Who ARE Eminem's Fans - by Brian Renda

Who ARE Eminem's Fans? by Brian Renda

Perhaps one of the first steps a company must take in marketing a new product is to find out through research, focus groups, historical data and other means what demographic makes up the target market for this product. Once this information has been determined the next step is for the marketing department to devise innovative ways of marketing the new product to this designated crowd. If the assessment of the demographic to market to and the techniques for marketing to this group are correct then the chances for success are high.
But those are just some of the obvious basic fundamentals of marketing that just about anyone in business already knows. However, did you know that Eminem has used these principles to become a multi-platinum star? OK, well maybe Eminem himself didn't actually sit down and devise a marketing plan or even think of terms like "target market," but a basic analysis of who his fans are reveals that he has one of the largest fan bases in all of hip-hop, and therefore one of the largest target markets. It seems as though his music does not need to rely strictly on one or two specific demographics or groups of people. He is really a label product manager's "Dream Come True" because his music has such wide appeal and each one of his songs can easily fit into the cd collection of a particular type of Eminem fan.
One of the first and most easily recognizable groups that comprises Eminem's fan base is the "TRL Crowd." These are the approximately 10-16 year old white suburban kids that feed off MTV's "Total Request Live." They are the masses, the bandwagon jumpers, and are fans of whoever is popular at the time. This group is probably Eminem's largest fan constituency and can be found watching TRL everyday after school. They are fans of basically anyone who is on TRL, and with Eminem often dominating the show's charts they have become avid followers of his music. Songs such as "My Name Is" and "The Real Slim Shady" were obviously made for this crowd. These two singles were the most radio friendly and commercial from his two full-length releases, and their humorous videos and playful choruses helped launch them to the top of the charts. This is also probably why they were both released as the lead singles for his two albums. However, "Guilty Conscience" and "The Way I Am" also spent some time on the charts and managed to keep this demographic attentive to his music without being overly colorful or commercially appealing. They served to tell this crowd that Eminem has more than one side of him and prove that he is not just a flash in the pan.
A somewhat more specific subset of this demographic is the female faction of the "TRL Crowd." They like a lot of the same songs as their male counterparts and pretty much for the same reasons. They are just as easy to identify but are different in that they are also attracted to him because of his looks and his image. These young girls would never have paid any attention to him during his "Infinite" days, the days before the bleached blond hair and silver hoop earrings. Ironically, this group of fans can be seen at the checkout line of the local mall record store buying albums from Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, N Sync, and Christina Aguilera in addition to "The Marshall Mathers LP" or "The Slim Shady LP." Even though he has been known to dis all of those artists, it is because of the female side of the "TRL Crowd" that his face can be found along with the faces of these pop stars in magazines like "Teen People" and "Tiger Beat."
This next group was spotted in Eminem's video for "The Real Slim Shady." Yes, they were the kids dressed as Eminem clones that were seen bopping their heads to his music in the video and also followed him into the MTV Video Music Awards this year. And following is what they do best. The "Slim Shady" crowd can be viewed as a more obsessed version of the "TRL Crowd." These are the kids who actually think that they ARE Eminem and are therefore sure to like anything he puts out and will support him long after his days on TRL are over. None of his songs were really made specifically for this crowd because they latch onto all of his material. However, his latest single, "Stan" does a very good job at identifying this crowd. "Stan" can be seen as the unofficial "president" of this group.
Although Eminem does have a gigantic fan base that stretches the whole gamut of fan types, he does have one demographic following that is slowly dying. This group is the "Backpack Crowd." Who falls into this category? Well these are the fans that surf Napster looking for underground Eminem songs like "Watch Dees," "365," and "Scary Movies." This group buys mix tapes, listens to underground artists, and regularly attends open mics and MC battles. They appreciate Eminem for his lyricism, not his image or his commercial appeal. This group can be looked at as a dying breed because they are aggravated that he has become such a pop superstar. They will probably soon stop listening to Xzibit and Mos Def, two other rappers that paid their dues in the underground and are now on the verge of superstar status. This is solely because it is in the nature of members of this group to always be on the cutting edge and be different than the norm. They die off and move on to the next undiscovered talent once the bandwagon jumpers come into the picture and convert their favorite underground representatives to mainstream pop stars.

Through his appearances with Dre, his signing with Aftermath Entertainment, and his production assistance from Doctor Dre, Eminem has managed to draw from Doctor Dre's already-established solid fan base. They like him because he is real and because he meshes well with Doctor Dre and the supposed "gansta" sound. They could care less that he has gone commercial because most of the West Coast/gansta rappers have also gone commercial (i.e. Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg), and they have learned to accept that. "Forgot About Dre," "Guilty Conscience," & "What's The Difference?" are just three songs that this group is sure to like. This faction of Eminem's fans was most likely in heavy attendance at this summer's Up In Smoke Tour and can therefore be labeled as the "Up In Smoke Crowd."
Being that Eminem is one of the first rappers to rap about drugs such as mushrooms, Ectasy, and prescription pills he has skillfully tapped into a new market that maybe in the past did not follow hip-hop very strongly. The "Drug Crowd," as it can be aptly labeled, likes him because he is talking about drugs that other rappers have never talked about and probably because they themselves do these drugs. In this respect, he can be viewed as the hip-hop equivalent of Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, or the Greatful Dead. It is no surprise that this group likes songs such as "My Fault" and "Drug Ballad" and may also be inclined to listen to techno music and be heavily involved in the so called "rave" culture.
The "Controversy Crowd" includes the people that are buying his album just because he has been all over every magazine, website, newspaper, and TV news program for all of his gay bashing, drug talk, and lawsuits. They have a decent disposable income and just buy his album to see what all the hype is about because they are curious. They are not necessarily fans; they just want to know what all the fuss is about over this new "controversial white rapper." Some of them end up liking him and some don't, but regardless, they know who he is and are helping to make him a celebrity and put money in his pocket. These people most likely also followed the OJ Simpson trial rather closely. Some of the people that think he is the reason for everything wrong with our world today even fall into this crowd. These are people that see him as "Eminem The Controversial Figure" rather than "Eminem The Heart Throb," "Eminem The Dope Lyricist," "Eminem My Idol," or "Eminem The Poster Boy For Drugs." He definitely had this crowd in mind when he wrote the songs "Role Model" and "The Way I Am." Critics and people in the industry belong to this crowd, proving that this demographic is unlike the others in that it spans several age brackets and also in that not everyone in this group is an actual fan of his music.

Even a quick glance at Eminem's fans should reveal the fact that his music appeals to one of the largest fan bases that hip-hop has ever seen. Each group listens to his music for a different reason, and he has skillfully made songs for all of these groups, helping to make his music one of the most easily marketed products in the industry today. In terms of target marketing, Eminem's music shoots for a very large target, but it hits it every time. He doesn't need to rely on a certain niche of consumers because his music has mass appeal, which is something most artists spend an entire career trying to gain.