General genre classification question?

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Petary791

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This is my opinion.

Rock 'n' Roll- A general classification for all rock subgenres.

Rock- 3 Doors Down, Matchbox 20, stuff like that.

Alternative- Heavier than rock, not metal. Can't think of an example off the top of my head.

Progressive Rock (prog. rock)- Weird, VERY TALENTED music. Normally involves chorus effects on the guitars, keyboards, pretty trippy. Examples: Rush (2112,) Yes, Pink Floyd.

Metal- Metallica from their Black Album up to the Reload album. Heavy, but you can understand what their saying and whatnot. Black Sabbath could be classified under this too (as they created metal IMHO.)

nu-Metal- Bands like Mudvayne and stuff like that, bass sounds very "clicky" if you will, scream a lot. Kind of like Korn too.

Trash Metal- Early Metallica, very fast-paced metal (200+ bpm,) usually very heavy guitars with very fast bass drums.

Rap Metal- Early 311, Papa Roach, stuff like that. Rage Against the Machine may be classified under it.

Classic Rock- Bands like Aerosmith, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, etc.

Punk- Bands like Rancid, very fast, jolly, upbeat, crazy walking fast basslines, and sometimes has some ska elements. ie Rancid, OLD No Doubt, and maybe old Green Day.

Pop-Punk- Bands with no talent, are sappy, but still can pull it off and become millionaires; ie Blink-182 (I like Blink-182 BTW.)

Emo- Normally mellow, acoustic guitars, they sing about how their hopeless with girls and how they got dumped but they still end up getting more girls then any other genre.

Screamo- Very heavy, all you hear is screaming THE WHOLE SONG.

Hardcore Punk- Similar to screamo, however they only scream some of the time.

Party Music- Relatively light, I guess you could dance to it maybe. My example would be Los Lonely Boys.

Grunge- Smells Like Teen Spirit is an amazing example. Classified as a music style as well as way to dress style.

Wierd As Hell- All I have to say is listen to Primus.

Funk Rock- Old Red Hot Chili Peppers. Incorporates a lot of slap bass.

Skacore- Check out the Voodoo Glow Skulls. It's like punk/metal mixed with trumpets and trombones and saxaphones.

Now you can make up your own other sub-genres from here, like I call System of a Down "Eastern Metal," and Sum-41 "Dark Punk."

If someone could sticky this, I'd give them a dollar. I probably just spent like 10 minutes on this, I need a life.
 

Cdammen

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www.allmusic.com and explore music by genre (in the left menu). Then when you enter an artist mainpage you can see with genre/style/mood he is labeled under, and if you click one you get info about it. Pretty simple, eyh? :)
 

iPodHawk

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Petary791 did a nice job with his list, and the link provided by Cdammen is very useful as well.

For my own taste, there are simply too many subgenres that can apply to the overall "rock & roll" master genre - so in my iTunes library, I just retagged them all as "rock". I want to keep them distinct from other genres such as jazz, comedy, classical, country, or holiday, but for my own listening I don't like to do playlists based on a sub-genre. If I'm in the mood for a specific sub-genre, I'm more likely to go to a specific album or artist.

By doing it this way, it helps to keep my playlists sounding "fresh" to me - I may be listening to a Classic Rock song, and the next song will be a Pop tune, followed by an R&B song, followed by Alternative, followed by Southern Rock. In other words, I like not knowing what is going to come up next. I've found that approach has brought new life to some old songs I've had for a long time, because part of the way that songs can grow old is not just in repeated listens of that particular song, but in knowing what song is "supposed" to come up next.
 

Sypher

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^ Same.. I just ignore sub-genre and label them all rock. Same for electronic music.

Anyway.. I've got a few more sub-genres to add to Peteray's very comprehensive list...

Post Punk/New Wave - Undergroundish, lo-fi rock with electronic influences.. i.e the stuff like Gang of Four, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, Joy Division, aswell as newer bands like Bloc Party.

Indie - Kinda goes with alternative I guess... but bands like The Futureheads, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol are generally classed as being indie.

Garage rock - The Strokes recently revived this kind of music... fuzzy guitars, raucous vocals, an amateurish sound...
 

bringbckbeatles

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When I began labeling genres, I found out I got sucked into labeling in such detail that there were only a few songs per genre. I guess I'm not the only one. I agree with iPodHawk and Sypher, I now label in general terms. It just gets to complicated to have sub-genre after sub-genre. Thanks for the comprehensive list anyway, I've never been able to find good definitions for anything. Much appreciated.
 

jimmeh

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Petary791 said:
This is my opinion.

Alternative- Heavier than rock, not metal. Can't think of an example off the top of my head.

Trash Metal- Early Metallica, very fast-paced metal (200+ bpm,) usually very heavy guitars with very fast bass drums.


not trying to be a perfectionist or anything, but thats actually 'thrash', not 'trash'. And correct me if i'm wrong, but i think a good example of alternative rock is maybe 'Black Label Society'?
 

nigeltufnel3

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Here my 2 pennies:

Alternative is a type of rock. And it once was truly 'alternative', but not really any longer. Nevertheless, that's where it got it's name back in the 80s (R.E.M. and The Cure). It was an alternative to mainstream rock and pop. It is really the grunge, slacker rock as opposed to the clean cut rock and butt rock (Poison, Guns and Roses). It really began to be mainstream in the early 90s with bands like Nirvana. Really, most of the rock music being played on the radio in the early and mid ninties was alternative.

Rock, itself, encompases many, many sub-genres including:

Rock n' roll (Elvis, Bill Haley)
Progressive (Rush, Dream Theater),
Alternative
Punk (Bad Religion, Black Flag)
Metal (yes, it was coined from a Steppenwolf song, but it is more along the lines of Metallica and Megadeath)
Industrial (Tool, Deftones)
Classic Rock (Zeppelin, Floyd)
Grunge (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden)
and on and on....

and now we have a bunch of things like emo, indie (although in the strictest sense it's not a sound, it still has a characteristic sound), post-punk, slowcore, lo-fi, and many many more.

That's kinda sloppy, but i guess it's my opinion........hope it helps.....
 

jimmeh

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i would say floyd were more progressive than anything?

and imo the best example of a grunge band is alice in chains, they have a more 'grungy' sound than anyone else
 

nigeltufnel3

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Yes, AIC is very grunge.

But what do you mean by 'progresive'? Yes, Floyd was progressive in that they advanced music. I would say they were avant-garde for their time. But in any case, that's not what progressive rock is. Progressive rock can be defined by two bands, Rush and Dream Theater. Some might include Yes, Iron Maiden, King's X, Steve Vai, and Yngwie Malmsteen (although there are many more progressive than these, these are by far more widely known). It is also called 'Math Rock', it's mix of Fusion and Metal.

Prog Rock is musically technical in nature. Now, one might say that Floyd or Zeppelin is technical, but frankly they are not as technical as Dream Theater (I didn't mention talent, just technicality). I would dare to say that no other music is as concerned with music theory as is prog rock. It features modal playing, as well as key and time changes what seems like every measure.

Floyd is usually laid back and strung out. Prog Rock is much more agressive. Now I don't mean to dog on Floyd, frankly I like them more than most prog rock, but they are not quite what I would call progressive.

Again, just my 2 cents......
 

Rhine

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Grunge can also be kinda nirvana cant it? Zeppelin Forever :D

Edit- Im so horrible at typing
 

nigeltufnel3

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Yes, well...I would say Nirvana is grunge, not the opposite. But in any case, Nirvana epitomizes the genre in many ways. I was just listening a few bands from each genre to give an idea........
 

mausolus

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I seem to recall Dave Grohl saying he didn't like the term "grunge", or was it kut Cobain. Forgot.
 
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SoundChaser

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i see rock as stuff that is really mainstream and doesnt deviate from the 'standard' of the times
i see alt rock as the stuff that is on college radio, stuff that is different from the mainstream, but it seems that alt rock usually becomes the mainstream.. case in point, nirvana.. they were this crazily different group from the standard (which at the time was 80s hair metal) , their music became known as grunge, and then more and more of these bands popped up, and eventually grunge became the mainstream, the biggest thing of early 90s music... another example is so called 'garage rock', stuff like the hives and the strokes etc.. that was the stuff you only ever saw on the wedge on muchmusic, stuff played on college radio.. but then it took off in 2000ish and now its much more popular than it used to be, but it's still retained its 'alternative' genre classification, even though it really isnt the alternative to anything now, since it's pretty much everywhere (ie. jet, the killers, the white stripes, modest mouse etc......)
 

SoundChaser

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nigeltufnel3 said:
Progressive rock can be defined by two bands, Rush and Dream Theater.
i feel like rush and dream theater aren't two exempliary bands for prog rock.. i think they both represent the prog metal facet of that genre..

i am a huge rush fan and have tons of respect for dream theatre (i saw them in concert last september with yes) , but i dont think their sounds are lush and textured enough to really classify prog rock. their use of synths and long songs with multiple movements Absolutely make them prog rock bands, but i never heard a mellotron in a rush song, or even a hammond organ, for that matter..
dont get me wrong, i absolutely looove rush, i just dont think they encompass all the elements of prog rock, the way i see it..

lets keep talking about this.. i love talkin about prog rock..
 
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