2. WHAT IS GENRE?
• David Chandler – media theory is used to
refer to a distinctive type of text
• Steve Neale – ‘genres are not systems’ they
are processes of systematization i.e. they are
dynamic and evolve over time
• Barry Keith Grant – all genres have sub
genres – they’re divided into more specific
categories that allow audiences to identify
them specifically by their familiar and
recognizable characteristics
3. GENERIC CHARACTERISTICS
Mise-En Scene
Costume Setting Props Lighting Areas of
narrative
action
• All genres have their own specialist mise-en-scene,
narratives and characters so the
audience can identify the genre.
• All genres stem from an archetype (the
original before the stereotype)
• Comedy and animation are not a genre, they
are a style
4. JASON MITCHELL
• Argues that genre are the cultural categories that
surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate
within industry, audience and cultural practices as well
• Industries use genre to sell products to audiences.
Media producers use familiar codes and conventions
that very often make cultural references to their
audiences knowledge of society
• Genre also allows audiences to make choices about
what products they want to consume through
acceptance in order to fulfill a particular pleasure.
Genre
institution Text Audience
5. RICK ALTMAN
• Genre offers audiences a ‘set of
pleasures’
- emotional (getting emotional responses)
- visceral (physical feeling)
- intellectual puzzles (unraveling a
mystery of a puzzle)
6. GENRE DEVELOPMENT
• Genre has developed as the wider society
that produces them changes (generic
transformation)
• Metz – genre goes through a typical cycle of
changes during their lifestyle
1. Experimental stage
2. Classic stage
3. Parody stage
4. Deconstruction stage
7. MUSIC VIDEOS
• MV is a medium intended to appeal directly to youth and
subcultures by reinforcing generic elements of musical genre
• MV are post modern texts whose main purpose is to promote
an artist/band
• No longer have to be a literal representation of the lyrics
Music video themes:
• Teen angst
• Rebellion
• Romance
• Sex
• Nostalgia
• Nihilism
• Coming of age
• Tribalism
• Friendship
• hedonism
8. DAVID BORDWELL
“any theme can appear in any genre”
A theme in an underlying ideology
• Sex = death
• Horror = fear of the unknown
• The breakdown of society = post apocalyptic
films
• Duality of man/ personal journey
• Segregation & alienation
Genres are not fixed. They can change over
time.
9. CONCLUSION
• “genre is not simply given by culture rather
it is in a constant process of negotiation &
change” – Buckingham
• “the law of the law of genre is precisely the
principle of contamination a law of
impurity” - Derrida
