Ed Banger records as a 'lifestyle music brand'

Ed Banger Records has also mixed the use of vinyl and digital to great effect in creating a ‘lifestyle brand.’ The label was started in 2002 by Pedro Winter (also known as Busy P) and has had the same art director – So Me - since the start. The label functions as a whole, with each artist part of the ‘Ed Banger crew’. It has a distinctive look and feel throughout. With MySpace pages, t-shirts, vinyl and even headphones, Ed Banger has a house style that is synonymous with
the brand.


Dexy’s Midnight Runners stated in the cover text to ‘Show Me’: “For us everything is important, every record/sleeve/advert/photo, everything can be used to project emotion.” Factory Records designer Peter Saville talked about a ‘hearts and minds’ theory, the proposition that design was able to cross over into the consciousness of a new generation through popular music. Ed Banger and the other record/clothes labels I have mentioned have taken this to another level by creating a lifestyle brand which people really aspire to and can feel a part of. Instead of just one cult band with a following there are a number of different artists under one umbrella, and having one designer for everything allows Ed Banger for example to have complete control in the visual look and direction of the brand. Describing the artwork to Justice’s debut album Busy P sums up the freedom that comes with being an independent label “we don’t give a fuck. There's no name on the cover, no band logo, the album
is just †."

So Me’s inspiration to create a visual movement comes from the decline in record sales, which has generated a greater need for artwork that will stand out and be desirable. “I get the music for free just like everybody else.” (He is referring to the MySpace page where you can listen and sometimes download the music free of charge). “Sometimes when I feel like an artist is real and makes the effort on the covers, I will go to the shop and buy the record. I think people are going to buy two or three records a year, maybe… We just try to be one you want to buy.” This is an interesting observation and demonstrates how much thought is put into the visual elements and the marketing.

Clif Stoltze, author of 1,000 Music Graphics, (2008) has similar ideologies, describing how “music packaging from major labels these days veers toward the proven and formulaic, intended to maximise visual presence on sales racks and retain that presence as postage stamp-sized images on MP3 players and websites.” He believes that “the designers role and responsibility is to create an ‘unfair disadvantage’ by employing innovative ideas that add value to the product, helping it rise above a sea of conventionality.” In a recent article with the Boston Globe, Stoltze observed that “there’s a whole resurgence of poster art going on now. Especially gig posters. I think it’s helping to fill the gap. The posters give artists and designers another way to align their artistic vision with the music that they love, which is hard to do with CD packaging.” Gig posters, music videos, t-shirts, flyers and online adverts and virals allow artists’ visual identity to be marketed on different levels.

“New technologies certainly create challenges, but if you act like a luddite then you are never going to win. You have to embrace these new things and see them as opportunities as opposed to threats, they are inevitable and if we don’t do it, someone else will” stated Steve Gallant, Head of Home Entertainment ITV Global Entertainment, in Home Entertainment Week, 16th October 2008. The music industry didn’t embrace the digital age when the younger generation did and this meant it lost touch with its target audience. Instead of working alongside the original file-sharing sites such as Napster.com it declared war and has effectively been fighting a losing battle ever since. In an article for The Rolling Stone magazine in 2007 Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of management company the Firm describes this squandered opportunity; “The record business had an unbelievable opportunity there. They were all using the same service. It was as if everybody was listening to the same radio station. Then Napster shut down, and all those 30 or 40 million people went to other (file-sharing services).” With everybody listening to the same station, record labels could have had complete control over what people were listening to, and marketed artists accordingly.


The actual music itself has now been degraded “to the status of promotional tools – useful to sell concert tickets and fan paraphernalia”. This is the view of Robert Sandall, director of communications for Virgin Records from 1996 to 2002, in his article in The Sunday Times (October 2007). This was accurately predicted by the guitarist for the band Anthrax in the 1990’s, who described their new album as “the menu; our concert is the meal.” Coupled with George Martin’s assumption that The Beatles track Please Please Me was “just a memento of a concert” it seems the music industries fate had long been written. These observations are particularly interesting, given that they were made at a time before the digital age, when the music industry was booming.

When asked how he felt when Ed Banger is described as a ‘lifestyle brand’ Busy P said he wanted “to create a brand that can live without the music of Ed Banger.” He went on to say that “merchandising became a real thing for me, it’s why I prefer to talk about the branding side rather than another merchandising thing. We do t-shirts as Stussy does. We are also launching a publishing company with So Me. We will publish art books and fanzine soon...Kids all around the world seem attached to our Ed Banger codes. We mixed the crowd, break the rules and try to spread good music.” By fusing elements of dance, hip-hop and electro, Ed Banger has brought a generation of different cultures together.

Ed Banger has taken Robert Sandall’s suggestion that “music is, at root, a communal experience as much as it is something that goes on between your ears” by using tours as a main source of income for the label and also to generate a dedicated following. Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records, (The New Yorker, 2003) is quoted as saying the target audience record labels are trying to reach “don’t view music as a commodity but as a relationship with the band.” This relates back to Jonathan Ford’s earlier definition of a lifestyle brand and shows how Ed Banger has exploited the need for more than just the music, using MySpace and tours as the main resources.

The formula used by Ed Banger can be compared to those applied by Factory Records and 4AD. Stoltze analyses that 4AD art director Vaughan Oliver’s sleeves “would gain a devoted fan base, which enticed fans into buying 4AD releases sound unheard.” Stoltze goes on to say that the labels are “as renowned and influential for their visual output as they were for the music of their artists.” Busy P acknowledges his debt to Peter Saville & Factory, Futura & Mo Wax and Jeff Jank & Stones Throw for giving art the same importance as music for the label. Factory records, in particular, was a pioneer having had aspects of a lifestyle brand long before Ed Banger. Its founder, Tony Wilson, set up the legendary nightclub ‘The Hacienda’, financing this largely from the record sales of Factory band New Order. The venue was a musical outlet for the label and pioneered the acid house and rave scene.

According to Tony Naylor in The Guardian (April 2007) “Ed Banger has inspired a new cavalier underground club culture.” Busy P affirms that it was “time to bring back the fun, happiness and colour… it’s an emotional experience and we make the dancefloors sweat.” In the same way that Tamla Motown and Stax tours often featured several of the label’s major artists, the Ed Banger set list usually consists of at least three members of the Ed Banger label. The Ed Banger parties are important because they can be seen as face-to-face interactions. Roy Shuker, author of ‘Understanding popular music’, feels “it is always important to give fans a link, or closeness to the artist, as it is this closeness and physicality consumers have with performers that contributes to the intensity they can experience at the live performances.” The ‘crew’ interacting with the crowd creates the full experience, which according to Larsson “tightens their relationship that adds value to the brand.” The comparison to Motown and Stax is important because I feel they became ‘lifestyle music brands’ without intending to. Motown in particular has almost become a genre of music in itself, and this is also an aspect I feel Ed Banger has thought about.

The tour posters are also sought after as memorabilia. I recently went to see Ed Banger’s DJ Mehdi in London and remember spending half an hour meticulously peeling a tour poster off a wall. I wanted the poster for two reasons: firstly for So Me’s artwork and secondly as a memento of the night. Asa Larsson observed in her thesis on ‘Bands as Brands’ that “listening to a certain type of music with friends connects a group and the people within feel a sense of belonging. The clothes, language, and other visual attributes build up a group and these attributes communicate a sense of identity.” ‘Experiencing’ the Ed Banger brand creates a feeling of closeness. People come away from the party feeling as if they are involved and part of something.

According to Larrson “a certain type of experience has to be obtained to make a person become a ‘fan’ of the brand. This special experience is obtained through the sense the brand engages.” Larsson detects “the most common way for an individual to choose a brand is through past experiences but by creating a desired image, customers can gain a strong brand preference even though they have never bought it before.” The sought-after artwork and ‘unmissable’ parties mean Ed Banger has used this formula to great effect.

Busy P was recently featured alongside Barrack Obama and Jay-Z on the cover of American magazine URB’s ‘power’ issue. In the feature, Busy P stated that Ed Banger “is not just a music label.” The URB’s Joshua Glazer described a visit from the Ed Banger crew “like a visit from the circus.” This describes the label well, as it fuses the aural excitement of dance music with brilliant visual graphics. The Ed Banger years can be viewed as the closest we have come this millennium to those associated with movements such as mods, punks or new romantics. A subculture has emerged surrounding the record label and this has aided its progression in becoming a lifestyle brand.


However, can the Ed Banger movement really be classed as a subculture? If so, is the Ed Banger subculture real? Their values apply to Gelder’s six key ways, but whilst the movement is global and the internet is the main source of interaction, will it burn out because of the exposure?

In the book ‘Band ID’ by Bodhi Oser, Art Chantry describes how “logos define tribes, band logos became symbols even more powerful than the music bands created”, saying how they became “iconographic symbols of defiance and rebellion and rebirth and belonging.” The book concentrates purely on band logos but the observations it makes can relate to other aspects of the brand. “When you see kids wearing band logo t-shirts they are telling you exactly where they stand, and what they like, and what they don’t like. They are also isolating themselves in a marginal definition of self.” Chantry portrays this almost as if the t-shirt is a uniform - it is worn to make a statement. He goes on to say that “they are using the icon to give themselves a personal identity that they attempt to build a life around.” When the Ed Banger t-shirt is worn to a party it enables that person to show immediately who they are, what they are interested in and gain respect or disrespect because of it. Concluding, Chantry defines the logo as “a rally point for subculture,” which “can be used to filter, separate and then capture.”

The original artwork for the Rolling Stones logo was recently sold to the V&A for £50,000. Designer John Pasche had kept the 14-inch square colour separations in a safe place since 1970. Even though the logo is a piece of graphic design, newspapers such as The Daily Record, describe Pasche as an ‘artist.’ Patrick Burgoyne, Editor of Creative Review, points out that “even in these screen dominated days, we still attach more value to physical objects - both emotionally and financially - than digital ones.” The internet and MySpace are important but they do not fully satisfy our needs. We need something physical to engage us, and so sales of vinyl, cds and t-shirts from the internet are just as important, and there is still a need for desirable artwork that captures the imagination.


In an interview for the book ‘Cover Art by:’ Julian House describes his label, Ghost Box, as a “consuming passion”. The label started out printing and burning its own CDs and with House designing the bold, generic sleeves each artist has the “understanding that the finished cover will be in keeping with the Ghost Box ethos.” House’s passion for design shines through when he argues he’s “never believed you can listen to music devoid of visual reference” going on to state that “the visual and the aural are inseperable within Ghost Box.” A comparison can be made here to Ed Banger striving to produce material that is as much a visual as it is an aural experience. Busy P stated “we don’t just sell beats and plastic CD boxes, we’re here to put out modern music and sleeves that will make you dream”, implying the Ed Banger look and sound allows you to escape the mundanity of everyday life. Ghost Box co-owner Jim Jupp also admits that even though the label’s catalogue is available to download on iTunes they sell much more material on CD, stating “our audience prefers a physical product.” He also predicts that in the future, labels like his will have to “release their own publications and merchandise in tandem with downloads.” This is something Ed Banger has been doing for the last couple of years, and shows it has adapted faster than most other labels to the digital age.


Marc Gobe, author of Emotional Branding: The New Paradigm for Connection Brands to People, (2001) talks about how “design will be the element that adds the all-important human element to our wired world.” This can be seen throughout the music industry, particularly on MySpace where every artist ‘customizes’ their page to portray their identity. So Me’s graphics also add to the ‘human’ look and feel, with every piece of artwork hand drawn. His typography and illustrations are original and relevant. Gobe also points out that “a logo without a ‘heart’ is like a person without ‘heart’: cold, uninteresting, a robot.” The Ed Banger logo of a badly drawn silhouette of a man carrying a record bag, with the rough hand drawn letters in the wording, gives the feeling of a down to earth company with a sense of humour – a “heart”. Busy P adds to this by describing the Ed Banger sound, in the interview with URB, as “a bit of a mess… taking the fun part of hip-hop, the noisy part of heavy metal, the funky part of French house.” So Me’s graphics portray this perfectly - the consumers relate to the Ed Banger logo and trust the lifestyle brand as a whole because of it.