Long-time readers will recall that on a few past occasions, I’ve mentioned my history in the dance music world. It’s an interesting place to visit, full of colorful characters, although one’s definition of “colorful” might not always go with similar terms, like “sane” or “sober” or “logical.”
But then again, it’s a great location to scout for lessons on business, branding, and Gen-Y models, like our old friend, Deadmau5. But there’s another DJ/producer who’s offering some great metaphors on success, branding, and the slippery slope that they are on. His name is David Guetta. And he’s either the stupidest or most brilliant man on the scene today.
Guetta has been mixing and making music for something like 25 years, having risen through the international club circuit to become a marquee name. He has legions of fans who swear by his house hits. He could keep on going as a big name in dance music for the rest of his life. But instead, he decided to go pop.
Late last year, the dozens of people who still listen to the radio were probably scratching their heads when they heard the new Akon track, “Sexy Bitch,” which he did with some guy named David Guetta, despite the fact that no one but the minor-grinding, fan-tossing singer himself could be heard on the album. But David was there. In fact, he had a big part.
He produced it.
So for those who didn’t quite get it in the video why Akon was hanging with a 40-something French dude in Ibiza…
Consider that Guetta did the lion’s share of making the song.
Guetta’s had appearances in the videos for his other tracks, including “Gettin’ Over You” with Fergie and LMFAO…
“Waving Flag” with K’naan and Will.i.am…
The Step Up 3D promotional tie-in track ”Club Can’t Handle Me” with Flo Rida…
And “Commander” with Kelly Rowland, who’s on an opposite track, moving into doing more club vocals and less pop these days.
Even though Guetta is usually relegated to the sidelines in the videos, usually messing around with turntables or looking odd and French in the background, he’s doing something that’s pretty rare for a non-singing producer: he’s making himself a known entity.
Sure, there’s guys like Phil Spector, who revolutionized music with his “Wall Of Sound” techniques, but there are few other behind-the-scenes fellows who are quite as prominent, and they would rarely (if ever) appear in the videos for their songs.
This is brilliance on Guetta’s part, since he’s getting exposure to entirely new audiences, hitching his star to artists who are bigger names, but with whom he would probably be working anyway. This in turn raises his profile as both a producer and performer, pushing him into new (and more lucrative) genres.
However, he runs the risk of pigeonholing himself. For every listener who is interested enough to look him up online to find out why he’s in all these songs and music videos, there are at least two more who don’t bother, and remain confused. Similarly, music video directors don’t have a good idea of how to integrate him into the videos, so they usually put him behind the turntables or in the recording studio, two places he is trying to get his image away from.
This might seem counter-intuitive, but it makes sense. Guetta needs for people to understand his contributions, but the visual representation for this is one that usually segregates him from the other artists and leaves him as a background player anyway. As long as the music video directors don’t have a clear way to illustrate who he is and what he does, all that he will be in his pop videos is the dude in the DJ booth or the background.
The current branding struggle of David Guetta shows us a few of the ways to succumb to both good and bad branding strategies. By moving laterally within his field of popularity and expertise, Guetta has leveraged his existing brand to connect with bigger stars to find new fans and a more prominent role in modern music. But at the same time, working with people who don’t know how to promote his contributions in a new way leaves him stuck in one spot, making it harder for his brand to really grow and evolve.
Even contextualizing Guetta’s presence seems tricky – Flo Rida gives him a shout-out at the beginning of their track like a good hype man, but the director squanders this by keeping him in the booth. In the beginning of the video with Fergie, he is clearly in control of the production, but he could just as easily be replaced in those shots with a random actor and many viewers would be unaware of the difference.
Guetta’s branding strategy leaves him open to more success and renown, but also constrains him to his former role. Perhaps if he maintains a larger presence in the videos, like those with Akon and K’naan, he can move past this barrier.
Maybe this would help people to understand that the guy they don’t recognize in the video is probably the same guy whose name is on the track that they weren’t sure of. That might not sound like much of an improvement, but it’s a definite step up from, “Why do they keep panning over to the DJ?”
