Robert Allen (1989) notes that for most of it’s 2,000 years, genre study has been primarily nological and typological in function, taken on the guise of Botany. He believes that since the discovery of ‘genre’ it has immediately been divided into categories that we as a society are guided to stick by, which follows the structure of ‘pseudo science’.
In my AS production, suggestions and instruction were given and strictly stuck to, due to the lack of experience and courage to challenge and explore like A2 has allowed me to do. Genre division have been classified through the beginnings of classical, literary works from the influential writer, William Shakespeare. Shakespeare referred satirically classifications such a as tragedy, comedy, history, pastoral, and then began merging, tragical-historical and pastoral - comical, maybe this is where the modern integration of ‘rom-com’ (romantic comedy) deprived from? Contemporary media genres tend to relate more to specific forms that to the universals of tragedy and comedy. The modern society classify the genre of cinematic films, as ‘thrillers’ or ‘westerns’, divided into a set of classifications that we have been presented with.
Theorist, Carolyn Miller suggests that the number of genres are dependent on the complexity and diversity of society. For example the society of Inuits, categorize different fifty different types of snow, because they are constantly surrounded by it, they begin to break it down, whereas when we get snow, we compare it to fluffy, thin or sleet. This is similar to the division of genre, we are presented with a variety off different types of films so frequently, that we have to break it down and categorize the division. Defining genres may be problematic, however if theorists were to abandon the concept, in everyday life people would continue to categorize texts, to break them down. From AS to A2, I have discovered the true meaning of ‘genre’ and discovered more genres, and have become more open minded, breaking down the categorized group of genre for the band ‘Goldbloom’ or even looking into Bordwell’s theory of the ‘De facto’ method of creating your own genre.
A different theorist, Jane Feur (1992) believes that there are no ‘maps’ of the system of genres, no rules undisputed. Genre is merely an abstract conception, rather than something that exists empirically in the world. In AS, we were made to believe that genres were set in stone, we were given what we got and the safest way was to abide by the rules, however discovering Jane Feur, and her open minded belief of the freedom of genres, gave me confidence to challenge the concept of creating my own genre, which I would never have imagined to do in AS.
Themes may appear in any genre. David Bordwell (1989) challenges the difference between genres and modes. For example he asks: Are animation and documentary films genre or modes? He begins to explore the difference between what is set in categories and what are set in genres. For example, period, director or star, cycle, series, ideology, venue, audience, purpose and subject, are they categories set into a genre by itself? I begin to ask myself have I defined the promotional video to one of these categories?
Another film theorist, Robert Stam also refers to common ways of categorizing films, while some are based on story content, literature, performer based, budget based, artistic status, racial identity, and sexual orientation. Looking at my A2 production, I have definitely acknowledged these categorization to base my type of genre within. When researching the ‘platonic’ idealization of the ‘perfect’ music video, a lot of the artists/bands are very ‘performer based’, which links to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music video’s purposely made to advertise themselves as ‘stars’ rather than the music that they create, which is something that the band ‘GoldBloom’ did not want to base their music approach upon. Goldbloom are not the first, popular postmodern music band, Gorillaz took the same approach by creating their own hyperreal act of hiding their true identity masked behind animation. They wanted their fans to appreciate there music rather than themselves.
Bordwell’s theory of practitioners and the general public making use of their own genre labels, known as “de facto” genres. His theory also links back to Jane Feurs belief that there are no rules to genres, we might therefore ask, who’s genre is it anyway? In our A2 production, one of the main tasks to explore is ‘creativity’ and how we have applied it to our work. In an accepted set of categories, matching our style of work to fit within a genre, which would have been the furthest point reached in AS, it is more ‘creative’ and daring to explore making up our own genres to fit within the style of ‘GoldBloom’s laid back, tuneful grunge theme. New media also plays a huge role in the theory of “de facto” as our modern society are beginning to make up their own genres, given the high technology that we are surrounded with. Youtube, especially is a whole new genre itself, allowing young people to express themselves without following a set of rules to obide by.
Theorists such as ‘Todorov’ believe that postmodern comes into defining the meaning of genres. He believes that a ‘new genre’ is always the transformation of one or several old genres. This relates to the meaning of how postmodernism deprived from; using an existing product, slightly tweaking it to make it postmodern. Contemporary theorists tend to emphasize the importance of the semiotic notion of intertextuality: of seeing individual texts in relation to others. This again refers to the postmodern effect of intertextuality. Before studying postmodernism in A2, I had not come across the term before or it’s meaning. Postmodernism is becoming more interweaved with current media, and it’s becoming ‘the norm’ in today’s society. Throughout my A2 development I have looked for postmodern elements that I have created, for example the band’s name “GOLDBLOOM” had been inspired from the famous actor, “Jeff Goldbloom”, this conveys a portrayal of intertextuality as it’s almost a copy of something else that was original.
Semiotically, a genre can be seen as a shared code between the producers and the interpreters of texts included within. ‘Alastair Fowler’ goes so far as to suggest that communication is impossible without the agreed codes. In AS, the semiotic code idea was nothing more than a meaning, since exploring further into semiotics I have discovered a semiotic view to my A2 project. For example GoldBloom’s semiotic logo of the golden sun.
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