Genre

Researching the genre of the song 'Mad World' was more difficult than I thought because the song has been use under several genres.

The song was it was first written by a band called Tears for Fears who are an English pop rock duo who were mainly mainstreaming in the early 1980s. The genre of the song 'Mad World’ however is Electronic pop or alternative. When released this was tears for fears’ third single and the first one to hit the charts reaching number 3 in the UK in November 1982.

the same song was later covered by Gary Jules who is an American singer songwriter and his cover version of the song mad world was chose to be recorded for the film Donnie darko, it then became the Christmas number 1 in 2003. The genre for this cover of the song is different from the first version as it is in the soft rock genre and has been labelled as a feel good song.

Gary Jules’ version of the song was also used in the trailer for computer game gears of war. The genre of this video game is a third person shooter which is again completely different than the previous two genres covered. When watching the advert for the video game the song seems to almost have an 'watering down' effect and puts a softer feel to the game allowing you to feel for the soldier roaming the deserted streets until me meets his fate at the end of the trailer.the song Mad World is used at the ending of the film Donnie Darko.

Donnie Darko is a Drama/Thriller film about troubled teenagers who is plagued by visions of a large rabbit that manipulates him to commit a series of crimes after narrowly escaping a bizarre accident.

finally the song is used in series 5 of the hit American medical drama House. House who is played by Hugh Laurie. The drama is based on House M.D who is a medical genius with abet of a dark past who seems to blame other people for his problems. Most of the episodes revolve around the diagnosis of a primary patient and start with a pre-credit sequence set outside the hospital, showing events leading up to the onset of the patient's symptoms. The typical episode follows the team in their attempts to diagnose and treat the patient's illness, attempts that often fail until the patient's condition is critical.

All of the above represent the song Mad World as it has featured in a film and a medical drama, Donnie Darko and House, The video game trailer for Gears of War and was written and sung by Tears for Fears originally before the cover version reached the Christmas number 1 spot. To produce what is going to happen in the lyrics we have looked at what happens in all of the aspects that it features in and made our own synopsis.