In Defense of the Genre
album by Say Anything
In Defense of The Genre is the third studio album by American rock band Say Anything. The album artwork was provided by Jeff Smith, an artist primarily known for his work on the Bone comic series.
Background and production
Writing and plans for In Defense of the Genre began in March 2006 during Say Anything's extensive touring and promotion for the reissue of their previous effort, …Is a Real Boy. In October and November 2006, they embarked on a headlining US tour, with support from MewithoutYou and Piebald, which led into a short UK tour with New Found Glory that lasted until December 2006. Recording was held at Electric Lady Studios in New York City, and at Seagrass Studios in Valley Village, California, with producer and engineer Brad Wood, between January and March 2007. Wood was assisted by Noah Goldstein at Electric Lady; additional recordings were made by Andy Jackson and Ross Petersen. Wood mixed the recordings, before the album was mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge in New York City, with assistance from Joe LaPorta, in March 2007. Despite this, the band were still recording into June 2007, by which point they were only two thirds of the way finished.
Composition
Before the album was released, Bemis said it would deal with the "struggles with mental health offset by finding love for the first time". Max Bemis described in an interview that the record is more focused on "observations of other people", unlike ...Is a Real Boy's lyrical content revolving solely on Bemis and his problems.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “In Defense of the Genre” as album by Say Anything. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as album by Say Anything. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Nov 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q3149613. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006 and 2007.
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This entry incorporates text from “In Defense of the Genre” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.