Artist research - Chase and status

Chase and status are an english electronic music duo composed of Saul Milton (Chase) and Will Kennard (Status) originally met in London through a mutual friend although met up again whilst university students in Manchester. Will studied History of Art at the University of Manchester, while Saul studied English and Humanities at Manchester Metropolitan University. Will decided to drop out of university to pursue a music career although Saul did manage to achieve an honours in his studies despite spending most of his time on music.

Due too the level of success of the duo, they have been able to sign to many different record labels which include: RAM Records, MTA Records, Mercury Records, ROC Nation Records and Vertigo Records. Despite the number of signings, chase and status have set up their own record company who they are also signed too, MTA records. With this information, I'm guessing that they will use their own record label to release their own music as it gives them a personal finance boost.

The duo has released 3 albums in total consisting of 42 songs where 14 where successful on their own, as singles and made it into the uk charts. The discography of the duo is very long including production material for other artists, remixes of other artists songs, mixtape and also extended plays which consists of recent project 'London Bars' which uses grime artists along with the duo to create music.

These 2 chase and status music videos are just 2 examples of the many contemporary music videos filmed by chase and status to compliment there songs in an attempt to reach out to a youthful and potentially oppressed audience. The music videos all often explore real life themes of destruction and trauma, for example alive is about an native indian community destroyed by meth addiction and in particular how one boy fights the addiction to be killed by drug dealers. Below is the music video for count on me, another song by chase and status, this is about dancing and vibing life through many different perspectives, however this could be argued to not be a depressing theme but it can also be argued that it is a realistic interpretation of many people realities which it has in common with the music video: alive.

Here is an example of a marketing strategy by the artists. Here is a screenshot of their website. It is mainly factual and has limited user interaction which could be connoted to mean they are dictating to the user what they want them to know. The colours are primarily black and white which gives the duo an edgy vibe. Here and at the top of this post you can see the artists themselves depicted in blacked out sunglasses which could mean they are almost trying to hide their identity and keep you as an individual guessing at the types of people they are.

Here is the chase and status logo, They have depicted the British bulldog on top of a crown which can be argued to be an attempt to publicise their patriotic views. However it could be argued differently to suggest that the bulldog is a symbol for the everyday working-class people of the country and the crown to symbolise the bourgeoisie of the country. This would therefore mean that chase and status are almost against the system of the country suggesting that the valuable assets of the country is not the rich and the monarchy but the poor and the majority.