Genre

What is genre?
Genre is way of categorizing different types of text and media.

What music genres do you know?
Some of the music genres I know are:
• R&B
• Hip Hop
• Pop
• Rock
• Heavy metal
• Soft Rock
• Ballads
• Funky
• Grime
• Reggae
• Bashment
• Indie
• Dance
• Classical

What are generic codes and conventions?
Generic Conventions are the style of the music video e.g. Rap videos tend to be performance and narrative based.
A generic code is an item that symbolizes or represents that genre.

Why is Genre important?
Genre is important because it classifies music. It also helps to create an image for artist and audiences can identify conventions of the artist based on the genre of music they produce. You can also identify conventions of audiences that listen to that genre of music.

What are the drawbacks of genre?
The drawbacks of genre are that it creates stereotypes for artists that artists may find hard to break e.g. if an R&B artists began to produce rock music). As audience expect specific generic codes and conventions due to genre and their stereotypes, if an artist tried to subvert conventions of a genre it may not meet audience needs or completely change their target audience.

Music Videos- Andrew Goodwin

In his book, Dancing in the Distraction Factory, Andrew Goodwin identified a number of key features which distinguish music video as a form.

• There is a relationshop between the lyrics and the visuals (with visuals either illustrating, amplifying on contracting the lyrics).
• There is a relationship between the music and visuals (again with visuals either illustrating, amplifying or contracting the lyrics).
• Particular music genres may have their own music video style and iconography (E.g. live stage performance in heavy rock).
• There is a demand on the parrt of the record company for losts of close-ups of the main artist/vocalist.
• The artist may develp[ their own star iconography, in and out of their videos, which overt time, become part of their star image.
• There is likely yo br a reference to voyeurism, particuarly in the treatment of women, but also in terms of systems of looking (screens within screens, binoculars, cameras ect).
• There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts.