What is a Soap
Opera? Historical and Cultural background
Soap opera
Noun
Plural noun: soap operas
“A television or radio drama serial dealing typically with daily events
in the lives of the same group of character”.
Soap operas generally focus on a group of characters and
their everyday lives focusing particularly on their emotional relationships to
the point of melodrama. They get their name soap operas due to the fact that
many of the producers and sponsors of the original serials which were broadcast
on radio were actually soap manufacturers.
The first soap that was considered a ‘soap opera’ was a
programme called Painted Dreams which debuted in Chicago. Programmes such as
painted dreams were broadcast in weekday time slots, usually five days a week
due to most of the listeners being housewives and one of the main reasons why
they were aimed at and consumed by a predominantly female audience.
What are the main
features/conventions of a soap opera?
One of the main features of a soap opera is the fact that
the narrative is never complete and is always left open-ended with the
storyline running over several episodes and the length can range from a few
days to months later. The audience know that once one episode ends they are
reassured that there will be another one to follow meaning that they are never
left without the soap.
Soap opera storylines run concurrently intersect and lead
into further developments. An individual episode of a soap opera will generally
switch between several different concurrent narrative threads that may at times
interconnect and affect one another or may run entirely independent of each
other. Each episode may feature some of the show's current storylines but not
always all of them. Especially in daytime serials and those that are screened
each weekday, there is some rotation of both storyline and actors so any given
storyline or actor will appear in some but usually not all of a week's worth of
episodes. Soap operas rarely bring all the current storylines to a conclusion
at the same time. When one storyline ends there are several other story threads
at differing stages of development. Soap opera episodes typically end on some
sort of cliff-hanger.
How do ‘soaps’
differ from other genres?
The main characteristics that define a soap opera and make
them different to other genres are:
- There is an emphasis on family life, personal relationships, sexual dramas and emotional and moral conflicts all of which are usually exaggerated to make the programme more entertaining and also to slightly differ from real life yet still allowing the audience to relate to the characters and their situation and create verisimilitude.
- All soap operas are set in a familiar domestic location that appears in each episode with very few new locations introduced throughout the duration of the soaps life. This fits with the verisimilitude that the producers are trying to create and fits with the characteristics of each character as the soap follows their lives. All the characters live and work together/in the same area and the familiar location allows us to focus on them and also their extended family.
Audience- who
watches soaps, how do we know? How do they attract their audience?
The UK’s most popular genre of television is Soap operas
with most of them being broadcast during prime-time television. Most UK soaps
focus on more everyday working class communities compared to those shown in
America which frequently portray romantic storylines in glamorous locations.
Coronation Street, EastEnders and Emmerdale are amongst the highest rated shows
on British television showing just how popular soap operas are in the UK.
Soap operas
advertise up and coming storylines of the channel they are to be shown on with
the use of trailers. These trailers enable the audience/potential audience to
see what is happening in the coming episodes and entices them to watch the
storyline unfold. Soap operas are easy to dip in and out of so the use of these
trailers gives audiences the little background information they may need to
know what has happened leading up to the large event. Trailers used when a
storyline is coming to a climax, a new major storyline have been introduced or
during a public holiday such a Christmas when all the soaps battle for the
highest ratings.
Soaps also rely
on word of mouth to attract their audience; their wide range of audience ages
means that all sorts of people are able to talk about and discuss what has occurred
in the soap that week whether they are at work, school or at home with other
family members. Soap operas contain a wide range of characters from all
different backgrounds and all different ages, this is supposed to represent the
diverse culture in which we live in allowing all sorts of people to watch from
different socio economic groups. It is clear to see just how many people watch
the soap operas from the large viewing numbers which the genre attracts with
many people watching more than one soap.
“The 1986 Christmas Day episode of EastEnders is often given as the
highest-rated UK soap opera episode ever, with 30.15 million viewers (in 2007,
the UK had approximately 54 million viewers). The figure of 30.15 million was
actually a combination of the original broadcast which had just over 19 million
viewers, and the Sunday omnibus edition with 10 million viewers”- Wikipedia
[Alice]
Realism – How
realistic are soaps? What issues are raised? What type of verisimilitude is
created?
Realism in soaps is an important convention for making the
soap attractive to their audience. It is clear that for soaps to be successful
they have to address narratives which audiences can relate to, linking to the
codes and conventions of personal identity on behalf of the audience. If they
can relate to a character or a narrative, they would be most likely to enjoy
the soap as well as increasing viewing hours to find out how they would resolve
the situation that the characters may be in.
For example, Hollyoaks saw ratings increase the Hollyoaks
Blast occurred in October 2013. Killing many in the cast. The narrative viewed
the deaths of Clare, Doug, Ash and Leanne, reaching the total of 1.19 million
viewers for that episode as well as the aftermath, staggering over the episode
before which reached only 813 thousand viewers. [Source: http://metro.co.uk/2013/10/16/hollyoaks-blast-soaps-ratings-soar-as-dodger-ash-and-doug-are-killed-off-4149202/]
Soaps often stick to current affairs that are in the news,
however some have brought in complaints and bad reviews for tasteless
storylines. An example of this includes the baby swapping incident in
EastEnders that viewed Ronnie swapping her lifeless child with Kat’s own. This
was viewed as insensitive as the story of Madeleine Mccann which was still
being bought in to perspective on the news, years after her disappearance in
2007.
Verisimilitude is present in soaps through the narrative,
although for entertainment they are often emphasised. It is not an everyday
occurrence that two murders happen on the same road by two different people on
the same night along with a fire happening all at once, however all these
narrative separately do represent verisimilitude, as deaths and murder do
happen and fires also occur. To keep the audience entertained with the soap the
narrative is often emphasised to reach this objective and increase ratings.
[Henry]
Subject matter and
style – issues, storylines etc.
Storylines represent their soaps along with the portrayal of
characters, linking to their roles in narrative, for example Dot Branning’s
role as the matriarch in ‘EastEnders’. Subject matters in soaps are often from
the “perspective of the real world” [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Soap_Operas] however
create tension in order to keep audiences interested in the narrative.
A recent storyline by Coronation Street showed death of
“girl next door” Tina, who was pushed off of a building by Rob due to the
recent affair she had with his sister’s husband. The story touched upon an
event which occurs regularly in some people’s lives, the affair and cheating,
however bought suspense when she was kept alive in the hospital for a few days
until passing. It bought in 8.2 million viewers on her death and the week that
the story continued bought a constant increase, with audiences wanting to know
what actually happened to her. This presented dramatic irony as the audience
was aware of the murderer whereas the characters are not, dissimilar to other
murder storylines, such as Lucy in ‘EastEnders’ where no one is aware on the
murderer.
Stereotypes and
Characters
Stereotypes are often present in soaps, however it is clear
that many try to break stereotypes and modernise narratives. For example, mothers
are stereotyped to be loving and supportive, however in soaps we see neglect
from mothers and sometimes even violence, such as Jean in ‘EastEnders’ who’s
illness meant that she was unfit to look after her daughter, Stacy, often
lashing out at her and becoming angry. This creates not only entertainment, but
educates audiences with factors that not everyone fits in to their
stereotypical role, as many families may suffer from a member with bipolar,
like Jean and Stacy. Family
units are often stereotyped as being a strong and together however in many soap operas the family unit is broken with many parents being divorced or separated as is the case for Lomaxes in Hollyoaks who were recently torn apart by the devastating news that Danny has been cheating on his wife with a number of other men. This challenges the stereotypical view of a family as the Lomaxes are now separated and no living together, this is sometimes blamed as the reason for the children becoming a wayward youth.
When was the first
British Soap Televised?
The first British soap was 'The Grove Family' televised in 1954. It was the first adult Soap Opera on TV and presented a story of a family, focusing on family life. It its first year it had already drawn a quarter of the population in Britain in with television and was so popular that the queen even watched it, quoting "so English, so real!".
[Kira]
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