This is an early assignment I wrote while at HACC for a media studies class in 2015. The instruction was very much, "Pick a topic from a list of topics and write about it; include references to conglomeration, convergence and how advances in technology have affected it."
From this list, I selected a topic about genres. I first asked, "What can I write about this that would make it unique or worth reading?" Eventually I narrowed down on an angle: how genres have evolved over time and how they can divide in to sub-genres, and those sub-genres can be divided, and so on.
I wasn't planning to post this at all, but after one of my classes studied genres and narratives, I decided to revisit this and post it.
What I have here is my original assignment, unedited in any way. Since it's from early 2015, I feel that this is an example of my writing style developing. I focused on trying to fit more information into paragraphs without considering readability.
The Write-Up
“Genre” is a word that many people might throw around and use haphazardly, but how often do they really know what it actually means? Horror, comedy, and westerns are all examples of what people would typically define as genres, but it brings about questions: how many more are there? Are genres really that simple to describe?
The place to start would be to define what a genre is. A general definition of a genre would be “a form of media content with standardized, distinctive styles and conventions” (Baran). As a general definition, it works, but literary scholars have long debated on what a genre actually is. Some compare genre classification to biological taxonomy (Small): searching for characteristics among films and literary works and categorizing them. The common problem with this is that most researchers have come to point out that genres themselves are changing and attempts to definitively categorize a literary work or film is becoming harder (Desjardins).
To understand this, it helps to understand how stories were originally told. Apocrypha of ancient Greek and Roman texts establish that there were two genres when it came to storytelling: tragedy and comedy. Similarly to the definitions of the modern term, a tragedy at the time was a dramatic story that ended with a tragic or sad ending befalling the protagonist(s). Unlike the modern definition, comedies were any stories that had positive or at the very least, not unfortunate endings. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri, for example, featuring a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven/Paradise is not by any means humorous, but has a positive conclusion when the protagonist completes his journey.
From here, genres began to evolve. The peak of genre evolution and classification came about with the rise of film throughout the 20th Century. Within the 20th Century, the two genres simultaneously split apart and began to blur, with many films featuring a great degree of aspects from both. The tragedy genre would eventually become otherwise redefined as drama, putting characters in difficult situations and facing various character-based dilemmas. Characterized by drama and tension by instilling fear through monsters representative of societal attitudes (seen, unseen, human or not) (Shary), the horror genre greatly took off during the late 1920’s and 1930’s (1929’s The Phantom of the Opera, and later 1931’s Dracula and Frankenstein) with a resurgence in the 1980’s. The comedy genre became redefined through the use of humor from wacky and bizarre situations (the films of Harold Lloyd, Abbot and Costello). The splintering of genres continued with the advent of action films – combining varying amounts of tension and humor and using definitive protagonists and antagonists (the James Bond series) – and romantic genres.
It’s at this point that genres start to become even more splintered from the original two, as lines simultaneously blur and sharpen and once sharply defined genres collide. As it became harder to classify a film to an individual genre, the films’ general subject matters came to become their own subgenres (Small). For example, drama and action combined to create crime dramas, often featuring less definitively “good” protagonists who often lost (Bullitt, Chinatown). Action films began to move to the West and South, showcasing deserted locations, cowboys, Indians and telling stories set near the time of the Civil War. From this, the Western genre was born. Other dramatic films were set during war periods and became war films. Another example would the horror-comedy genre, often straddling the line between terrifying and borderline slapstick humor. Similarly, romances also gravitated toward the comedy genre, bringing forth romantic comedies. Even early silent films’ inability to fully utilize sound recording became a genre itself (Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie, 2011’s The Artist).
The splintering illustrates a newer issue with classifying genres, namely defining the boundaries that separate one genre from another (Linda). The blurring of lines where genres specifically begin and end emphasizes that genres are in almost constant state of change (Desjardins). What this leaves is viewers creating their own definitions of genres based on their own definitions and experiences (Linda, Shary). The list of specific genres is so wide that The Guardian website lists up to 21 different types of genres, which often can split into three to seven subgenres on average (Shary). While extreme, the various subgenres can also be helpful in providing ways to study and understand genres themselves (Linda, Shary).
With convergence and advances in technologies, both in production and viewing of media, people can effectively view films of various genres to study, analyze and effectively do so. At the same time, the success of various genres is also one of their greatest drawbacks. For example, the science-fiction/action genre pioneered the use of special effects to create new and unusual worlds. The Star Wars and Star Trek series, along with the films Avatar, Titanic and Harry Potter film series used a great number of special effects techniques varying from models to computer-generated imagery to achieve great successes (Baran). At the same time, similarly CGI-based films like Mars Needs Moms and After Earth were considered all-time box office lows (Baran).
This leads to one of the biggest effects of conglomeration and concentration of media ownership. The biggest motivator of studio is profit (Desjardins), and this comes together none moreso than in merchandising. Successful genres are not only successful at the box office, but also pull in great hordes of money from merchandising. This ranges from DVD sales to toys and other merchandise based from the genre. Science fiction is extremely successful in this regard, with George Lucas – creator of the Star Wars series – the most famous example. While beneficial to those who stand to receive money from it, the merchandise itself can often cheapen or dampen the impact from otherwise dramatic facets of genres. Pez dispensers, bobbleheads and underwear based upon intimidating or fearsome characters in dramatic works are just one example.
Another effect of conglomeration is that studios will often see how various genres perform at the box office. Sometimes, when a movie fails, the studio will write off the entire genre as a whole. One example would be the failure of 2004’s Catwoman and 2003’s Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life leading studios to conclude that women-led superhero films were not successful. As an opposite, studios will continue releasing films from a genre, focusing largely on star power to be enough of a box office draw. Two examples would be Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill and Kevin James’ Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. Both actors are extremely successful within the comedy genre, but their talents were not enough to make up for both films’ dismal performances. On the dramatic side, Al Pacino’s 88 Minutes was also considered a dud.
This is not to say that any one particular genre is inherently unsuccessful. According to Statista.com, the leading, most successful genre in 2015 is comedy films. Amongst the more successful is 1980’s Airplane!, widely considered one of the most successful comedy films.
Over time, genres will continue to evolve and be studied, not just for what specifically defines each individual genre, but what ultimately defines it as a whole.
Sources
- Baran, Stanle J. (2015). Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Desjardins, M. (1999). Refiguring American Film Genres: Theory and history. Historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television, 19(1), 142-143. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/docview/208175523?accountid=11302
- Guardian, The. Film Genres. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/film/list/filmgenres
- Linda, M. L. (2004). Writing genres. Rhetorical Philosophy and Theory. Issues in Writing, 15(1), 125-132. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/docview/208163846?accountid=11302
- Shary, T. (2003). Course file for "Film Genres and the Image of Youth". Journal of Film and Video, 55(1), 39-57. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/docview/212703971?accountid=11302
- Small, E. S. (1979). Literary and film genres: Toward a taxonomy of film. Literature/Film Quarterly, 7(4), 290-299. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.hacc.edu/docview/226976746?accountid=11302
- Statista Inc. (2015). Most popular movie genres in North America by total box office revenue from 1995 to 2015 (in billion U.S. dollars). Statista - The Statistics Portal. Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/188658/movie-genres-in-north-america-by-box-office-revenue-since-1995/
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