History Main / GenreKiller

* The "Golden Age of Radio" naturally ended with the rise of television during the early 1950s. In 1952-53 ''Amos 'n' Andy'' was the top show on the air with a 14.2 share; the following season, ''People Are Funny'' reached the top spot with a paltry 8.4 share, coinciding with the moment more than half of all U.S. households had a TV.

* A MagnumOpus that might not be necessarily good but is guaranteed to become classic due to utterly exhausting the genre and [[DeadHorseTrope beating every single trope in it to death]], making it nearly impossible to create further works within the genre's constraints without being accused of UsefulNotes/{{Plagiarism}} or CreativeSterility.

* A genre gets so expensive to produce or film convincingly that people aren't willing to lay down the money for it. Sometimes advances in CGI or computer programming can revive the genre -- for example, the EpicMovie was [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem briefly dead]] until advances in computer technology and animatronics were able to tamp down on the costs. Of course, disaster movies are becoming [[CyclicTrope rarer again for the same reason]]. Alternatively, it turns out that the technology needed to convincingly move the genre forward wasn't as viable as people thought. Gaze upon the many, many aborted attempts to have fully-3D characters replacing "real" actors in a movie or 3D gaming.

* ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' and ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' caused a period of DarkerAndEdgier comic books by starting a trend of comic-book {{deconstruction}} and killing off the idealistic [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]-type [[TheCape hero]] (until ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'' made it viable again). Creator/AlanMoore, the writer of ''Watchmen'', is incredibly aware of this, having spent the majority of his career after the novel trying to undo its influence on comics.

* ''ComicBook/{{Deathmate}}'', the IntercontinuityCrossover between Creator/ImageComics and Creator/ValiantComics. In addition to [[CreatorKiller the continued existence of Valiant]], it killed the NinetiesAntiHero pioneered by the above and many of the creative elements that led to the archetype. It also helped contribute to the death of [[UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 the entire industry as it existed at that point in time]], due to comic shops preordering massive numbers of the comics, then having to deal with the fallout when Image's half of the crossover came out [[ScheduleSlip long after interest in it had dried up]].
* The end of World War II killed most [[UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] superheroes -- in the post-war period, people weren't that interested in reading about people fighting to save the world anymore, and other genres took over. Among the few survivors were ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'', and ''ComicBook/WonderWoman''.
* In the '50s, the stringent censorship of UsefulNotes/TheComicsCode killed the crime and horror genres in American comics. This was entirely intentional, as the increasingly gruesome stories had drawn enough fire from the MoralGuardians that comics ''as a whole'' were in danger of being prohibited in many states.

* The Entertech line of water guns that resembled real firearms, to the point of battery-powered sound effects to better sell the illusion, became infamous in TheEighties thanks to both [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet police mistaking them for the real thing and shooting kids]] on one hand, and actual criminals using them in robberies because they could pass for the real thing on the other. The controversies and lawsuits that drove Entertech's parent company Creator/LJNToys [[CreatorKiller out of the toy business]] (and into video games and [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd a different kind of infamy]]), combined with fears surrounding the crime wave of that time, helped kill off MyLittlePanzer-style toys in TheNineties and cause toymakers that sold fake weapons to pivot towards obvious, brightly-colored sci-fi or fantasy gear that nobody could mistake for a lethal weapon.[[note]]Ironically, some criminals still use this to their advantage by painting their firearms in bright colors to resemble the harmless toy counterpart.[[/note]] After the Columbine Massacre, the relationship between violent toys and children was scrutinized more than ever, and the long string of American school shootings that came after had all but guaranteed the extinction of these kinds of toys. Only the Daisy Red Ryder air rifle survives, largely out of [[GrandfatherClause tradition]] and [[Film/AChristmasStory nostalgic kids' movies]], while UsefulNotes/{{airsoft}} guns that resemble real firearms are marketed strictly to adults and in many places have legal restrictions on their sale and use.

* ''WCW Monday Nitro'' pretty much killed the traditional "Main/{{Jobber}} squash match"[[note]]"Jobber" as in guy that gets no entrance, has ring gear that cost no more than $20, and is probably using his real name. Not a guy that usually loses but is still on the WWE roster page, in the video games, etc...[[/note]]. With a roster of around 200 people and only one hour of (always live) TV to fill a week Eric Bischoff promised only name talent on ''Nitro'', forcing ''Monday Night Raw'' to (eventually, once they got enough people) respond in kind. Old fashioned jobbers could still be seen on the B and C shows for a couple more years but were basically gone by the turn of the millennium. The concept made something of a comeback in Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling in 2019, with signed wrestlers squashing unsigned local or indie talent on their ''Dark'' and ''Dark Elevation'' Website/YouTube shows.

* The absolutely vicious reception to Wrestling/DwayneJohnson's "Rocky Maivia" gimmick probably wasn't what killed the "[[Main/{{Face}} white meat babyface]]" character (think Wrestling/RickySteamboat) as a viable draw in pro wrestling, but it was definitely the sign that it was no longer going to work. In this case it was more a general culture shift that was represented across all media that saw heroic characters adopt a more gritty and realistic persona, with the Main/AntiHero trope really taking off in films, video games, comic books (see NinetiesAntiHero) and wrestling. The Main/{{Deconstruction}} of the "white meat babyface" by Wrestling/KurtAngle (who played it ridiculously over the top to intentionally get heel heat, which worked in spades) officially lowered the coffin into the ground. Wrestling/{{Sting}} is the one exception, as he was still using the character up until his ([[TenMinuteRetirement second]]) retirement in Wrestling/{{AEW}}, though even he had to go DarkerAndEdgier, ditching the bleach blonde hair and colorful facepaint to blatantly rip off ''Film/TheCrow''.
* On the other side of the spectrum is the Main/ForeignWrestlingHeel, a staple of pro wrestling for decades until the 90s, had its ability to draw major money killed off due to events that (mostly) had nothing to do with wrestling:
** The first and most obvious one was the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar. With the U.S. no longer in conflict with anyone for most of the 90s (save for minor skirmishes here and there that are largely forgotten[[note]]The WWF did try to exploit the [[UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar first Iraq war]] by turning Wrestling/SgtSlaughter into an "Iraqi sympathizer", which flopped so badly that Vince was forced to move ''Wrestling/WrestleMania VII'' from the 80,000 seat L.A. Colosseum to the 17,000 seat L.A. Sports Arena on account of poor ticket sales, though the WWF claimed it was due to security reasons[[/note]]) promoters had to invent foreign heel gimmicks from whole cloth, the majority of which were total flops. While Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}} was able to get over in spite of his silly "dirty foreigner from a place we've been allies with for 40 years" evil sumo gimmick (probably because he was [[Main/WrestlingMonster 500 lbs]] and from [[Wrestling/SamoanDynasty the family]], the Japanese bit was just a hat on a hat), stuff like evil Finnish militant environmentalist Ludvig Borga died a pretty quick death. When we finally did get into another war about a decade later the Muhammad Hassan incident[[note]]Hassan (actually an Italian-American from upstate New York named Mark Copani) was doing a pretty ingenious gimmick where he wasn't playing an "evil Arab" but rather a man lashing out because he felt he was being perceived as one after 9/11. His career was over after one segment (a "terrorist attack" on Wrestling/TheUndertaker) on ''WWE Smackdown'', while the segment itself wasn't particularly controversial the fact that it was left in the broadcast after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings London 7/7 attack]] had occurred earlier in the day definitely ''was'' controversial (''Smackdown'' was taped Tuesday and aired Thursday Night, the bombing happened Thursday morning) and Copani was [[Main/SquashMatch completely demolished by Taker on PPV]], then released shortly thereafter, he elected to retire and pursue a career in education[[/note]] showed that UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror was a little too hot for wrestling to touch. Time will tell if the situation in Ukraine leads to the Evil Russian making a comeback in wrestling.

** The third, and the one that will likely keep it from making a serious comeback on a big stage, is the huge amount of money the TV networks are paying to air wrestling, which means they get a say and can kill anything too controversial right out of the gate. Same goes for any big money sponsors. Not to mention the country you're portraying as evil might take issue. Sure, a Evil Chinese heel might be topical right now, but then you literally get Main/BannedInChina, so kiss those 1.5 billion potential customers goodbye. Today if you see a foreign heel he's either being used [[Main/{{Jobber}} underneath]] as comedy fodder, using a gimmick that's a deliberate throwback (like [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Rusev]]), or subverted in a way like "they're bad and they're from another country" rather than "they're bad ''because'' they're from another country."

* The absolutely vicious reception to Wrestling/DwayneJohnson's "Rocky Maivia" gimmick probably wasn't what killed the "[[Main/{{Face}} white meat babyface]]" character (think Wrestling/RickySteamboat) as a viable draw in pro wrestling, but it was definitely the sign that it was no longer going to work. In this case it was more a general culture shift that was represented across all media that saw heroic characters adopt a more gritty and realistic persona, with the Main/AntiHero trope really taking off in films, video games, comic books (see NinetiesAntiHero) and wrestling. The Main/{{Deconstruction}} of the "white meat babyface" by Wrestling/KurtAngle (who played it ridiculously over the top to intentionally get heel heat, which worked in spades) officially lowered the coffin into the ground. Wrestling/{{Sting}} is the one exception, as he was still using the character up until his (TenMinuteRetirement second) retirement in Wrestling/{{AEW}}, though even he had to go DarkerAndEdgier, ditching the bleach blonde hair and colorful facepaint to blatantly rip off ''Film/TheCrow''.

* The absolutely vicious reception to Wrestling/DwayneJohnson's "Rocky Maivia" gimmick probably wasn't what killed the "[[Main/{{Face}} white meat babyface]]" character (think Wrestling/RickySteamboat) as a viable draw in pro wrestling, but it was definitely the sign that it was no longer going to work. In this case it was more a general culture shift that was represented across all media that saw heroic characters adopt a more gritty and realistic persona, with the Main/AntiHero trope really taking off in films, video games, comic books (see NinetiesAntiHero) and wrestling. The Main/{{Deconstruction}} of the "white meat babyface" by Wrestling/KurtAngle (who played it ridiculously over the top to intentionally get heel heat, which worked in spades) officially lowered the coffin into the ground. Wrestling/{{Sting}} is the one exception, as he is still using the character to this day in Wrestling/{{AEW}}.

* The comic industry's entire progress was largely altered by, of all things, a snowy season in 1977 and 1978. Though there were many other factors involved (increasing comic prices, an economic downturn, and newsstands in general being under fire), the snowy season caused comic sales to face a serious rough patch. This caused the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Implosion DC Implosion]], where DC cancelled 40% of its entire line, and Marvel is often credited to have only survived that period thanks to the surprise sales juggernaut that was ''[[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 StarWars]]''. Because of this, newsstand circulation for comic books, which had long been in decline, went into freefall, which caused a pivot to dedicated comic shops. With audiences now consisting of those who visited direct-market comic shops, the industry began PanderingToTheBase, resulting in the slow death of every genre and style of comic aside from shared-universe superhero stories.

** Alternatively, a TropeCodifier or {{Trope Maker|s}} is so dominating that it kills off any competing or experimental subgenres that don't adhere to the rules it sets down. For example, ''VideoGame/StreetFighterII'' and ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'' so completely solidified the rules of the FightingGame and BeatEmUp (respectively) that they all but eliminated major gameplay deviations in their genres.

* The comic industry's entire progress was largely altered by, of all things, a snowy season in 1977 and 1978. Though there were many other factors involved (increasing comic prices, an economic downturn, and newsstands in general being under fire), the snowy season caused comic sales to face a serious rough patch. This caused the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Implosion DC Implosion]], where DC cancelled 40% of its entire line, and Marvel is often credited to have only survived that period thanks to the surprise sales juggernaut that was ''[[ComicBook/ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 StarWars]]''. Because of this, newsstand circulation for comic books, which had long been in decline, went into freefall, which caused a pivot to dedicated comic shops. With audiences now consisting of those who visited direct-market comic shops, the industry began PanderingToTheBase, resulting in the slow death of every genre and style of comic aside from shared-universe superhero stories.

* SwordAndSorcery died in the mid-80s as the result of a glut of Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian clones, first in books and then in film following the success of [[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 the movie]], stagnating the genre and giving it a reputation as low-grade trash. The content of some of these works also gave critics who decried it for sexism and racism plenty of ammunition. Additionally, one of Sword and Sorcery's defining characteristics was brevity, and publishers were gravitating towards HighFantasy due to its potential for long sagas which would keep readers buying the next book in the series. In ''Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword and Sorcery'', author Brian Murphy singles out editor Lin Carter, who saw no need for the genre to evolve or to develop characters beyond stock archetypes.

* A genre gets so expensive to produce or film convincingly that people aren't willing to lay down the money for it. Sometimes advances in CGI or computer programming can revive the genre -- for example, the EpicMovie [[UsefulNotes/FallOfTheStudioSystem was briefly dead]] until advances in computer technology and animatronics were able to tamp down on the costs. Of course, disaster movies are becoming [[CyclicTrope rarer again for the same reason]]. Alternatively, it turns out that the technology needed to convincingly move the genre forward wasn't as viable as people thought. Gaze upon the many, many aborted attempts to have fully-3D characters replacing "real" actors in a movie or 3D gaming.

* The one-two punch of both failing 1990's cartoons ''WesternAnimation/{{Hammerman}}'' (Music/{{MC Hammer}}) and ''Little Rosey'' (Creator/RoseanneBarr) effectively brought the curtain down on the CelebrityToons genre, which had been popular on Saturday mornings dating back to the [[TheSeventies mid 1970s]]. This lasted long until the success of WesternAnimation/HiHiPuffyAmiYumi of the TurnOfTheMillennium.

* Up through the 1980s, Las Vegas showrooms were dominated by {{Variety Show}}s in the mold of Paris' Foliés Bergére, alternating beautiful, scantily-clad showgirl routines with a hodgepodge of variety acts that ranged from celebrity impersonators to comedians to Creator/RatPack-style singers to acrobats to magicians, with little linking them together thematically. The rise of magicians Siegfried and Roy as Vegas headliners was a bad omen, but the real killer was Creator/CirqueDuSoleil's ''Theatre/{{Mystere}}'' in 1993 -- a circus as lavish, varied, and exciting as any variety show with a cohesive, if surreal and rock/pop-influenced artistic vision holding it all together. The rather outdated approach of older shows lost its luster quickly, Cirque brought even more spectacular productions to other Vegas showrooms in subsequent years, and the classic format died for good when ''Jubilee!'', which opened in 1981, closed in 2016. Newer attempts at "Vegas-style" shows are really straightforward variety showcases -- they might bring out showgirls for a few numbers, but as equals to the acts that once played second fiddle to them at best and as window dressing at worst.

* Something so [[DarthWiki/SoBadItsHorrible incredibly bad]] that it leaves a bad taste in audiences' mouths for the entire genre.

* The Entertech line of water guns that resembled real firearms, to the point of battery-powered sound effects to better sell the illusion, became infamous in TheEighties thanks to both [[ShootHimHeHasAWallet police mistaking them for the real thing and shooting kids]] on one hand, and actual criminals using them in robberies because they could pass for the real thing on the other. The controversies and lawsuits that drove Entertech's parent company Creator/LJNToys [[CreatorKiller out of the toy business]] (and into video games and [[WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd a different kind of infamy]]), combined with fears surrounding the crime wave of that time, helped kill off MyLittlePanzer-style toys in TheNineties and cause toymakers that sold fake weapons to pivot towards obvious, brightly-colored sci-fi or fantasy gear that nobody could mistake for a lethal weapon.[[note]]Ironically, some criminals still use this to their advantage by painting their firearms in bright colors to resemble the harmless toy counterpart.[[/note]] Only the Daisy Red Ryder air rifle survives, largely out of [[GrandfatherClause tradition]] and [[Film/AChristmasStory nostalgic kids' movies]], while UsefulNotes/{{airsoft}} guns that resemble real firearms are marketed strictly to adults and in many places have legal restrictions on their sale and use.

* The publication of both ''Literature/JeffTheKiller'' and ''Fanfic/SonicEXE'' in 2011 both [[TropeCodifier codified]] and eventually killed the "[[TeensAreMonsters teenage]] SerialKiller" and "[[TheMostDangerousVideoGame evil video game]]" genre of {{Creepypasta}}s respectively, as both genres were soon flooded by [[FollowTheLeader a sea of imitators]] that [[StrictlyFormula copied them wholesale]] until they eventually drowned in their own excess and readers, [[ItsTheSameNowItSucks tired of the repetitive nature of said genres]], began looking towards more original material. Both ''Jeff the Killer'' and ''Sonic.exe'''s critical reappraisals [[CondemnedByHistory for the worse]] have ensured that neither genre will be able to recover any time soon.

* The universally negative reception of ''Anime/AbunaiSisters'' kills off the potential for [[AllCGICartoon 3D anime]] for the early part of TheNewTens, as the series is infamous for poor-rendered CGI models and the weak, simplistic plots. It would be a while before ''Anime/HarlockSpacePirate'' and ''Anime/StandByMeDoraemon'' received positive reviews. Until now, most CGI anime series are more likely to use TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects or CelShading to give traditional anime impression rather than the "pure" CGI animation like the western counterpart.

* The universally negative reception of Anime/AbunaiSisters kills off the potential for [[AllCGICartoon 3D anime]] for the early part of TheNewTens, as the series is infamous for poor-rendered CGI models and the weak, simplistic plots. It would be a while before Anime/HarlockSpacePirate and Anime/StandByMeDoraemon receive positive reviews. Until now, most CGI anime series are more likely to use TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects or CelShading to give traditional anime impression rather than the "pure" CGI animation like the western counterpart.

''When adding examples, be wary of OverlyNarrowSuperlative. If you have to add multiple qualifiers to describe the "genre", it probably isn't an example. DieHardOnAnX" is a genre, "French Die Hard on a Billionaire's Yacht between Greek Islands", [[Administrivia/ChairsSitOnPeople isn't]]. Also, [[Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease as TV Tropes does not know time]], please wait 10 years after the work's release.''

''When adding examples, be wary of OverlyNarrowSuperlative. If you have to add multiple qualifiers to describe the "genre", it probably isn't an example. DieHardOnAnX" is a genre, "French Die Hard on a Billionaire's Yacht between Greek Islands", [[Adminstrivia/ChairsSitOnPeople isn't]]. Also, [[Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease as TV Tropes does not know time]], please wait 10 years after the work's release.''