'Distribution is the key to success.' How far do you agree? Refer to your three main texts in your answer. [30]

All three of my chosen texts, Lady Gaga, Nirvana and Radio Head have distributed their music in various ways which have led to their success as a artist, with or without the help of certain distribution methods.

To start, Lady Gaga is a worldwide known pop star who uses the mass media and a major record label promotion in her favor. Her 2011 album 'Born this way', released by Interscope records, sold an estimated 440,000 copies on amazon for 99 cents within the first two days and 1.108 million copies in the United States in the first week. A high production music video was also released for the song 'Born this way'. The high production video allows Gaga to present herself in a state of power over her fans, cultivating them to buy the album and socially integrate about her as an artist. However, with the use of this digital distribution method, consequently illegal downloads and the leaking of songs can occur.

Gaga is known for interacting with her fans using social media and forming this parasocial relationship with them. She has a mass following on twitter of 41.5 million followers, and 66 million on Facebook. Gaga replying to tweets and Facebook messages,calling her fans 'little monsters', allows her to maintain her mainstream image by cultivating her fans by interacting with them on a personal level. The term 'little monsters' suggests that Gaga is the 'big monster', like she is above her fans. This draws her fans in even more when they are spoken to personally as she is viewed as some form of icon. This mass following also allows a wider form of promotion for her future releases by letting her fans know. Therefore from this point we see the use of digital distribution  methods as responsible for a huge part of Lady Gaga's success.

Gaga gained more widespread popularity as she released 8 singles over a 5 month period each released with a music video. The high production value of the video, the provocative appearance Gaga gave herself along side the mass social media promotion with the parasocial relationship formed allowed Gaga to gain more hits on her music videos, making them go viral, maintaining her mainstream and popular status with an increased market value. It could be said from this that Gaga is completely dependent on the distribution of music through media technology and that if it wasn't for such a huge social media following and this parasocial relationship she has with her fans then her music would be much more niche.


Nirvana however distributed their music in a complete opposite way to Lady Gaga. Nirvana were a 1990's grunge band which changed the way mainstream music was viewed. Their disorder, teenage attitude, high distorted and angst filled music was revolutionary for sub genres and attracted a big fan base. Aspects of the mise en scene in their music video 'Smells like teen spirit' show this. Throughout we see the the video being set in a school basket ball court with teenagers 'moshing' to their music. This 'moshing' or form of violent dancing was important as it expressed Nirvana's rebellious iconography.

As internet wasn't available as a method of distribution, Nirvana, along side many other bands at that time, relied purely on live performances, word of mouth, music videos and being signed to a major record label. Thus in 1991 after previously being signed to a record label called 'Sub Pop records' where they had already developed a large following, Nirvana signed to Geffen but still maintained this punk attitude towards their music and did not 'sell out' towards their hardcore fans just because they were signed to a major label. Following their new signing, produced by Geffen records they released the album 'Nevermind' on September the 24th 1991. The album being produced by a major record label allowed mass promotion and the distribution of album copies overseas, which was something their previous independent record label could not do. American stores received an initial shipment of 46,251 copies and 35,000 copies were sent to the United Kingdom where 'Bleach' had previously been successful. Therefore the distribution via a major record label played a major factor in Nirvana's success as it mean it would reach more ears overseas as well as at home.

On their UK promotional tour of 'Nevermind' they made some TV appearances such as 'The Johnathon Ross Show' and 'Top Of The Pops'. Maintaining this angst filled, rebellious nature, when appearing on The Johnathon Ross show they played a metal song called 'Territorial pissings' instead of their newly released single 'In bloom'. This 'disobeying of the system' was extremely helpful in terms of promotion as it resulted in distribution via word of mouth and people wanting to see them live. Not only did this help them from a musical promotion perspective but it helped express the fact that Nirvana didn't set out to be rockstars. They purely wanted to express how they felt about society, thus their actions are a consequence of that. Even so this rebellious nature on live TV was important in how Nirvana's music was noticed.

However since the death of Cobain and the development of the internet, Nirvana's music is distributed and heard via online sources such as iTunes and Youtube and is still able to target a rebellious audience through gaining online views and more popularity.



Radiohead are a English rock band formed in 1985. Six albums into their career, Radioheads contract with EMI expired, contrary to how this would effect artists such as Gaga and Nirvana, it had a positive effect. Radiohead self released their album 'In Rainbows' in 2007. This revolutionized the way artists would distribute their music as they allowed the fans to pay whatever they liked for the album, via their website. This meant less illegal downloads and more profit as the band were more in control of how the music was distributed which is something they didn't have when signed to a major label. The release of their 2011 album 'The king of limbs' sold an estimated 300,000-400,000 copies on the website alone. The use of digital distribution through their website meant that the album releases could appeal on a global scale and at the same time seek more sales from its already established fanbase.

As Radiohead already had a well established fanbase they didn't follow the release of 'The King of limbs' with a tour for a means of promotion and distribution. They did however make a low budget, niche music video to a song on the album called 'Lotus Flower'. Much like Gaga, Radiohead have depended on the use of the internet to distribute and promote their music appealing on a global scale. They have however contradicted the typical approach of using a major record label as a way to promote themselves.

In conclusion, all three of my texts have been successful in the distribution of their music We see Gaga and Radiohead have a more closer relationship with the use of digital technology to distribute their music on a global scale and Nirvana using a much harder approach to success with purely the reliance of a major label, word of mouth and live performances to distribute and promote their music.