Genre Turning Point: Difference between revisions

** Ironically, ''Akira'' was released by Macek's Streamline Pictures studio.

* Originally, the [[Magical Girl]] genre was about cute girls using magical powers to help friends' social lives, meet boys, or make it big as [[Idol Singer]]s. However, after Naoko Takeuchi mixed [[Magical Girl]] and [[Sentai]] in equal proportions to create ''[[Sailor Moon]]'', "Magical Girl" became all but synonymous with [[Magical Girl Warrior]].

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Alan Moore]] starts writing [[Swamp Thing]]. From one writer no one in America had heard of on a dying thrid-string title at DC we eventually got the whole of [[Vertigo Comics]], Marvel's Max Imprint and not a few smaller publishing houses (Avatar, for example).

* [[Chris Claremont]] starts writing the [[X-Men]]. [[Marvel Comics]] had been soap operas before that point, but Claremont's writing made the soap truly operatic in scope. Mainstream modern superhero comics, including the deconstructions of [[Alan Moore]] and others, were changed forever by the popularity of Claremont's writing style. (Yes, Byrne's art had something to do with it too, but Claremont stayed on the title a lot longer and had a lot more influence.)

 

== [[Fan Works]] ==

 

== [[Film]] ==

* ''[[Heaven's Gate (film)|Heavens Gate]]'', although not for the same reasons as most of the other examples: it was so bad, it [[Genre Killer|killed]] the [[The Western|Hollywood Western]], [[Creator Killer|United Artists as an independent studio, and director Michael Cimino's career]]. It and other high-profile flops (''One From the Heart'', ''Sorcerer'') also killed the [[New Hollywood|auteur period]] in Hollywood.

** Before that, ''[[Halloween (film)|Halloween]]'' did the same thing, basically starting the modern slasher genre. Two years later, ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'' turned the slasher flick into a [[Horror]] staple by focusing on the exploitation part of it.

* ''[[Die Hard]]'' did this for the action movie. Sure, there were smart thrillers beforehand -- ''[[Die Hard]]'' itself could be seen as something of a remake of ''[[North Sea Hijack]]''—but after it came out, there were far fewer action films that featured invincible, unstoppable heroes (Schwarzenegger, Stallone) whose plots depended entirely on [[Ass Pull]]ing solutions out of thin air than there were before. Plus, not many films rewrite the rules for the genre so heavily that an [[Die Hard on an X|entire subgenre]] forms around them.

* While we're still on the subject of comic book movies, the notorious ''[[Batman and Robin (film)|Batman and Robin]]'' has been described as the moment when Hollywood realized that they couldn't just churn out crappy adaptations and expect the "built-in" fanboy audience to eat them up. Rather, they had to start treating their properties with at least a modicum of respect.

* ''[[Psycho]]'' and ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' are, along with the ditching of the [[Hays Code]] and its replacement by the MPAA, widely credited for helping to turn the [[Horror]] genre from "stories that are a bit spooky and feature the odd death" to "stories where [[Anyone Can Die]], deaths are bloody and brutal, and sometimes even [[The Bad Guy Wins]]."

* ''[[Shrek]]'' ushered in a period of [[Deconstruction]] for fairy tales, resulting in [[Fractured Fairy Tale]]s such as ''[[Enchanted]]'', ''[[Happily N'Ever After]]'', and ''[[Hoodwinked]]''. The genre has recently begun [[Reconstruction]], with ''[[The Tale of Despereaux]]'', ''[[The Princess and the Frog]]'' and ''[[Tangled]]''.

** Shrek is also blamed by fans of traditional animation for [[Genre Killer|ending the dominance of traditional animation]] and about the rise of [[All CGI Cartoons]] laden with [[Shout-Out|pop cultural references]] that would become dated within months, an over-reliance on [[Toilet Humor]], overuse of [[Parental Bonus]] and [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] to the point where it gets annoying, and gratuitous celebrity casting. Granted, [[Looney Tunes|Warner Bros.]] had done pop cultural references [[Older Than They Think|back in the]] [[Golden Age of Animation]]; [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]] often cast big name celebrities in their films since ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', and pretty much EVERY animation studio has slipped crap past the radar in their films, but Shrek and [[Shark Tale|similar]] [[Madagascar|movies]] are the culmination of these trends, for better or for worse.

* ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]'' showed that not only can animation be entertaining and longer than 5 minutes, but that the audience can be emotionally connected with animated characters.

{{quote|[''[[Harry Potter]]'' is] a film series that, for better or worse, seems to have kicked off and excelled at every major trend in modern movie-making for the last decade. Things like the boom in the [[Fantasy]] genre, to the reliance on [[Derivative Works|recognized franchise names]], to the idea of [[Marvel Cinematic Universe|long-running cinematic continuity]], can all be traced back to this one game-changing production. Like it or not, the entire scope of movies are now living in the world that ''[[Harry Potter]]'' created.}}

** The ''Potter'' films most clearly sparked a trend towards more faithful and straightforward adaptations of novels, particularly fantasy novels aimed at children and/or young adults. The prior trend of combing seperate installments of a novel series into one film was killed in favor of adapting each novel individually in the hopes of creating a money-spinning movie franchise. When the live-action ''[[Chronicles of Narnia]]'' movies were first planned, [[Executive Meddling]] was aimed at relocating the story to America. But after the success of the first ''Potter'' film, the executives suddenly didn't have a problem with keeping the British setting of the novels.

* ''[[Blade Runner]]'' was a disappointment in a crowded summer box office when it came out. Repeated showings on cable and its release on video not only made it one of the first films to develop a strong cult following that way, but introduced the first entirely new way of visualizing the future in sci-fi films since ''[[Metropolis]]'' a half-century earlier. Not only did its wet streets reflecting neon signs at night get copied widely in other films, commercials and music videos during the 1980s, it arguably influenced the look of urban space in the ''actual real-world future'' ([http://www.flickr.com/photos/59303791@N00/2518314792/ See Times Square, ca. 2008]).

* The ''[[Alien]]'' series firmly established in futuristic stories, any major female character is expected to pull their weight in the face of danger or combat like Ellen Ripley.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'' is largely responsible for moving contemporary fantasy to the gritty end of the [[Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty]].

 

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', despite it not doing spectacularly well in the ratings, spawned numerous short-lived imitators (a few coming from [[Gene Roddenberry]], ''Trek'''s creator) in comic books and television. During the '70's it served as ''the'' template for [[Science Fiction]] television in America (and to a lesser extent, the rest of the world) until the advent of ''[[Star Wars]]'', though the clones tended to only last for a season or two. Even [[Battlestar Galactica (1978 TV series)|the original ''Battlestar Galactica'']] and other works influenced by ''[[Star Wars]]'' showed its influence. Its impact lasted as late as the '90s, though more in the form of television reacting ''against'' the series.

** ''[[Star Trek]]'''s influence, however, would go on to shape far more than science fiction as a genre; not only is it the [[Trope Codifier]] (and [[Trope Namer]]) for the [[Power Trio]], but things like automatic doors, Kindle, iPods, bluetooth, cell phones and laptops were all first conceived for ''[[Star Trek]]''. Its impact even goes beyond pop culture and technology; Dr. Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to work in space, was inspired to become an astronaut after seeing Lieutenant Uhura on television as a little girl.

* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' changed the the way [[Sitcom]] characters and stories are portrayed so completely that the original series seems [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|derivative]] in the new context it created.

* For better or worse, ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'' and ''[[That's So Raven]]'' invented the modern-day [[Idol Singer]]-centric tween sitcom.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* [[Black Sabbath]]'s first album for heavy metal. If a heavy metal band says they're not influenced by them, they're lying.

* Venom may have been the trope namers, but it was [[Mayhem]]'s album ''De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas'' that really defined what [[Black Metal]] would come to be known as.

 

== [[Professional Wrestling]] ==

* The [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWF]] also had one at some point between 1996 and 1998, but mileage varies on what exactly it was. Some people cite Steve Austin's victory at King of the Ring 1996 and resulting Austin 3:16 promo, which made him the only thing to rival the New World Order in popularity. Others cite Austin's match against Bret Hart, face of the WWF along with Shawn Michaels, at Wrestlemania XIII, when Austin turned face and Hart heel. Others will cite the formation of D-Generation X, an edgy, raunchy stable that was somewhat NWO influenced (it had members of [[The Kliq]] in it as well, after) and feuded with the Hart Foundation, Bret Hart's group. Resulting from that feud was Michaels and Hart's match at Survivor Series 1997, Hart's last match in the WWF under his current contract. The match was to end ambiguously and Hart was to surrender his championship the next day on Raw, but Michaels, Vince McMahon and Triple H conspired to end the match without Hart's knowledge. This event created the Mr. McMahon character and a decade's worth of unmitigated hostility between Hart and those involved. The final event is Austin's match against Michaels at Wrestlemania XIV, when Austin defeated Michaels and in the words of JR "The Austin Era (had) begun." This event kickstarted the Austin-McMahon feud, which would be the focal point of the entire company for three years, in the company's most successful or second most successful era, The [[Attitude Era]].

* Similarly, at and before Wrestlemania X-Seven, the [[Attitude Era]] ended. Vince purchased WCW, the company's chief rival, and at Wrestlemania, one of the greatest PPV's in history, Austin faced The Rock for the WWF Championship, unbelievably, Stone Cold turned heel in his hometown and sided with McMahon to beat Rock. The central feuds of the Attitude Era, both in real-life and kayfabe, had ended within a week of each other.

 

== [[Theatre]] ==

* You have ''[[Tokimeki Memorial]]'' to thank for [[Dating Sim]] girls who actually have personalities beyond "living love doll".

* ...and ''[[Kanon]]'' to thank for giving the ''male protagonist'' a personality, as well as (and the two are connected) making [[Porn with Plot]] [[Eroge]] just as marketable as [[Porn Without Plot]] games (though the developers had previously done ''ONE -kagayaku kisetsu e-, Moon.,'' and ''Dousei'' before forming [[Key Visual Arts|their own studio]], none of these games had the impact that ''Kanon'' had).

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* ''[[Doug]]'' started a trend for many [[Slice of Life]] shows in the 1990s.

 

* The Great San Francisco Earthquake for [[California]]. Before the quake, [[San Francisco]] was the largest city on the West Coast, and [[Los Angeles]]' population was less than a million, nowhere near the second largest city in the United States. The quake and the Hollywood boom were instrumental in shifting the population southward.

* The Hurricane of 1900 that struck Galveston, Texas sent it into a long decline while turning [[Greater Houston|Houston]] into a booming port town. NASA and oil would finish the job.

* The American Revolution decisively changed international politics forever. It was the first modern democracy, and thus the Trope Maker for much of what we now think of as Western democracy. It directly or indirectly inspired revolutions for nearly a century and a half (from 1776 to 1918) - in particular the anti-monarchist nature of most of these revolts. It arguably represents the point at which guerilla warfare and firearms first met. And finally, it was the first time that an imperial European power was defeated by a non-European one.

* The US Constitution's Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, both of which were first drafted in 1789, are the [[Trope Codifier]]s for the modern concepts of liberal democracy and human rights.

 

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[[Category:Audience Reactions]]

[[Category:Genres]]