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Yeah, you know it. Sex sells always, at least when the product is aimed for men. Just think about it. How many times a week you see car, motorcycle, fragrance or sport equipment advertisements that include sexy women? Pretty often, eh? Now think about music. In metal music you see the ugliest men in the world. You really have to be interested in music if you listen to Manowar, Rhapsody of Fire or Amon Amarth, as examples. Unless you are not gay, you are more interested in music than the artists.
Now check the hard rock band Die So Fluid, and especially their singer Grog. Die So Fluid is a pretty good band, but not spectacular from my point of view. Without their sexy looking singer Grog Die So Fluid would probably stay as an underground band forever. Because of the sexy singer of Die So Fluid, they have all the possibilities of becoming one of the top bands.
Another example of a sexy singer is Simone Simons from Epica. I like Epica and their operatic music, but what makes them a bit more interesting compared to other bands in the genre, is their singer Simone Simons. A very beautiful singer gets more attention, and attention means more sold records.
Third example is Lullacry and their female singer. Lullacry makes pretty good music, but is still an underground band. By having an attractive female singer they have better possibilities selling more records than with by having a regular looking dude as a singer.
Why sex sells? For what all this is based on? We are living the times of “attention economy“, which means that by creating attention people can make money, and money is needed for bands and companies to survive. By creating attention companies can reach their customers and sell their products. By creating attention bands can reach new fans, become popular and sell more records. For some reason sex is a great tactic to create attention. Don’t ask me what makes sex so big weapon. I have no idea, but we all can easily see that by putting a sexy lady leading a band creates more attention.
Ok, if sex sells, why doesn’t every band have a sexy singer? In order to create attention, your band needs to have something unique or at least different from the market. If you have sexy singer wearing leather, you might get the market attention. If all the singers are sexy and wear leather, it would not work. Anyhow, if a number of bands have sexy singers who differ a little from each other; it works at least for some of the bands. Anyhow, there are other ways to make differences and gain attention. For example, My Chemical Romance was the first band in their genre wearing black. That was a simple tactic but worked well with their music. Twisted Sister used hard ore make-ups and definitely got the market attention.
If you have a band and you desperately want success, analyze your market, your music genre, and find out which tactics other bands are using in order to gain attention. Then figure out something unique for yourself and start promoting that unique thing. It is not that straightforward of course, but in principle it works like that. Music industry is much similar to other industries, and sex sells in other industries as well.
This post was written by Headbanger and its original location is in Metal-Music-Videos.Com blog. For more great metal music articles, please visit Metal-Music-Videos.Com!
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“Unless you are not gay, you are more interested in music than the artists.”
I am still in love with Marco Hietala. Not Tarja, not Anette. 
I haven’t paid so much attention to women on metal stage. It is the music that matters to me, their voices. But it is true that sex sells in that market also…
Or unless you are a woman
Heh.. sorry Michaela. I knew this a bit harsh comment will be noticed. That’s good, because it raised this discussion. I just wanted to point out that when a band “is not sexy”, fans are probably mostly interested in their music than the artists.
As you know metal music is mostly “mens world”. If you watch Metal - Headbanger’s Journey, you can see that most of the people in metal scene are men. Because of this record companies use sexy women for marketing. Why? Because most of the target audience are men and sex in advertising for men works.
I do admire female singers such as Angela Gossow and Simone Simons. Not because of their look but because of their skills, voice and attitude. They are absolutely great singers, especially Simone.
So you’re in love with Marco Hietala
Would you be jealous if I tell you that I see him and Emppu every now and then in our local supermarket. We live in the same little city.
Well, I totally agree with you. However, commercialization of music to such heights will kill the real artist. I’ve observed that most musicians/bands produced their greatest works during their struggling years. Once they’re in the limelight, once they have the money and fame, their creative talents head for a demise, because they know that their music will sell anyway!
That’s right, Manoj. I agree. Another reason why many metal bands produce greater music in their early years is that they are younger, and they have more anger and hate which is the source of great metal songs. When guys get older and money comes in, they settle down and loose their inspiration. Metallica is probably the best example of this phenomenon, right?
“Metallica is probably the best example of this phenomenon, right?”…mmm, yes, that’s true from my point of view! But I still keep on listening to them and will go to see them this summer. 10 years ago when they were here, I was too young and my parents didn’t let me, hehe.
But whenever you need a roommate, call me 
I need to practice my finnish anyway.
“So you’re in love with Marco Hietala Would you be jealous if I tell you that I see him and Emppu every now and then in our local supermarket. We live in the same little city.
”
Jealous? No, you’re not gay and I am in love wit almost any man with long hair and beard
And what about bands which are only men? How to get attention among so many bands with sexy women…Is it more tough for them to break through?
Oh yes, I do listen to Metallica as well. They are good, but I just prefer their albums before so called Black album. Some later songs are good as well, but Master, Ride and Justice albums are absolutely diamonds.
I saw Metallica here in Hellsinki in 2003. They were really good on stage. It’s great that you will now see this classic band.
Good point. I guess bands in which all members are men might have harder times with getting attention, but I guess the most important thing is to provide music that gets attention. Having a “sexy singer” is a good help, but if music doesn’t reach fans, then I guess there is not much hope. With strategic marketing and promoting bands can reach millions of people, but having people as fans requires music that really rocks, right?
The whole concept of ’sex sells’ is not new, but is rarely conceived from the viewpoint of the band/artist, but rather from the people who hold the reins, i.e. marketing folk at record companies…
The sexiness of a ‘product’, pardon the expression, is often concocted by and for so called ‘male chauvenistic pigs’, to throw a small cliché thru yer window. But since clichés mostly have some truth (otherwise they wouldn’t become clichés, now would they), the average pubescent rock-luvin’ male is being enchanted by this or that sexy chick, shoved to the fore by money-hungry representatives who know that the hormones will take ove the wallet and make all the young dudes go jivin’ their skinny little arses to the nearest record-shop to spend their hard-earned drool on stuff they don’t even like…
And as far as the subject goes, I have my suspicions about yer own motivations to walk down a path that has been trodden so often it starts to resemble the Grand Canyon.. maybe you were in need of some attention yourself, who knows
Anyway, I myself had heard Nightwish, After Forever, Epica, Ebony Ark, Die So Fluid et all, before I got confronted with the way the singers look. And besides looking good, we defenitly can’t say these goils can’t sing, so, when the female frontmen (or sumtin like that) are looking more than cute, that’s an advantage, but only for my own eyes. We’re not dealing with top-40 material here, where looks are all that count and everyday all-american girls that aren’t even pretty (Britney Spears, anyone?) are being drowned in tons of make-up to be able to sell them as sofisticated and thoroughly airbrushed play-mates.
Metal doesn’t need that crap. Or at least, I’d like to think so. There’s a lot of girls out there that have voices that would even make La Callas look up, if she were still alive. That they also look great, is just good fortune on their part. OK, and for us, the fans, it’s also nicer to look at, but I don’t believe that there’s metal fans over the age of 20, who would go out and buy stuff they haven’t heard, just because the singer looks nice…
Good-looking or not, talent is talent, whatever the singer’s, or any other musician in a band, sex is. When there’s talent involved, you can get a monkey as a frontman/woman, you’ll still likeley make the grade.
Look at Patty Smith, K.D. Lang and the likes… Are they pretty? Well, maybe, but not at all in the same vein as Simone or Grog, but still they made it. Why? Because they have talent.
My apologies for the lengthy reply, by the way…
JJ