Week 4

Music genre

Through conversations of music fans and in the strategy debates of the record industry and the media but as well the use within academic media and cultural studies and other associated disciplines, become the idea of genre which is widely used within popular music culture.

Basically genre can be characterized as a category or type. Genre is extensively used to analyse popular culture texts and mostly in films and novels, this is a basic component of textual analysis. In mail order record  clubs and the layout of stock in music retail outlets shows that there are clearly detectable genres of popular music which are understood as such by consumer. Just like musicians will often situate their work by reference to genres and musical styles, so are fans will identify themselves with particular genres.

The common approach to determining music genres is to ‘follow the distinctions made by the music industry which in turn reflect both musical history and marketing categories (Frith 1987). What is more another note suggested by Frith is to ‘classify them according to their ideological effects the way they sell themselves as art community or emotion.

It is important to note the magnitude of sub-genres which are notably evident in well-established and developed styles/genres and qualify any simplistic depiction of a genre; the blues, heavy metal and techno/dance provide good paradigms of differentiated genres.

Music genres can be identified by several characteristics, firstly there are the stylistic traits present in the music: their musical characteristics, ‘ a code of sonic requirements… a certain sound, which is produced according to conventions of composition, instrumentation and performance’ (Weinstein 1991a:6) these probably vary in terms of their coherence and sustainability, mainly in metal – genres.

Secondly image and its associated visual style are some others essentially non-musical stylistic attributes. Iconography and record cover format are standards, the locale and structure of performances, mainly on concert and the dress, make-up and hair styles adopted by performers, listeners and fans. A set of associations which situate the genre with the broader musical constituency are the musical and visual stylistic aspects combine in terms of how they operate to produce particular ideological effects. 

Thirdly, a primary audience exists for particular styles. A form of transaction is the relationship between fans and their genre preferences, intervened by the forms of delivery, creating specific cultural forms with sets of expectations.

Genres are granted concrete places in a musical hierarchy by both critics and fans and by many performers. This hierarchy is based around the nortions of authenticity, sincerity and commercialism. A genre of music reveals how complex that contribute to the meaning of popular music are.

References:

·         Shuker, R. 2001. Understanding popular music. London: Taylor & Francis Books Ltd.

·         Wall, T, (2003). 'Genre'. In: (ed), Studying Popular Music Culture. 1st ed. UK: Hodder & Stoughton Educational. pp.(179-188).