strawberry wine: Week 7 Feedback Notes (Carley's)

What defines a genre, lets say in music? Can you give me any examples of genre in music? Spencer opened the seminar with this question, the intimate group of 8 or so responded different examples, but distinguishing genre for music deemed difficult, so we moved onto examples of genre in film which was easier. The group called out suggestions such as romance, horror, thriller, crime, but the group also mentioned that genres can have sub-genres or ‘hybrids’, such as romantic comedies or horror comedies. The reason for combining two relatively different genres together can be to attract a larger portion of audiences, for example in action movie trailers there’s likely to be an element of romanticism to attract the female viewers that aren’t as interested in buildings blowing up and fast cars that might attract the male viewers.

The conversation went on to discuss whether or not the group agreed different elements of genres can’t mix together, such as a western movie featuring cowboys mixing with a very futuristic Sci-fi setting. At first we agreed that these two concepts wouldn’t work, as the two come from different times with very opposing qualities but Spencer (playing the devils advocate) questioned this, suggesting that the scenes featuring the Tattoine desert in the Star Wars films have strong characteristics of a western genre. The question was asked “Is there such thing as true genres?” as admitted we have sub-genres but that implies there are basic structures to follow that constitute a genre.

The conversation then turned to who was responsible for deciding what defines a genre, is it the author of novels from classic English literature? Or is it the viewers who buy the products for that quality to start with? Or is genre the iconography we as a society have put in place to categorize entertainment? The origins of genre are difficult to pinpoint but it is widely acknowledge that we do follow this ‘filing system’ and through it we determine what we expect to see, for example in romantic movies we expect to see ‘girl meets boy’ storyline. Iconography is problematic though, a perfect example is in romantic movies we expect to see ‘girl meets boy’ but what about under-represented groups such as homosexuals? Why do we not see ‘girl meets girl’ or ‘boy meets boy’ within the media as often as heterosexual couples?

Genre is a cage of meaning where words get trapped, and producers work within these genres which can define what audiences they are able to appeal to, who are more likely to come view or buy that product, and when a media artefact doesn’t follow a genre viewers tend to switch off. Working within these boundaries that have been tried and tested could be considered playing safe, you can determine how an audience will react, but to produce something absolutely memorable, completely and utterly authentic you almost need to encourage a false sense of security in your audience, and bring them out of their comfort zones by showing them something that could be considered unconventional.

A valid point was raised as to how we as independent consumers of the media appreciate certain unconventional approaches, as it’s different, it has more of an impact and as a result creates a lasting impression, yet when we all produced our 72 hour projects we worked within this standardisation of boundaries, convinced we had to spell the message out to our audiences instead of giving the viewer the capability of doing it themselves. We claim to prefer out of the box ideas yet it came to creating something ourselves, nothing original was produced as a result, we just recycled concepts we knew that had worked in the past, aiming for a professional finish instead of how to portray the message we were sending.

The group talk then turned to tampons – yes – tampons. Spencer raised awareness to how the female menstrual cycle was considered social taboo… Adverts for tampons and liners featured an active woman and then a clip of a blue liquid being poured over what looks to be a pad. The idea that women should be reserved and almost ashamed of something that is completely natural to them, and would be considered unhealthy if they didn’t get their period is an uncomfortable topic to talk about, as in the media tampons and periods aren’t largely discussed, reinforcing this taboo notion, yet the argument was raised that if males had periods, people believe tampons would be free, they’d celebrate their periods arrival in a masculine manner and the topic wouldn’t be something you’d feel the need to conceal. The female menstrual cycle was mentioned as the equivalent of killing children in horror movies – it just simply isn’t done!

Another convention of genre is closure, at the end of a media piece such as a novel or a movie the viewer expects a happy ending, or an ending to some degree. Be it the death of a leading role, the solution to a problem, the answer to an important question or the unveiling of a killer, the viewer wants to see the result, and if we as an audience aren’t shown this result we can feel disappointed and somewhat cheated, some producers play on this by leaving viewers with a cliff hanger, or to decide the conclusion themselves.

The topic returned to music and genre, youths in society tend to prefer bands outside of the mainstream context, somewhere near the margins, but as groups get more recognised they slowly more closely towards mainstream before being engulfed, youths then search for another band outside of the margins. Part of youth culture is to be in the margins, and not like your elders!

Spencer advised us all to go through what we’ve collected in our cabinet of curiosities and see if there is anything that ruptures convention, is there anything that makes you uncomfortable? Spencer also questioned whether whilst at University do we feel we have seen or heard of anything that has made us uncomfortable or could be seen as unconventional?

A successful media artefact provokes a response, and working outside of ‘conventional methods’ can make viewers uneasy, encouraging a reaction.

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