R+P Post 12: Artists/bands that have influenced my ideas

Bad Blood - Taylor Swift

I've loved Taylor Swift since a young age. I think she's a great female singer who has a very distinct star identity. Her songs are usually narrative songs which detail her personal experiences. She was very popular with young girls especially with her hit songs Love Story and You Belong With Me. Since then she has developed her style of music to create songs such as Bad Blood and Blank Space, attracting an even wider fan-base. Not only has she developed her music but she's changed her identity to become a very strong, independent and sassy woman in contrast to her gentle, teenage princess persona. In 2015, she became the youngest woman ever to be included on Forbes "100 Most Powerful Women".  

I'd like my band to be able to come across as kindly as Taylor Swift still does till today but also as a group of powerful individual women. I want our type of music style to be flexible like Taylor's. The music videos she now releases are explorative of sub-genres such as rock and edm compared to her early songs which were mainly country pop. I would also like to make our music video very vibrant, classy and fast-paced like Bad Blood's.

Another artist I've loved for a long time is Rihanna. Below is her music video 'B*tch Better Have My Money".

I think she is a queen and a diamond in the music industry. She has been doing her own thing since the beginning of her career and her talent is clear from the fact that she is one of the best selling artists of all time. Examples include 'Take a Bow', 'Umbrella' and her more recent songs 'What Now' and 'Stay'. What I like about Rihanna as a star is that she controls her own image. She is a large public figure in that her sense of fashion and music is acknowledged by the media. She is arguably a respected fashion icon and very popular on social media. Not only does she have taste but she embraces her sexuality completely. She isn't afraid of judgment or what is normal and what is good. Her confidence and fierceness is infectious. Additionally her music videos have a lot of impact. They are very artistic and skillfully shot and edited. The aesthetics of her videos are always very beautiful in my opinion and I think she would be a great inspiration for my artist/band.