Musical Influences

Now that we have decided that we are doing a female rock group, I have started to look into similar artists for comparison and inspiration.

The Veronicas

The Veronicas are an Australian duo made up of twin sisters Jessica and Lisa Origliasso. They are mostly classed as pop-rock, as well as electronic and pop-punk. This makes them a great band to compare with our potential band, as fellow female rockers.

Their website is quite girly, suggesting their core listener market, and is very interactive.

They also have an edgy, quite glam-rock look, similar to what we are going for.

Their album covers are,  in contrast, girly like their website, making them both edgy and feminine. They feature lots of pink and purple, plus lipstick marks. However, on 2 of the covers the girls themselves are shown dressing quite sexily, appealing to male listeners too, whereas their debut album (centre) is quite clearly aimed at girls, suggesting that they have matured throughout their career and possibly changed their image.

VersaEmerge

Although VersaEmerge are not a girl band, they do have a female lead singer so their sound is comparable. They are an American rock band currently consisting of vocalist Sierra Kusterbeck and guitarist Blake Harnage. It is hard to find entirely female rock groups, which is why I have chosen to look at VersaEmerge too, as most female-fronted bands, like them, tend to have male musicians. This is why we want to break the trend and create a band of girls who can play instruments.

Their live acoustic EP shows both members looking very cool and laid-back. Sierra looks attractive but isn't sexualised, and it is clear she has her own style.

Their debut album cover is very different and features artwork instead of the band themselves. This is a brave move for their debut, but shows that they are more focused on the music than their image, and the vulture is a reference to one of their song's lyrics. Although I like the way that the lack of photo means they seem to be all about the music, for our band I think image is very important as we are going for quite a strong look, and I think we should put ourselves on our debut album cover.

Here is the video for one of their singles, Fixed At Zero:

The video is entirely performance-based, but their is enough going on and the cinematography and mise-en-scene is exciting enough to make up for the lack of narrative. There are lots of close-ups of the musicians playing their instruments, a technique we will also use to show our hands playing guitar and bass. However, it is clear that the lead singer is the focus of the video, a common feature for bands, as we see lots of beauty shots of her and she gets most of the screen time. Her style and makeup is slightly gothic with heavy dark eye makeup, but she also looks pretty and quite glamorous, so girls will aspire to her yet she still looks attractive to males, especially those that prefer slightly less girly-looking girls with a more edgy style like Sierra Kusterbeck has. That is also an effect we intend to create with our girl band members.