The definitions cited in one hundred records of the Library of Congress Genre/Form Terms, twenty each in fiction, poetry, drama, motion pictures, and music, were analyzed in order to compile a list of generic attributes found in these five art forms. Although the literature highlights communicative purpose, content, and form as the core components of genre, other extrinsic and contextual elements beyond purpose were found in the sample of definitions, while the intrinsic elements could be identified in more specific terms than content and form and did not always map clearly to one or the other of these concepts. A total of twenty-six different attributes were identified, with about twice as many instances of intrinsic as extrinsic attributes and an average of about two attribute types per genre. About half the genre definitions included subject attributes. While the genres were defined with different emphases on the various attributes depending on their art form, reflecting differences in the nature and circumstances of these art forms, there was nevertheless a fair amount of commonality in the generic attributes used across the art forms, a commonality that looks to be much broader and deeper than the tripartite model of purpose, content, and form.