Authenticity and Presentation of Self through Social Media
When social media started, it aimed at affecting personal lives. However, as technology evolved, social media grew, and now, even music is being affected by social media. These days, most musicians use social media platforms to engage with their audiences, drive leads, and promote their music. Beyoncé is such an example of a musician who is using social media platforms such as Instagram to leverage a vast following. The following essay offers insights into how Beyoncé accomplishes success through authenticity, dramaturgical perspective, and visual presentation. It also describes how the change in the use of social media has changed the consumption of music.
To induce a sense of intimacy in her followers, Beyoncé posts what appears to be personal information. She uses images and language and cultural references that create an affiliation with fans presenting a seemingly authentic portrayal of self while maintaining meaningful relationships and meeting fan expectations. From her Instagram posts, it is evident that celebrity is practiced effectively if it offers an illusion of the out of the stage, providing the impression of the uncensored glimpse into her life. The reason is that her Instagram feed consists of some very relatable photos. Some of these include pictures of her family, involving her husband and her children to show she is a wife and a mother mom just like other women. Others show her going about her normal life, just like other people do. Even though there is no way to evaluate the authenticity, the uncertainty still appeals to her audience. The authenticity can best be explained using Markwick and Boyd’s concept of micro-celebrity. According to the technique, celebrities portray themselves as public personas to gain attention and status, infiltrating a consumer and marketing culture into self-perception. As a result, Beyoncé perceives her audience as a fan base that has to be maintained through fan management and self-presentation. Thus, she has a hired manager who manages her social media accounts and who updates them frequently to enhance engagement. For example, the manager uploads her Instagram videos directly to her platform rather than posting a link to an outside website such as YouTube enabling people to auto play them as soon as they appear as they scroll through their feeds.
Goffman’s Dramaturgical perspective describes why celebrities such as Beyoncé present themselves the way they do. According to Goffman, celebrity influence depends on time, place, and audience based on the beliefs, cultural norms, and values of the people. Thus, a female pop musician such as Beyoncé has to conform to the pop environment that surrounds her world. Therefore, she, like the rest, has to stick to impression management by controlling the impression that their fans have over her by taking dramaturgical actions. Such actions include showing the backstage self-aspect, such as posting photos and videos, portraying the person she is, intending to achieve self-acceptance from her followers. Therefore, Beyoncé’s identity is not an independent t and stable psychological entity; instead, it is continuously remade through her interactions with her fans. Thus, as on the stage, she manages her word, clothing, nonverbal actions, and settings to create the intended impression in people’s minds. However, no one can be sure if the impression reflects the true self as only inopportune intrusions can reveal the actual identity of a celebrity.
Visuals are high performers on Instagram, and that is why Beyoncé’s Instagram feed is highly visual. She is always sure to include an eye-catching colorful image or video that captures her beauty and body. Even though most other types of photos, her main focus is on the fashioned themed pictures because they tend to be more attractive, attracting a broader audience. Research shows that Instagram photos showing faces get 40% more like those photos without faces because they stimulate the mind and make us curious, given most of the information visuals are more persuasive. Thus, Beyoncé’s message photos promoting her quotes are some the least ” liked ”among her pictures because they do not as compelling as the rest of her photos. Additionally, most of the time, she does not add captions to her photos to ensure they don’t lose their eye-catching aspect. However, when she decides to offer captions it is usually straightforward. She doesn’t need the captions because she wants her audience to fill whatever blanks she leaves, which makes her more meaningful in terms of maintaining intrigue and continued relevance. Therefore, the captionless posts create such a frenzy in her comments section with her fans trying to theorize and figure out what the posts mean. For example, If she posts a picture with a different musician, it could be validation that she approves the artist. If she pays tribute to a fashion icon, it could mean an endorsement of the icon’s products.
Social media has changed the consumption of music in that; people don’t have to buy music anymore because they can stream it online. The increased use of social media, in public, has increased the options that musicians can use to distribute their content. As a result, musicians can bypass the music industry’s convention is entire because they have gained control over the distribution. Thus, the music industry has seen a shift from considerable conglomerates to smaller record labels, which means that it is more service-based these days than product-based. With such, musicians can share a sound cloud track to their Instagram followers through stories.