Having a Niche - Amy Winehouse

What is a Niche?

'You need a reason to stand out. Try to find something that will make people more curious about you - give them a reason to want to know you more.' - Heather McDonald in 'Your Guide to Music Careers'

That stated above is what having a niche is. It's about standing out from the crowd and bringing something new to music lovers everywhere. The artist who stands out in my mind is Amy Winehouse not only for having a niche in her music, but in her looks and in effect, a niche with the press.

Amy Winehouse

Background

Amy Winehouse was born 14th September 1983, and made her debut hit in 2003. How did she do this? What is so unique about this particular artist? Did she create a revolution?

Amy was born in North London and it was clear from an early age she was going to be a star as at the age of 10 she went to Susi Earnshaw Theatre School and later moving on to Sylvia Young Theatre School and eventually earning herself a place in the BRIT School where various stars such as ‘The Kooks’ all met and became famous. Is this where she gained her unique look and sound? Or was it perhaps her strong interest and influence from jazz music, constantly listening to artists like Frank Sinatra?

A Video Before she was Famous

This is juxtaposition to how she appears nowadays:

Niche in Appearance

Something that makes Winehouse stand out from the rest is her looks with the over exaggerated eye makeup and the retro beehive. This started a huge new trend where many wanted to have the large bonnet and attention seeking eyes, which went against the women who had been presented in music beforehand, such as Mariah Carey. However, over the years, the image is gradually becoming less phenomenal and more worrying as she is clearly malnourished and has been arrested due to drugs.

Niche with the Press

Her niche with the press is one like no other – it has reached a point where she was photographed so much she carried out a harassment injunction, where press aren’t allowed more than 100 metres of her home, or when she is at a friend’s home. However, some of the images captured have shown a bad side to Winehouse: the constant drinking and drug taking. This has created a niche, but a negative one.

Niche in Music

This niche has let her create some of her most well known music such as the songs 'Back to Black' and 'Rehab' which emphasise her need for drugs and alcohol. The sound created is so abnormal to what many have heard as it is a mix of soul, R & B and jazz. Her voice has kick started a revival of soul music and has been named “The Winehouse Phenomenon” by Sebastian Danchin. She promoted other artists such as Adele and Duffy.

Amy Winehouse has used all of the above to promote her music because her name is known everywhere due to the press, and she still has a unique sound. This means if you saw her digipack, you would instantly recognise it was her due to her niche looks, and you would expect a niche sound to follow as such. I could promote my own artist’s album by having a different image that goes against the stereotype of an indie-rock band (which is the genre of my artist) on the front cover – one that is striking due to its non conventional look.

Will my artist have a niche?

My artist conforms to the genre and so unlike Amy Winehouse, is already part of a stereotype. To ensure the target audience listen to their music, they have to take the key characteristics of this genre of music and enhance them. (E.g, indie rock is guitar driven - images of the artist playing the guitar). As the music video is a stop frame animation mixed with a video based performance, the niche could be every music video created to do with the artist will follow this format, similar to the artist Ok Go who do 'one take' videos.