How YUNGBLUD cultivated his image.
Yungblud AKA Dominic Harrison has been a rising star over the last couple of years. He is a British artist from Doncaster, UK. Harrison has been making himself known to countries all over the world. In this blogpost I will explore and breakdown Yungblud’s artist image and see how he has cultivated an image and brands himself. Yungblud prides himself on being authentically himself and ‘not giving a fook’ about what other people think about it. Yungbluds entire image is built around him being a underprivileged kid from the North with bad parents lets investigate whether this is the truth or not.
So, when you think about Yungblud you probably think of a northern punk with colourful hair and pink socks. But, what do we actually know about Yungblud? Well we know that he is a 23 year old from the North of England. We also know that he has ADHD and was bullied quite badly in school for being ‘different’ to all the other children. A lot of Yungblud’s fanbase came about after his collaboration with Halsey and Travis Barker two very well known artists which brought their fan bases along to the song. After this surge in fans Harrison found himself in a little spotlight of fame from that came more collaborations with Machine Gun Kelly and even Bring Me The Horizon. Right now Yungblud’s fame is at the highest point it's ever been.
With his new found fame we can see Yungblud is becoming less afraid to try different looks in his music from wearing dresses and skirts to full faces of makeup. Although Yungblud would wear skirts for performances back in 2018 watching him express himself more and more is really great to see as he feels more accepted for who he is with his growing fanbase.
A lot of Yungblud’s music explores the themes of growing up and how difficult that is in today’s society. For example, in the song ‘Parents’ he sings the line “My daddy put a gun to my head.
Said if you kiss a boy I'm gonna shoot you dead." This lyric hits hard for the LGBTQ+ Community and with no doubt attracts a bigger fanbase with the candor and relatable experiences.
This helps Yungblud push his image off being an oddball, an outcast and a misfit. Now from what I can tell after two years of following him it seems as though Yungbluds’ parents are actually really supportive of him. As shown in the BTS video for ‘Weird’ where he calls his parents and asks them to be in his music video to which they say yes. Not something that homophobic parent’s are likley to be doing. Especially knowing he had a LGBT fanbase.
Although his songs may not always be about personal experience, I do find it interesting how someone with borderline abusive parents would be so excited to have them around. The concept of being young and hating your parents has been a persona of the punk image for a long time and it seems to be the way in which Yungblud is also building his image.
After further investigation and watching more of his videos Yungblud seems to be able to play the piano and guitar at a grade standard level. If Yungblud came from a poor northern estate with cruel parents it stands to reason that he would not be able to play instruments to such a high degree. After all, lessons and instruments cost money. Lots of it. This is demonstrated on this video with Halsey.
The final bit of evidence I have found which supports the fact his parents aren't what they're made out to be was in 2016 Yungblud appeared on Disney channels ‘The lodge’ at just 19 years old achieving something like this is quite difficult at any age but when you're that young it'd be almost impossible without acting lessons and input from your family. I do believe that Harrison is quite a genuine artist however I don't think everything he writes is true to himself.
All in all Yungblud may be from a working class family and a small town in Northern England and sometimes life may have been tough however I do not think that makes him special as a lot of people are in the same situation as him, the only difference is Yungblud now gets to profit on all them ‘hard times’ he’s faced and his fans get to carry on just living them.
Yungblud as an artist is great for every person who feels like they don't fit into a ‘normal’ society, his fans have created a space for everyone called the Black Hearts Club, this is a safe space in which anyone is welcome to be their authentic self, without the fear of judgement. This of course is great for everyone involved but is it as great if the whole ideology is built up on lies? I'm not too sure.