ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the scholarly uses of genre as a tool for analysis and explore the impact of genre in academic writing. A comparison of genre discourse in scholarship and in music criticism ¬highlights important differences in thinking about Radiohead’s music and in popular music aesthetics more generally. As a popular means of categorisation, canonic genre terminology plays as much of a role in academic writings on Radiohead as it does in music journalism. Discussions about genre transgression have an important place in the academic genre discourse on Radiohead and often lead to debates about individual style. The chapter shows that academic authors utilise canonic terminologies in various ways to describe Radiohead and tend to move from simple processes of categorisation into more complex debates about genre-related issues. Genre discourse affects academia in similar ways as it does music journalism. Academic debates about genre often lead with immediate impressions of genre, before moving on to more complicated genre-related matters.
