Theoretical Evaluation of Production

1B) GENRE

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

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.

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.

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

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)

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 indicating that they can be broken down into good and bad.

• 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:

Good Bad

Cowboys Indians

Civilization Wilderness

Gun Bow and arrows