Ed Sheeran - Positive Effects of Negative Publicity - Literature review Example

Negative Reviews Analysis on Ed Sheeran Student’s Name Course University Name Professor’s Name Date There has been extensive research on whether or not negative information can result to positive outcomes like sales increases. Despite the fact any publicity is deemed to be good publicity, previous research indicates that there has always been a downside to negative reviews. It has been safely noted that negative reviews or even a word of mouth has a spiralling effect product evaluation and, also sales. In regards to this project, the paper focuses on analysing two negative reviews of Ed-Sheeran’s as an artist while evaluating his new album. According to Snapes (2017), Ed Sheeran, in his new album, spends lots of energy towards informing people that he never went to University but rather spent a greater part of his teenage life slogging around UK pub circuit before becoming one of Britain’s most sought male pop artists. He is somehow not contended of the fact that he did not attain a degree and seems to overemphasize it in even greater degrees. He seems to have focused on overusing this aspect for purposes of portraying that he is an everyman’s image and personable nature while still discrediting the fact that not even university education could stop him from becoming a successful musician he is now. Snapes (2017) ascertains that Ed Sheeran has for a long time focused on selling corny innocence by using a set of weak wisdom and unimaginative music in order to deliberate on the fundamentals of both good and bad in people around him and while doing so; he does not bother to care of the effects that could bring to people around him. This can be seen to be genial, antiseptic frame for which we are to perceive Ed Sheeran. Considering the fact that he is one of the most sought after songwriters in the world, Snapes (2017), negates his success especially since most of his lyrics do not seem to resonate well with the message he ascribes to put across. For example, in his song; ‘What Do I Know’, he sings; ‘I’m just a boy with a one-man show no university….’ A quick check into the Irish Tourist board indicates that by him name-dropping such important and distinguished personalities like Jameson and John Powers does not spill over to becoming a probable law suit. According to Hu, et al( 2005, p.536) notes that online customer reviews postulate a crucial component that could be used for evaluation of the ways for which users of music describe their music preferences as well as the imminent impacts of this preferences. It is argued that online music reviews, whether positive or negative, is indeed detailed given that, in addition to covering the reviewers’ own opinion it further helps to uncover important background and contextual information that relates to the music or artist under discussion. Berger, Sorensen, and Rasmussen (2010, p.816) notes that negative reviews or even messages about products goes way above affecting product evaluations and even reduce the likelihood of their purchase or being listened to as in the case of music-related products and services. Effects of customer reviews and especially in the case of a one-star rating on book, movie and music have the possibility of affecting the overall book sales on such popular platforms and Amazon.com. In this regard, whereas it has been always said that any publicity is good publicity, all studies that have entirely focused on negative publicity has noted its underlying effects of being negative. Although, there is a higher possibility that such negative effects can be minimised for a high-committed consumer (Koelsch, 2010). In fact, research studies indicate that this negative publicity can, sometimes, play a greater role of improving the likelihood of purchases and sales. A most fundamental way for which publicity can directly influence product sales success is through the influencing of product evaluations, which is majorly ascertained as being a persuasive impact of publicity (Kamioka et al, 2014). Negative product evaluations result to an increase in the level of awareness. It is important to note that the differences that exist between evaluation and awareness or even accessibility is considered to be related to the effects brought about as a result of advertising. Advertising seeks to affect the consumer choice since it fosters a change options for which consumers would rather perceive to be independent of their preferences for the great range of varieties offered. Product familiarity sets to improve on the level of involvements and, also motivation of people while still reducing their imminent cognitive effort that is deemed to be fundamental in processing pertinent information. Subsequently, a lower involvement and a high-degree of efforts deemed to be crucial for unpopular products should result to a reduction on processing and encoding of publicity-related information. Thus, despite of this negative criticism, it should be understood that innocence can considered to be a fundamental aspect of Ed Sheeran’s overall brand and image (Howell & Conway, 1992). Indeed, it is his self-proclaim of being perceived to be uncool that has continued to make both cool and impervious to bad-tempered criticism levelled against him as an artist. He has been successful in describing his true love of being an angel-like person while still perpetually referring to his father as a lingering prophet and sings far-much tenderly about his grandparents. Just like in Sia and Chainsmokers albums, he seems to marvel on his capacity to postulate generic hooks far much better that he says he does not remember ever writing them in the event that they become successful in future. It can be noted that whenever the artist engages in rapping, as he does in ‘Eraser’, it seems that his words match perfectly well with the elegance of Stickle Bricks. It further seems that good taste is of no much concern for him and seems to pass the message of a smooth operator in his new hit; ‘Shape of You’ where he adamantly admits of his dating style. It is emphasised that there is no level of greater evidence of Sheeran’s commercial power when compared to his own label, which focuses on paying a tribute to ‘Galway Girl’ on this rather new album. To create publicity for himself, Ed Sheeran first presented himself as a drunkard greatly influenced by quite a number of bad girls and dark circumstances. For instance, in the song ‘Eraser’ seems like a true reflection of his psyche where he seems to ascertain his un-relatable predicament as he sings; ‘Ain’t anybody wanna see me down in dumps?’ In his criticism, Farber (2017) argues that Ed Sheeran started-off his new album on a very risky ground as it unfolds with ‘Eraser’, which is deemed to be quite boring and in his own words’ what did I get myself into?’, which he uses to attract attention of his fellow pop stars as opposed to music enthusiasts. The critic notes that Sheeran fairly understands how such sick-making songs sounds a person that is not a pop star. He sings; “Ain’t nobody wants to see you down in the dumps/because you’re living your dream and this should be fun,”. In this regard, Sheeran is perceived to be self-aware; self-deprecating and likeable to a certain degree. In his new album, the singer-songwriter seems to be emphasising on marketing his capacity as the pop’s Mr. Nice Guy as engages in writing songs meant to relate with the underlying audience. It seems that despite his perceived inefficiency of singing songs that does not augur well with the audience, and in this age of boasting hip hop artists as well as retaliatory R&B stars, Sheeran has been steady of creating an awareness of his personality that is characterised by sincerity (Howell & Conway, 1992). He has managed to present himself as an old school musician that has effectively been able to present his challenges and fortunes both in equal measure and thus, managing to counter any possible negative publicity. His new album has relatively added a substantial degree of swagger. In his song, ‘Castles on the Hill’, he has successfully managed to cut across the song with U2-style pinging guitars while the most popular song; ‘Shape of You’ unfolds through an African beat and is seen to be Sheeran’s song to push sex as hard as love. His voice has been effectively recorded to make it sound far much beefier. Even though these alterations would does not seem to bring about any issue with his current fan-base, however; it cannot go without stating that the latest album has been slippery and made up of almost obvious tunes (Howell & Conway, 1992). Even if the popularity of the album seems to have attained a commercial success point, fundamental aspects related to Sheeran’s lyrics is not creative at all. Despite the fact that there is a great degree of wit and detailing in his writing, Farber (2017) however; notes that Ed Sheeran is too much sentimental and idolises the aspect of love into anonymity in the song that is ironically titled as ‘ Perfect’. It is further criticised that the song ‘Supermarket Flowers’, Sheeran is seen to be undermining the exact nature of his feelings with lyrics that can be considered to be as far much generic as possible as; ‘Spread your Wings as you Go, when God takes you back’. He successfully explores his nature of humility as a way of eliminating the level of risk that relates to making even the wildest form of political statement. Notwithstanding, even with this level of generic sentiments from Sheeran, he has been able to successfully ascertain the aspect related to love. He can be seen to be always in its protection and see his future in his ‘girlfriend eyes’. Despite the poor criticism from these authors, it can be noted that the songs would easily be identified and listened to by people. Garrido and Schubert (2011, p.215) notes that people tend to enjoy a ‘good cry’ given the fact that they tend to seek out songs or even other forms of aesthetic experiences that would make them cry while it is common sense that people tend to focus on avoiding experiences that would make them angry or even cry in real life scenarios. It is under this presumption that Ed Sheeran still enjoys a substantial number of fans across the globe. Perhaps since most of his songs are directed towards certain types of people and not all as most would wish. References List Berger, J., Sorensen, A.T. & Rasmussen, S.J., 2010. Positive effects of negative publicity: When negative reviews increase sales. Marketing Science, vol.29, no.5, pp.815-827. Farber, J.2017. ‘Ed Sheeran’s Divide; EW Review. Entertainment World. Accessed from http://ew.com/music/2017/03/06/ed-sheeran-divide-ew-review/ Hu, X., Downie, J.S., West, K. & Ehmann, A.F., 2005, September. Mining Music Reviews: Promising Preliminary Results. In ISMIR (pp. 536-539) Howell, A. & Conway, M., 1992. Mood and the suppression of positive and negative self-referent thoughts. Cognitive Therapy and Research, vol. 16, no.5, pp.535-555 Garrido, S & Schubert, E. 2011. ‘Negative emotions in Music; What is the Attraction? A Qualitative Study, Empirical Musicology Review, vol.6, no.4, pp. 214-230 Koelsch, S., 2010. Towards a neural basis of music-evoked emotions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol.14, no.3, pp.131-137 Kamioka, H., et al. 2014. Effectiveness of music therapy: a summary of systematic reviews based on randomized controlled trials of music interventions. Patient Preference and Adherence, 8, p.727. Snapes, L. 2017. ‘Ed Sheeran’. Pitchfork. Accessed from http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/22960-divide/ Read More