EminemAssignment 6: Promotion of the artist.

By Will Moseling

How is Eminem’s image currently promoted

At the moment, Eminem isn’t directly in the public eye, due to his inactivity within the music industry.

However, he is still seen as a popular icon, due to his stardom, and the popularity of his music.

A couple of years ago he really cemented his place as an all time great in the rap genre with his then new album ‘The Marshall Mathers LP 2’. He won the Global Icon award for his contribution to the music industry.

He is still a role model for some people, as his story is so unique, and his songs inspire many of his fans.

How has he been portrayed in the past?

When he first burst onto the scene in the late 90’s, he was seen as an outsider, as rap, then, was seen as a black-oriented genre.

As he established himself, he became very controversial. This was down to his aggressive lyrics, which frequently promoted violence, homophobia, racism, and organised crime. He often used his alter-ego ‘Slim Shady’ to excuse a lot of his controversial themes and lyrics, but this never was accepted as a valid excuse by a large portion of the public.

After he relapsed, he made his ‘Relapse’ album, and his public image changed. He was then seen as an icon, a troubled youth-turned-mature adult.

‘Recovery’ was the major turning point in his persona, however. He was no longer controversial, and actually produced some very empowering songs on this album. This album definitely accentuated his self-reflection, and felt like he was reaching out to his fans a lot more and, in some cases, trying to help them avoid the mistakes he made earlier in his life.

From then on, he’s become a lot more mainstream, mostly due to his change from a totally underground rap style, to a more electronic sound. This has suited the evolving mainstream of the music industry, and made his content more sellable.

What is his commercial imperative?

• As a solo, white American artist in a heavily influenced black American rap genre, Eminem's style and lyrics are relatable and come from past events of his up bringing.

As well as his unique rap style, Eminem has also done synergy's with ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2’ making a song for the games trailer which both promote each other which makes the game and the artist make money.

However, his alter-ego ‘Slim Shady’ also made him very sellable back in the late 90’s to early 00’s, as his violent content attracted a lot of people, whether fans or not, to listen to his music.

At the moment, he is adapting to the change the music industry is undergoing. Integrating electronic sounds into his music, rather than the classic turntable beats. This makes him more appealing to fans of the mainstream at the moment, which makes him a lot more sellable.

Is the artist's image invented or ready made? 

Eminem the artist singing in a predominantly black American style of singing had a real struggle growing up as a young artist making his own way in the music industry.

Previously, nobody had quite incorporated their own story on the level he did, or play on serious aspects of life quite as dynamically as he did. This was his unique selling point, therefore made him a lot more sellable. However, this was his style of music, therefore it would be right to suggest that his image at this point was ready made.

This was further shown upon in his released film ‘8 Mile’ a biographical film of his life and the struggles he faced creating an image and a reputation for himself being the only white American in the rap genre at the time.

However, you could also argue that he has elements of an invented public image, looking at his alter-ego ‘Slim Shady’ as a massive part of his music in the early years. ‘Slim Shady’ was a created character, but also used elements of Eminem’s own thoughts to flesh out his personality, this makes him a mixture of invented and ready made, when looking at his public image.