discussed in my double-page spread. - I listened to a radio show regarding the representation of women in the music industry and how sexuality is viewed within mainstream media. - The examples I found were horrifying; such as Amanda Palmer being told she couldn’t wear men’s jeans, a bra and a black leather jacket in her music video because she looked “too fat” and this was portraying the wrong image of a female artist. - Female artists are meant to be skinny, wear lots of makeup and appear the perfect idealisation of beauty that will become the dominant ideology that young girls aspire to follow. Yet this idea is obviously completely false – perfection doesn’t exist.

• I also felt that, within the genre of rock music, the representation of women is even harsher. - rock music is notoriously ‘hard-core’: the use of heavy drums and electric guitars creates an essence of anger in quite a lot of rock music. Stereotypically in videos, we expect conventions such as dark vs light, all-black clothing i.e; a leather jacket, and – for women – heavy make-up. - It is probably a lot easier to avoid female rock artists conforming to the ideological view of women in society in general, yet as rock is still a genre of music, it can seem impossible to avoid judgements being made over a female artist’s image.

• So, I needed my artist to be the essence of strength, independence and inspiration. I took the stereotypical conventions of dark clothing, a leather jacket, heavy make-up etc. and used these to create a possibly oppositional reading for my target audience – placing emphasis on my use of voyeurism to highlight the strength of my female artist. - I wanted my own artist – just like the male artists I’d been researching – to use art as a way to spread a message to society that would inspire young people, and break the boundaries of representation of sexuality, and contradict expected portrayal of women in the music industry.