What follows is an example from Tom Romano's book which illustrates the differences between different genre on the same subject.  The first piece is an encyclopaedia article on Count Basie.  The second is a poem about him.  Use these examples to discuss with your class what the different genres show and how they fulfill different purposes.
 
 
 
 

Basie, William (1904-[1984]), "Count," musician.  Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, on August 21, 1904, William Basie was musically inclined from childhood.  In his teens he studied piano, for a time with Fats Waller, who also taught him to play the organ and got him into vaudeville as an accompanist.  For a few years he played on the East Coast and then worked his way west until he was stranded in Kansas City, Missouri.  There he joined Walter Page's "Blue Devils" and then Benny Moten's band, at the time the leading jazz group in the Midwest.  Soon after Moten's death in 1935, Basie formed his own band with Page, Freddy Green, Jo Jones, Lester Young, and others.  The band played at the Reno Club in Kansas City and, although it was short on formal arrangements, soon attracted a considerable following with its driving rhythm and brilliant solo work.  A chance hearing of one of their local radio broadcasts by an influential jazz enthusiast led to their traveling to New York City in 1936 and to a recording contract the following year.  Engagements at a series of fashionable clubs, theaters, and hotels quickly established the band as one of the most popular in the country and recordings spread their fame throughout the world.  A succession of great soloists . . . and vocalists . . . helped to keep the appeal of Count Basie's music growing; always it was characterized by the trademark "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of Basie's own piano.  The band broke up in 1950 and for a year or so Basie toured with a small combo. . . . In 1951 he organized a new big band and immediately surpassed his earlier success in a number of tours across the county and in Europe . . .
 
 

Source: Webster's American Biographies (1975)
From: Romano, Tom Blending Genre, Altering Style (Boynton/Cook, 2000)
Basic Basie
 

Hunched, humped backed, gigantic
the pianist presides above the
rumpus, his fingers clutch the

chords, dissonance and discord vie
and vamp across the key
board

his big feet beat the beat until the whole joint
rocks, it is not romantic
but a subtle fingering exudes a sweet exotic

fragrance now and then, you'll
recognize the fragrance if you listen
well, this flower blooms and blossoms, till

brash boogie woogie hordes come burgeoning up from hell
blind
and gigantic
 

      Kamau Brathwaite

From: Romano, Tom Blending Genre, Altering Style (Boynton/Cook, 2000)