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Erica Lopez

Professor Johnson

Genre comparison

24 April9 June 2017

Sign of the Times

Just stop your crying its the sign of the times. Welcome to the final show, I hope youre

wearing your best clothes. Harry Styles, one of One Directions members, recently released his

first song as a growing solo artist since the 1D hiatus began. A frenzy took place as a result of

Sign of the Times being released without any advanced notice leaving the worldpeople in

shock. The song quickly reached number one leading to a great amountAlong with the song

came large amounts of attention, multiple reviews, and comments. Tweets from fan accounts and

an article published in Rolling Stone are tTwo genres in particular that discuss Sign of the

Times and Harry Styles in distinctive ways and treat the topic differently. are tweets from fan

accounts and an article by Rolling Stone. Tweets can be created through the social site, Twitter.

Millions of fans use this website to express their opinions on the person they support or simply to

express what is on their mind, this includes their opinions on a person they support, which in this

case is Harry Styles. . Rolling Stone is a magazine that reviews music and informs itstheir Formatted: Font: Not Italic

audiences through articles. Though both genres are used in different matttters, both complete

their task and purpose of informing. These genres deal with the topic in divergent ways through

genre conventions such as diction, structure and format. The cause and usage of the conventions

are due to the audience and purpose. Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Not Bold, Font color: Black

Twitter contains a large audiencee public that is given the liberty to express what they

wish through tweets. Within Twitters audience the public are groups; , they can be seen as
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communities within a community or subgroups within a group. These subgroups are formed

through a common interest; in this instancecase it was Harry Styles. Once formed, the The

community of Harry Styles fans that created essentially a safe place on Twitter to express their

love for Harry each have obtained their own set amount of followers on their Twitter accounts;

these . These followers are the audience of the tweets tweeted by sent out by fans. that display

their support for the rising solo artist. The majority of the audience fans are female teenagers or

young women adults and because they are relatively from the same generation implying they are

familiar with slang, abbreviations, and terms being used. For example, S.o.t.t. is lit, I die every

time I listen to it. , Wwhat they are saying is that Sign of the Times (s.o.t.t.) by Harry Styles

is amazing and they enjoy listening to it. These are the kinds of tweets that are seen regularly.

The diction used is informal, casual, and easy to read if you are using Ttwitter or social media

that is dominated by the youth. The information and opinions tweeted by Mr. Styles fans not

only serve the purpose of self-expression but deliver details and important information about

Harry Styles and Sign of the Times to the fans on Twitter. . Because the audiences of these

tweets are young fans, the purpose of the tweets are not only to express oneself but to

communicate the success of Harry and his song to other.

Tweets can cover very broad subjects from opinions about food to political views, Rolling Stone Formatted: Indent: First line: 0"

on the other hand covers popular culture but is are specifically known for itstheir emphasis on

music coverage. Due to their specific kind of coverage it is reasonable that they covered Harrys

career and hit single. Sign of the Times is a trending new song and has people talking, it would

be foolish of Rolling Stone not to cover it. The purpose of theirreason behind its reviews and

coverage on trending topics in the world of pop culture is to inform the readers, young adults,
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about what is is inoccurring in the world of pop culture while entertaining them. Their Its

audience and purpose for writing is reflected in their diction. They use simple words that are not

too big or complex but keep the tone slightly formal to maintain keep authority and authenticity

in the information they are giving. An example is: Unlike the rest of his bandmates who have

tested out different genres and styles for their solo careers, Styles' new song aligns much more

with the Seventies-inspired pop-rock of One Direction's more recent albums like Made in the

A.M. . The tone is not casual nor excessively formal and but appeals to young adult fans,

ranging from ages 18 to 30, whothat are interested in being updated and informed because it is

authentic. Rolling Stone is typically known for being reliable and true to the information they Formatted: Font: Not Italic

give out which is why it is so popular and relied on by their audience. ItThe popular magazine Formatted: Underline
Formatted: Font: Not Italic
also provides content such as the outcome or results of the event that is being covered. For

example, in the An example is that the article published by Rolling Stone it explains that Harry

will be performing on SNL as a result of his song becoming popular, The boy band has been on

hiatus since 2015, and Styles will make his solo television debut on Saturday Night Live on April

15 .
th

The information within the two genres are expressed in contrastive methods. For

example, tweets are limited on the amount of letters, spaces, and characters can use; 140

characters is the maximum amount that can be utilized. Since tweets are restricted, fans either get

to the point with either one or multiple tweets, unlike Rolling Stone that uses one article to

deliver their message. The information stated within the article is expressed in paragraph form.

The paragraphs and sentences used to create this structure are short, yet long enough to give a

suffice amount of details. The purpose is to give the audience a balanced amount of information

while getting to the point. The reason the two genres display their information differently is due
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to their audience and the writer behind each genre. Twitter users talk about Sign of the Times

because they are teenage and young fans who have been given the liberty to discuss what they

love. As for the author of the Rolling Stone article, they have been given a job to discuss Harrys

success while keeping it professional. The author of the article has also been given the privilege

to write as much as they need without being excessive in details or boring. This is significant

because it depicts how different genre conventions emerge under certain environments and

situations.

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Given that there is a limit in the amount of characters fans have while tweeting,The

information within the two genres are expressed in contrastive methods. The information stated

within the article is expressed in paragraph form. The paragraphs and sentences used to create

this structure are short yet long enough to give a suffice amount of details, the purpose of this is

to not bore the audience with excessive details but to give a balanced amount of information

while getting to the point. Tweets, on other hand, are limited on the amount of characters, letters

and spaces, one can use; 140 characters is the maximum amount of characters one can use to

express what is on their mind. Since tweets are restricted fans either get to the point with either

one or multiple, unlike Rolling Stone that use one article to deliver their message. therefore

they tweet multiple times to get their point acrossConstantly having to be

tweeting. Though it may be a nuisance there are may be a nescience but pros to tweeting. A pro

can be is that people can like e or retweet tweets, and spread the news in a rapid pace. Followers

may alsoalso respond and add their own opinions or suggestions to tweets,to the tweet along with

having . Twitter users have the ability to can go back and forth between replying to tweets and

creating essentially a conversation. , in this case about Harry and his hit single. For instance, a
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fan maywill tweet Harrys song is so good but lowkey some of the lyrics arent good and

another fan might respond Excuse me? Harrys lyrics were literally the best thing ever! Are you

deaf? Bonds or tension between twitter users, depending if they agree or disagree with what is

being stated, can be created by cConversing through tweets can create bonds or tension between

twitter users depending if they agree or disagree with what is being stated. Relationships ,

negative or positive, are constantly being created and have become a normality of Twitter.

Unfortunately, this is not seen in Rolling Stone articles because there is not a person to typically

create a bond with or speak to in a conversationor converse with unless oneyou writes an email

to the writer author which is highly unlikely of a person to do. On Twitter if you do not like what

is being tweeted one can either report the tweet or block the person; Two easy solutions. If you

do not like what is being stated in a Rolling Stone article For Rolling Stone if you do not like

what is being said or do not agree, then a solution is to simply not read the article since there is

no option to block the writer. There is significance to this because community is built in one

genre making on more effective than the other. Although both genres carry the same purpose, it

is the community or fandom that carries the news and information about Harry Styles and his

hit single that make it all the more effective. Readers of the Rolling Stone receive the information

about Harry but then what? Twitter users receive information, spread it, continue to tweet the

news, and expand the popularity of Harry all while tweeting about him and supporting him.

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Tweets and articles are two separate genres that have the ability to deliver the same

messages while tackling the topic with different techniques. Both genres wrote in different ways

to appeal to their specific audience or followers. Rolling Stone covered Harry and his song

through article form and twitter fan accounts used tweets to support harry and talk about him.
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This was done through different genre conventions such as diction, structure, and format.

Though the genres are incredibly distinct they discussed the same information while treating it

differently.

Works Cited

Anonymous. "Sott Is Lit, I Die Every Time I Listen to It." Twitter. Twitter, 14 Apr. 2017.

Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

Spanos, Brittany. "Hear Harry Styles' Sweeping Debut Solo Song 'Sign of the Times'."

Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone, 07 Apr. 2017. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

Works Cited

Anonymous. "Sott Is Lit, I Die Every Time I Listen to It." Twitter. Twitter, 14 Apr. 2017. Web.

15 Apr. 2017.
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Spanos, Brittany. "Hear Harry Styles' Sweeping Debut Solo Song 'Sign of the Times'." Rolling
Stone. Rolling Stone, 07 Apr. 2017. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.