Gunter Kress - Genre theory

"Kress is a leading theorist in the study of exploration of multimedia with its impact on communication in an increasingly judgemental and individual world."
This basically means that as he was born in 1940; he has seen vast technological advances over the years alongside monumental events that have happened over the centuries of his life.


Kress has a different way of thinking about genre in comparison to Metz as Kress defines genre as "A kind of text that desires its form from the structure of a (frequently repeated)social occasion, with its characteristics, participants and their purposes" (1988).

Kress wrote many things during the 80's yet one of his collaborations was with a man called Robert Hodge. Hodge and Kress came to the conclusion that 'Genres only exist in so far as social groups declares and enforces the rules that constitute them' (1988).


It was noted by Kress that text's allow us as an audience to take on the role that we are most comfortable with. This is also known as an instruction by a writer for an ideal reader although not all readers or ideals may fit into place. Within society certain assumptions and correlations are made, as an example if it looks like a film with suspense and gore or has horrific elements then it is known as a horror.
Within the film world and within society we (the audience) are given a role and are told what to do and we do it; this is what is described as a passive audience and this was noted by Kress during the 80's.


Kress believes in six main points and beliefs, these are:

• Genre correlates with its social background.
• Genres change and new genres are developed when situations and new situation begin to occur.
• Society is ever-changing therefore genre is ever-changing
• Kress is a contrast to Metz, as Kress argues you cannot have specific codes and conventions for genre.
• Every genre places the person and audience into a belief system where you and the audience assume situations.
• Essentially Kress believes texts are embedded with assumptions about the ideal reading including their attitudes towards subject matter and often their class, age, gender and ethnicity.

The main difference between Metz and Kress is that Metz believes genre adapts to society and Kress believes that society adapt to genre.


20.10.14 - REFLECTION OF KRESS AND HOW HE CORRELATES TO MY WORK:


I would like to use Kress' points that texts are embedded with assumptions about the ideal reading including their attitudes towards subject matter and often their class, age, gender and ethnicity. This will then allow any stereotypes made within my music video to have sound grounding as to why I have made the stereotypes. The ideal reading is making the text (in my case my video) appeal to my target audience through creating a text filled with stereotypes about the likes and dislikes of the genre audience.

Audience theories

Media Language Based Reading

In Beyoncé's music video for Pretty Hurts; you would not think that she is just an artist yet she could appear to an unknowing audience as an actor. The images that are portrayed to us through her acting with the lyrics accompanying the video it acts as an emphasis on the meaning of the song and can at times appear to the audience quite emotional.

Beyoncé - Pretty Hurts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXXQLa-5n5w

During the music video Beyoncé plays the part of a beauty contestant in different pageants; she shows the audience all the preparation and the formalities of being under such scrutiny from society based purely upon your looks.

The opening scene of the music video shows Beyoncé looking into a mirror with minimal makeup; with a backing track of piano chords. Even though the desired effect of this shot it to show she is using a mirror, it can also work as an intimate shot with the audience. The obvious wet hair and freshly applied makeup connotes the code of getting ready for something.
Throughout the video Beyoncé portrays the many different sides to one persons personality; all the different elements within each picture make up a code to show to the audience the preferred reading of the video and of each personality she is showing.










Paloma Faith - Trouble With My Baby

Paloma Faith is another artist who is able to create a story with music through reflection of the lyrics. One example of this is her new music video for her song Trouble With My Baby, from her new album A Perfect Contradiction. The story of this song is that she has issues and 'troubles' with her fella and she's working in a bar as a live singer and it shows some of the difficulties that she has to deal with her troublesome man. In the slideshow below you can see some of the shots that are in the music video which I think work well to emphasis the lyrics and emotions caused through the music and lyrics of the song.

Chriastian Metz

Metz was a French film theorist who is known for his genre characteristics theory. In this theory it is discovered that there are four main stages that can be applied to genre and the development of genre; there four stages are:

• Experimental
• Classical
• Parody
• Deconstruction

The experimental stage is the beginning phases of the genre and is where the foundations of the genre are built, in which the codes and conventions are set.
The classical stage is where the codes and conventions of the genre are recognised as iconic and are idealised as 'the' guidelines for the genre.
The Parody stage is where once the codes and conventions are established and widely accepted they can be mocked, yet this can only work on the fact that the audience know and understand the codes and conventions of the genre.
The deconstruction stage is where the genre can merge and evolve with other genres, so it can form cross over genres and the 'rules' can be broken.

Examples of Metz's theory:


Experimental stage; Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (1975) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ9rUzIMcZQ

The music video or video with music accompaniment as argued, for Queens Bohemian Rhapsody was first released in 1975, making it one of the first ever music videos to be made. The length of the music video is a strong indicator of its time of creation and that it belongs to the experimental stage within Metz's theory. The editing and transitions of the music video also shows how it is starting out and creating and setting the guidelines for the codes and conventions of future music videos of this genre.

Classical stage; Beyoncé - Love on top (2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob7vObnFUJc

This R&B/soul genre song of Beyoncé is almost a clear cut classic stage music video as it is catchy, easy to relate to the lyrics and has some sort of visually pleasing (sexy) angle of the video however there is not a clear story to the video which is the only code and convention of the genre and Metz stage that it does not match.

John Legend - Ordinary People (2009) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIh07c_P4hc

John Legend is another R&B singer yet his music video to his song Ordinary people fully meets the codes and conventions and dynamics of Metz's classical stage. It has a clear story to the video, which fits the lyrics. The video and song are both easily relatable and can connect with the audience and the visually pleasing (sexy) angle would be the pleasing sight of seeing a man sat at the piano singing about his feelings for his other half.

Parody stage: The Midnight Beast - Tick Tok parody; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4npUdfEmbQ

The Midnight Beast as a band became famous from YouTube videos going viral of their 'micky-taking' parodies. This was the tipping point for the band from being just an online group of friends to one of the most popular bands in Britain during the 2000's. Their music video of Tick Tok which is a parody of Ke$ha's very successful Tick Tok; follows all the conventions of a serious music video, all the acting and editing is done very well and seriously. The music is easy to get into as if follows the same tune as the original just a few changes of lyrics for comedic effect yet the micky is being taken throughout the video which makes it even more enjoyable for the audience to watch.


Deconstruction stage: Asking Alexandria - Right now na na na https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnkJVfSdr2Y 

This Asking Alexandria song is actually a cover of Akorns' Right now na na na yet instead of reproducing the song in the same lyrical way the English Metalcore band Asking Alexandria reproduced it as if it was their own song, crossing the two genres of Akorns R&B and their Metalcore to produce a crossover between the two. For this the music video it is largely made up of tour footage yet it shows the contrast between the two genres and how they can work together and how the codes and conventions can be challenged and broken yet can still produce an amazing piece of footage.

Linkin Park - ''Enth E Nd''  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRC2ICZ4ZIo&feature=kp

Linkin Park are known to have made a few remix albums of their own work yet in this music video it mixes their American rock genre with Kutmaster Kurts hip hop and Motion Man's rap genres all together in one song. The mixture of different genres and way of performing in front of a camera works well as it breaks the codes and conventions of traditional rock music videos however with the variety of editing and presentational styles within the music video it works perfectly at bringing the three different genres together.