Music genres make no sense.

[InDarkestNight]

What even defines genres, seriously? The more I look into it, I've realized that I have no flipping clue what genre any piece of music belongs to. Not that its my fault; they simply make no flipping sense. They could at least be consistent.

 

I started thinking about this again after I found to my surprise that Scorpions is on the encyclopedia metallum. Why does this surprise me? BECAUSE THEY DESPISE GLAM METAL. More than that, They also have motley crue, def leppard, twisted sister, among others. Now, what do I think of when I think of glam metal? Motley crue, scorptions, twisted sister. They forbid 'glam metal', but they include EVERY GLAM METAL BAND I'M AWARE OF. What the hell? Seriously, how are any of these not glam metal (other than Twisted Sister which honestly is a shock rock band). Oh, and let's not forget about Pantera, which DID START OFF A GLAM METAL BAND BY EVERYONE'S DEFINITION. They're also a groove metal band, which isn't true metal, and their vocalist died while PERFORMING FOR A NU-METAL BAND, A GENRE MORE HATED BY METAL IDIOTS THAN EVEN FREAKING POP. You'd think any one of those things would get them forever branded as 'false metal', but no, they're on everyone's list and everyone loves them.

 

I used to keep a playlist of metal bands. However, looking it up, turns out less than half the list was 'true metal'. Mostly it was hard rock, which used to be considered a part of metal but isn't now for utterly no reason. I deleted that list. Besides, I didn't care for most of the songs on there anymore. Turns out most of the garbage I was listening to 10 years ago normally didn't get very high reviews.

 

And don't get me started on this new band called 'metal for all'. They're obviously a POP ACT. Even they are branded as 'true metal'. Wtf?

 

Now, I don't hate pop music to be clear. I do however find its definition nebulous. Yeah, industry plants are pop, but Skald, a dark ambient folk act is also an industry plant apparently. Does that mean they're pop? What about artists that take influence from pop but aren't industry plants like Lady Gaga? She doesn't meet the defintion of pop at all, but she still is just because of her influences. Wtf? Oh, and that metal playlist I had? Turns out this one gothic metal band I found was actually a pop band. Wtf?

 

In general, I just can't tell genres apart. What is country? What is rock? Elvis and The Beatles sound more like pop acts to me. What is metal? There is no defintion, in fact metal idiots even acknowledge the only reason glam metal is rejected is because of the culture behind it; they acknowledge it is true metal. Why? Why why why? What's the difference between rap and hip hop? What's classical music? What's the difference between death and black metal other than the latter being at a lower pitch?

 

There is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it all, yet everyone acts like it means the entire universe. To me, metal means tone. Grandiosity. Such however isn't unique to metal and in fact does not define it. Who on earth would say something like Grailknights (ANOTHER OBVIOUS POP ACT EVERYONE BRANDS AS METAL FOR NO REASON) is grandiose?

 

Genres make no sense, and so elitism is just stupid and meaningless. I mean, people consider metallum's defintion of 'true metal' to simply be 'what the mods themselves like'.

 

f*#@ elitism.

[JimboUK]

Broad genres are helpful so you can filter things out, but the smaller ones and many subgenres are largely subjective so kind of pointless. I make my own playlists, that way I know I'll like what I'm going to hear, playlists created by others or worse by an algorithm are always going to contain things one doesn't think should be in them.

[Guest deleted34304850]

there are but two genres of music.

1. music you like.

2. music you don't like.

 

everything else is irrelevant.

[Dashyburn]

Possibly the word itself is what's confusing InDarkestNight, as it really doesn't need to exist as there is type, style and category that have the exact same meaning and make sense in relation to spelling and sound. Genre is worse than choux (pronounced shoe) pastry, worse than Stephen 'Col Bear' (nah bud that's Col Bert). I have heard several pronunciations like 'John ra', 'Geen a' and jjjjohn ra that cannot be typed as it sounds as the sound is of a non existent letter.

 

Rethinking your subject replacing that word with one of the 3 above may bring it all into perspective :)

[Guest deleted34304850]

 

Today on this program you will hear gospel,
And rhythm and blues, and jazz
All those are just labels
We know that music is music

Come Together - Primal Scream.