Research into different genres

What is Genre and why do we need to define it?

In general, the word 'genre' refers to a specific type of category whether that be music, film, or literature. In music, genre refers to the musical style such as rock, soul, electronic dance music (EDM), or pop. It makes sense to be able to define this meaning because, under every category, they tend to have similarities between every piece produced within a particular genre, which is also known as conventions (the way in which something is usually done). In order for an audience to be able to identify with a particular genre, they tend to be aware of the particular conventions that are associated with a certain style or form of creativity. It is also important to define genre especially because in the contemporary media, there are an increasing number of sub-genres such as disco, deep house, etc which all come under Dance/EDM. This goes to show that there are plenty of sub-genres that come under a category of the main genre.

In class, we watched and listened to four songs that fit into each of the genres we looked at which were: Hip-hop, pop, punk, r&b, and metal. After watching four music videos of a genre, we discussed how many times the listed conventions were presented in total. The purpose of this was to help us distinguish how often conventions of these genres appear from, always, sometimes, rarely or never. To make my findings more presentable, I created a document using a presentation software online called 'Emaze' which allowed me to upload my own images, add texts and insert tables.

We also looked at a couple of images from which we were required to jot down any ideas about what the different elements suggests and how all that would make up to fit a particular genre, almost acting out as conventions. For example, one would look at a band that includes a man with long hair and immediately they would know it is a metal band because it is very common in this particular genre and none other. Hence, it is considered as a convention. Below, I have inserted the screenshots of my notes: