Montage of R&B Artists/Groups:

Brief History of Usher

Full Name: Usher Raymond IV

Born: October 14th 1978

From: Tennesse, United States of America

When he was 11, Usher joined a small R&B group named NuBegginigs but shortly after he was removed from the group. Usher then tried again to reach success by auditioning on the TV show Star Search, where he was finally spotted by LA Reid and signed to LaFace Records. He then eventually released his debut album Usher. He later went on to creating and releasing his second album named My Way with help from producer and close friend Jermaine Dupri in 1997.

Since then he has created 6 other albums including his latest album titled ‘Looking For Myself’ released in 2012.

Over the years he has had 9 number one singles, including songs such as OMG, Yeah, Burn and Confessions.

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GO TO www.ushermediaproject.tumblr.com

Name: Leah Jones

Age: 16

Occupation: Student

Lives with: Mum, Younger

sister

Spare time: Going shopping

with friends, going to concerts,

downloading music and videos

off iTunes.

TV: MTV, Waterloo road,

Coronation street, The Voice

Listens to: Hip hop and R&B

music

Audience Profile:

Personal Commentary

Over the past 20 years, Usher has changed drastically. From the way he dresses, to the music he creates, a lot

has changed to ensure that usher can continue appeal to his target audience.

At the start of his career, Usher was a R&B bad boy, dressing in baggy clothes, wearing caps, chains and other

bling. These are generic conventions of the R&B/Rap genre. By conforming to this, he was able to engage his

desired audience of R&B lovers. He sang songs about love as he tried to appeal to teenage girls his age and also

act as an iconic figure for young boys so they could aspire to be like him. Posters and double page spreads of

him appeared in female teen magazines, a popular form of media for girls, either wearing the cool, bad boy

clothing or topless, to again try to look attractive to the girls.

However, now he is nothing like that. He produces tracks with collaborations from pop/dance artists such as

Pitbull, Will.I.Am, and David Guetta which he wouldn’t have done before. By moving away from R&B and slowly

edging closer towards pop however, it now enables him to appeal to a wider youth audience and not be restricted

to just one or two similar music genres. He has also been able to increase his audience by winning the bid against

Justin Timberlake to sign and be mentor to pop sensation and one of the most loved and talked about young boys

around the world by thousands of star struck girls, Justin Bieber. He has also changed his appearance, swapping

his heavy bling and baggy clothes for trendy designer sunglasses and the latest, in fashion clothing such as fitted

tops, brightly coloured garments and leather jackets.

One thing that hasn’t changed so much, is the fact that in the majority of his songs, he still talks about love and

females. If anything, in much more of a sexual way now then before, as he is no longer a boy but an older and

also single man divorced from his wife and maybe attempting to look for a new partner through his music. As he

is getting older, he has to do such things like follow the youth trend and create songs with artistes/bands and

performers from other music genres to ensure that he stays fresh and current in the music business and that his

target audience of youth and females still continue to buy his albums and support him until the end of his career.

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