Madness
Madness are a British pop/ska bandfrom Camden Town, London, who formed in 1976. The band perform with their most recognised line-up of seven members, althoughthis has occasionally varied slightly over the years of their existence. They were one of the most prominent bands of the late 1970s 2 Tone ska revival.
Madness’ audience in the early days of their formation were predominantly skinheads; members of a British working class subculture that the media often stereotyped as racist (although many skinheads, including the original generation, are non-racist or anti-racist). This sparked much controversy about the band, who were on the receiving end of racist allegations, claiming they too were racists. This however waslater disproved as they denied their skinhead roots, disappointing much of their fan base. Towards the later stages of their careers, although still being predominantly 2 Tone ska, they edged slightly more towards the mainstream pop audience.
They appeal to their audience largely through their roots. They are a well known British ska band, who use their national appeal to draw in audiences who get a feel of patriotism and belongingness from listening to their ‘rock steady’ beats. The media surrounding their music, such as album art and videos, contain a number of generic signifiers relevant to both the ska genre and Britain. For example in their video for one step beyond, they are seen dancing down the British streets, with a red telephone box in the background, a prominent signifier of British culture.
They interact with the audience through the performance of live gigs and festivals, in which they still partake. For example, Madness continue to tour playing most recentlyplaying Birchington-on-Sea Quex Park in Kent with a new set of UK tour dates throughout November and December 2010. Even long after their years in the limelight, they play shows for the fans that have been loyal to their music that has been and still is so iconic to the British ska/pop scene. In a large sense, the way in which they dress plays a large part in their interaction with audiences. Their partially smart dress, with suits, ties, smart shoes, trilbies and of course the large shades worn by Suggs are vital in the establishing of their image. Fans of the ska genre then have an image to aspire to and aim towards by dressing in a similar fashion to achieve this.
[Spunge]
Spunge are a ska punk band from Tewkesbury, England. Through many years of constant touring, Spunge have toured or played alongside with a huge number of moderately successful UK bands and several more famous American ones, such as Greenday. The band formed their initial line-up in July of 1994 and are still actively playing to this day, with the one small exception of the lead singer Alex Copeland no longer playing bass as he did in their early formation years.
Having ga
ined a manager oftheir band after their hit EP success with ‘Kicking Pigeons’, selling over 5000 copies at pub and local gigs, they went on to tour, playing over 300 gigs in 2 years. This suggests that upon their formation and in their early years, the main audience of the band were more of an indie crowd (not used in the modern interpretation meaning a clique!) as opposed to fans of mainstream artists. Due to their majority of gigs being played at small venues such as pubs, the audience that they will have attracted would have been more ‘passionate about unsigned bands’ type of ska punk fan, rather than a typical radio one or heart fm listener for example! The type of person who go to local gigs with friends just because they enjoy the music and atmosphere, regardless of how well known the band is, or if they know all the lyrics.
They mainly interact with their audience through the playing of 
live gigs. In their early days as an unsigned band of Tewkesbury, this was achieved through local gigs at small venues such as pubs and local venues. As they became more established and went on tour, much larger venues became available as their fan base of ska punk junkies became ever-increasing, going on tour supporting such American galacticos of the music world as Greenday, and more recently hitting venues including The Waterfront of Norwich, whilst headlining a tour of their own.
They broadened the horizons of their target audience with the release of their album ‘That Should Cover It!’ on 23rd February 2004, a compilation of a number of covers of songs by various different artists from numerous different genres, with their own 3rd wave ska twist to them. This meant that fans of other styles were also taking notice, making them much more appealing to a wider range of music fans. Much like madness, their dress sense of (not quite the same as the two-tone ska style of Madness) suspenders, black and white checked accessories and shaved haircuts meant that the ska punk audience of predominant appeal could relate better to them. Even looking at the album art of the majority of their albums, there is a comic book style theme to them, adding a quirky interesting element, hence increasing the appeal of their ska-head fans!
The Specials
The Specials are an English 2 Tone ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry, England. Their music combines a "danceable ska and rocksteady beat with punk's energy and attitude". The group was formed by songwriter/keyboardist Jerry Dammers, with Terry Hall (vocals), Lynval Golding(guitar, vocals) and a rhythm section. Anti-racism was intrinsic to the formation of The Specials (previously The Automatics, The Coventry Automatics, The Special AKA The Coventry Automatics, and The Special AKA), in that they had the aim of integrating black and white communities. It was this push for racial equality that gave them the reputation of having a "more focused and informed political and social stance" than other ska groups.
The audience of The Specials is similar to those of Madness rather than Spunge, in the sense that rather than being more into the whole punk element of the ska genre, they prefer the more classic two tone feel. Because of the whole anti-racism message that the band were trying to get across, they would not have been as predominantly popular with the whole skinhead scene like Madness were, as although they were not strictly speaking racist by any means, some of the minority of the skinhead culture did not promoted racial equality with their views.
The Specials appeal to their audience through not only their music, but also the political views they take. For example, after their song ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ lead to the band becoming relatively popular with anti-Apartheid activists in South Africa. The band wore mod-style 1960s period rude boy outfits including pork pie hats, tonic and mohair suits, and loafers, which gave fans an image to aspire to if they wanted to achieve the same look as the band. This is a way in which they appeal to the fans and shows interaction via dress style. The band have had various break ups and line up shuffles, including a break up in ’84 and reformation in ’96, and further break up in 2001. They are currently still together following another reformation in 2008 ready for their 30-year anniversary tour, and are still playing gigs having this year been touring Europe and America. Gigs being a vital way in which they interact with audience.
From all these artists, I can learn that the best way to appeal to our audience is to ensure that the actors in our video are typically dressed according to the genre. In our case, they must be dressed in ska costume, meaning lots of trilby hats, suits, big boots, Fred Perry shirts and braces! This means that the audience can relate to the band via the costume the actors are wearing in the video. The locations used must also be fitting of the genre, such as the British urban streets as this would appeal to the British audience; they would relate to it easily. Another way to make it appealing to the British ska audience would be to include as many genre and British signifiers as possible, such as the phone box used in Madness’ video ‘One Step Beyond’, which we intend to use combined with a comedy sketch where our actors comically fall out of it. These signifiers give the video a homely, patriotic feel that the audience can relate to.
The Skanx
Our band, The Skanx, fit mainly into the '2 tone' context of ska, which was initially created in the UK the 1970's and uses elements of ska, ska punk and reggae dub to fuse together a brand new sub genre. of the 3 bands i have researched in this post, The Specials and Madness are the bands that fit most into the 2 tone ska sub genre, so i can safely say that The Skanx are most closely related to The Specials and Madness in terms of genre, rather than [Spunge] who are of the later ska revival genre of the 90's called '3rd wave ska', being a different scene to the 2 tone ska scene. This 2 tone ska association is backed up by some of the art used in their videos, which black and white simple checked design is heavily linked with the 2 tone ska scene.
In terms of marketing their band, The Skanx have their own website featuring latest songs, upcoming gigs, background info, band pictures and videos etc. (http://www.theskanxband.co.uk/index.html) This is the primary way in which they market their band to potential fans. Marketing in this way is likely to be less beneficial to a band of the 2 tone ska genre as opposed to one of the 3rd wave revival as fans of such bands as Reel Big Fish and [Spunge] are likely to have a marginally younger target audience who would use the internet on a more regular basis (due to the sub genre being brought about a good 20 years later than 2 tone ska). Despite this, it is still a particularly effective way of appealing to our video's target audience who are likely to also be relatively youthful due to our inclusion of younger actors. The band also play lots of local gigs where they advertise their upcoming performances at small venues such as 'Gipsy Hill Tavern' in London. They also have their self-entitled EP album 'The Skanx' available for download on http://www.208records.co.uk/artists.html where they aim to market themselves to extra effect, and put their music out on the ska scene for fans to purchase.
