GENRES ARE MARKETING TOOLS NOT RULES - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

hankgreen.bsky.social • 59 days ago

GENRES ARE MARKETING TOOLS NOT RULES

different line of explains a lot than air is stuff, but literary genres are marketing tools, not rules ! also that ancient cultures interacted with each other

Comments

amlawful.bsky.social•59 days ago

"Genre" is the french word for kind or type. Describing a story's genre is literally saying what kind of story it is.

chrismardell.bsky.social•59 days ago

Dictionaries are descriptive not prescriptive. The meanings of words can and do change over time.

greenf0x.itch.io•59 days ago

Well, in most languages that's true. But ask the French and they'll tell you a different story.

jasonbryant.bsky.social•59 days ago

Along similar lines, the concept of a "movie star" is a marketing tool. I got a little annoyed recently when I saw some headlines about an actor lamenting that we don't have movie stars anymore. Good! That was always just branding, which is a nice form of type casting, but still type casting.

emilykibbler.bsky.social•59 days ago

Similarly: “fruit” and “vegetable” are culinary terms. I don’t want to hear any more of this “cucumbers are actually a fruit” nonsense. If it goes in a fruit salad, it’s a fruit. If it goes in a green salad, it’s a vegetable.

cindysku.bsky.social•59 days ago

disagree romance had rules

gidim.bsky.social•59 days ago

I only realised this recently when I asked a staff member at our local bookshop why Kazuo Ishiguro was classified under Fiction rather than Science Fiction and her answer was "fiction sells better".

ulfy.bsky.social•59 days ago

I mean, science fiction is a subgenre of fiction. I'm not familiar with the author so I don't know how much he fits under sci-fi.

isakcoffee.bsky.social•59 days ago

Science Fiction is also traditionally considered a lesser, "less refined" genre. Ishiguro vehemently denies any of his works being SF. SF and Fantasy are considered pulp by the upper echelons of literature; see The Swedish Academy. There are many dimensions to it.

irreleverent.bsky.social•59 days ago

Depends how far you extend the idea of marketting. We would have genres even if the only currency involved was attention.

irreleverent.bsky.social•59 days ago

They're not rules, but they're useful for reasons that aren't purely economic.

timmadison.bsky.social•59 days ago

GAH!

sevenbrg.bsky.social•59 days ago

As a female reader, I have a lot of gripes about how some genres marketed at us are shelved. Not that we all read the same stuff, but it does feel like a coming of age story will be shelved different solely because of the gender of the protagonist, etc.

a54chevy.bsky.social•59 days ago

Yes, and also useful tools for communicating to each other about media.

teddymasters.com•59 days ago

The boundaries between genres is blurry too. I just read and write the kind of story I like. They often end up in the science fiction or fantasy genre, but that's just what I happen to tend to like.

danielmclark.com•59 days ago

Yes and no. There are certain core aspects and genre conventions that writers ignore at their own peril. That’s not to say expectations can’t be subverted, just that there’s a difference between a Western and a book that takes place in the Old West.

heraldofoblivion.bsky.social•59 days ago

Then don't try and argue with a postindustrialpornogrinddeathcore enthusiast you filthy casual.

rodangol.bsky.social•59 days ago

Exactly. Genders are marketing tools.

plugsbuttuglystuff.bsky.social•59 days ago

Sonofabitch.

I get it.

gregsdennis.bsky.social•59 days ago

@12tone.nebula.tv & @polyphonic.nebula.tv have a few things to say about genres, I'm sure.

bitmyffed.bsky.social•59 days ago

WHAT THEY SAID BUT LOUDER

bewilderedowl.bsky.social•59 days ago

they also help with organizing libraries.

itsalynx.bsky.social•58 days ago

I volunteered in a library when I was in high school (I liked shelving) and listening to librarians argue which genre to file something under was eye opening.

runningteacher.bsky.social•59 days ago

Generations do not exist

drserizawa.bsky.social•59 days ago

What language is that post even in? The words are English but..

thebiggestmustache.bsky.social•59 days ago

That’s fantastic one

pergos.bsky.social•59 days ago

These days, I think it's best to think of music in three categories, Popular, High Art, and Folk.

With how music distribution and consumption has changed, it seems harder and harder to group music into easy to understand categories.

jklees.co.uk•59 days ago

They're descriptors not marketing tools. As they're softly describing the rules the piece of media follows. Now describing music as 'Marshmallow pumpkinspice pop-funk' that's marketing.

tgrubi.bsky.social•59 days ago

Pink Pilates Princess Pop’

jklees.co.uk•58 days ago

That genre screams 'Madonna' tbh.

postalcioglu.bsky.social•58 days ago

Almost no media creator (musician, director, author, etc) cares much about those "rules" - which means they are not rules. They're categorizations of uncategorized creations

devorum.bsky.social•58 days ago

You're describing a marketing tool. The descriptors are telling people (being marketed to) what to expect from the thing they're being marketed.

jklees.co.uk•58 days ago

If that's the case then an adjective is a marketing tool.

devorum.bsky.social•58 days ago

In the context of marketing, yes, they are. When you're communicating the rules your work follows by naming the genre, you're telling potential readers if it's for them or not. That's marketing. Every reader is a "customer", whether they buy your book or find your fic on AO3.

lifeasadesigner.bsky.social•56 days ago

Culture retroactively assigning marketing affiliations could have some unfun, generational consequences 😅😬💀

isakcoffee.bsky.social•59 days ago

Not entirely true!
Genres exist, but are more varied, nuanced, and malleable than what the markets sell them as. And while genres don't have hard rules, each genre have a set of soft rules; traditions and relations that form it into what it is.

dustinflowersarts.bsky.social•59 days ago

Every time I hear a reviewer say that I saw a TV glow it's not scary enough haha I will be the first to remind them that it is not a horror movie it was only marketed as a horror movie.

kajncoffee.bsky.social•59 days ago

I'm glad it was marketed as horror, cause I probably wouldn't have seen it if it hadn't been, and it was a pretty brilliant film

dustinflowersarts.bsky.social•58 days ago

Well sure! But are you about to make a review video talking about how disappointing it was that it wasn't all that scary?

phastinemoon.bsky.social•58 days ago

@shadowtodd.bsky.social brought this up in his review of "Old Town Road" (remember that? From 2019?) that genres were how you could judge what music (or story) to spend your hard earned money on, when you needed to narrow down your list.

So... yes.

lucasshawn.bsky.social•59 days ago

Reading the quoted post is giving me an aneurism

mateussf.bsky.social•59 days ago

Fruit is both a botanical and a cultural/marketing term

Continents are cultural, plate tectonics are geological

Words can have multiple meanings

kelestrian-exile.bsky.social•59 days ago

banger

kaicfox.bsky.social•59 days ago

my ma thesis was on how shakespeare’s breakdown of genre in the folio was only used because everyone made fun of ben johnson for calling his collection a “complete works”, and how that changed the function of genre ! funny how one guy getting bullied changes western lit

sexandviolets.bsky.social•59 days ago

Hey I don't want to trouble you but it is my experience that people *quite enjoy* talking about any theses they have written, and I would love to know more about this??

In what way was Ben Johnson's collection incomplete, who bullied him about it, and how?

sparroque.bsky.social•59 days ago

Genre tells you how to consume the media, I think. When and how far to suspend your disbelief.

kenrickencinas.bsky.social•59 days ago

they are also categorizing tools. its not purely marketing its a usefull way to identify similar characteristics.

flutterwasp.bsky.social•59 days ago

WHAT ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE TRANS-GENRE, HANK?

breakingice.bsky.social•59 days ago

I HATE GENRES AND CATEGORIES IN GENERALLY BEING TREATED AS RULES

arjun.typescript.blue•59 days ago

True, but you can still use them as rules if you don't have ideas or overwhelmed if you make music

lifeasadesigner.bsky.social•56 days ago

skudiklier.bsky.social•59 days ago

thank you!!! sometimes I honestly kind of hate talking about genres and debating which genre things are. I don't care!!!!

ulfy.bsky.social•59 days ago

Odd thing to be so bothered about.

tmntallthewaydw.bsky.social•59 days ago

yeah, as you resident goof who says I dont like scifi and then semi regularly reads and enjoys scifi books, genres are suggested

myriadapocalypse.bsky.social•59 days ago

Genres can be both, neither or many other things. It's a newtonian fluid, rigid or fluid depending on your approach. Go in hard & you'll bounce off, missing new experiences. Go in soft & you'll sink into a new world. Just don't panic & start thrashing if you feel stuck, just lay back & float back up

katosepe.bsky.social•59 days ago

That's an oversimplification but I agree that genres should work in service to your story, not the other way around. They shouldn't be ignored, they should be utilized.

meatsodagames.bsky.social•59 days ago

This is the best advice I’ve heard all day 🙌🏻

roseblue87.bsky.social•59 days ago

tbh when I took your book from the young adult section I felt like I was doing something wrong as I'm 37

belal-hoor.bsky.social•59 days ago

Hello Hank 🥺
Please help my daughter and repost 🙏🏾🙏🏾🥺

psychoawesome.bsky.social•52 days ago

I don't agree. Genres aren't rules, but they aren't just marketing tools either. Genres are storytelling tools. Any story has a tone or takes place in a setting inherently has a genre and those things are storytelling tools.

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