The notion of genres is persistent.

As soon as the word “genre” is sounded, as soon as it is heard, as soon as one at tempts to conceive it, a limit is drawn. And when a limit is established, norms and interdictions are not far behind: “Do,” “Do not” says “genre,” the word “genre,” the figure, the voice, or the law of genre. —Jacques Derrida (1980)

The concept of genre bending attempts to describe media’s orientation relative to genre, namely how it defies, bends, challenges or basically resists conformation to any one lexicographical taxon. Whether it be in film, television, literature or music, genre-bending media plays on convention in unsuspecting ways, and is often appreciated as being more innovative and forward thinking because of it.

I think that this term can be interpreted in some pretty fast and loose ways, so I’ve tried to come up with a common definition for it.

Genre Bending in Pop Music

The earliest mention that I could find of genre-bending writ-large was in a 1994 Billboard article titled “Genre-bending albums succeed with retailers” by Chris Morris. Morris highlighted jazz-inflected hip-hop trio Digable Planets as an example, noting the commercial success of their cross-genre album, Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), which sold over 500,000 records and won them a Grammy for best rap performance by a group that year. According to Morris, the fact that the group could appeal to both jazz and hip-hop fans was a key factor in their marketability. [i]

While Morris can be excused for focussing on market appeal, I think the article makes a valuable point. When seeking to define a genre, categorization comes before musicality. Therefore, a distinction must be made between the act of creation (what the artist does) and the act of curation (what the medium does). If genre is the confluence of the artistic and market processes, then it follows that a piece of music which introduces foreign elements where they are not usually present - while remaining within a certain zone of recognizability - not only expands the artform, but also the market audience for that piece of art.

I think that historically and continuing in the present, genre curation was shaped personal identities and subcultures, with musical tastes being heavily influenced by locality and community. I recognize that this a very vague statement, but it’s one of those things that you know when you see it.

There was an era, supposedly, where punks dressed like punks, ravers dressed like ravers [ii], and insular subcultures formed around the music that extended beyond the venue. Music collections were passed around through social circles, meaning that one’s tastes were arguably more heavily influenced by one’s upbringing and local environment than today. Liberated access to music and music culture over the internet has meant that the closeted development of those scenes in meatspace has declined somewhat, but it’s certainly quite visible still [iii].

The hallmark of a good college radio station was (and remains, in my opinion) its ability to curate a variety of new music across a diverse palette of tastes, mixing and matching sounds from around the world to form a smorgasbord of interesting music. Internet radio fulfills the same role for, with content creators and music writers providing off-air analysis.

Where musical power users might curate their palette deliberately on platforms like Bandcamp, Soundcloud or Youtube, I think it’s far to say that most people are not so invested. For this camp, streaming services like Spotify or Pandora create algorithmically personalized playlists that transcend strict genre boundaries, simultaneously enforcing genre while balkanizing what remained into successively smaller and smaller sets of tagged playlists and collections.

That’s the market reality, but I think that there are three ways that this expansion of tastes can be appreciated from the creator’s perspective:

  1. The abuse of tropes - Mixing different arrangement techniques belonging to a number of genres, for example, putting a key change in the second chorus of a hip-hop track like it’s 90s R&B or Carole King.

  2. Eclectic instrumentation - Making use of uncommon timbres within a given arena of music, for example, German metal band Rammstein replacing electric guitar with charango and samba rhythms in Te Quiero Puta.

  3. The unorthodox use of rhythm - For example, putting a four-to-the-floor house rhythm under country vocals (this happens a lot).

  4. Subverting expectations - For example, putting an 80’s power metal ballad over a Chicago House beat (as far as I know, no one has taken me up on this).

When we listen to a classic 70’s rock song for example, we naturally expect a guitar solo. Maybe not every 70’s rock song has one, but enough do that it’s become a property of the genre.

Artfully combining conventions in a very difficult task and, when done well, makes for a novel listening experience. An artist that can seamlessly merge elements of one or more genre’s is likely to appeal to a larger audience and offer a more unique sound than their peers. From a psychological point of view, having more the feel of more than one genre increases the number of perceptual expectation satisfactions/misses, so music that combines elements from two disparate genres might attract fans of both styles of music who otherwise may not have heard of each other.

But that’s where the best music comes from right? Cross-pollination?

Genre Bending in TV and Film Music

It would be an understatement to say that the world of film is unbelievably vast, spanning over 100 years of history. The film soundtrack grew up along with it, beginning as sidestage improvisations on the piano or organ and eventually into full orchestral works as it became possible to sync recorded audio to the film reel.

Film is a mature medium, with the structural system of scenes controlling the possibilities for underscoring for over 100 years. The duration of a given scene controls the length of the music, and editing language that the determines the action sets the pace and tempo of the music therein. The structural system of scenes controls the possibilities for underscoring, with the duration of a given scene controls the length of the music, and editing language that the determines the action sets the pace and tempo of the music therein.

Film music has evolved alongside cinema for over a century, beginning with improvised accompaniments and progressing to sophisticated orchestral arrangements. The structural conventions of film scenes dictate music duration, pacing, and emotional tone, often constraining genre innovation. Composers like John Williams and Bernard Herrmann set orchestral standards, while others like Enrico Morricone or John Carpenter experimented significantly with genre expectations. Their influence is still felt across every historical drama, fantasy, western, or horror movie, and, to my point, fantasy western or historical horror movie.

The same is true for TV, with whichever being the more dynamic setting the tone for the other. What works in movies does not necessarily work in TV, but they greatly influence each other. The so-called renaissance of dramatic television in the last two decades has provided a golden opportunity for lesser-known composers to start in Television and branch out. A great example of this are shows like Community, Utopia, the Last of Us and Euphoria, which have gone on to grant their composers (Ludwig Goransson, Cristobal Tapia de Veer, Gustavo Santaolla, also Cristobal Tapia de Veer) and sometimes producers (BBC 4, Sony, HBO, A24) enormous freedoms to explore other projects.

Genre Bending in Game Music

The music of Katamari Damacy actually inspired me to write this article. The score travels from samba to karaoke rock to choral hymns and back again in continuously upbeat, steadfastly kawaii fashion. [v]

Anyone into collecting or making records can appreciate the distinct feeling of pleasure associated with digging into the background behind your favorite albums. Defining what constitutes a musical influence has provided material for artistic interviews the last 60 years. The same is also true for music in video games. While there are certainly a dinstinctive set of tropes that exist for the music of certain genres (e.g. Fantasy MMOs usually have an orchestral score, whereas racing games learn towards the faster and electronic) the infinite amount of differences in gameplay, design and sceneography leave plenty of room for variation.

Indeed, the notion of genre bending as applied to video game music need not rely entirely on the genre of the game itself, but rather on the stylistic choices that the composer(s) make with regards to pairing the music to the gameplay and how audio programmers choose to implement their work as such.

Genre bending games are probably a lot more popular in name than genre bending soundtracks, given how lax the definitions are. Because a soundtrack doesn’t need radio play, it’s harder to classify into genre. What is more interesting or important of a question is how the colours of the OST plays out within their arena. Therefore, a score which is genre-bending requires more than just being resistant to categorization.

Interactive scoring and pre-rendered tracks that vary in style in accordance with different locales and factions could be excellent opportunities for musical cross pollination, with the colours and textures of two separate territories forming a collage at different crossroads. While Nintendo famously hired over 30+ composers for their Super Smash Brothers titles [iv] - with the unifying principle being the re-appropriation of previously written music across different genres to a fighting game - the music of indie games are unique in how small the teams are, with no established legacy, and so have the opportunity for the role of audio to shape the final product from the beginning, should they choose to take it.

After all, the sound design, audio programming and composition for Minecraft was done by one person (interested parties should check out Daniel Rosenfield’s website, it’s very cool).

Ultimately, genre bending across popular music, video games, and film reveals how challenging traditional boundaries can lead to innovative artistic expressions, continuously enriching our media landscapes.

Footnotes

[i] Their follow-up album, Blowout Comb, took this experimentation even farther and is a personal favorite. That being said, it lacked a solid single and the group disbanded a year after.

[ii] Sharks didn’t mix with Jets, etc.

[iii] Other fan posses worthy of note include My Morning Jacket, Bassnectar, Excision and of course Phish.

[iv] Summers, T. (2011, July). Playing the Tune: Video Game Music, Gamers, and Genre. Retrieved from http://www.act.uni-bayreuth.de/en/archiv/2011-02/04_Summers_Playing_the_Tune/index.html

[v] Reale, S. B. (2011, July). Chaos in the Cosmos: The Play of Contradictions in the Music of Katamari Damacy. Retrieved from http://www.act.uni-bayreuth.de/en/archiv/2011-02/03_Reale_Chaos_in_the_Cosmos/index.html