Conventions of my chosen genre

Genre is the term used for categorising any form of text or media text, for example films can be categorised in to horror, comedy, drama etc and music can be categorised into genres such as Rock, pop, classical, dance etc. The genre of a particular text is determined by the conventions of this text for example a piece of music with a lot of violins and brass instruments is usually categorised into the Classical genre and a song with a lot of guitar riffs and drums is usually part of the Rock genre. The conventions that form the genres can change over time, creating new genres and sometimes leading to the discontinuing of others. Musical genre is style-related formation that identifies musical sounds to belong to particular categories and types of music that can be distinguished from other categories or types of music. The classification of music can often be controversial, this is due to the different purposes for which the music was made and the different points of view from which they were made, closely related genres can often overlap, this is often how sub-genres form. The song I have chosen to make a music video for is ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for’ but the Irish rock band U2. The Band are based in the capital of Ireland, Dublin, they formed on the 25th of September 1976 when the band members were just 14 years of age. The band has been active ever since and has now become one of the biggest bands in the world. Their song ‘One’ from the ‘Achtung baby’ album was named the greatest song of all time by ‘Q’ magazine. U2 mainly uses the rock genre however they have used the pop genre however this is not very often. Rock is a genre of popular music that originated from rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country music and also took on aspects of folk music, jazz and classical music. It has its roots in the 1940’s and 1950’s but it first came into the mainstream in the 1960’s. The ‘rock’ sound often comprises of the electric guitar, bass guitar, drums and keyboard instrument such as piano or synthesizers. Guitar solos feature prominently in rock music however keyboard, saxophone or blues harmonica solos also feature in rock music. In its purest form rock music has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat and a catchy melody. In the late 60’s and early 70’s rock music developed many subgenres, when blended with folk it created folk rock and when mixed with rock it created jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970’s rock incorporated influences from Latin, soul and funk music. Also in the 1970’s rock developed numerous subgenres such as soft rock, hard rock, glam rock, heavy metal, punk rock and progressive rock. A number of rock sub genres also emerged in the 1980’s, these were new wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock. In the 1990’s more subgenres emerged such as Britpop, indie rock, nu metal and grunge, Nirvana are arguably the most notable and famous grunge band and are responsible for grunge becoming the most popular form of hard rock in the first half of the 1990’s, most grunge artists were not comfortable with the fame that this popularity brought, this was tragically brought to the public eye when Nirvana’s front man Kurt Cobain took his own life. Grunge is generally categorized by having heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song dynamics and apathetic or angst filled lyrics. Many grunge musicians were noted for their unkempt appearances and rejection of theatrics. A group of musicians specialising in the rock genre is called a rock band and usually consist of a lead singer, electric guitarist, bass guitarist and drummer forming a quartet. Often bands will have lead singers who can also play guitar, some rock bands may have one or sometimes two rhythm guitarists or a keyboardist. Rock bands from some genres, especially those related to rocks foundations in rock and roll include a saxophone. More recently rock has been used as a blanket term for genres including pop, reggae and even hip hop. The popularity of rock music meant that it was a major influence on, culture, fashion and social attitudes. Different subgenres of rock were adapted by, and became central to, a large number of sub-cultures.