How global is the appeal of your three main texts? (30)
All of my three artists have global appeal, and appeal to different audiences globally using different marketing techniques.
Nirvana are an example of this as they have a global appeal, still to this day. Nirvana's first studio album was entitled 'Bleach' and was released by the independent label 'Sub pop'. By 1991 Nirvana had diluted their alternative, heavier sound with more popular music conventions and signed to Geffen, a major label to then release their album 'Never Mind' in 1991. As the internet was not as important in 1991 as it is today, Nirvana relied on other forms of advertising and record labels to promote their album to have global appeal. Nirvana relied on promotion via Television, radio and word of mouth due to the fact internet was not hugely popular during this time. They were hugely reliant on television appearances to gain publicity, and often pulled publicity stunts and were rebellious in order to gain attention to gain their global appeal. Other promotion techniques that Nirvana used were tours, TV interviews, live TV appearances and press reviews to gain more record sales quicker as the internet was not used as a form of promotion. When 'Never Mind' was first released, Ameircan record stores received an initial shipment of 46,251 whilst 35,000 copies were shipped in the UK, proving that even without the use of the internet Nirvana had reached a global appeal. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 144 therefore was obvious that Nirvana were popular with their fans and the industry. As there was a gap in the market for new music, when Nirvana released their album people flocked towards it and were intrieved towards it as it was a new genre of music that nobody that heard of before, and changed the genre and ideology surrounding mainstream popular music which helped them increase their appeal as it was a 'niche' sound. Even to this day, Nirvana continue to increase their appeal and legacy through the use of the internet and continue to sell records through sites such as Youtube, iTunes and Spotify, the growing popularity of the internet and digital technology has allowed new generations the access to older music, gaining new fans and continuing to have that mass appeal.
Radiohead also have global appeal, however took a different approach to marketing and promotion. Radiohead have 8 studio albums already released and established, therefore did not need to rely so heavily on marketing as they already had a fan base prior to the album 'King Of Limbs' which was released in 2011. Radiohead's music and marketing is considered experimental and initiative. Radiohead's album 'In Rainbows' was released prior to King Of Limbs and used a pay what you want approach to highlight the importance of the fan musician relationship. 400,000 copies of 'In Rainbows' were downloaded off Bit-Torrent proving that they had a global appeal as sales were so high.They used digital technology to move away from a reliance on powerful record labels to release and promote albums. The pay what you want approach was a huge success because of the attention it gained, and resulted in free advertising in Papers, magazines and websites etc which can be seen worldwide.
