Drake has a brilliant knack for success. Undoubtedly, the wide array of genres he uses to extend his brand to the consumer is one of the reasons he can attain such fame and fortune. Everything from music videos to commercials to restaurants, Drake has his toes in the water in genres across the board. Specifically, however, his album artwork booklet for Views, OVO Merchandise, and one specific Instagram post capture his brand because of their effective genre conventions, such as targeting his audience through appropriate modes and designs congruent with the interests of his fans. The consistency of these compositions in accordance with Drake’s brand and his understanding of how to use different genres of compositions effectively is what leads to his uncapped success.

            Included in Views, Drake’s most recent album (barring More Life, which was dubbed a playlist1), was an artwork booklet portrayed in the visual mode. This composition is accessible digitally or physically as contained in a physical copy of the album. Mainly aimed at fans of his music (generally younger people based on his musical genre of Hip-Hop/R&B), the target audience does not stop there. People interested in fashion, artwork, and the city of Toronto are all constituents of the audience because of the content of the booklet. Drake’s and the models’ clothing, views of Toronto, and images of decadence are all characteristics of the design of the artwork that aligns with the interests of the audience, making the content effective. The style of this composition is two-fold: a slideshow digitally and a booklet physically. This collection is a hybrid genre of narrative and informative. The audience is informed of the physical characteristics of his hometown while narrating his success based on his pricey possessions. The bravado and decadence conveyed in the artwork juxtapose the cold, unforgiving landscape that raised Drake with the great success he attained regardless of the wretched landscape where he came from. The rhetoric used in the music and translated in the visual depictions is based on the situation in which the compositions took place, which is cold and somber Toronto. An appeal to pathos is apparent in the content of the luxurious and egotistical artwork because an emotion of desire is usually created when an audience sees something expensive or attached to Pop Culture.

            From this analysis, it is apparent that Drake continues to accentuate his brand to a large audience and conforms to his pattern of successful compositions through its genre conventions. Accompanying an album with visual artwork congruent with its themes is an effective to way to give even more depth to the emotions his sonics provoke. For instance, one of the pictures contained in the composition is a Rolls Royce covered in frost. The coldness of Toronto- not only temperature wise but in the emotional sense- is conveyed to the audience while also showing the luxurious theme of Drake’s music with a car worth upwards of six figures and a wardrobe full of high-end designer clothing. While being informative of his wealth status and narrating the “views” of his city, the multiple image artwork is especially effective. Also, Drake’s art booklet conforms to composition norms because many musicians will include art to go along with their album. The presence of more modes equates to an experience of emotion that aids in conveying the composer’s message. 

            Another composition that reflects Drake’s brand is his OVO merchandise. OVO stands for October’s Very Own, a moniker reflecting his brand and birth month that is seen on clothing, his record label, and his Apple Music radio station. The specific composition being analyzed is an OVO phone case. It comes in the mode of a physical product, available through online or physical OVO stores. Generally, this composition has a broad audience of iPhone owners. Compared to other OVO merchandise, this case is relatively cheap, broadening the prospective audience to people of lower income levels. The design of this case is a red backdrop with the OVO owl in gold, appealing to luxury and lust (again, themes congruent with Drake’s musical content). The OVO owl acts as a logo for Drake’s brand as well as spelling out the acronym with its eyes and beak. For all intents and purposes, the genre of this composition is persuasive. Owning this phone case is like walking around with a constant advertisement for Drake and his brand. The composer created the phone case as an exclusivity tactic, making the audience feel connected to the brand and mutual phone case owners if they own this case. The exclusivity is persuading his audience to purchase the product.

            Consequently, the persuasive composition that is the OVO phone case is not an ordinary persuasive composition, but is an effective one in Drake’s arsenal. It does not try to convince one to buy the case or subscribe to Drake’s brand. Rather, it depends on the audience noticing others possessing the case, enjoying the design, or the desire to support Drake in order to accomplish its goal of selling products and spreading the OVO brand. The exclusivity and design are the persuasive elements of this composition and add to the success of Drake’s brand. The persuasiveness of this composition conforms to the themes of Drake’s compositions, evoking emotion in his target audience like the excitement of acquiring an exclusive OVO phone case.

            Additionally, the next composition falls into the persuasive, informative, and narrative categories. In a picture posted on Instagram by Drake, he is wearing a shirt embroidered with a social media comment saying “Used to hate @champagnepapi but I can’t front he makes good music. And he’s a good dude. I was just salty lol” by a fellow Instagram user. Through social media, Drake appeals to his audience of Instagram followers through pathos. The post provokes the emotions of humor and irony, especially because the lyrical content of his music often expresses self-reliance in the face of criticism. The reasoning behind the design of this post is to show the world that even those who dislike Drake initially can end up being one of his millions of fans. First off, the post captures the narrative of a listener who changed his mind on the subject of Drake’s character and musical ability for the better. Secondly, the post persuades the audience that Drake is a good guy and makes good music because the comment was from a secondary source, giving Drake credibility from someone other than himself and on the same level as the rest of the audience. Finally, the post falls into the informative genre because it enables the audience to see that people enjoy Drake’s brand by supplying them with evidence of that fact.

            Therefore, this composition conforms to the conventions of Drake’s brand. The Instagram post allows the followers to connect with Drake because he posted it personally, as well as sharing a digital laugh with him through the humor and irony provided in the post. When this connection is formed, a relationship is felt between the audience and the composer, making the audience fall more in favor with Drake. A relationship like this means the audience will continue to attempt to forge relationships with Drake through listening to his new music, keeping up on his social media posts, and sharing this relationship with others. All of these factors and their outcomes make Drake who he is and contributes to his success.

            Emotion is what resonates within every human being. For musicians, this is especially true. What makes Drake unique is that he can translate his intended emotion not only through music, but anything and everything he has a part in. The detail, innovation, congruency and longevity of his brand is what makes him one of the biggest artists since coming into the music scene in 2008. Every one of his moves, however, is carefully calculated. Every song, every music video, and every social media post has a purpose. The narration of troubling times with a partner or how his critics became his fans lends an interesting story that his followers consume and relate to. Through persuasion, he convinces music listeners and Pop Culture followers that he makes a great product and has worth. Informing his audience of an experience or his success only bolsters the recognition he receives. Ultimately, Drake utilizes the three genres of narration, persuasion, and information to effectively connect with his audience and enable his brand to keep growing as he picks up more followers along the way. He recognizes his target audience, and crafts the design of his compositions not only to reflect himself, but to reflect the very same interests his audience holds dear to themselves. In the music world, creating a brand to attach to musical compositions is necessary for large scale success. The anomaly with Drake’s brand is how far-reaching and how expertly crafted it is compared to other musicians. Evidently, Drake reaches his audience like no other. Drake and his team have a strong concept of genre and genre conventions which they use to their advantage to further themselves musically, culturally and financially. 

Bibliography

Graham, Aubrey. “laughing emoji”. *Instagram, 6 Feb. 2018, https://www.instagram.com/p/Be4IWX6jhSr/?hl=en&taken-by=champagnepapi

1Turner, David. “Drake: More Life Review- New “Playlist” Sets the Sound of Summer Agenda. “The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 19 Mar. 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/mar/19/drake-more-life-review-new-playlist-sets-the-sound-of-summer-agenda