Artist Under Construction (Trey Songz, Rihanna, and Pink)

In this business you have to have a certain image to be successful. When appealing to a wide range of viewers you have to know what’s hot and what will sale. With the three artists I’m going to be highlighting their start was rocky but are now winning in record sales. Trey Songz, Rihanna, and Pink all came out as artist their labels wanted them to be and true enough they had sales but no where near what their achieving today.

When Trey Songz first came out he had the vocals of an R&B artist but the style of a rapper. His talent was singing but he also had a passion for rap. I feel that in this industry you have to conquer one talent in order to move on to the next. When he made the decision to solely focus on singing his sales went up and his style changed from a rough around the edges teen to a sexy man in a tailored suit. In the future I hope to see Trey Songz conquer the R&B world and touch on his passion for rap.

Singer Rihanna started her career and image as the girl next door. Her first two albums had song titles like “If It’s Lovin’ That You Want” and “A Girl Like Me” that portrayed her innocent side which sold but not to the magnitude of her latter albums. When changing her style up with albums “good girl gone bad” and “Rated R” the real her came out and we were shown her dark side. Rihanna has gone from sweet and innocent to dark and seductive. In the future I hope to see Rihanna keep her edge but do more ballads.

Vocalist turned rock star Pink has totally re-invented herself. She got her start as a R&B vocalist with songs like “There You Go” and “You Make Me Sick.” Pink started with R&B because of her label Laface Records thought her voice would sale more in that genre. By her third album “Try This“ she pursued her passion, which is rock music. Although her sales didn’t do as well as previous sales she gained a Grammy for best female rock vocal performance. As a pink fan when I first caught wind of the change from R&B to rock I felt betrayed but I understand that sometimes you have to use what have to get to where you want to be. I feel that Pink made one of the most drastic changes but if it makes you as an artist happy and will reach a bigger fan base why not make a change for the better.

The industry is all about marketing and creating a brand. With these three artist the brand was more important than personal choice to their label. With Trey Songz this decision came out on top but with Rihanna and Pink their personal style was the winner in the end.