B4. Explore the marketing strategies used by your selected industry. Use the examples you have studied to illustrate your answer. [30]
My first chosen text, Nirvana, has used many marketing strategies in order to promote their music. For example,  they relied massively on the production of their music videos in order for audiences to gain an insight into their attitude to society whilst simultaneously promoting their sound. Their 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' music video sold the message of rebellion, which provided teenage audiences with a similarity to the band of desiring freedom. With the video being set in a relatable location; a school gym, this further provides visual support as to who they're targeting and therefore teenagers are more likely to take away the desired interpretation that the band want to be free from genre expectations of 'radio friendly'  music - just like teenagers want to be free from social rules and confinement.
Nirvana also relied hugely on TV performances as they pulled PR stunts live to the nation in order to make an impact, which was then easily communicated by audiences and they are likely to discuss it; giving the band free promotion. When the band appeared on 'The Jonathan Ross Show' they were asked to play a "radio friendly" song, this aggravated their initial attitude to 'confinement' and therefore resulted in them playing their heaviest song.  

Genre Theory

"Genres are created through a process of repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation."
"The familiar and the expected" - (G.Burton, 2000)
"Same but different." (Nick Lacey, 1999)

How typical are you three main texts of their genre?

• Key Signifiers and iconography
• Story-lines and plots
• Characters and their functions
• Stars/celebrities
• Use of camera, sound and editing
• Use of dialogue, language and music

Genre texts are successful because...

- Audiences like familiarity

- They give us an informed choice

Genre Change - avoids boredom

- Hybridity

- New techniques

- Modern social issues (Fish Tank)

- Different characters

FILM NOIR

'The Spirit' - made 3 years after 'Sin City' by the same writer

- Private eye

- Female police officers; links with 'Sin City' and the women's fight for power

- Voice over

- Femme Fatale 

How typical are your chosen texts of their genre?
My first studied text is 'Fish Tank' which is typical to it's social realism genre due to particular conventions such as the representation of real life with all its difficulties, hand held camera work, and predominantly diegetic sound.
The use of hand held camera work, specifically the frequent use of a shallow depth of field is used very effectively in this text as it captures in the narrative exactly what the eye would see. This causes the audience to feel as though they are directly viewing the film as it is happening.