Kelly Barnes - Navigating Genres

Navigating Genres

There is not one set definition or use for genres. Genres are constantly around us in our daily lives, whether they define the next movie we watch or the next newspaper article we read. Dirk’s Navigating Genres truly showed how complex genres are or can be. Genre isn’t a mold for works to fit into, but rather an ever changing form. When writing or creating within a genre, you need to take into account the audience, the situation, and how you want the audience to react. However, the idea of genre isn’t surrounded by anarchy. As Dirk says, there are rules to genre, but those rules aren’t set in stone. They change as the genre change. Although choosing to work outside of genre conventions can be successful in some things, such as the horror film Scream, most of the time traveling outside of conventions can be risky. For example, as Dirk says, reporting the weather in raps isn't necessarily wrong, but it is inappropriate and wouldn’t be received well by the audience. Genre is always changing with all of the new works that come along through the years.