Digital technology has been used in various ways to aid sales of all three of my chosen texts. 

'Radiohead' are a unique Indie/Rock band that has established a huge fan base over the years. The album 'King of Limbs' sold between 300-400 thousand copies. The band was previously sighed to the record company E.M.I, where they built strong bonds with their fan base. In addition this allowed them to release their most recent album, independently. The Internet is a form of digital technology the band used to sell the album. Through their own website they were able to give details on the albums release date. The band had the idea to have a range of formats to sell the album e.g. the MP3 format costing £6, the WAV download costing £9 and other forms including a vinyl edition to target the vast audience.  'YouTube' was used efficiently to sell the album by uploading a music video of the single 'Lotus Flower'. Furthermore, this gave preview to a diverse audience, supporting the album sales.

Lady Gaga is a controversial artist who has used the wider social media and digital technology of the 21st century, to aid sales and make herself a product worth millions. Her album 'Fame' under the record label 'Interscope Records' received huge success. The 5 singles that promoted and sold the album include, 'Just Dance', 'Poker Face', 'Eh Eh', 'Love Game' and 'Paparazzi'. These tracks advertised and promoted the album through the use of YouTube. 'Just Dance' has currently 156 million views on YouTube, supporting how Lady Gaga's music reaches a wider audience internationally. One other form of digital technology Lady Gaga uses efficiently is the social network site Twitter. She currently has 33 million followers on the networking site, giving her access to her fan base being able to communicate and constantly promote herself as a brand/product. Facebook is another form of modern day technology allowing Lady Gaga to maintain a strong relationship with her fan base, attracting huge investment regarding brands and other types of business. 

Nirvanas were a grunge band that has been extremely successful although 21st digital technology was not available to use. Nirvana could be described as the older model of a band that has used older forms of the digital media to promote there critically acclaimed album 'Nevermind'. Nirvana promoted independent music into the mainstream along with themselves on various chat shows, e.g. The Jonathan Ross Show.  The main form of digital technology the band used was MTV. This programme would broadcast to a huge mainstream audience. As a result of MTV broadcasts, awareness of the band spread along with promotion, aiding sales. In addition, other forms consisted of word of mouth amongst the bands audience and generally throughout the music industry. 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' arguably one of the most successful singles of Nirvana included the ideology of rebellion. This idea was found within a variety of their music and displayed in performances on 'Top of the pops' and other shows. The band began to typically destroy equipment, symbolizing rebellion after their shows, this increased the public’s attention. In the long term, 21st century technology has helped the band with sales, contributing to the albums 30 million copies sold.

Discuss issues of representation of gender and race

In District 9 the issues regarding gender and race vary. Throughout the film there are negative representations of those who have roles of power, become terrible and commit atrocities.

The white people on the whole are represented as the dominant race with the power and money. In addition, with the white people having the higher roles, they are portrayed as injustice carrying out terrible acts. Connotations include them as being money orientated and double crossing.

The Nigerians are perceived very negatively, with a gangster organised crime type image. These Nigerians have traits including cannibalism, with various connotations of crime such as prostitution, arms dealing and breaking of a number of other laws.

The aliens known as ‘Prawns’ are also shown as chaotic and less intellectual compared to human beings.

Women have a representation of weak and dependant on the male figures. Women roles are not vital for the storyline therefore they are not essential, being considered as being underrepresented. A representation of men on the whole refer too them as being killing machines, presenting the idea to the audience that humans are scared when uncertain about outsiders.

Discuss how typical the text is of its genre

The genre of the film is a science fiction with elements of a documentary style. Conventions of the science fiction genre include the aliens, futuristic weapons and the mother ship. Conventions of the documentary style genre are the hand held camera, interviews, with the use of the found footage and stock footage. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of the camera is another convention of a documentary styled genre.

How is the film postmodern?

The film is postmodern as it pays homage to the film fly. The hybrid genre consists of the science fiction genre with a documentary style included, this being a strand of postmodernism.

What is the contextual cultural content in the text?

The Apartheid is a major part of the cultural context. This event was where there was large segregation between white and black people in South Africa. Blacks, for the most part, were kept separate from whites.Moreover, when there was an overlap, there were very clearly delineated hierarchies of where people were allowed to go. Those ideas are presented with the ‘prawns’, being referred to the black community representing how they suffered.