Monday, February 8, 2016

Thinking About Genre (and Conventions) Through Country Music and Horror Movies

The concept of genre -- and the conventions that comprise them -- is going to form the basis of our "Speech 2 Unit" on speech genres.  To activate some schematic connections inside our brains, I want us to work from our prior knowledge about music genres, film genres, and then textual genres so we can dig into speech genres during Wednesday's class.

I wanted to post these videos to help you (re)consider the following questions which can, hopefully, help you to think about the relationship between genres and their conventions:
  • what's the "glue" that binds these songs together? 
  • what about them makes them fall into the “country music” category?
  • at what points do they bend/blend into other genres (such as folk, blues, and bluegrass)?

Country music as a music genre...
"Your Cheating Heart"


"Coal Miner’s Daughter"


"Whiskey River"


"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow"
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Horror movies as a film genre...



Scenario: all of a sudden, you're sitting in the middle of a movie theater, watching a horror movie.  How do you know you're watching a horror movie?  What features/things about this movie make it a horror movie?

 After you jot down your predictions, let's put our hypotheses to the test!



The Shining





Psycho




It




Paranormal Activity


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