Music Genres for Dummies

[5StringBlues]

I think it's time to invent Delta Prog.

 

[Michedelic]

I’m into proto-post-neo myself. Unless it is the Swedish variety. Pretty soulless stuff.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Help me out here, please. I'm no musician and have never studied music until I started studying bass a few months ago. I have only been a consumer of music, not a student of it.

This is surely a stupid question but the TB community has been very patient with my newbie questions so far. Bass players seem to be a great source of information. More cerebral than guitar players or drummers.

I was reading another thread about funk going the way of blues and realized something.

I sincerely do not understand the importance of classifying artists and their music into all these genres and sub-genres.

Did a google search on the subject and now it's even more confusing. Found a list that had at least hundred different genres and sub-genres, most of which I'd never even heard of. Really got my head spinning. I thought there was maybe ten.

As a teenager my album collection was mostly limited to music labelled as "rock". Probably due to peer pressure I guess. In my neighborhood you could get beat up for admitting to being a Bowie fan. Hey, it was the Ziggy Stardust days and I hung out with a rough crowd. Missed out on a lot of great music by being concerned about the label or genre.

These days I only think about whether it sounds good to me and try to actively listen for the bass line. Labels don't matter.

So is it merely a way of cataloging artists and music?
A way of protecting the origins of the music?
Are you thinking about genre when you're working on original music?
Aren't you kind of putting artists and music in a box with so many labels?
Do I ask too many annoying questions?

Thanks in advance for any help figuring this out.

In order: yes; no; no, I play what the song calls for; no, not my problem if they are stuck in a rut; not really, but I wouldn’t get to caught up in what we think or judge us from your lens, use your own brain and figure it out for yourself.

 

[CryingBass]

Just listen to what sounds good

 

[Michedelic]

I think it's time to invent Delta Prog.

Wasn’t that essentially what Hendrix was?

 

[micguy]

According to this wikipedia page, there are 71 sub-genres of Metal: Heavy metal genres - Wikipedia
.

Whoa! Back it up a bit there. We can't even find one best bass for metal, now we gotta find 71?

 

[smogg]

Whoa! Back it up a bit there. We can't even find one best bass for metal, now we gotta find 71?

That is most sig worthy good sir.

 

[Michedelic]

Thanks for the replies. It makes a bit more sense to me now.

I get that you need a way of verbally communicating the style of music you're going after but the sheer number of variables is overwhelming. On this list there's 40 sub-genres just under the blues category. 21 different types of alternative. Is death metal really different than doom metal?

And what the heck is acid-jazz anyway? Timothy Leary playing the piano with Hunter S. Thompson on the bass?

www.musicgenreslist.com

Doom metal is when the end is coming; Death Metal is when it’s actually happening.
Yes, some labels are quite wonky. “R&B” can mean two different things to two different generations; Acid Jazz has no bearing on anything except it was a trend in the 90’s of sampling old jazz grooves into monotonous disco-ish dance stuff. Then there’s “Speed Garage”. What’s that? Playing Standells and Shadows of Knight albums at 78 rpm? I thought that’s what The Ramones were trying to get at.

 

[stringthrough]

Here's some genre-busting Texican rock played on a traditional Korean instrument:





(Edit: corrected Japanese -> Korean)

My head's about to explode!

 

[Matt O]

Whoa! Back it up a bit there. We can't even find one best bass for metal, now we gotta find 71?

I guess it’s time we stepped up our game here at TB.

Like, I wouldn’t be caught dead playing a Doom Metal bass in a Blackened Crust band. Nooo way. Right?

Also, everyone knows the best bass for Electronicore is the left hand side of a Keytar.

It’s 2019, people!

 

[Michedelic]

Help me out here, please. I'm no musician and have never studied music until I started studying bass a few months ago. I have only been a consumer of music, not a student of it.

This is surely a stupid question but the TB community has been very patient with my newbie questions so far. Bass players seem to be a great source of information. More cerebral than guitar players or drummers.

I was reading another thread about funk going the way of blues and realized something.

I sincerely do not understand the importance of classifying artists and their music into all these genres and sub-genres.

Did a google search on the subject and now it's even more confusing. Found a list that had at least hundred different genres and sub-genres, most of which I'd never even heard of. Really got my head spinning. I thought there was maybe ten.

As a teenager my album collection was mostly limited to music labelled as "rock". Probably due to peer pressure I guess. In my neighborhood you could get beat up for admitting to being a Bowie fan. Hey, it was the Ziggy Stardust days and I hung out with a rough crowd. Missed out on a lot of great music by being concerned about the label or genre.

These days I only think about whether it sounds good to me and try to actively listen for the bass line. Labels don't matter.

So is it merely a way of cataloging artists and music?
A way of protecting the origins of the music?
Are you thinking about genre when you're working on original music?
Aren't you kind of putting artists and music in a box with so many labels?
Do I ask too many annoying questions?

Thanks in advance for any help figuring this out.

The Bowie thing I went through in high school as well; keep in mind that teen social groups are very tribal in an insecure manner, and the music you listened to was a desperate badge of your identity. Bowie, being openly gay or bisexual at least, with a European sensibilty, did not set well with my Poco, Seals & Crofts, and Grateful Dead loving peers, so I got a lot of flack for digging Ziggy as well as Lou Reed/VU, Mott, T-Rex, Faces, and so on. Sort of a hippie reactionary fascism. Even though I was(and still am)quite straight, I enjoyed the witty, artsy, and sometimes otherworldly or dark vibe of that stuff, plus it rocked harder than the Dead. I’d rather hear Mick Robson over Jerry anytime.

 

[Matt O]

Doom metal is when the end is coming; Death Metal is when it’s actually happening.

Perhaps the best definitions I’ve heard.

Also, spit-take worthy comedy. Well done.

 

[Michedelic]

Help me out here, please. I'm no musician and have never studied music until I started studying bass a few months ago. I have only been a consumer of music, not a student of it.

This is surely a stupid question but the TB community has been very patient with my newbie questions so far. Bass players seem to be a great source of information. More cerebral than guitar players or drummers.

I was reading another thread about funk going the way of blues and realized something.

I sincerely do not understand the importance of classifying artists and their music into all these genres and sub-genres.

Did a google search on the subject and now it's even more confusing. Found a list that had at least hundred different genres and sub-genres, most of which I'd never even heard of. Really got my head spinning. I thought there was maybe ten.

As a teenager my album collection was mostly limited to music labelled as "rock". Probably due to peer pressure I guess. In my neighborhood you could get beat up for admitting to being a Bowie fan. Hey, it was the Ziggy Stardust days and I hung out with a rough crowd. Missed out on a lot of great music by being concerned about the label or genre.

These days I only think about whether it sounds good to me and try to actively listen for the bass line. Labels don't matter.

So is it merely a way of cataloging artists and music?
A way of protecting the origins of the music?
Are you thinking about genre when you're working on original music?
Aren't you kind of putting artists and music in a box with so many labels?
Do I ask too many annoying questions?

Thanks in advance for any help figuring this out.

In answer to your original question, it IS a method of narrowing down and pinpointing a type of music that would appeal to you, and help you avoid that which wouldn’t. Genres change and mutate over time. Someone could say, “I like reggae”. Yeah, really? Well, so do I, however...I dig Ska, Bluebeat, Lover’s Rock, Dub, Roots, and so on. But if I have to listen to Dance Hall, I’m going to punch someone in the face. Motown is a different animal than Memphis, but to some people, it’s all just soul. See where I’m going? Some genre labels were concocted or applied after the fact. ‘Power Pop’ and ‘Freak Beat’ are two good examples, and there’s a bit of overlap, but they make perfect sense to me.

 

[MattZilla]

I think it's time to invent Delta Prog.

for a time I played a down tuned violin (cello) in a doom-grass band.

 

[12BitSlab]

There are precisely 10 kinds of songs:

Those written for people who understand binary,

Everything else.

 

[BadSanta1281]

In order: yes; no; no, I play what the song calls for; no, not my problem if they are stuck in a rut; not really, but I wouldn’t get to caught up in what we think or judge us from your lens, use your own brain and figure it out for yourself.

"The sum of the square roots of any two sides of an isosceles triangle is equal to the square root of the remaining side."

 

[Inky13]

Here's some genre-busting Texican rock played on a traditional Korean instrument:





(Edit: corrected Japanese -> Korean)

That’s so super fun that I can’t stand it!

 

[4001]

....at least hundred different genres and sub-genres.....

And FM pop rock radio dictates the lame bar band set all weekend long...

... because it sells beer to dunderheads that are clueless to at least 99 different genres and sub genres.

 

[InhumanResource]

Help me out here, please. I'm no musician and have never studied music until I started studying bass a few months ago. I have only been a consumer of music, not a student of it.

This is surely a stupid question but the TB community has been very patient with my newbie questions so far. Bass players seem to be a great source of information. More cerebral than guitar players or drummers.

I was reading another thread about funk going the way of blues and realized something.

I sincerely do not understand the importance of classifying artists and their music into all these genres and sub-genres.

Did a google search on the subject and now it's even more confusing. Found a list that had at least hundred different genres and sub-genres, most of which I'd never even heard of. Really got my head spinning. I thought there was maybe ten.

As a teenager my album collection was mostly limited to music labelled as "rock". Probably due to peer pressure I guess. In my neighborhood you could get beat up for admitting to being a Bowie fan. Hey, it was the Ziggy Stardust days and I hung out with a rough crowd. Missed out on a lot of great music by being concerned about the label or genre.

These days I only think about whether it sounds good to me and try to actively listen for the bass line. Labels don't matter.

So is it merely a way of cataloging artists and music?
A way of protecting the origins of the music?
Are you thinking about genre when you're working on original music?
Aren't you kind of putting artists and music in a box with so many labels?
Do I ask too many annoying questions?

Thanks in advance for any help figuring this out.

Couldn't agree more. It's completely silly when we start inventing new genres for things that sound slightly different. We used to call those different things "songs".

Metal is great for this especially, any tiny bit of variation is a whole new genre. If you have a narrow enough genre you don't even need to play music and yet might be labeled a genius like some kind of weird musical dada experiment.

I mean, post antebellum apocasludge doom core dada wave.

 

[petrus61]

I was literally almost beaten or thrown from cars for putting everything from Hendrix to Nas in peoples tape decks, so I can relate. The concept of “genre” with regards to music, although we all navigate and accept it, is really just a way to simplify what needs no simplification for the sake of market segmentation, which benefits nobody (save for those marketing and profiting from that segmentation) and only helps to build cultural divides, IMO. Profiteering through mock tribalism.