Our Influence: Gabrielle Aplin

By Amirul Islam

Gabrielle AplinGabrielle Aplin is an English singer-songwriter who got recognition as an artist after uploading some covers of songs online which quickly helped developed her strong fan base. She currently possesses 132,825 followers on Twitter whilst having 203,443 likes on Facebook which showcase a large audience. She released her first album, “English Rain” in May 2013 and debuted at #2 in the UK album chart. Her album, in her own words is described “very family orientated, very personal” in other words, she’s not going to flaunt her stuff, take that Males Gaze.

Her ImageHer image is what helped create the image for our artist Yasmin Feruz. Gabrielle Aplin has this simplistic style which makes her seem like any normal girl on the streets. In many of her videos, there is always the recurring colour of white which emphasises this simplistic image that makes her seem more likeable as she is not attracting the attention as a sexual object but more of normal female in society who feels it isn’t necessary to flaunt what you momma gave ya. We took this idea and applied it to out artist Yasmin Feruz who also doesn’t want the attention as a sexual object. Gabrielle Aplin also possesses this innocent yet attractive image that would be deemed as “cute” and “adorable”, it essentially helps emphasise her as a genuine person

Her AudienceGabrielle Aplin’s audience can easily be found on social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook as there are a large number of them following her. They call themselves “TeamAplin”, “Gabberz” or the “Aplin Family”. There are individual twitter accounts dedicated to Gabrielle Aplin such as @GaberrzFans or @TeamAplinUK.

After going through her fans twitters, I also found that she also has a male audience. The bio for the twitter account @GaberrzFans mentions another account @RealStephenQuan who happens to be a male that is also a fan of Justin Bieber and One Direction. It could be said that fans of Gabrielle Aplin happen to be fans of the pop genre or in other words they are mainstreamers.

Her Audience Continued

Her Audience ContinuedHer fans have bios for their twitter accounts which are dedicated to Gabrielle Aplin, it could be a bid to gain followers who have the same interests whilst it also could be a way to get it out there that you are a fan. From the image below, the bio consist of a statement saying this is a fan page for Gabrielle and lacks any personal details. It says nothing on the account owners name, age, location and only contains some promotion for Gabrielle as there is a link to her album as well as a constant repeat of her name. This bio also becomes a place to gloat and project her “relationship” with Gabrielle Aplin.

After doing some further searching and clicking on twitter, I came across a person who likes Gabrielle Aplin but their account isn’t dedicated to her. Although their bio states they love Gabrielle Aplin. The bio also has some other information such as the age and location of the account owner. The person is 16 yr old Japanese girl living in Japan. This demonstrates that Gabrielle has a wider audience that are located in a completely different environment and live a whole other lifestyle compared to herself who lives in England.

Her Audience Continued