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These different genres are driving me crazy

by Tero Tolkki on 12.06.2007 23:26

My second blogentry and I am already wining and bitching...well hey, can't be positive all the time.

Actually I touched this subject about a year ago in Myspace but I was still very much on my "first" steps there and it kinda left unnoticed. Anyways...should we start?

GENRES...those things that we love to use to categorize our favourite music. Here's a brief conversation how it probably goes:

Tic:
"You guys should definately check this band out. They rule man!"
Tac:
"Really? What kind of music are they?"
Tic:
"They are good music"
Tac:
"What? Yes you already said they rule but what TYPE of music are they? What bands they resemble?"
Tic:
"I don't know what band they resemble. They have a nice sound I think"
Tac:
"Dude you are completely missing my point! Ok ok, can you at least tell me what genre are they?"
Tic:
"What genre are they? They fall in the category of good music in my list of genres. Which I have 2. Music I like and music I do not like."
Toe:
"Fuck man you're mental..."

Ok what the hell just happened? Didn't you just try to give your buddy a hint about this band you thought he might like? The reason he probably won't even check the band out was that you were unable to categorize the band to him. And I am certain that many people will miss many good bands because of this.

Well I am no saint in this cause the same thing has happened to me many times. Although I try to keep my mind more open nowadays when it comes to new bands. Unfortunate truth however is that there are too much music coming out these days...which sucks.

FOR WHOM ARE ALL THESE GENRES FOR?

A good question. And more yet, who invents all these genres? I know for one that bands don't like this genrething at all. Or at least that's what they always say when asked "What type of music are you?" "Well we try to avoid categorizing our music. I think our music combines different musical styles. Our music cannot be categorized." Really?

I don't think bands are the ones that create these genres and subgenres. I think it falls down to the hands of fans and journalists. At the end of the day it really doesn't matter who the responsible party is. The result however is that we are currently swimming in the genre-hell because all those subgenres.

There are bands that invent genres too. Consider H.I.M. They call themselves Love Metal. Are there any other bands falling into that category? What defines Love Metal? My friend had this band called Rajah and they called themselves Glove Metal...go figure.

I will present you a list of genres I found...I am sorry for not being able to provide you a complete list cause there isn't any =) But if you check out these genres, you will get the basic idea what I was talking about...

Acid Rock, Alternative Metal, Alternative Rock, Avant-garde, Black Ambient, Black Metal, Blues Rock, Brutal Death Metal, Celtic Rock, Christian Metal, Classic Rock, Country Rock, Crossover, Crustcore, Dark Ambient, Dark Electro, Dark Metal, Dark Wave, Death Metal, Doom, Doom Death, Electro Metal, Emocore, Experimental, Folk Metal, Folk ROck, Funk Rock, Fusion, Garage, Glam Rock, Gothic, Gothic Ambient, Gothic Metal, Gothic Rock, Grindcore, Grunge, Guitar Virtuoso, Hard Rock, Hardcore, Heavy Metal, Horror Metal, Indie, Indie Rock, Industrial, Jazz Rock, Math Metal, Melodic Death Metal, Melodic Metal, Melodic Rock, Metal, Metalcore, Mittelalter Metal, NWoBHM, Noise, Noisecore, Nu-Metal, Nu-Punk, Pagan Metal, Pomp Rock, Pop Rock, Pornogrind, Power Metal, Post-metal, Progressive Death Metal, Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Punk, Rap Metal, Rapcore, Riff Rock, Riot Grrl, Ska Rock, Ska-Punk, Sleaze Rock, Sludge, Soft Rock, Southern Rock, Space Rock, Speed Metal, Stoner, Straight Edge, Symphonic Black Metal, Symphonic Metal, Thrash Metal, Unblack, Viking Metal, War Metal, West Coast.

And here are some different definations for some less known genres:

UNBLACK METAL
Unblack metal (also known as Christian black metal) is the Christian variant of black metal. It is a controversial genre, because black metal itself was developed with the intention of encouraging anti-Right Hand Path sentiment, both musically and socially. (read all at Wikipedia)

SLUDGE METAL
Sludge metal is a form of heavy metal music that is generally regarded as a fusion between doom metal and hardcore punk. It is generally regarded to have been invented by The Melvins, and some cite the second side of Black Flag's My War as influential, but was popularized chiefly by a number of New Orleans based bands, a scene and sound popularly referred to as NOLA. (read all at Wikipedia)

POST-METAL
Post-metal is a music genre, a mixture between the genres of post-rock and metal, with roots in progressive rock and industrial music. It is broadly characterized by distorted guitar, heavy atmospherics, gradual evolution of song structure, and a minimal emphasis on vocals. (read all at Wikipedia)

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