I have chosen to analyse Mcfly and to see how their star image has changed over time. Tom Fletcher, the founder of McFly, originally auditioned for another band - Busted. When he didn't make the final cut, he stayed friends with James Bourne, a Busted band member. He went along with the band and taped auditions they were holding for a boy band, which later became V. Danny Jones, who thought he was auditioning for a rock band, went in with his guitar and sang "Bittersweet Symphony". Tom liked his audition and pulled him aside to discuss starting a band their own band. Danny, who was still in school at the time, met Tom in a hotel room every weekend, which acted as a sort of music studio, and began work on their first album - Room on the Third Floor. They still needed a bassist and a drummer, however, so they held auditions. Harry Judd and Dougie Poynter auditioned on the same day. While they were waiting, they talked and became friends. They eventually both made it into the band. McFly were once known as "Baby Busted", but have proven to be anything but. Beating the Beatles' record for youngest band to have a #1 debut album, Mcfly have skyrocketed from small name to one of the biggest bands in the UK.
When Mcfly first came they had a squeaky clean image and their original genre was pop rock/pop punk. An example of this is found in their song ‘five colours in her hair’. This is a good example of their squeaky-clean image because it shows them as fresh and young. Another example of their original image is shown in the song ‘please please’.
The band took a break and came back in a new era of music. Their whole style of music changed to a more mainstream kind of pop. Their videos always consist of them performing but with a narrative. Their visual motifs vary from their hair to the instruments. All of their hair is quite unique and represent their personalities. The concept of their style is quite like the spice girls, in the sense that there is one McFly member for each kind of male. For example, Tom is the sweet guy, Dougie is the grungy guy, Harry is the muscular yet normal looking guy and Danny is the well groomed and cares a lot about his image type of guy.
The record company attempts to sell the bands image by using all of their individual styles to attract a wider fan base. The bands hairstyles and costumes/clothing, as I have said before, help to sell their image and expand their fan base, due to the band member’s individual style, which attract other individual to unite. As well as that, their record company managed to find a way to gain an American audience. The band starred in a major motion picture, called Just My Luck, which helped promote the bands image and songs, worldwide.
In the more recent videos more camera effects have been used within the video. This is different to the older videos because, in the older videos it was more about entertaining rather than having great quality.
Having shot to prominence in 2003 they have gone on to become one of the biggest pop-rock acts that Britain has ever produced, successfully remodeling and rebranding both their sound and image as their songwriting continued to broaden and mature. As well as that, they were popular at their time due to the fact that bands similar to them were doing very well. I think the wider cultural significance of the band is hard to narrow down to one or two words. I think they are more like the spice girls in a way, due to their friendship being a key part of their image, as well as the fact that they are strong individuals joined together.
In conclusion, McFly have developed their stars image over time. Their music videos have become more modernized. They are about partying and drinking and there isn’t much of a narrative behind it, whereas before their videos had stories behind it, in which they played characters. Although the bands individual style has pretty much stayed the same.
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