Genres evolve over time based on cultural and historical changes. In the 1940s-1950s, Western films featured solo heroes but then shifted to focus on groups in the 1960s-1970s to reflect workplace trends. Police/detective and spy genres replaced Westerns in the 1970s-1980s as urban crime and espionage grew in popularity. During the Great Depression, audiences sought escape from hardship through romantic comedies. Science fiction threats mirrored societal fears, like racial anxieties depicted in King Kong. By the 1990s, studios produced formulaic genre films and sequels to attract large audiences and ensure profitability given high production costs.

1. Genre analysis also includes understanding the evolution of a genre over time. Genres change and
develop because of changes in the culture or historical period in which the genre is being produced.
The Western solo hero who was popular in the 1940s and 1950s evolved into the group of heroes in
the 1960s and 1970s with Rawhide and Bonanza—shows that reflected a shift in the workplace to
that of the group in the corporation or company during that time. And, with the increasing interest
in urban crime and international espionage in the 1970s and 1980s, the Western was replaced by
the police/detective and the spy/thriller genres.
Genres also gain popularity with certain audiences who seek out these genres given the historical or
cultural forces operating in a certain period. During the Great Depression, audiences flocked to
movie houses to view Hollywood romantic comedies as a way of escaping the grim realities of
everyday lives characterized by poverty and deprivation. The nature of the threat in science fiction
movies also shifts to reflect changes in fears or threats facing societies. During the 1930s and 1940s,
Americans expressed racial fears, as manifested in the rise of the Klu Klux Klan, and in the film, King
Kong.
During the 1990s, with the increased production of films and the control of media conglomerates
over the types of films being made, an increasing number of formulaic genre films were produced.
Film studios needed to attract large audiences in order to make a return profit on the millions they
invested in high-production, special-effects films, so they turned to safe, familiar genres and sequels
Film Genres: Film genres are various forms or identifiable types, categories, classifications or groups
of films that are recurring and have similar, familiar or instantly-recognizable patterns, syntax, filmic
techniques or conventions - that include one or more of the following: settings (and props), content
and subject matter, themes, mood, period, plot, central narrative events, motifs, styles, structures,
situations, recurring icons (e.g., six-guns and ten-gallon hats in Westerns), stock characters (or
characterizations), and stars. Many films are considered hybrids - they straddle several film genres.
Genres History: By the end of the silent era, many of the main genres were established: the
melodrama, the western, the horror film, comedies, and action-adventure films (from swashbucklers
to war movies). Musicals were inaugurated with the era of the Talkies, and the genre of science-
fiction films wasn't generally popularized until the 1950s. One problem with genre films is that they
can become stale, cliché-ridden, and over-imitated. A traditional genre that has been reinterpreted,
challenged, or subjected to scrutiny may be termed revisionist.
Popular films back in 1990s are going to completely different t to what it may be like in 2014, five
popular films back in 1990s with the genres they were based on are:
Goodfellas (Biological Films) (Crime Fiction) (Thriller)
Forrest Gump (Romantic Comedy) (Epic Film)
Pulp Fiction (Crime Fiction) (Indie Film) (Comedy) (Thriller)
Matrix (Science Fiction) (Adventure) (Action)
Home Alone (Comedy) (Family) (Adventure Film)

2. Now in 2014 five popular films are very different they are original in its own way but not as original
as the films in 1990s because these films are mainly science fiction and how they was created.
X-men Days of Future Past (Superhero) (Science Fiction) (Fantasy) (Action) (Thriller) (Adventure)
Guardians of the galaxy (Superhero) (Science Fiction) (Fantasy) (Action) (Adventure)
The Hunger Games Mocking Jay (Fantasy) (Science Fiction) (Action) (Drama) (Adventure)
Transformers Age of Extinction (Science Fiction) (Action) (Adventure)
Dawn of the Planets of the Apes (Science Fiction) (Thriller) (Adventure) (Drama) (Action)
When I compare both sets of films during 1990s and 2014 you can definitely see a comparison of
diverse genre’s for example all and most 2014 films are relied and based upon Science Fiction and
they have more genres, on the other hand the 1990’s films are completely different and that’s what
makes them so unique and remember able.