Genre and Marketing

Genre and Marketing.

The music industry has undergone many changes over the past few years, opening doors for developing bands and artists. More and more artists are breaking the stereotypical genre image and challenging the conventions of genre. A genre cannot entirely understood by the characteristics of a music style alone but also by the performance of the artist/band, their visual 'image' appearance, the type of social and ideological connotations associated with them.

Genre is an important tool for not only the audience to identify the product but as a marketing tool for industry, in particular in this case we will be looking at the music industry.
A music genre is a name given to define a style of music. By putting music into a certain heading or group, it allows an audience to identify bands or artists and understand what category of genre they belong too if they follow similar/stereotypical code and conventions of that particular genre. For example you would expect from a pop music video for it to be very fun, bright and entertaining/enjoyable to watch. Also having the artist as the star image and make sure they are in the centre/part of the music video itself.

When music is classed and put under a certain genre, artists can then use it as a tool to define the purchasing audience and therefore market the look of the product in packaging terms to increase sales. Targeting one particular audience and making sure that the product as a whole; the music video, album and advert all work together and follow a continuos theme in order to target that audience successfully.

For example Katy Perrys album 'Teenage dream' basing the album artwork on her hit track 'California Gurls' having it 'candy themed' and having images used from the music video itself, marketing other products from this theme, revenue and sales could be made by creating similar products - having t-shirts with a photograph of Katy Perry on the front holding a lolly pop or making calendars with photos from the music video or perhaps candy looking stationary would appeal to her younger female audience, those younger girls who aspire to be like her. Making candy lip-glosses which Katy has endorsed would be suitable for those who idolise her appearance and will see Katy using this and having nice lips would want to buy this product in hope that it would do the same for them. Creating underwear designed to look similar to those Katy is wearing in the California Gurls video, would target her teenage older female audience, these examples would all be part of successfully targeting the audience and marketing other products from a successful previous one and linking the two together keeping a image which is easily recognisable for an audience to identify with. The products above that i have suggested could relate to any other genre, creating products that are suitable for the audience and compliment the music video and genre allowing more sales to be made over time with more products selling when the music video popularity has died down.

For example we see pop cd's with covers on that include pop colours/themes, it may be a single for a particular video in then which case it may contain images from the music video itself. For example for Rihanna's 'Loud' album features images from her hit 'Only girl in the world' music video, as this particular song was very successful, by marketing the image from the music video having them throughout the digipak, it allows an audience to identify the album by them images, attracting a wider audience and those who may of never listened to Rihanna prior to hearing the song are now buying the album because of that singular song alone and anticipating the rest of the album is going to be similar. Listening to the album 'Loud' it is clear it is a mix of music sounds and genres from pop to reggae to dance to R&B, therefore Rihanna cannot be only described as a R&B artist only. Therefore having other genres included in her music, allows her to have a wider target audience to appeal too and market her image around what works for her fans and what gets her/record label the most money.

As well as having a singular genre for a company/artist/band to market their products at, they can also fall under a sub genre, being recognised as having features from two different genres, usually similarly linked. It is uncommon for two genres such as death metal and pop to mix because they are very different in the conventions that they follow and very different audiences. A few more common sub genres are 'pop-punk', 'alternative rock' etc.

Once the music is categorised into a genre, then the audience will be determined and the age group that it would apply to, then you would market it at that age group/gender that it is best suited too and promote it with both outfits and visuals that best work for the target audience. For example for men being the target audience, looking at the male gaze concept (Mulvey), if the artist/group were female then making sure the female body was widely on show having the camera lingering on them. Revealing clothing and having them looking very beautiful and gazing at the camera, having suggesting body language/facial features would attract a more heterosexual male audience because according to Laura Mulvey, women are seen as an object for  male pleasure/fantasies.