List of genres, styles, and broadcast formats.
Film genres
- Adventure film
- Action film
- Aristocratic romance
- Amateur film
- Mountain film / mountaineering drama
- Bible film / sandal film
- Bollywood film / Indian love films
- Dogme (handheld shaky-cam)
- Eastern / Kung Fu
- Erotic film
- Fantasy
- Fassbinder films
- Film noir / French cinema of the 1950s
- Heimatfilm
- Historical film
- Horror film / zombie film / chainsaw massacre
- Horror comedy
- Disaster film / aviation disaster / end-of-the-world scenario
- Children's film
- Comedy
- War film
- Crime film
- Romance film
- Swashbuckler / The Three Musketeers
- Fairy tale
- Martial arts
- Melodrama
- Slice of life
- Epic / monumental film
- Monster film / Godzilla / King Kong
- Music film
- Pirate film
- Porn (softcore/hardcore)
- Road movie
- Sword and sandal epic
- Science fiction, space epic, encounters with aliens
- Spy fiction: James Bond 007, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, …
- Sex comedy
- Slapstick
- Splatter
- Spy film
- Silent film
- Superhero — Superman, Batman and other comic-book adaptations
- Teen comedy
- Thriller
- Tragedy
- Tragicomedy
- Vampire film
- Western: classic Western, Italo-Western (Spaghetti Western), Western comedy
- Animation / comics / manga
TV formats
- Medical drama
- Advice show: medical topics
- Doc-soap: emigrants, parenting, home makeover
- Court show
- Church service, televangelist
- Eurovision Song Contest
- Music charts show
- Infotainment
- Children's programming (Sesame Street, Sendung mit der Maus)
- Cooking show
- Folk-comedy revue
- Cultural programming / Arte
- Antiques Roadshow (experts appraise heirlooms)
- Folk-music revue
- News broadcast (Tagesschau)
- Reality TV
- Travel / city magazine
- Reportage
- Sitcom
- Soap opera
- Sport: highlights show, live broadcast
- Language course
- Genre Talk show
- Distance-learning programme
- Infomercial / teleshopping
- Wildlife documentary
- Road-safety spots
- Election studio
- Political broadcast
- Commercials and station idents
- Weather report
- Politics and economy magazine
- Science programming
- Science variety show
- Sunday sermon
- Cold-case crime show
Theatre genres
- Greek tragedy
- Folk theatre (Volkstheater style — Ohnesorg, Millowitsch, Chiemgauer Volkstheater)
- Dance theatre (a story told through dance)
- Ballet (classical figures, classical tutus)
- Modern dance (expressive movement, jazz dance, leaps)
- Experimental / expressionist theatre
- Brecht / epic theatre
- Agitprop / revolutionary theatre / socialist learning play
- Problem plays / milieu plays
- Theatre of the absurd / Ionesco / Beckett
- Shakespeare theatre
- Baroque theatre (lavish costumes and rhetorical flourish)
- Commedia dell'arte
- Goldoni / Voltaire
- Rural farce (Bauernschwank)
- Black light theatre
- Music theatre / rock opera
- Musical
- Operetta
- Classical opera (with arias, recitative and spoken dialogue)
- Wagner / Verdi opera (through-composed; no spoken text)
- Modern opera (jagged to experimental music, atonal or minimal)
- Chinese opera
For children
- Marionette theatre
- Puppet theatre
- Animation
- Claymation
- Clown theatre
- Magician's show
- Fairy tales / songs (e.g. "Vogelhochzeit", performed by children)
- Punch and Judy / Kasperltheater
- "Sesame Street" style educational TV
Music styles
- Gregorian chant
- Medieval music
- Sacred music / organ and choral
- Bards / minstrels / minnesingers
- Drinking and student songs
- Love songs / bawdy songs
- Silent-film music / ragtime
- Opera (see theatre)
- Art song / lieder for voice and piano (Schubert)
- Twelve-tone / atonal music (just sing dissonantly!)
- Minimal music
- Ambient (lots of music, little singing)
- Italian bel canto (Pavarotti)
- Chinese opera/music
- Operetta
- Musical
- Jazz / jazz ballad / standard
- Dixieland / Louis Armstrong
- Latin jazz / bossa nova
- Electric jazz / jazz rock
- Free jazz / Archie Shepp
- Punk jazz / fierce drumming, punk-style vocals
- Salsa / merengue
- African pop / Miriam Makeba
- Reggae
- Country & Western
- Hillbilly
- Motown
- Soul
- Gospel
- Singer-songwriter
- Liedermacher (German singer-songwriter tradition)
- Chanson / canzoni
- Folk music (also non-European)
- Irish folk
- Belly-dance music
- Classical Chinese music
- Native American / shamanic dance
- African music (drums, lead singer and refrain)
- Overtone singing
- Yodelling
- Bavarian Gstanzl (insiders' couplet)
- Cabaret song
- Couplet / mocking song
- Socialist workers' song
- Volkstümlich (folksy showbiz, Musikantenstadl style)
- Schlager
- Rock
- Hard rock
- Death metal
- Heavy metal
- Punk
- Neue Deutsche Welle
- Techno / electronic music
- Rap
- Hip Hop
- A cappella / a cappella instrumental
- Children's song
Radio formats
- Radio play
- Listener call-ins: "I'd like to say hello to …"
- Interview
- Morning show
- News
- Traffic report
- Listener-request show
Other
- Audiobook
- Picture book
- Pulp novel
- Instruction manual (as a "literary" genre)
- PowerPoint presentation