What We Talk About When We Talk About Genre, Pt. 2

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.

Another genre rant: Metal (part 1)

Metal is often seen by non- metalheads as a loud, angry genre with lots of screaming and not a lot of content.  And yes, metal deserves some of that reputation, however, it is also one of the most diverse, complex genres I’ve listened to. It’s sound ranges from symphonic to grinding  by way of disturbing*(Beware clown phobic people, contains creepy clowns!) and haunted. And thats just the very tip of the iceberg.

Ask three metal fans and they'll tell you three different ways to categorize metal and what sub-genres/bands count and do not count. This will provoke an impassioned debate that may or may not devolve into four letter words.

With all these differences, it is hard to find what makes metal metal. One could make the argue that it is the use of down tuned power cords, or the drum work that you can feel deep in your chest or even the signature growls that come with the genre.

To me all of these things are part of metal, and I could analyze them for the next millennium.  However, what makes metal what it is for me is the energy and tone.  Metal is often teaming with brooding, raw emotion. It is a hard genre. This emotion propels a primal energy that is a force unto itself.  Even in the symphonic metal or the softer songs, this energy is palpable. It’s obviously strongest live, in a good metal piece, it shows through like nothing else.
This energy is what defines metal.

*Yes, I am including nü metal, I know it’s contended, but In my view it has the same core tenants as other metal.

Dubstep Tangent (Electronic Music Rant, part 2)

Dubstep Tangent (electronic music rant, part 2)

I’m going to say something that might make a lot of people discount me as a critic because of how many people hate dubstep:

I like dubstep. It’s an innovative genre that employs unique sounds and incredible adaptability.

Some of my dubstep rant came in at the end of my Genre rant (part 1) but I’d like to expand on it here. I think this applies a lot to other electronic music as well, but I’ll stick to something I’m more familiar with for the moment.

To me dubstep is some of the purest music on the market today. Part of what makes music of any genre so strong is the sheer number of interpretations it can. This makes music incredibly personal. Music with lyrics, however, has a core to guide the listener. Words have meanings and those meanings may not always trigger the same feelings in every person, but there will be at least some commonalities. Lets look at the last verse of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt.”
“If I could start again
a million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way.”

For anyone who’s heard this song, the lyrics alone are enough to give the listener chills. It is a simple piece at first glance. However, ask yourself. Is this verse saying that the singer has lost himself completely and that he is finally broken or that despite this loss he is going to “find a way?” And what does that entail?
The song does not explicitly answer these questions, but I guarantee anyone who cares about this song enough to look closely will answer both of those questions differently. However, you would be hard pressed to find someone who did not interpret this song as being about someone who has been broken by someone or something else.

(Personally, I fall with those who favor hope, but a lot of people fall with those who favor despair.)

Strip away the words. Instrumental work is much more open to interpretation than music with lyrics. Even classical pieces when taken out of context trigger lots of different responses. However, because of social conditioning, we know that certain components are supposed to trigger certain emotions. IF a song drops into a slow tempo and moves to a minor key, with predominantly strings, we know its supposed to be mournful, if a song goes into a major key and speeds up, throwing in brass and cymbals, we can assume victorious, swelling music.

But what happens when the instrumentation, and I do consider Midi Players, decks, and computers interments for this exercise uses sounds that have no precedent? How do you interpret the rippling pulse of a synthesizer? Is it the anxiety of someone running away or the exhilaration of victory? Is a sharp bass drop the sound fierce and determined or the sound of someone breaking in one sudden moment? With no other context save for what we hear, the listener has full control of his or her experience, despite the artist being the creator. Even if the artist has an emotion in mind, a song can feel completely different to a listener.
Because of it’s roots in EDM and Electronica, we can safely assume most Dubstep is designed to make you dance, but what do you feel when you hear the screeches and pulsing of something completely alien with no lyrics or tradition to guide you?

There are no universal answers to those questions. That is what dubstep is about.