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what genre is primus

#24
kreider204 said:
It just goes to show how arbitrary genre labels are. I think they're mostly invented by record labels so stores know how to shelve things ...
Click to expand...

Spot on, spot on. I'll add an example - in May 1966, Dylan played a tour of the UK and he was met with a fair bit of derision by a significant portion of his audience. No moreso than at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester on May 17th.

I would contend that he was perhaps the first punk musician, way back in 1966. Now several years ago, I posted this idea on another forum and all I got was:

"Are you kidding me? Dylan's music isn't punk!"

These people had no conception of the difference between what it means to "be punk" and "punk music."

"Punk" is an attitude; "punk music" is a plastic placard in a record store (remember those?) designed to herd the drooling lemmings into the correct section to empty their wallets.

Of course Dylan's music isn't punk, but listen to The Bootleg Series Vol IV and tell me that arguing with the crowd, sneering his lyrics at them and telling his band to "play it @#$%ing loud!" right before Like a Rolling Stone is anything other than punk.

Disclaimer: The herding of drooling lemmings has happened countless times in conjunction with a variety of musical genres. It is not my intention to confine my observations to purchasers of punk music. It simply happens to be the subject at hand.
 
#30
Primus doesn't need genre labelling. If you like
Primus, you'll understand....if you don't, then what does it matter?

Truth is, if you have any clue about bass playing, you'll know why Claypool is such a modern day great, especially for those of us there when Frizzle Fry hit the record shops.
 
#32
Does it matter what genre they are?


Typical genres are good for only one thing; organizing record collections.


The really important labels are these.


Good Music (music the listener likes)
Bad Music (music the listener doesn't like)


SO simple!
 
#34
funny,only the true music artists can never be put into any genre....what would you say Tom Waits band plays? blues? country? r'n'r? or,say,Mars Volta? art rock? Amon Tobin? nujazz(god i hate that word...)?Residents(Claypool's fav. band,and greatest impact on his playing/songwriting)?and so on...
every time you need more than 3 types of music genres to classify some band/performing artist,you KNOW it's something special that defies bordering.true artists are never bothered with style,they just want to PLAY what naturally comes out of them.
primus is...well...primus...country-poppy-rocky-psychodelia-something.who cares,they still kick ass xD
check out 'big hair' that band sounds a lot like primus..
 
#39
This is the age old question. Primus definitely has the funk vibe with the bass and drumming, and on their early stuff they were pretty heavy, although I wouldn't call it metal. In their later stuff they also got a southern vibe to them which was...interesting.

Trying to come up with a genre to describe them is very difficult, but I'd call it Psychedelic Southern Thrash Funk.

Seriously though, they don't need a genre...it's Primus.
 

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