Music has always been broken down into genres and eventually subgenres as people innovated and musical styles merged and split. People who listen to these genres often define genres, (or the genres define them, perhaps.)
If you were to look just at Wikipedia there are twenty-one primary genres listed alone, and dozens upon dozens of sub-genres. I can guarantee without even getting it into the fabricated genres named solely to make a band sound more impressive that there are twice as many sub-genres out there and more on the way. Music is in a perpetual state of evolution.
So, how does someone like me whose career is based on knowing things like the criteria for various genres and sub-genres even begin to tackle the concept of genre?
To be honest? I don’t to a degree. I could make an entire blog all of its own on genres/sub-genres some of with, frankly, I could happily go the rest of my life without hearing again.
So where does that put us?
As humans, we have a creative drive to make things that are uniquely ours or at least take owner ship of existing things. Musicians in particular have an itch to make their mark. This is in no small part how subgenera get birthed. It also stems from one person or band liking certain components of a genre but actively disliking others. And then the media asks, “Well what do you call yourselves?” Almost every artist I’ve seen answer this question starts with one sound “Uhhh” No one really knows, some bands will outright say “We cannot be classified” Unfortunately, in order for people to find your band, you need things to demarcate what your sound is to someone who hasn’t ever heard your work. You need to know whom to tour with. I vividly remember when Shawn Mullins was popular in the 90s. He’s a county/folk singer who really isn’t a fan of big crowds and yet he found himself opening for backstreet boys, as he recalled during one of the shows. His popularity faded from mainstream quickly partly because of this. You can’t bill a folk singer as pop. But if we lived in a world whiteout genera borders, we would be constantly doing just that. Things are changing; I’ll be the first to admit it. There are things like Pandora that analyze the sounds and aesthetics of what you listen to and try to find more but as is commonly quoted on memebase-- a lot of the music we love is a lot like music we cannot stand. Sub genres and genera markers can warn us about this and make billing, choosing and listening to music easier. There are probably at this point Billions of songs out there knowing the sub genes can narrow things down much faster than thumbing through all the songs out there.
So, genre has its use? But how the hell do we figure out what genres and sub-genres we enjoy.
It used to be you had to spend time either with friends with obscure taste, or waiting for a good song to play on the radio. Now it’s as easy as typing, all you have to do is find one song you like. Even then, its really easy to post on Facebook (for example) “Hey guys, I’m bored throw some good music at me.” Even clumsy old Pandora helps.
And for musicians it’s becoming easier to say “We’re like a fusion of subgenre A and Sub-genre B with influences from sub-genre C.” and as fans we can look up those sub-genres. The evolution continues.
If you were to look just at Wikipedia there are twenty-one primary genres listed alone, and dozens upon dozens of sub-genres. I can guarantee without even getting it into the fabricated genres named solely to make a band sound more impressive that there are twice as many sub-genres out there and more on the way. Music is in a perpetual state of evolution.
So, how does someone like me whose career is based on knowing things like the criteria for various genres and sub-genres even begin to tackle the concept of genre?
To be honest? I don’t to a degree. I could make an entire blog all of its own on genres/sub-genres some of with, frankly, I could happily go the rest of my life without hearing again.
So where does that put us?
As humans, we have a creative drive to make things that are uniquely ours or at least take owner ship of existing things. Musicians in particular have an itch to make their mark. This is in no small part how subgenera get birthed. It also stems from one person or band liking certain components of a genre but actively disliking others. And then the media asks, “Well what do you call yourselves?” Almost every artist I’ve seen answer this question starts with one sound “Uhhh” No one really knows, some bands will outright say “We cannot be classified” Unfortunately, in order for people to find your band, you need things to demarcate what your sound is to someone who hasn’t ever heard your work. You need to know whom to tour with. I vividly remember when Shawn Mullins was popular in the 90s. He’s a county/folk singer who really isn’t a fan of big crowds and yet he found himself opening for backstreet boys, as he recalled during one of the shows. His popularity faded from mainstream quickly partly because of this. You can’t bill a folk singer as pop. But if we lived in a world whiteout genera borders, we would be constantly doing just that. Things are changing; I’ll be the first to admit it. There are things like Pandora that analyze the sounds and aesthetics of what you listen to and try to find more but as is commonly quoted on memebase-- a lot of the music we love is a lot like music we cannot stand. Sub genres and genera markers can warn us about this and make billing, choosing and listening to music easier. There are probably at this point Billions of songs out there knowing the sub genes can narrow things down much faster than thumbing through all the songs out there.
So, genre has its use? But how the hell do we figure out what genres and sub-genres we enjoy.
It used to be you had to spend time either with friends with obscure taste, or waiting for a good song to play on the radio. Now it’s as easy as typing, all you have to do is find one song you like. Even then, its really easy to post on Facebook (for example) “Hey guys, I’m bored throw some good music at me.” Even clumsy old Pandora helps.
And for musicians it’s becoming easier to say “We’re like a fusion of subgenre A and Sub-genre B with influences from sub-genre C.” and as fans we can look up those sub-genres. The evolution continues.
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