Black Box

Artist Research

BLACK BOX

Biography Black Box was an Italian house music group, who were popular in the

1980s and early 1990s.

written and produced by the Italian production team Groove Groove Melody

The band of three was made of a DJ, a classically trained clarinet teacher and an amazing keyboarder.

Together, Daniele Davoli, Valerio Semplici and Mirko Limoni teamed up with the French Caribbean Model, Katrin Quinol who was the ‘supposed’ lead singer and also on the cover of all albums

Katrin Quinol infact was just a pretty face and image for the band to use on the cover of albums. She mimed most of the songs and did some dancing.

This shows how the band wanted to be seen by the audience. Using a young, attractive woman the target audience could relate, meaning it was played everywhere.

The actual singer for the band was Martha Wash, who is famous for ‘ghost singing’ many songs

Vs.

History In 1990s Martha Wash was hired as the vocals of the band and told the music

was for club consumption and not mass- released.

Their album ‘Dreamland’ was released in May 1990

The first single was ‘Ride on Time’ which was in Top 10 in many countries and No. 1 in the UK – it even became UKs best- selling single in 1989.

The song heavily sampled ‘Love Sensation’ by Loleatta Holloway and this brought up questions about who the real vocalist was – it eventually made it onto the album

In live perfomances Katrin lip-synced the vocals and in the videosWhen this went out Martha Wash went uncredited and sued Black Box,

RCA Records.

History This lead to legal recognition of vocalists who perform songs

for other artists.

Wash received full vocal credit upon the single release of "Strike It Up", but the music video still featured Katrin Quinol lip-synching the lyrics.

After the major hit various minor hits followed in the UK.

In america they are best known for their album are their tracks are still played on rhythmic radio and in clubs

‘Dreamland’ earned gold disc in both the UK and the USA and achieved double-platinum status in Australia, where it spent eight weeks at No. 1 during early 1991

The band would have sold this to a wide audience, worldwide.

This album was a hit for there single Ride On By which boosted sales and increased there fan base. After this there album sales went down. And they were only seen in the top 10 a few times afterwards

Discography Studio albums

Year Album details

Peak chart positions

Certifications(sales threshold)

AUS

AUT

CAN

FRA

GER

NLD

NZ

NOR

SWE

SWI

UK

US

USR&B

1990

Dreamland•Released: May 8, 1990•Label: RCA•Formats: CD, LP, cassette

1 14 18 35 36 63 4 8 15 9 14 56 16•AUS: 2× Platinum•CAN: 2× Platinum [16]

•UK: Gold [17]

•US: Gold [18]

1995

Positive Vibration•Released: August 23, 1995•Label: Clubstitute•Formats: CD

— — — — — — — — — — — — —

"—" denotes releases that did not chart

Record LabelRCA – Radio Corporation Of America

RCA is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment

It was founded in 1901 by Emile Berliner and Eldridge R. Johnson in New York.

It produces different genres of music including, pop, Rock, R&B and Country music

InfluencesThe band formed at the beginning of a new era of musical

taste, electronic dance music This happened in 1980s and originated in AmericaBy the mid-1990s, house music had been infused in

mainstream pop and dance music worldwideTechniques with synthesisers and mixing were experimented

with by DJS worldwide

Representation of genre I think Black Box show that they are a ‘house band’ from their beat

and style of music.

They are a second generation who expand on the ‘original house music’ that first appeared in the 1980s, they experiment with the vocals and blend together beats with this to create their own style.

The use of their ‘branding icon’ Katrin shows their awareness of their brand image

They use Katrin purely as an ‘icon’ for their music, this makes them recognisable to the audience and easily relatable to the dance, house music scene

Attitude/ imageAs a band they are upbeat and suited to the lively club scene

Their music encourages dancing and having a good time which suggests they are easy going and aimed at young people.

Their image comes from the ‘dancing girl’ Katrin who represents a young, care free, energetic female – many that would be on the dance scene – she supports the music and the image the band are trying to get across, without

Dreamland AnalysisBackground: The colours red and black used give a bold feel – they are used behind Katrin and could symbolise, passion, lust, danger. This lures in the customer

The blue lighting used on Katrin is similar to the lights that would be used in clubs and dance scenes this relates to the music

The font used is simple and subtle. They use a contrasting colours to make the writing stand out

Katrin picture being used in the centre of the album shows she is the main selling point to the audience – she is instantly recognisable

Selling patterns

This shows what the customers also bought – all these bands are house, electronic and from the 1980s – 90s era.