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Musical Genres : Do they matter?

#62
It shouldn't matter, but often people like to group things and feel a part of a wider community to feel some identity. "I'm a rocker", "I'm a funk dude", "Im a classically trained pianist", etc.

There's too many of them. Classifications usually help and are intended to help, but not when it becomes a headache. I would say 2 levels of hierarchy are enough (eg Top layer = Jazz, rock, classical, etc. Second hierarchy = Jazz fusion(jazz), disco(funk), punk(rock) and so forth).

Some of them seem so fine tuned as to almost differentiate whether the guitarists tend to like carrots or not.
 
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#63
Funny thing, I play free jazz and improv, and everybody I play with has a different understanding of what that means, let alone the insights of those who dont practice that music.

It's the same everywhere - I'm a IT consultant by day, and a term like 'product' never means the same, down to the level of people working within the same company in the same department. And because everybody assumes that everybody else understands the term 'product' the way they do themselves, huge problems arise, going on for decades

Instead of 'genres', which really is a term for the purpose of tribal separation, I'd prefer to borrow a concept like 'business rule', that is designed to unify people on a very clearly delineated mutually understood concept what something is and isnt, for their particular environment. So while your 'metal' may be very different than my 'metal', it is understood that both are equally valid 'metal' representations.
 
#64
mongo2 said:
Namecalling isn't necessary.

It seems my teacher was also right about you winding up playing Jazz.

Peace.
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Sorry, I called the comment elitist and snobbish, not you. Please do not take it personally. I like all forms of music, and musicians. My playing jazz was not a progression. It was survival- Me on phone: 'Seven piece lounge jazz, sure! See you on Friday' Me (hanging up phone) 'I guess I'd better find six players and learn jazz by Friday'. Answer would have been the same if phone call was for klezmer.
 
#65
Paulabass said:
Sorry, I called the comment elitist and snobbish, not you. Please do not take it personally. I like all forms of music, and musicians. My playing jazz was not a progression. It was survival- Me on phone: 'Seven piece lounge jazz, sure! See you on Friday' Me hanging up phone) 'I guess I'd better find six players and learn jazz by Friday'. Answer would have been the same if phone call was for klezmer.
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No problem, I deleted that part of my post. I never thought of his comment as elitist or snobbish. Turns out that, even after several decades, it was true.
 
#66
This handy referrence may help keep your metal in order-
 
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#67
Do genres, subgenres, and other such categorization matter. Well, we as humans instinctively categorize things into organized little cubbies to help our brains comprehend and understand stuff. Ergo, that's why there are so many subgenres of metal. Cannibal Corpse and Dream Theater are both metal bands, but their sounds are totally different and which one I listen to depends on how/what I'm feeling. On the other hand, some of the subgenres of metal are beyond ludicrous. Like "progressive deathcore with jazz elements" or somesuch.

So while it's easy to say simply enjoy music, regardless of what it is, it's darn near impossible for me to have a conversation about music without referring to genres and categories. One of the first questions anyone asks on a date is "what kind of music do you like?" and "a little bit of everything" is such a cop-out answer, especially if one's definition of "everything" is more broad or narrow than another's.
 
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#68
There are very few labels that are black/white, either/or, all or nothing. As long as you remember that, you should be fine. A label is a mold, or box that someone wants to stick you in. I say break the fricken mold! Get out of that box! Whoohoo!
 
#69
I think they are necessary...I recently recorded a video for my youtube channel discussing this topic...to summarize I think when you have a style of music with so many different branches and off shoots that you need to have some categories and labels. Classical music and art are broken down into different stylistic periods so I feel the same is appropriate for metal and rock, and rock and metal is deserving of critical and historical anaylsis.

It's also practical, if you were to walk into a bookstore and ask where the fiction section was and the clerk told you "We don't do sections, there all books"...that would be rather annoying. It's the same with genres...if someone tells me they are into "metal" but refuse to be more specific it can be confusing..if they say they are into "thrash metal" I have a better idea of where they are coming from.
 
#70
Paulabass said:
This handy referrence may help keep your metal in order-
Click to expand...


Wow that is quite a list of different styles..must of taken forever to put that together?.Makes my little list look like limp banana
 

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#73
Metallica is jazz
Metallica is samba
Metallica is hip-hop
Metallica is new wave
Metallica is soca
Metallica is seggae
Metallica is acid house
Metallica is bikutsi
Metallica is neue volksmusik
 
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#74
Genres were only relevant for shelving and stocking purposes when there were still music stores selling LPs, cassettes, and CD.

Now that music sales on physical media (and record stores themselves) have largely passed into history, genres are another industry dinosaur heading towards extinction.

The sole exception might be with the metalheads who seem to really enjoy splitting endless hairs over gear choices and debating “how metal” and “which metal” a band or performer is.

Seems harmless. ;)
 
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#75
Well to me it does matter.

English French Italian German Spanish and Norway all share the same alphabet but we all create different words with it and we had different accidental.

Just like metal use different part of the harmony and rhythm to create its sound ... or rap or country etc.

I don’t care for sub genre but I do hate that rock is such a big umbrella that pretty much everything is rock music witch is stupid
 
#76
dougjwray said:
This thread is perfect for me, because for many years, I was a music cataloger (librarian). (Yes, Dewey Decimal System.) I always felt the internal tension between the artist in me ("I don't believe in categories, man. Don't put me into a box!") and my professional duty to help library patrons find what they were looking for, which absolutely required classification. Actually, I enjoyed the fact that the non-musicians I worked with sort of considered me a kind of savant who was seemingly aware all of the musicians in the universe and the bags to put them in (including classical music and world music).
So, it's complicated... art is subjective, yet there can be a utilitarian reason for observing the differences between Iron Maiden and Louis Armstrong.
:bag:
Also, a couple of people have mentioned browsing in record stores which have everything shelved by artist, not separating them by genre. That's great, but in a library setting you also have online catalogs which people search by subject headings, which can really narrow a search. This is a useful, good thing, if you want (say) various 1970s popular music from South Africa, or (say) an assortment of arrangements of Beatles songs, and you don't want to spend half a day plodding end-to-end through shelves which are organized like the aforementioned record stores' bins.
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Nope; you want to do an advanced keyword search in an online library catalog.
 
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#78
CatOnTheBass said:
For me, the "Rosetta stone" that unlocked my appreciation of jazz, was learning the original songs that they are covering. So for example listen to "My Funny Valentine" original broadway style recording, then listen to jazz arrangements of "My Funny Valentine" by Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughn, etc. Or another suggestion, "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music, then go listen to the John Coltrane arrangement.

It especially really helps get into jazz if (like me) you grew up with a grandmother who was constantly singing these old "standards" and show tunes around the house.

One of my teachers once said "Jazz is a verb, not a noun." Or in other words, jazz isn't so much a collection of songs, but rather it is a process by which the performer reinterprets and transforms a song. Any song can be turned into "jazz" by the right performers. It's about taking something "square" and making it "hip."

(edit: I inadvertently used a racist musical example, which I deleted as soon as I realized my mistake, sorry about that. Forget what I said above, maybe there are a few songs that shouldn't be "turned into jazz.")
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Listen to the We Five version of "My Favorite Things" if you want to be blindsided. "You Were on my Mind" it ain't.
 
#79
Paulabass said:
This handy referrence may help keep your metal in order-
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Now why can't somebody do this for Punk? So far the only variant of which I am aware is Steam Punk. What about Broiled Punk? Or Fricasseed Punk? Or Marinated Punk?
 
#80
JRA said:
Musical Genres : Do they matter?
i get the point of the OP, and i like the "music is love" sentiment, but IME: it's consumers who demand the labels.

"what kind of music do you play?"


"the good kind!" :D
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Maybe now, but the practice originated with the major record labels back in the 1920s. You had classical, "race" (if the artist was black), and "hillbilly" (if the artist was white and not urban). Even then, the artists chafed at being categorized in such a fashion and strove to escape their "category."
 
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