Provocation as an Element of Transforming the Image of a Musical Artist (on the Example of Doja Cat)

This study aims to identify provocative elements in the work of musical artists, which explores the transformation of the image of female musical artists. The work involved a quantitative content analysis of all four albums by artist Doja Cat, as well as semi-structured interviews with members of the fandom who are both familiar with the work and monitor the constant changes of their favorite artist. Given that the music market is a competitive environment, artists constantly need to find new ways to promote themselves in order to stay relevant and commercially profit from their work, but it remains unclear how provocation shapes image and how such changes may be perceived by artists' fans. Due to the fact that female pop singers in the music industry market are more often than not a 'short brand' - they constantly have the need to reinvent themselves and their image: going into other genres, changing their appearance completely. This paper aims to explore the concepts described above.