The Ed Banger fanbase falls into the “net generation” category, born between 1976 and 1998. What would happen if MySpace closed down? What would happen to Ed Banger and the thousands of other independent labels that rely on the site daily as a homepage? MySpace is no longer what it was originally set up to be and it has been taken over by businessmen using it as a tool to market and advertise their products. Even though artists have their ‘own’ MySpace page, it is almost impossible to contact them directly.
In the book Visual News Power (2003) Mieke Gerritzen observes that “the immense power of the net is not in the applications but in communication, not in the masses but the individual.” This is crucial when it comes to Ed Banger’s MySpace page, where each ‘friend’ is made to feel individual yet part of the Ed Banger ‘crew’ and movement. The ‘top friends’ list on the Ed Banger MySpace page contains the twelve artists on the label: Mr Flash, DJ Mehdi, Justice, Busy P, Mr Ozio, Uffie, Feadz, Sebastian, Vicarious Bliss, Krazy Baldhead, DSL and Micky Moonlight. It also features So Me. Each Ed Banger artist has his own MySpace and visitors can request their ‘friendship’, although as indicated in the previous paragraph this ‘friendship’ is unlikely to be truly reciprocal. The artist will still contact the ‘friends’ but the contact will be via an email sent to many recipients at the same time. Contact may also be through forums, where artists may respond to certain ‘posts’.
It is interesting to read the comments fans had left on So Me’s MySpace page regarding his artwork. One photo of a recent t-shirt design has comments such as “these are sick (a good thing). Where can I purchase your shirts?”, “they’re soooooo amazing” and “dude. I need.” Another uploaded photo of a proposed t-shirt design was followed by “fucking fresh, this dude is the illest” and “dude I need that on a t-shirt.” The comments quoted are from Sweden, Japan, Australia, America and France demonstrating how MySpace helps the brand, band or even graphic designer to create a global fan base with ease. By commenting on the images, the fans show their appreciation and feel part of the Ed Banger movement. The Ed Banger ‘home’ MySpace page has 75,841 friends, and numerous links to different online shops where the cds, vinyl and t-shirts can be purchased. In comparison, rival Australian label Modular has been in existence for ten years yet has only 25,388 friends on MySpace. There is little to suggest that the label is more than just the music, and each of its artists has a completely different visual style. I believe Ed Banger’s acknowledgement of the importance of MySpace means it has created much more of a community and lifestyle ‘feel’ than other record labels. A Modular spokesman recently dismissed Ed Banger : “for every life-changing, blog-quaking outfit the Frenchies can throw at the world, we have our own Southern Hemisphere equivalent” – an acknowledgement of Ed Banger’s significant presence on the internet.
The comments on Uffie’s record covers on her MySpace are as much about the artwork as they are the music. One comment reads “wickid artwork… I’m going to buy ittttttttttt”, reinforcing the idea that artwork still has a significant place in today’s digital world.
Ed Banger is also talked about on different MySpace pages - for example, a friend of the HRO MySpace page recently asked “Are WESC headphonez the new shutter shades?” Shutter shades, a type of sunglasses made popular by rapper Kanye West, were regarded as ‘must-haves’ and could be seen everywhere. The comment thus implied that the Ed Banger headphones designed by So Me were set to inherit that status.
MySpace have used Ed Banger as a marketing tool, booking the crew for the MySpace tour in America to add credibility. This can be seen as a major coup for Ed Banger considering the size of the French label compared to the ever-growing status and power MySpace has in the music world. Busy P justified how the alliance came about: “we’ve been on MySpace since 2005, which was a bit earlier than the rest of the European people. We’ve been active, so they were happy to work with a group that knows the MySpace code and everything.” The tour gave Ed Banger a huge break in America, where it is notoriously hard to succeed – especially for European dance music.
Ed Banger has also formed a valuable relationship with cult Parisian shop ‘Collette.’ One of the first to adopt the idea of a lifestyle store, Collette’s original concept was to be a place where the consumer could find fashion, art and music. This idea has since been copied in many places, for example in shops such as Base in Miami and others in New York. The Collette team handpicks every item in the shop, which stocks established designers as well as new ones. According to its promotional video on youtube it “wants everything to look precious – to be desired.” It sells the iconic Ed Banger records as well as the t-shirts by So Me. The t-shirts have such cult status that they sell out in minutes on Collette’s website – www.soldoutstore.com; the only shop to sell Ed Banger t-shirts in the UK is Rough Trade East, thus creating a sense of exclusivity and community for the purchasers.
Notorious ‘alternative’ blogger Hipster Runoff admits he himself is “one of the most critical people in the world, but it is safe to say that So Me’s work is extremely visually and conceptually satisfying”. He even goes on to argue that So Me is the “best party & concert flyer-maker of our generation.” Considering most of his blog is dedicated to scathing comments on a variety of subjects, this is significant praise. The October 2007 edition of Mass Appeal magazine describes how, thanks to So Me, Ed Banger “strives to be as much a visual movement as it does an aural one.” One of the promotional videos produced for the Ed Banger ‘Volume Two’ compilation, directed by Jonas & Francois for 75 Productions alongside So Me, animates the sleeve for each track on the compilation. The video has had 181,336 hits on youtube already and is another example of innovative marketing.
So Me has also worked with Jonas & Francois to produce award winning music videos for Ed Banger. The video for Justice’s single D.A.N.C.E. was a backlash against French laws that don’t allow advertising on music videos. After being forced to blur the background of a previous video for DJ Mehdi, So Me tried a different approach. “I’m going to make a three-minute advertisement for So Me T-shirts, and they’re never going to notice so they’re not going to make me blur it. It was very sneaky and it worked.” The music video was nominated for best music video in the MTV Music Video Awards 2007 and features nearly 500 different t-shirt designs.
A selection from the video was officially printed and sold. However, this clever marketing ploy created such a huge demand for the t-shirts on blogs and message boards that people tried to cash in, printing their own by reproducing So Me’s designs from the video and selling them as ‘fakes’ on sites such as eBay. Instead of promoting the Ed Banger brand further this has had a negative effect. One comment on the Erol Alkan forum stated “the reason they were good was because you couldn’t get them. As soon as they became widely accessible they lost what they meant which was ‘I am scene enough to have got my hands on one of these shirts.’”
The backlash against Ed Banger has started and can be found on a number of online forums, with aggressive, scathing comments depicting Ed Banger’s downfall. Negative comments mainly focus on how Ed Banger has lost its exclusivity. Fans on the forum football365 felt that the music is being overshadowed by the ‘lifestyle brand’ label, complaining they got “too big too fast”. Busy P (June 12, 2008) recently admitted that “for some people Ed Banger is already over, it’s become too mainstream or whatever”, accepting the drawbacks that come with success. However he goes on to say that “while we may be losing some early fans, we’re replacing them with new ones.” Xavier de Rosnay from Justice backs this up, arguing that “people like to destroy what they build up.”
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