Genre is an important media concept that helps industries market and sell products by categorizing different media texts. It allows audiences to easily find the type of media they enjoy, such as rock music fans browsing all rock CDs together. The music industry categorizes genres like rock, pop, indie, and dance which have distinguishing characteristics and styles. Sub-genres further classify genres to target more specific tastes, for example metal and surf rock are sub-genres of the rock genre that have opposing styles.

1. What Is Genre?
When researching into key media concepts that make up media texts, I
have discovered that genre is one of the most important media
concepts that industries use to sell and market products. This can
happen in many industries such as music, film, literature and many
more, however since my group is researching the music industry we
have explored some key music genres and sub-genres.
Genre is important as it helps audiences distinguish between media
texts. For example a person who is into rock music likes to be able
to browse all the rock music CD's together in a shop rather than
having to look about for the genre they are interested in. Different
genres in the music industry include: rock, pop, indie, dance, R&B,
alternative, and many more. Different genres have different
characteristics and styles that set them apart to be different
genres. Sub-genres are categories within existing genres that have
been classified for more specific tastes. For example rock music has
many sub genres such as metal and surf rock, which are two opposite
styles of music.
When exploring different styles and music and genre I have created a
mind map to show some of the sub-genres from the main, popular genres
of music.