So we're back at it with the regular media lessons now! Today we looked at theories of genres in music and how these ultimately shape artists; their image and the type of music they produce. So without further ado...
John Hartley (1994) - argues that 'genres are agents of ideological closure - they limit the meaning - potential of a given text'.
This theory basically conveys genres as a straightjacket limiting creativity.
Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1998) - describes genres as 'controlling the behaviour of producers of such texts and the expectations of potential consumers'.
Again, this stresses that genres prevent products from cross the border into creativity and instead stay safe in conforming to audience's expectations.
John Fiske (1987) - asserts that generic conventions 'embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular'.
This suggest that genre are useful in telling us about the 'way of the world' in the time the product is created in - the Zeitgeist.
Film Theorist Rick Altman however states that there is no 'pure' genre anymore as it is progressive and thus ever-changing.
He says that generic conventions are a thing of the past. His theory implies that audiences in general have become tired of the same formula being used over and over and instead need more to keep entertained and to generate appeal.
Altman also says that genre is surviving merely due to hybridisation. In this case it refers to genres borrowing conventions of others, creating a hybrid, and thus being more difficult to categorise.
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