Popular Genres - love them or hate them, they influence everyday people, everyday.  Whether this influence is direct or indirect, consciously or unconsciously absorbed does not matter.  What is important is how and why they have such a strong power over the viewer.  Whilst simultaneously affirming and subverting the norms of culture, popular genres also function as a site of contestation for the values, beliefs and ideologies represented within them. In lay terms, they uphold the cultural beliefs, values and ideologies that are accepted and taken for granted in western society and at the same time question and undermine these principles.  In doing so, they allow the viewer to question and oppose the ideals which they radiate.

Popular Genres work to normalize certain cultural aspects and beliefs embodied within them.  These aspects are often portrayed so...