| Qualitative investigation utilizing a storytelling approach designed to examine the question: How does branding affect the solo artist's performance and/or career development with a specific focus on African American professional solo artists? The study's storytelling approach provides readers access to three musical genres through three generations of African American artist's persona! experiences and perceptions about branding and marketing. Critical Race Theory (CRT) provides the theoretical structure for a history based approach from which to recommend and implement change. Voice provides a historical reference, which preserves past lessons while bridging the past and future to emanate culture and value, and makes available guidance toward an educational process to aid artists making decisions about their career. Thus, the research provides a scholarly approach to implementing change based upon lived, knowledge-based information. The investigative study unveiled a distinct disparity in branding marketing practice, from the artist perceptions and industry intent. Additionally, the exploration of the artists' cultural environment revealed historical value in preservation of life lessons in order to address necessary changes in organizational management techniques. This study contributes to knowledge regarding artist-branding management as well as how to implement better practices through change management principles. Keywords: branding, marketing, solo artist, change, management. |
