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

[Onslaught_fei]

Wow I had no idea

You know, I decided about 3 and a half years ago that I was gonna try to be all hip and **** and buy every new metal album that came out. About $400 dollars and 3 weeks later while missing lots of metal albums that were released later I decided it was impossible. It was humanly impossible to listen to it all the amount it deserved and I was doing it because I was a ****ing dumbass. So I decided that every little hip new metal band out there and every little metal kid who's "in" it and has listened to everything on the planet comes out immediately can go die in a fire, because its not possible. Now I stick to about 1 album a month, 2 if its a good month.

[Lolicat]

You know, I decided about 3 and a half years ago that I was gonna try to be all hip and **** and buy every new metal album that came out. About $400 dollars and 3 weeks later while missing lots of metal albums that were released later I decided it was impossible. It was humanly impossible to listen to it all the amount it deserved and I was doing it because I was a ****ing dumbass. So I decided that every little hip new metal band out there and every little metal kid who's "in" it and has listened to everything on the planet comes out immediately can go die in a fire, because its not possible. Now I stick to about 1 album a month, 2 if its a good month.

If anyone could put up with that much metal... :/