Context: Media Project

“To what extent do people feel they have to conform to the lifestyle that R&B portrays?”

I have chosen this topic in order to see whether audiences feel they have to conform to the lifestyle that R&B portrays or whether they think that other people have to conform to it. I also would like to find out how the media portray R&B music, and how the R&B artists portray themselves and whether they contradict each other. Finding out whether this is what happens is interesting, because it could show that the media is able to influence people; not only their choices in music and clothing, but their entire lifestyle and that this can happen, perhaps, sometimes subconsciously.
In order to do this I will research three different R&B artists and see how they either conform or contradict the general stereotype view of R&B music; to find this out I will research different aspects of media text, such as magazine and CD cover analysis and internet research on social networking sites such as MySpace to see whether fans of R&B are stereotypical.
From these different types of research I am hoping to see what stereotypes people have about R&B music and lifestyle and whether this differs depending on the demographic of the audience. Also, I am hoping to find out whether people feel they have to conform to the R&B lifestyle, and again whether this depends on the demographic of the audience.
The research will help with Year 13 coursework, as I will be able to see audiences views on different types of music and how influenced people are by CD covers and magazines and how this persuades them to purchase it or not; this will help with designing a CD cover and Digipak.