Telenovelas - Genres

Genres

Telenovelas tend to fall within these six categories:

Working-class melodrama, which is easy to understand and contains less explicit content. They typically feature a poor woman who falls in love with a rich man whose family spurns her, such as Maria la del barrio (1995).

Historical romance is set in the past, such as the colonial period (Martín Garatuza, 1986), the restoration of the Republic (El carruaje, 1972), the late 19th Century (El vuelo del águila, 1994) and the revolution (Bodas de odio, 1982)

Teen drama, which portrays the lives of high school teenagers and their issues with sex, drugs, and other coming-of-age topics. It started with Quinceañera in 1987.

Mystery/Thriller, is more cold hearted than the other sub-genres. It may portray a mysterious death or disappearance, which may tear couples, even families apart, such as Cuna de Lobos, La Casa al Final de la Calle,'La Mujer de Judas,¿Dónde está Elisa? or El Rostro de la Venganza.

Romantic comedy, which portrays love stories with some or lots of comedy such as Las tontas no van al cielo or Yo soy Betty, la fea (the most successful soap opera in history).

Pop band story portrays the lives of aspiring musicians such as in Alcanzar una estrella (1990) and its sequel Alcanzar una estrella II (1991), as well as Rebelde (2004), which spawned a multi-platinum pop group, RBD.

Telenovelas are not only immensely popular in Hispanic America, Brazil, Spain, Portugal, and in Hispanic communities in the United States, but also have a wide following in Russia, Eastern Europe, France, Greece, Italy, the Philippines, Israel, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, China, and Japan. In the Arab world, telenovelas are incredibly popular with families stopping their day from midday onward to watch these shows whose contents often reflect many of the moral and social questions faced in cultures like Morocco, Algeria, and Egypt. The medium has been used repeatedly to transmit sociocultural messages by incorporating them into storylines.