Music micro-celebrities and TikTok in digital music promotion: the case of Blanca Vergara
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Abstract
The case of Blanca Vergara is analysed as a successful artist who, through the practice of microcelebrity and the strategic use of TikTok, creates her own musical career in a self-produced way and outside the music industry since 2020, being a pioneer in the use of TikTok as a space for musical promotion in Spain. The essential elements of her career and her strategic use of TikTok are analysed in order to understand the success of her career and the change in the generation of online attention. An exploratory design is established and the case study method is used with a mixed design consisting of a structured interview with the artist, a quantitative analysis in social media and a discourse analysis. The results indicate that the artist creates a brand universe and musical product with a great capacity for connection. Secondly, she carries out a discourse of authenticity based on the self-revelation of the private, while there is little prescriptive function. Thirdly, it has a community of fans that gives it authenticity and visibility to the project, with whom it maintains a close relationship as if it were a friend. Finally, she uses TikTok as the main communication space where she can develop this authenticity through natural and amateur content, as well as giving greater visibility to her musical project.
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