What's the Most Useless Genre Term There Is?

[Mystlyfe77]

I sort of agree, but know exactly what the term refers to so I can understand why it exists. Saying black/death with martial-esque rhythms is a mouthful, so war metal works better.

Bestial black metal better describes the sound and doesn't get confused with Bolt Thrower and D666.

And avant-garde works perfectly as it is intended to work, but people misuse the term all the time. Avant-garde is not a genre, it is a state of conventional musical structures and tendencies being absent from ones music.

Even if the term worked 100% of the time, it's very existence only serves to tell you what it doesn't sound like, rather than what it does. That's my gripe with terms like avant-garde and experimental (and post-genres until they are redefined periodically to have meanings).

Secondly, avant-garde is more flexible than that. There's more than one way to be avant-garde, it's anything that's pushing the boundary in new ways through ignoring the standard "rules" about what is allowed. It's also very time sensitive. What was avant-garde in the 1980s tends not be now.

[Onslaught_fei]

I honestly can't in good conscience agree with this.

Oh? Name me some progressive rock bands you listen to. I mean pure actual progressive rock.

[voodoo618]

Oh? Name me some progressive rock bands you listen to. I mean pure actual progressive rock.

Andromeda?

[Onslaught_fei]

Andromeda?

Heh.

Another problem I find with the usage of the term progressive to those really unfamiliar with it: progressive does not equal technical.

Opeth is an actual progressive metal band with hardly anything obtusely technical about it. Spiral Architect, Meshuggah, Coroner, and Dillinger Escape Plan I see get progressive- stamped on them all the time when they are simply overly technical bands.

That doesn't mean they cannot co-exist. I just see the term misused and mislabeled quite frequently, which is my original point. King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Camel, Jethro Tull, or Genesis do not shatter any technical sound barriers but they define the progressive rock style and sound.

[Soror_YZBL]

Come on, dude...

crabcore makes me ashamed of central ohio.

[afterstasis]

crabcore makes me ashamed of central ohio.

at least it's doing something right.

[Mystlyfe77]

crabcore makes me ashamed of central ohio.

I'm ashamed of central Ohio even without crabcore.

[macamatic]

King Crimson, Uriah Heep, Camel, Jethro Tull, or Genesis do not shatter any technical sound barriers but they define the progressive rock style and sound.

This is exactly what I was talking about. I don't see how those bands have a distinctive sound at all. First, I just don't hear it. It's not there. Also, pretty much every progressive band's sound evolves. It's the nature of the genre, which brings me to my main point: a distinctive sound flies in the face of the progressive mentality. I realize that for categorization purposes many people have tried to pretend it has one, but it's about progression.

More importantly, much of what defines progressive rock has nothing to do with its sound - structure, complexity, experimentation, things like that. I simply don't see how you can claim that such a genre has a distinctive sound. Feel? Maybe, if you narrow it to specific time periods or subgenres. But King Crimson, Rush, Yes, Between the Buried and Me, Tool, Opeth, Ayreon, late Edge of Sanity, and Dream Theater are all progressive, and if I told you I heard a single sound there, I'd be lying through my teeth.

[Onslaught_fei]

This is exactly what I was talking about. I don't see how those bands have a distinctive sound at all. First, I just don't hear it. It's not there. Also, pretty much every progressive band's sound evolves. It's the nature of the genre, which brings me to my main point: a distinctive sound flies in the face of the progressive mentality. I realize that for categorization purposes many people have tried to pretend it has one, but it's about progression.

More importantly, much of what defines progressive rock has nothing to do with its sound - structure, complexity, experimentation, things like that. I simply don't see how you can claim that such a genre has a distinctive sound. Feel? Maybe, if you narrow it to specific time periods or subgenres. But King Crimson, Rush, Yes, Between the Buried and Me, Tool, Opeth, Ayreon, late Edge of Sanity, and Dream Theater are all progressive, and if I told you I heard a single sound there, I'd be lying through my teeth.

You are incorrect. Progressive rock was named as such because it took rock and roll and added many non-rock elements. New Wave is not new wave because it is keyboard driven. We don't typecast on what New Wave is or isn't based solely on technicalities but there is punk and mod influence to the music in addition to a style and sound. Just as progressive rock is a growth from psychedelic rock with a focus on the album as a whole instead of a song by song basis. It adds classical, jazz, and blues elements to a rock ethos.

Something is not progressive rock based simply because they use odd time signatures, structures or complexity. A lot of progressive rock is rather simple. Experimental and Avant Garde are separate genre tags all together. If a band happens to make a 10 minute song that uses something odd like 27/4 it doesn't give it a free pass. Just like Nickelback can write an uptempo song and down tune their guitars. It doesn't make it heavy metal.

And you can list things that are progressive metal, progressive alt metal, progressive death metal, and progressive metalcore and you are right that there is little semblance of similarity. This is exactly my point on why its a diluted term. Steve Wilson hits the nail exactly on the head (read the Q: And lastly, do you still express disagreement with the term "progressive rock" to describe Porcupine Tree's music?) in this interview on my exact point. That is why the tag progressive is getting more and more useless to describe music. It is no longer about a style of music but is now a modifier meaning "More than 3 minutes and with complexities".

You get bat**** crazy signatures, song structures, song length, complexity, and everything else with pretty much every single death and black metal band.

[exploder]

in my opinion core is just a term that people put in a genre when they can't think of a name for genre

serisously why is it called crabcore?
what's next...elephantcore?
squidcore?
countrycore?