2. WHAT IS GENRE?
• ‘Genre’ is a term used to describe the categorisation of different types of music, film and
literature based upon common elements. It is a critical tool which allows us to study texts and
audiences responses to texts.
• Examples of genre include:
• We can recognise genre through certain codes which become conventions. Signs and signifiers
play a crucial role in this recognition.
• Daniel Chandler (2001) argues that the word ‘genre’ comes from the French word for ‘kind’ or
‘class’ – This being a term widely used in rhetoric, literacy theory, and media theory to refer to a
distinctive type of text.
Jazz
Classical
EDM/ Dance
Electro
Western
Documentary
Sci-fi
Thriller
Horror
Comedy
Rock
Metal
Pop
Indie
Grunge
R&B
Grime
Punk
Rhythm & Blues
Folk
3. SUB-GENRES
• All genres have sub-genres (a genre within a genre). This means that they are divided up
into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them specifically by their
familiar and what become recognisable characteristics. (Barry Keith Grant, 1995)
• However, Steve Neale (1995) stresses that ‘genres’ are not systems, they are processes
of systematisation, i.e. they are dynamic and evolve over time.
4. DEFINITION OF GENRE
• Genre can be composed of the following aspects:
1 – Costume
2 – Props
3 – Location
4 – Transport
5 – Sound
6 – Narrative
7 – Characters
• This is known as a Paradigm model, summarising the ‘typical example or pattern of
something’ in this case, being the components of genre.
5. USING THE MODEL – WESTERN IDEOLOGIES
• The paradigm model allows us to deconstruct the conventional elements you would
expect to find in particular media texts. A western themed product would incorporate the
use of different aspects than you would expect to see in a sci-fi media text.
Costume – Cowboy clothes, (hats, boots, hoisters)
Props – Revolvers (guns), whips, lagoons, tobacco, whiskey
Location – Desert, saloon, ranch, iconic mountain backdrop.
Transport – Horses, steam trains, truck wagons, typical American hatchbacks
Sound – Accents, musical instruments
Narrative – Shoot out, bar fight
Characters – Piano guy, lady of the night, outlaws, bounty hunter, dog, sheriff, native Americans
6. USING THE MODEL – SCI-FI IDEOLOGIES
• Components of a sci-fi media text are drastically different from those used in western
themed products, as noted below.
Costume – Space suits
Props – Advanced technology
Location – Space, planets/ moons, galaxies
Transport – Space ships, space buggies, rover
Sound – Static, futuristic, robotic voiceovers for aliens.
Narrative – Danger posed upon Earth/ Conflict with aliens/ Space race/ Dystopian/ Rescue/ Invasion
Characters – Aliens, humanity, robots/ A.I.
(The model makes you realise that actually the subject/ concept of sci-fi very much overlaps with that of
western ideologies with the main difference being the location)
7. APPLYING THE MODEL – HORROR (SHORT GROUP EXERCISE)
• Mise-en-scene:
Lighting – night time, dark to give the audience a sense of unease, not knowing what could be hiding here.
Location – deserted places, forests, abandoned houses, graveyards are all typical locations however normal
family houses are being used in more recent products to induce a sense of verisimilitude and enabling the
audience to empathise with the characters more.
Characters – Vulnerable woman, young children used as victims (giving adults a protective quality)
Props – Knives, weapons
• Cinematography:
Long shots to illustrate setting and put characters into the mise-en-scene (builds suspense/worry)
Close ups/ medium shots to show detail and narrative.
Camera angles – high to make victim look small and vulnerable, low to show strength and power.
First person, eye line matches, shot reverse shots and over the shoulder shots to create suspense and reveal
small elements of the mise-en-scene.
• Common themes:
Anti-Christ/ Satanism (reinforces Christianity and religion)
Excersism, possession, rescue.
Blood and gore
8. HYBRIDS
• This is the term used to label products which do not fit into just one specific category as
they contain codes and conventions from multiple genres.
• An example of this would be ‘Rom-Com’, short for romantic comedy which contains
recognisable aspects from both genres. These hybrid genres generally create more
individuality for the product as there are less of them.
• This applies to music as well, having many artists which cross over multiple genres.
Halsey is an example of this, being classified as ‘electro-pop’.
9. IDEOLOGY
• Describes the way that genres are constructed and the choices that are made about costume,
props, location, etc., in order to construct meaning for the viewer and form ‘Myth’ as Ronald
Barthes referred to it. He also suggests that we can tell the ideology of the media text through
codes and conventions.
• Levi Strawss expresses the importance of binary oppositions within media texts indicating that
they can be broken down into good and bad through the audience deconstructing meaning.
Most media products have these binary oppositions where elements can be organised around
common themes.
• These ideas are also dynamic concepts changing with the ideologies surrounding the genre, for
example the following table shows the binary oppositions seen within typical western films in
our current day:
Good Bad
Cowboys Indians
Civilization Wilderness
Gun Bow and arrows
10. EVOLUTION OF IDEOLOGY
• This following comparison is based on three different vampire trailers (embedded below)
from different eras:
1) F.W. Murnau, Nosferatu, 1992
2) 2) Neil Jordan, Interview with a Vampire, 1990
3) 3) Catherine Hardwick, Twilight, 2008
Despite advancements in technology, there are other noticeable differences between the three media texts:
• Nosferatu was brought out at the time of aids, working with the concept that transition of blood causes
infection which people were terrified of. Therefore, the ‘vampire’ was known to be a horrible character which
caused death and fear.
• In Interview with a Vampire, the vampire is shown to be a real person which people are curious about and
so are actually giving him a voice, this being a twist in the ideologies compared with those of the 20’s.
• In more recent days, Twilight is a series of films which romanticise the vampire, Edward Cullen, and show
his family to have a caring attribute. His speed and reactions are shown to be ‘cool’ while there are shots
when his body is objectified for ‘the female gaze’ (unconventional voyeurism)
11. ESTABLISHED GENRES
• This is the name given to those genres which become self-aware and self-reflective of
themselves through use of codes and conventions in an alternative way.
• An example of this is Zombeavers, which uses what the audience knows about the genre
already and subverts this through the use of overdoing clichés. This causes a comedic
aspect where the humour is based around the audiences knowledge of conventions.
• (This video is embedded below.)
• Another important misconception to note is that comedy and animation are not genres;
they are styles and treatments applied to a media text of another genre.
12. PURPOSE
• Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts
and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices as well.
• In short, industries use genre to sell products to audiences and to meet expectations of the audience. Media
producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often make cultural references to their audiences
knowledge of society and other texts.
• Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through
acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure, as suggested by Rick Altman (1999), which are either-
emotional pleasures, visceral pleasures or intellectual pleasures.
• The model below shows how institutions use the codes and conventions of particular genres to construct
meaning for the audience-
GENRE
INSTITUTION
(produce texts using the codes and
Conventions for genre)
TEXT
(conventions seen not
just in text but in society)
AUDIENCE
(Recognise codes and conventions)
