• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Genre Abuse

#41
Then there's the whole misuse of the term, "progressive." To me, prog-rock will always be what Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant, and Jethro Tull started. These were the first significant bands to wear that label, but now, I see a lot of other people applying it to where it does not seem to have any connection to the aforementioned.
 
#42
It was 1980. My first band was called "Stranger." I always thought our first album should be called "The Billy Joel." I wanted to be called "The Meek." Nobody liked that name. Our guitar player, and bass player, had agreed on a description of our genre.

"We play Classically-Inspired Progressive Psychedelic Jazz Rock."

Really caught on, too! My favorite lyric and song title was "Send Your Weary Eyes."

We never played a song that wasn't a Pink Floyd/Rush/Hendrix/BTO cover for any kind of audience at all.

After I left the band, they changed the name to "Music."

I swear to God I'm not making any of this up.
 
#45
MatticusMania said:
So, what does an "indie" band sound like?
Click to expand...

I've always thought of bands like Cornershop (the band that did Brim Full of Asha), Afghan Whigs, Guster, and early Beck as all being archetypical of "indie" music. Basically, I've always categorized it as a more artistically ambitious garage band type of music - usually not really "heavy" in the traditional sense, sometimes lofi.
 
#47
JakeF said:
If you wanna get a rise out of someone who is dedicated to a "genre" just do what I do.

"We are a indie(shoegaze/post modern whatever)"

"Oh, your a pop band."
Click to expand...

Calling Nickelback, Nirvana, Metallica and Oasis "classic rock" is fun, too. As in "Sorry, I don't know how to play any Burzum songs, I'm not really into classic rock".
 
#48
pklima said:
Calling Nickelback, Nirvana, Metallica and Oasis "classic rock" is fun, too. As in "Sorry, I don't know how to play any Burzum songs, I'm not really into classic rock".
Click to expand...

Sometimes, when I meet someone who talks about anime, I'll say that I'm not really into cartoons. They hate it, and it's hilarious. I'm glad to have come across a similar way to be an ******* to pretentious musicians as well!
 
#53
Munjibunga said:
Whatever happened to alternative?
Click to expand...

"Indie" generally seems to have replaced it.

And as far as what an "Indie" band sounds like, personally I'd lumps bands such as Arcade Fire, Bon Iver, Iron & Wine, Of Monsters & Men, The Decembrists, Blitzen Trapper, Cults, Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, etc. Of these, Fleet Foxes are the only one I can enjoy, the others I just find rather whiny and dull. I can see Death Cab For Cutie being listed as indie, but I feel since their debut the music that "Indie" has been applied to has evolved a bit since then. I personally don't care what they label the genre, all I know is what I like and what I don't, regardless of genre. When asked to describe what music my band plays, I describe it as "Psyched out Blues Rock", generally works and people know what to expect rather than saying "Rock".


I'll tell you what new genre I can't stand though: Dream Pop. I think the general ethos is "Let's saturate EVERYTHING with excessive reverb, and pass it off as hip and cool".
 
#56
Luke19Boarder said:
and I would say, analogously, that alternative rock was the precursor to indie rock.
Click to expand...


Not really, in Europe it was already in use at the end of the '80's (maybe earlier). Alternative rock was a bit later (starting with Nirvana). Still remember the add for '120 Minutes' on MTV Europe: 'The best in Alternative and Indie'.

About Shoegazer: no mention for The Jesus and Mary Chain?
 
#58
I play in an instrumental group that mixes funk, blues, and rock. We are often characterized as "jazz", but not by jazz musicians! We'd need a chart to play Autumn Leaves, and you can forget about Giant Steps. We also get called "jam" despite a minimum of improvisation and some very tightly controlled arrangements.

My other group plays instrumental prog-rock. Sometimes I slap. It's not funk. It's not even close to funk. Guess what the guitar player calls it though? Yup, "that funk tune," or "your new funk riff." Even if it's about as funky as Korn.

And bluegrass! It seems like all traditional, countryish, Americana type stuff now is called bluegrass by people who should know better. I had a drummer tell me about his fill-in gig with a bluegrass band. Really? Drums? In a bluegrass band? And even better, he complained about how the sound guy wanted to tune his drums, because he had loosened the heads in an effort to (wait for it) get a "more traditional bluegrass tone". :rolleyes:
 
#59
Hey OP, let me guess...you were into Death Cab before they were cool.

Oh, my band? Yeah it's sort of a funk-rock-electro-bluegrass-posthiphop-chipotle kind of thing...

How many bluegrass musicians does it take to change a lightbulb? Just one, but five to sit around complaining about how it's electric...

thanks folks I'll be here all week.
 
#60
Bassist4Eris said:
I

And bluegrass! It seems like all traditional, countryish, Americana type stuff now is called bluegrass by people who should know better. I had a drummer tell me about his fill-in gig with a bluegrass band. Really? Drums? In a bluegrass band? And even better, he complained about how the sound guy wanted to tune his drums, because he had loosened the heads in an effort to (wait for it) get a "more traditional bluegrass tone". :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

LMAO!
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back