GENRE.

• A category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

• Genre does not rely on what’s in a media text but also on the way its constructed.

• A media text always belongs to a genre, as it adheres to the codes and conventions of other texts in that genre and lives up to the same expectations.

WHAT IS GENRE?

Content

Are the characters wearing this kind of hat? Then it's probably a Western.

E.g. Westerns always have cowboys, whether they are set in the present day or the 1840s. Audiences have a set of expectations as to what a genre text will contain in terms of transportation, costume, character, setting, mise en scene, soundtrack, stars etc, and they look forward to seeing genre-specific examples of content when they experience the text.

Style

E.g. women's magazines always present an attractive model on the front cover. Media texts follow sets of conventions in the way that they are constructed. You see a contents page in a magazine before any feature articles. In movies, a romantic comedy always ends with a wedding. Often content and style are closely interlinked.

HOW DO YOU TELL WHICH GENRE SOMETHING BELONGS TO?

No — genres are described as dynamic, i.e. the boundaries are constantly changing. Individual texts can challenge conventions, and defy certain parts of the usual genre categorisation — for instance, recent movies such as Superbad, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Knocked Up (all from the same producer, Judd Apatow) have redefined the romantic comedy genre, making the humour cruder, and telling stories from a male character's, rather than a female's perspective. Genre texts would get very boring and predictable if they all followed exactly the same conventions — no audiences would want to consume new ones, they would just keep on revisiting old favourites.

DOES BELONGING TO A GENRE MEAN THAT A TEXT HAS TO BE EXACTLY THE SAME AS OTHER TEXTS WITHIN THAT GENRE?

Producers of media texts?• Gives a pattern for construction, a template• Genre pieces have an established audience who are easy to market to• Certain personnel can develop their skills working within a particular genre (e.g.

horror make up specialists)• Stars can associate themselves with a particular genre e.g. Will Ferrell is known for a

certain type of slapstick comedy, and his face on a poster instantly tells audiences what kind of movie they are likely to see if he is in it.

• Fans of a genre know the codes, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel all the time

Distributors?• Clear channels for marketing and distribution — easily targetable audience • Concentration of distribution resources — no point in trying to get eg football

matches to a non-sports audience • Fans of a genre as a whole can easily be persuaded to buy other texts in the same

genre eg dance music compilation CDs • Provides a structure for retail outlets

WHY IS GENRE IMPORTANT FOR ...

Daniel Chandler- Chandler suggests that conventional definitions of

genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (themes or settings) and/or form (structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them.

Chandler also states that other pleasures can be derived from sharing our experience of a genre with others within an ‘interpretive community’ which can characterized by its familiarity with certain genres.

GENRE THEORY

Steve Neale- Neale suggests that ‘genres are instances of repetition and

difference’ and ‘difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre’

In 1990 Neale also states that genre is constituted by “specific systems of expectations and hypothesis which spectators bring with them to the cinema and interact with the films themselves during the course of the viewing process.”

He also argues that Hollywood’s generic regime performs two inter-related functions:

1.To guarantee meanings and pleasures for audiences

2.To offset the considerable economic risks of industrial film production by providing cognitive collateral against innovation and difference.

GENRE THEORY

David Bordwell-

In 1989 Bordwell states that ‘any theme may appear in any genre’ and ‘one could… argue that no set of necessary and sufficient conditions can mark off genres from other sorts of groupings in ways that all experts or ordinary film-goers would find acceptable.

GENRE THEORY