Burial, whose real name is William Bevan, is one of the most important and influential people in the world of modern electronic music, especially in the garage and dubstep scenes of the UK. Emerging from the underground scene of London in the mid-2000s, Burial created his public image and reputation not through being a visible celebrity-esque personality, but through using anonymity and emotional atmospheres in his music. His early records on the Hyperdub label, more specifically ‘Burial‘ (Burial, 2006) and the seminal ‘Untrue‘ (Burial, 2007) marked him as a key figure in dubstep and garage at that time. His brand has been carved from the general mood and mystery surrounding him and his music: the rainy soundscapes, the minimal visuals and artwork, the limited press releases and the intrigue behind him staying completely out of the public eye. Together, these elements help create a brand identity that feels personal while also distant, allowing listeners to fill the gaps with their own emotions and experiences.

This portfolio will explore Burial’s brand as an artist through using Brand Equity Theory and the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model. These will help show how Burial has created value and built an emotional connection with listeners in a niche audience. The analysis will look at both visual aspects of his brand and sonic elements in his music that help form his image. The portfolio will also examine who Burial’s audience is and where he sits in the wider music market, showing how his anti-celebrity identity has helped him develop a strong and long-lasting brand.

Brand Equity:

Traditionally, Brand Equity refers to “the value a brand possesses in consumers’ minds, encompassing their collective levels of brand awareness and knowledge, including thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and relationships regarding the brand”. (Allen, 2024). Burial is one of the rare examples of an artist whose brand equity has come entirely from visual elements, sonic elements and atmospheres rather than image and promotion. Even though Burial himself is not a commercial brand, his identity as an artist works in a similar way. Over the years, he has created a meaning attached to his name which has shaped how his audience interpret and value his music. His image and brand equity is ironically rooted not in visibility but rather in the absence of it, which is something that has strengthened his cultural presence.

The first pillar of brand equity theory is brand awareness (See appendix 1), which applies differently than usual in Burial’s case, since his brand awareness is built on his anonymity as opposed to exposure. After getting critical acclaim for his 2007 album ‘Untrue’, Burial became a household name in electronic and alternative music circles, despite the fact that no one knew who he was, he had never appeared publicly in interviews and there had been no marketing done on his side. The fact that he was an invisible figure, made him visible. Discussions on forums, music blogs, and word-of-mouth built a kind of communal mythology around who he might be, why his music sounded the way it did, and what he represented in the wider UK electronic landscape. His identity, or lack of one, became an unforgettable part of the experience, fuelling curiosity and emotional connection. Even when he did eventually reveal who he was in 2008, people still wanted to believe that they didn’t know who it was because “the sense of anonymity had seeped into and become a recognisable part of the music he made” (Clashmusic, 2017).

Across multiple decades and different mediums of art, anonymity has been used repeatedly as a way to move attention away from the artist and more towards their art, and Burial is a prime example of this. In the past artists such as Daft Punk and Banksy, have famously tapped into this idea, and created more space for people to engage with their art in a more imaginative way. Over this period of time, anonymity has evolved from simply staying out of the spotlight to a deliberate strategy that challenges commercialisation and celebrity culture.

Burial has been very influential in the use of anonymity of this time, having had a significant influence on the current climate of the UK dance and rave scene, with producers like Bullet Tooth choosing to remain unknown. Through maintaining his mystique over the span of his career, Burial influenced a generation of British artists who see discretion not as a limitation, but a strength. The current anti-brand DJ is a spiritual descendant of those early figures who never sought fame, only freedom, such as Burial and those artists previously mentioned.(Next Sound, 2025).

Perceived quality is the next core element of brand equity theory, and it applies to burial through his unique and distinctive soundscapes. Burial puts together rough lo-fi textures, ghostly vocal samples and off-beat rhythms to create an instantly recognisable sound for listeners. Listeners will already know the feeling a burial track will have before even having listened to it, a burial track will take them to an emotional and introspective place. This consistency within his work acts as strong brand promise and expectation. Even when he experiments sonically, like in his recent works with Four Tet such as “Nova” (Burial and Four Tet, 2022), the emotional and textural depth remains the same. This reliability in his work is a reason for why his fans hold his music in such high esteem. Burial doesn’t just release music, “the sound of Burial has touched people, opened them up to difficult emotions, hurt them in valuable ways.” (Reynolds, 2017).

Burial’s brand associations come entirely from the emotions and atmospheres that his music and album art creates. People don’t associate his music with a person or a specific logo, they think of rainy nights, empty streets and nostalgia of what London was in the 2000’s. Because he never used traditional branding, listeners have always been left to create their own feelings and imagery of Burial’s work, making associations with his music quite personal and powerful. His brand associations therefore become less about who he is but more about how his music makes people feel. The fact that people have such a unanimous feeling towards Burial’s music shows how carefully crafted his music is. He always intended for this feeling and vibe to be given off from his music as he said himself in his last recorded interview, “my music probably is just for moody people to walk across London in the rain to. That might sound rubbish, but most of my experience in life has been exactly that.” (Hancox, 2025).

Finally, brand loyalty plays a big part in why Burial’s brand has stayed so influential and has lasted so long. Even though he rarely releases music, each new drop creates a lot of excitement among fans. People know that whenever Burial does put something out, it’s always going to have the same feeling of mystery and dread as always. Fans stay loyal not just because they like the music, but because they connect with the emotional vulnerability and authenticity of the music.

Burial’s career really shows that you don’t need to be constantly visible or promoting yourself to build a strong artistic presence. He has created a powerful identity by doing the opposite. By staying private, focusing on feeling, and letting the music speak for itself, his anonymity adds to the experience rather than taking away from it, and it proves that sometimes keeping things in the shadows can make the work stand out even more.

Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) Model:

Brand Equity explains Burial’s long term image and identity, but the AIDA model can help explain over time how listeners have gone from discovering him to then forming a deep love for his music. Burial applies to this model in quite an untraditional way and avoids all of the typical techniques associated with gaining an audience and following. Instead of heavy promotion and strong visibility he relies on the complete opposite by creating mood and mystery around his art. Even though he does this he still guides people through the AIDA model in a powerful way.

The first part of AIDA, Attention, refers to the idea of creating awareness and affiliation with the product, (Hanlon, 2025). Burial applies to this by creating pieces of music that were and are completely different to everything else of its time. At the time of his early releases around 2007, his sound was unlike anything ever heard before, he created windswept rainy scenes with drones and quite possibly the “most complete electronic music album of our current century” (Datz, 2021).

Through creating such unique records, Burial created a recognisable brand image and identifier, in turn creating lots of attention. Alongside this, the persistent mystery about who he really was helped elevate the attention. He stood out in the scene precisely because he approached it in a completely different way to everyone else at the time and showed that attention can be created around things that are unexplained.

Once attention is captured, the model moves to Interest, which refers to generating interest in the benefits of the product (Hanlon, 2025). Burial manages to maintain interest by creating a completely immersive world within his music. Almost all of his tracks create environments within our imaginations, through the use of vinyl crackle, muffled footsteps and even samples from video games (Resident Advisor, 2017). Through layering all of these tiny details he makes listeners lean in more, pay more attention and immerse themselves in Burial’s world. Paired alongside there being no public image of Burial this forces listeners to focus more on the music itself, in turn creating more interest. Altogether this causes listeners to speculate more about the meaning of his music and about him himself. Burial shows that interest can come from exploration rather than explanation.

The next step of AIDA is Desire, which essentially means creating a genuine want for more of the product and taking the consumer from just liking it to craving more. (Hanlon, 2025). As previously mentioned, Burial creates music that makes it easy for listeners to form an emotional connection with, and it is from this that the initial interest then turns into desire. By tapping into universal feelings in his music such as loneliness and “hauntological urban melancholy” (Sanada-Kailich, 2025), he makes it very easy for listeners to create a personal bond with it. Paired with this, Burial rarely releases music, making new releases more desirable and the scarcity of music makes it so much more special when he does release.

The final step of the model is Action, which points towards moving the consumer to directly interact with the product and take the next step. (Hanlon, 2025). In typical Burial fashion, the way he applies action is completely unorthodox. Burial doesn’t prompt any action, through the mere fact that he doesn’t do any promotion, no tours, no social media, no merch sales etc. The action on Burial’s part comes entirely directly from fans pure enthusiasm for his music.

Burial’s fans share his music online, recommend it to others and build community discussions and forums such as on platforms like Reddit. Streams on his new releases come from excitement rather than promotion and marketing hype. His community spreads his work organically, functioning in more of a grassroots way rather than the typical way of a big producer in the electronic scene.

In summary, Burial shows that a strong artistic brand doesn’t need a visible public image to thrive. His Brand equity comes from emotion and mystery, giving him a lasting and memorable identity.

His music guides people through the AIDA model naturally:

• His attention comes from mystery surrounding him and his music
• Interest comes from the atmospheres his music creates
• Desire comes from the emotional honesty behind his music
• Action from the passion his fans have

Burial’s career shows that the AIDA model can work even when approached in unconventional and almost anti-promotional ways. Burial turns anonymity and absence into strengths that push listeners through each stage.

Overall, he proves that staying in the shadows can sometimes create a powerful connection and a strong brand.

Bibliography:

Allen, S (2024) Brand Equity Explained: How to Build and Measure Success. Available Online: https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/brand-equity [Accessed 28/11/2025]

Burial (2006). Burial. [Album]. Hyperdub. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/album/18f6aWSeCaKMZxg75d0t2g?si=FQOy3Bu9QpSyhRVS9nwRUg [Accessed 4/12/2025]

Burial and Four Tet (2022). Nova. [Song] Text Records. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/track/7dYjEwbLJ1B5reoz3lWra0?si=21e0bf71f2e0468b [Accessed 4/12/2025].

Burial (2007). Untrue. [Album]. Hyperdub. Available at: https://open.spotify.com/album/1oLxSFO8bJwsU2OmZY4cdU?si=5BnSMbNJSJuONiq2vXXtEg [Accessed 4/12/25]

Clashmusic (2017) The Art Of Anonymity: Burial’s ‘Untrue’ Ten Years On. Available Online: https://www.clashmusic.com/features/the-art-of-anonymity-burials-untrue-ten-years-on/ [Accessed: 28/11/2025]

Datz, M. (2021). A Brief Inquiry Into Burial, A Dubstep Legend – The Riff – Medium. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/the-riff/a-brief-inquiry-into-burial-a-dubstep-legend-7026cdb819a0. [Accessed: 10/12/25]

Hancox, D. (2025). Burial’s last interview. [online] Substack.com. Available at: https://danhancox.substack.com/p/burials-last-interview.

Hanlon, A. (2025). The AIDA Model. [online] Smart Insights. Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/traffic-building-strategy/offer-and-message-development/aida-model/. [Accessed: 10/12/25]

Next Sound (2025). The Rise of the Anti-Brand Artist: How Anonymity Is Reshaping Underground Dance Music
Available at: http://nextsound.net/features/the-rise-of-the-antibrand-artist-how-anonymity-is-reshaping-underground-dance-music [Accessed 9/12/2025].

Resident Advisor (2017) Burial’s Untrue: The making of a masterpiece.YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et5B-zfAIIo [Accessed 10/12/2025]

Reynolds, S. (2017). Why Burial’s Untrue Is the Most Important Electronic Album of the Century So Far. [online] Pitchfork. Available at: https://pitchfork.com/features/article/why-burials-untrue-is-the-most-important-electronic-album-of-the-century-so-far/ [Accessed 4/12/25]

Sanada-Kailich, V. (2025). Burial’s Untrue: The Sonic Power of Evoking Emotion. [online] Canvas. Available at:https://www.canvasjournal.ca/read/burials-emuntrueem-the-sonic-power-of-evoking-emotion [Accessed: 10/12/25]

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