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.