Genre Theories

John Hartley (1994)

Hartley argued that "genres are agents of ideological closure and they limit the meaning and potential of a given text," this suggests genre acts as a straight jacket which limits creative potential of the artists. Meaning artists tend to stick within the conventions of their typical genre and keep to what is expected of them rather than what they would like to do.

Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress (1988)

They say, genres "control the behavior of producers such as texts, and the expectations of potential customers," this suggests genre limits what artists can choose to input in their music and therefore limits creativity and often they are just conforming to the audiences expectations to keep them interested and to carry on purchasing their media.

John Fiske (1987)

Fiske asserts that generic conventions "embody the crucial ideological concerns of the time in which they are popular," this suggests that genres tell us something about the 'way of the world' in the time in which they're popular.

Rick Attman

Attman argues there's no such thing as a 'pure' genre. He believes that genre is progressive and will always be. Generic conventions are a thing of the past as audiences become bored/tired of the same formula due to the fast pace world we now live in today and are used to always having something new and different. This is why artists are now needing to branch out and make different material to keep audiences entertained and interested. He also believes that genre is only surviving due to hybridisation.

Linking to our production - Lorde Tennis Court

Rick Attman's theory that there's no 'pure' genre links to our production, the artist that we are doing for our music video, Lorde, has a range of genres which she fits into e.g. pop, electropop and indie rock. This means that she isn't fixed to one specific genres conventions as her music varies meaning that we can be more creative with the video. However, at the same time the genres which she fits in are all fairly similar and I believe that as fans of Lorde they have expectations and specific conventions which they like/expect to see from her. Therefore, as Robert Hodge says it can control the behavior of the producer of the music video to ensure it suits the target audience as in our music video we are aiming it at a target audience which affects the overall ideas for the music video.