A background to the music industry

 ‘Genres are continually being invented, crossed and revisited, and the process of categorization is an important one for the producers and fans of the music alike.’ This process helps producers of music make money out of the artists and of the industry. The process also helps keeps the fans interested in music and not be bored of the same style and image.

‘However, each of these genres has unique musical characteristics and can be associated with other factors.’ An example of this could be country and rock because another genre was made called country-rock. Hip-hop and rap are often associated with another as they can often be quite similar in style.

Image is a key paradigm for music genre, with an artist's look categorizing them before they start singing or playing. The artist’s image is very important as well as their music; the two have to be able to go together. For example Lady Gaga extravagant ensemble often matches her empty music-this is to keep the fans interested because they often do not have talent. Whereas Adele has simple and classic style to match with her music this is because her music is meaning full and actually talented talented.

Genre has always been a cornerstone of music retail because customers often restrict themselves to a certain style of music and are not interested in buying outside that genre.  This is often because retailers only see a stereotype of the music for example people often assume country music is for ‘cowboys’ or written by ‘cowboys’. Rap is often thought of as people wearing gold chains and hoodies.

The key point in this article is that genre will continue to be recreated this will help the music industry to generate money and keep the retailer interested. I might use this in motion when producing my own product by combining two genres this will help attract fans from both genre’s and generate more of a wider audience.