Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support the IDS in College Media Madness! Donate here March 24 - April 8.
Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Column: Unmasking Jax Panik

There has been a lot of buzz lately about South African artist Jax Panik.

Recently, his marketing team covered South Africa in his infamous stickers. The stickers consist of the signature “I am Jax Panik” logo that he and his followers wear in his videos to mask their identity.

Through their efforts, Jax Panik’s new single “Dinosaur” rose to number seven on South Africa’s 5FM Top-40 list.

They showed the impact that simple marketing tools like stickers can have on new
listeners.

By creating an image and branding the idea of Jax Panik, they generate hype around the concept and simultaneously sell records.

Panik also allows his listeners to help him develop his brand by having them submit their own “I am Jax Panik” stories and pictures. His blog features the best images of listeners with the logo covering their faces with captions saying, “Today I ...”

This campaign showcases the diversity of Panik’s listener base and allows him to incorporate the listeners’ lives into his own.

His unique approach gives him an interesting edge in today’s music scene and allows him to illustrate his diversity as an artist and to appeal to more people from across the world.

Panik’s videos are also on the extreme side. Think of a male Ke$ha, only more lewd
and over-the-top. Some have even hailed him as the South African version of Gorillaz due to his anonymous image and refusal to perform in concert.

These choices illustrate his desire to be a symbol of a movement rather than an individual artist.

Jax Panik represents everything we want out of music in this digital age.
His music takes pop to the extreme. He is no longer simply Jacobus Johannes Van Heerden, your average South African teen who happens to make music.

Rather, he has become much more, a larger symbol for the digital age of commercialism and everything else post-modern.

With more than 46,000 friends on Facebook and more video views every day, Jax Panik represents the same form of escapism that Lil Wayne and Rihanna do. Their music allows us to journey away from our world of stress and solitude and feel as though we are part of something larger than ourselves.

We become world travelers with a healthy love life and perfect hair. They allow us, if for only a few minutes, to feel as though our lives are as interesting as we wish they were.

Defining what Jax Panik and his movement mean is like defining ourselves.
Through music, we can become who we want to be and hide behind the mask of our iPods.

We can own the “panik” in our lives and turn it into the dramatic sound track that motivates and engages us with the realities of being a “normal” member of society.

Get stories like this in your inbox
Subscribe