You crazy kids and your sub genres

[warthogdb]

So I decided to check out this whole last.fm thing and I can't help but notice that my joining has brought the average age of the membership up about 4 or 5 years.

Anyway, so I read some of the comments on the songs and it seems that there are often barbs flying over someone mislabeling the song into the wrong sub genre. Like "Emo rulz!" then "Hey bro, this isn't emo, dog." These arguments persist here as well.

I know that we are a generation or two removed from my youth and today's bands are being influenced by the bands that were influenced by the bands I grew up with. The only thing that I can figure is that you crazy kids have so much of a wide variety of great music available to you with the internet and all that you feel the need to be cliquish and subdivide.

We had cliques too but they were far more inclusive and less fragmented. Of course punk and metal were a lot less accepted so kids were more drawn together. All we had was top 40 radio and the college station that you could barley pick up in the suburbs.

What gives? Why does it matter? Why can't I just start a rock band instead of starting a jam-death-stoner-power-metal band?

[harbingerofdoom]

Why can't I just start a rock band instead of starting a jam-death-stoner-power-metal band?

you can... its just that rock music is categorized differently than jam-death-stoner-power-metal music.



seriously though... i can understand the desire to have so many subs and categories, but in general i dont really pay that much attention to it. most people dont really know what they are talking about (the difference between them and me is that i admit it). and then you have the few around here that actually do understand it and know it well. you will be able to figure out who they are pretty quickly. ask them and they can explain the benifits much better than i can.

[Lolicat]

Sub-genres are fun. I am sexually aroused by them.

[Onslaught_fei]

So What gives? Why does it matter? Why can't I just start a rock band instead of starting a jam-death-stoner-power-metal band?

Nothing gives. Somewhere along the way Mayhem made a black metal album, Morbid Angel made a death metal album and Helloween made a power metal album and all three musical movements, while still heavy metal, were so radically different that music journalists coined the term. Of course, you have plenty of idiots who mis-use the term and plenty of self-righteous *****s who make it their duty to police the usage of it.

Some sub-genres are so narrow and nebulous that its just plain dumb, I do agree. But even look at the 70's: Psychadelia, hard rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, rockabilly, folk rock, blues, southern rock, and jazz fusion makes up a Classic Rock radio setlist, among others. Its just that with the internet, journalistic musical terms have spread like a plague and every dumb kid with an identity crisis has to attach themself to something ridiculous. But believe me, sub-genres are journalistic in nature, when used properly.

(Im sorry but some people's little subgenres of 5 bands are just silly. Just throw in black metal at www.metal-archives.com to see a list of 16,000 different black metal bands, for example.)

[Lolicat]

(Im sorry but some people's little subgenres of 5 bands are just silly. Just throw in black metal at www.metal-archives.com to see a list of 16,000 different black metal bands, for example.)

This. Small sub-genres just beg to be liquidated and shoved under 'blah blah, with a heavy blah blah influence'.

[Fizzeler]

This. Small sub-genres just beg to be liquidated and shoved under 'blah blah, with a heavy blah blah influence'.

With the exception of this metal Sub-Genre:
Prog. Metal

[Onslaught_fei]

With the exception of this metal Sub-Genre:
Prog. Metal

http://www.metal-archives.com/browseG.php?g=prog

[Fizzeler]

http://www.metal-archives.com/browseG.php?g=prog

Wow I had no idea

[warthogdb]

Nothing gives. Somewhere along the way Mayhem made a black metal album, Morbid Angel made a death metal album and Helloween made a power metal album and all three musical movements, while still heavy metal, were so radically different that music journalists coined the term. Of course, you have plenty of idiots who mis-use the term and plenty of self-righteous *****s who make it their duty to police the usage of it.

Some sub-genres are so narrow and nebulous that its just plain dumb, I do agree. But even look at the 70's: Psychadelia, hard rock, heavy metal, progressive rock, rockabilly, folk rock, blues, southern rock, and jazz fusion makes up a Classic Rock radio setlist, among others. Its just that with the internet, journalistic musical terms have spread like a plague and every dumb kid with an identity crisis has to attach themself to something ridiculous. But believe me, sub-genres are journalistic in nature, when used properly.

(Im sorry but some people's little subgenres of 5 bands are just silly. Just throw in black metal at www.metal-archives.com to see a list of 16,000 different black metal bands, for example.)

You are right. Classic rock is a melting pot of genres that everyone just kind of excepts without differentiation because they were raised on fm radio and it was always presented to them in that way. There weren't any "self-righteous *****s who made it their duty to police the usage of it."

Generations later, the family tree is so broad. We all have the same great grand parents but we don't associate with our distant cousins. It boils down to the fact the three bands you mentioned had more common influences while the next generation was heavily influenced specifically by these band's innovations.

There have always been guardians of cool but I think that everything is more fragmented than ever. I just find it funny when I see two kids arguing over whether or not the Ramones are punk or what sub genre from 2008 they fit into.

[BlackwaterPark]

You are right. Classic rock is a melting pot of genres that everyone just kind of excepts without differentiation because they were raised on fm radio and it was always presented to them in that way. There weren't any "self-righteous *****s who made it their duty to police the usage of it."

Generations later, the family tree is so broad. We all have the same great grand parents but we don't associate with our distant cousins. It boils down to the fact the three bands you mentioned had more common influences while the next generation was heavily influenced specifically by these band's innovations.

There have always been guardians of cool but I think that everything is more fragmented than ever. I just find it funny when I see two kids arguing over whether or not the Ramones are punk or what sub genre from 2008 they fit into.

I pretty much agree with this view. Sub-genres are useful to describe how a band sounds: if you tell me that some band that I've never heard of is "metal," then that doesn't really give me any information, but if you say "progressive black/viking metal" then I at least have some idea of what to expect.