Research Paper: Trends on Music and Advertising

When conducting a constructive analysis on the discourse community of Taylor Swift fans, the Swifties, one of the genres of writing commonly used in the community was newsletters (Bourini, 2022). Genres are a specific type of writing, and each genre serves a particular purpose and entails a distinctive set of characteristics. There are various types of genres that were used within the discussed discourse community, but in this essay, the focus is going to be on newsletters. Newsletters are emails sent by companies, businesses, fan clubs or other organizations to convey messages to encourage sales and the promotion of a company or artist. The format of a newsletter typically involves a catchy subject line, a short paragraph, and information that is relevant to the recipient of the email. A newsletter can be formal or informal, depending on the business or company sending it, and it has a persuasive form of writing. The purpose of a newsletter is to promote a certain product or brand to a target audience. There are three newsletters that I will expand on in this paper. The first one is Taylor Swift’s newsletter, the second one is that of the infamous band 5 Seconds of Summer and lastly, the newsletter of the Canadian rock band Three Days Grace.

The Taylor Swift newsletter encourages fans in the discourse community to purchase items from her store. For example, when I first signed up for the newsletter, it immediately sent me an email that included a code that would give me a 10% offer from their online store. This is a very strategic advertising technique as it is a way of constantly updating the fans and keeping them connected in the discourse community. When you first sign up for the newsletter, it also asks you for your date of birth and country. That way, whenever one of her shows is held in a certain country it will inform the fans of that, thereby increasing ticket sales. The newsletter will send fans an email whenever there is a new event or update relating to Taylor Swift. Within a couple of days, I received an email about the new “I’m feeling ’22 Graduation collection”. This is an example of jargon, a term only understood by those who know her song “22”.

When I clicked the link to learn more about what types of clothes they were selling, I saw hoodies, T-shirts, long-sleeve shirts, stickers, and pins. There were various options with different colors and sizes, and with the 10% coupon they are offering, I can only assume that many fans will purchase the items. On the topic of the relationship between artists and fans, there is a very compelling article by Jeremy Morris called “Artists as Entrepreneurs, Fans as Workers” which describes the way that the relationship between fans and their idols works. The article states, “Be it through overt calls to help artists make and market their content, or through more passive participation such as the ambient tracking of users' habits, patterns, and preferences, fans cannot really consume without working.” (Morris, 2014). To elaborate on this idea, the author is highlighting how much of an impact the fans have on the artist through their participation in the discourse community. Whether they are using a fan page, a blog, buying merch or participating in the newsletter, they are indirectly working for the artist when they are consuming their content. In the same way, the Swifties work for Taylor by engaging with the newsletter and informing other fans of events and updates on her albums, tickets, and merchandise. Another email I received from the Taylor newsletter was one with the headline: “Celebrate Taylor Swift’s 2022 Evermore Grammy Nomination”. In this case, there is a rhetorical appeal used called logos. To explain, it is a fact that she was nominated for a Grammy and when the fans read that newsletter, they are going to be more likely to listen to her and take her art more seriously. This is a perfect example of logos, the use of facts and reason to convince an audience of one’s rhetoric.

The second newsletter I am going to analyze is the Three Days Grace newsletter. One can sign up for the Three Days Grace newsletter on their official website. Their newsletter definitely stood out to me as it was filled with news about their tour, their latest song, their new merchandise, a chance for the fans to win a signed album by the band, and pre-order their upcoming album Explosions. This is an example of the rhetorical appeal of ethos, as celebrities use their status and credibility to persuade their audience to buy their products. The appeal that the band has over the fans that the fans are willing to spend money to get a signed album is an ideal example of ethos and how it is a successful tool to incorporate in newsletters. Realistically speaking, the signature of a person does not really mean anything. However, because of the fame and appeal of celebrities, they can be successful in that sense. In the discourse community, fans have made it clear that they love outwardly appreciating the music and sharing it with other fans. This goes back to the relationship that the artists and fans have with each other to maintain the discourse community. In the scholarly article “How does a celebrity make fans happy? Interaction between celebrities and fans in the social media context” by Minseong Kim and Jihye Kim, they explain, “fans form high levels of self-congruity and friendship with their favorite celebrity” (Kim, 2020). The self-congruity and friendship they mention refers to the connection that forms between the fans and the celebrities they look up to as figures of authority. In the same sense, Three Days Grace maintain a close relationship with their fans through their newsletters. Therefore, the way they utilise this genre of writing to preserve the bond with their fans while also profiting is a perfect example of how this genre of writing is implemented in this discourse community.

The third newsletter I would like to explore is the 5 Seconds of Summer newsletter. On their official website, fans can subscribe to their newsletter by adding their email to receive news and the latest events. To briefly summarize its contents, they send their fans emails about their latest music video, their merch for their new song “COMPLETE MESS”, and their upcoming tour dates depending on the location the fan selected when signing up for the newsletter. They also provide a link to their website in every newsletter at the top of the email. To emphasize the importance of this, the article “Effects of link placements in email newsletters on their click-through rate” explains that “as consumers receive an email newsletter, links placed at the top of the email are more likely to be clicked than those that are at the bottom of the email” (Voorveld, Neijens, and Smit 2011). To elaborate, the placement of the link at the top of their email influences more fans to click and be interested in what the band is offering. Another interesting aspect of the 5 Seconds of Summer Newsletter is how they appeal to their fans emotionally. In one of their newsletters, they were promoting lead singer Luke Hemming’s album When Facing The Things We Turn Away From and the cover of the album beautifully painted a picture of distressed, uneasy man. This visual representation that is strategically used to intrigue fans emotionally is an ideal depiction of pathos. Pathos is the appeal to the audience’s strong emotions, and by advertising this cover, 5 Seconds of Summer will evoke strong emotions such as empathy and sadness in their fans when they see this cover.

To conclude, the genre of newsletters serves a crucial purpose in advertising and marketing. There are different ways of approaching newsletter writing as we have seen in the previous examples. However, overall, the structure and goal of each of the three newsletters is similar. A good newsletter is one that successfully garners the attention of the recipients with a catchy headline and a strong use of the three rhetorical appeals. Therefore, newsletters are an effective writing tool of persuasion, especially when it comes to the promotion of celebrities’ brands.