What makes a good publicity photo?

I had to choose different music genre's and create photo's that would represent a particular genre. The genre's that I choose to represent were Hip-Hop, Pop and Rock. I choose these genres as I thought that these would be the easiest to represent. For HipHop I took photo's of two male characters, using jumpers, hoodies and bling as props as this connotes the intimidation and wealth that most rappers present us with in their publicity photo's. The facial expressions used in hip-hop publicity photo's are quite agressive, as they often rap about their anger and troublesome lifestyles. The 'bling' that they are seen wearing contrasts with their clothes as it represents how far that they've come and now they're successful and powerful in many different aspects than what they were when they were on 'the streets.' They are often seen showing gang signs which represent their hometown or their previous gang life that they have now overcome. This is why for one of my pictures you see someone pointing their gun fingers directly into the camera. However, this is just a stereotype used by rappers and therefore this isn't always the case.
My second genre that I choose was Rock. This is another easy stereotype as rock music is also presented as the artists being quite rebellious and violent, given one of the reasons why I've shown someone about to kick a sign over. Something that I represented a bit differently was that rock music is stereoptypically dominated by males, and here in my video I've shown females. I think that facial expressions are also key when representing rock artists as they're always perceived to be angry and are never shown looking remotely happy. You'll often find that the lead singer will always dominate the picture, and will either be the only one in focus in the picture or the photo will be framed so that the lead singer is directly in the foreground of the photo.
Lastly, my third genre that I choose to do was pop. I found pop to be the easiest publicity photo as I think that it is fair to say that pop concentrate more on the image of the artist than the actual music that they produce. Vibrant colours are often used to convey the upbeat song, however it is very unlikely than any instruments are ever used in pop and that's why I have not chosen to include any. Stereotypically you will find that either close up or mid shots are used for pop artists. Close ups are used to emphasise the beauty of the artist, or mid shots are used to emphasise the sexual image that is trying to be portrayed by the artist, as pop artists like Rihanna or Katy Perry are often seen in skimpy outfits in their publicity photo's.
However, if there is a pop band you will find that the most attractive member of that group will be in the centre of the photo. For example, here is a publicity photo of the pop band 'The Saturdays.'

In the centre of the frame is band member Frankie Sanford. Even though it would be fair to say that she is the weakest member of the band, and she barely has any solo's in any of her groups songs she still remains the main focus. This is because popularity wise she is the most successful because of her beauty, and therefore is centred directly in the middle of the frame so this publicity shot grabs attention more quickly than it might do if it were another member of the band.

I have chosen to edit a few images from my own publicity photo's as all genre's go into post production before being released to the public. This is so that their images can be edited or exaggerated to connote with their genre or appeal more so to their target audience. Here I have edited two photo's from my 'pop' genre. As I previously mentioned pop music focuses more so on their image rather than their music, and therefore they couldn't put a photo of an artist not looking their best as it wouldn't attract as much attention than if it was edited. That is why most photo's are airbrushed so artists are perceived as being 'perfect' and therefore fans would then aspire to be like them and hence why they'd make more publicity.