Genre

What is a Genre?

Genre is a French word meaning type – a genre is, therefore, a type or category of media text (Burton, 2000)

In Media Studies we use it to categorise media products which share similar characteristics e.g. similar music, narratives, characters, mise en scene etc.

What different types or genres can you name in the following media?

FilmTelevisionMusic

How Do We Identify Genre?

Genres are made up of typical patterns or elements.

These characteristics/typical elements make up the formula of a genre. They are called the genre’s CODES AND CONVENTIONS.

Genre conventions can consist of repeated:

•Characters

•Settings (time and place)

•Narratives/ story sequences

•Iconography (everything we can see and hear e.g. props)

•Ideologies – the messages genres convey(love conquers all/ good defeats evil)

•Media Language

The genre of the film in the poster below should be obvious. However, what features or conventions tell you this?

What conventions does the previous poster share with the posters below?

What can we learn from this?

Genre Task:We have learnt that it is possible to categorise

texts into genres by analysing their generic conventions .

Can you list the common conventions for these following genres

Science Fiction Horror Super Hero Action

It is sometimes even possible to identify the genre of a text though analysing the people involved in its creation.

For example, in the 1980s/90s if you saw a movie poster featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger you could be reasonably sure that it was an action film.

Robert Pattinson

Which film genres are the following people closely associated with?

Jim Carrey

Jennifer Aniston

Note that TV has genres that can be defined by their codes and conventions too!

Reality TV conventions Strangers with conflicting personalities

living together Humiliating tasks A diary room Nominations/evictions Audience votes Hidden cameras Twists Conflict People trapped together

And music! What genre is signalled below and what would you say are its conventions?

Why Do We Like Genres?

Graham Burton (2000)

“Genres are created through a process of repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation.”

Genre & Expectation

As genres become established audiences begin to have certain expectations

There are certain things the audience anticipate being present and actively look forward to seeing.

Genre & Expectation These are all generic

conventions that audiences would expect a gangster film to contain:

car chases, guns, villains, violence, urban setting, mafia, family, honour, corruption, beautiful women, revenge

Why do We Like Genre?

Genre texts are successful because AUDIENCES like their…

Familiarity (like a warm blanket!) – we tend to stick to what we like

They give us an informed choice – we know what to expect and whether it is for us or notWe can predict some of the action and enjoy seeing if we are right or not

Why do We Like Genre?

PRODUCERS of media texts like them as they..

Give them a blueprint or toolbox to use and experiment with – make developing the film easy

They have a proven popularity - so they can (almost always) guarantee some success – help select which films to make

They can target their audience more easily - marketing campaigns etc…

In other words, genres help to minimise risk.

For the AUDIENCE they minimise the risk of us selecting something we won’t like.

For the PRODUCERS they minimise the risk of producing something that won’t sell/ make a profit.

Why Aren’t Genres Boring?

Why Genres Aren’t Boring…

Over time genres change. If you watch a Police drama from the 70s or 80 you might notice that it is quite different to police dramas on TV today.

This is because all genre texts combine…

“The familiar and the unexpected” (G.Burton 2000)

They are the “same but different” (Nick Lacey 1999)

Repetition of the conventions could lead to boredom. To keep us interested producers offer us what we know with a twist.

This doesn’t just happen over time, it happens usually with each new text in a genre…

This keeps fans of a genre interested – they get plenty of the expected conventions but also get something a little new, something they haven’t seen and which gives them a reason to watch the new text.

Can you identify what the genre is in each clip and what it is that is slightly different to the norm?

Television genres work like this too….Reality TV is a sub-genre of

documentary.

Big Brother began the craze in 2000. As soon as it proved successful, the formula was repeated over and over in different programmes.

Each is a slight variation on the Big Brother formula. “The same but different”.

How are any of the following examples varying the formula?

Celebrity Big Brother I’m a Celebrity, Get Me…. The Farm Escape America’s next top Model Strictly Come Dancing Dumped The Apprentice Come Dine with Me Survivor Shipwrecked Hell’s Kitchen

HybridsOften, a way of offering the audience

“the same but different” is by combining conventions of more than one genre.

These texts are called hybrids and are becoming increasingly popular.

Hybrids

Hybrids can be found in most media types. One example is The Only Way is Essex.

TOWIE has the conventions of a documentary, reality TV show and soap opera

What genres can you detect in the following film hybrids?

Why do you think media producers might like to create hybrid genre texts?

• It widens the potential audience

• This widens the text’s popularity/ profit potential

Hybrids

What genres can be found in Attack the Block

Attack the Block Trailer