Genre Labling.

[SherT]

Nowadays we have a gazillion genres of music.

We tend to judge music we listen to by which genre we can place it in, rather than how the music itself sounds.

We try to slap a label on every song we hear, and diss them as being "teeny", "unmatured", or even "trash", most of the time just based off the fact that a particular band for example is "punk-pop but too teenybopper".

I mean fine, I agree with you guys that some songs have lyrics that sound like they're written by some random kid imagining he's a teen, with half the friggin world against him. In this case I would agree with you guys and call em immature. But these same bands could have other, more matured songs, but because of a couple of duds, they get dissed and avoided like the black plague.

Worse still, I have seen many occasions where bands have been dissed for being "not punk enough", "nu-metal w@nkers" or just simply "not heavy enough", thereby sealing their fate on the trash pile.

So I leave you guys with these questions.

Is it really neccessary to slap a label on every damn song we hear?

Is it right for us to decide if music is good or not based off whether the song follows the songwriting rules of a particular genre?

Will we ever learn to appreciate music based off whether it sound good, instead of whether we can dump into a specific genre?

Discuss. 8)

 

[wangdexian]

It's just human nature. 8)

 

[SherT]

Yea I know it's human nature, but what I meant is, if we all take a step back and look at it from a third-person view, is it all really neccessary?

 

[Colarndo]

Labeling is a must. How else are the music stores gonna classify their music?
Throw everything at a corner and let the customer find?

It's rational. Don't gig orgainizers also find diff bands of diff genres to have a balance? Surely we can't just take away the classification?

There will be always be resentment towards a certain genre(we all saw in the soft forums b4). You can't please everyone.

When ppl are jealous of the popularity of a commercial band, they immediately call them sell offs. Or that a certain genre of music was just written to cater to the masses that would buy it.

At the end of the day, it's still best not to get too invloved into this mad politics.
Just continue being true to your music(no matter the genre or whether ppl diss you).

 

[Praetorian]

It's human nature.

Each person looks for different things in a song... so naturally we tend to classify. Not neccesary at all, but what can anyone do?

 

[MichaelAngelo]

i dunno about elsewhere lah, but here in singapore, it is mainly an issue of pride. like even if the song from a genre one dislikes is nice to his ear, he will at most listen to it behind the backs of his bandmates, friends who might ridicule him...etc. however, the thing is that those bandmates or friends or whoever might ridicule him, sometimes find themselves in the situation of the one they ridiculed. So its like this vicious cycle. I am in a band that plays rock n roll...eg. Guns n Roses...etc. but sometimes i do find a say, Good Charlotte song nice. I tell them, they ridicule me, but I know deep inside, they might find it nice too, sometimes they even learn those songs privately! Well...i must admit i got caught in that vicious cycle for quite a long time. Last time when i was into punk rock, i hated rock n roll, now, me and my bandmates(who last time when through the punk rock phase together with me) into rock n roll, we proclaim that punk rock is too simple, that linkin park is nonsense, etc. etc. but of the late, i have been thinking about this and i found it so childish and stupid, i may not want to play music that is beyond my genre, simply because i enjoy what i am playing now, but i do think those songs from other genres can be nice too. I am a "tapered boy", but i recently really liked the Hafiz A'Ari song, called Mat Tappered. I used to wear baggy pants and fat sneakers like all punk rock or modern rockers do. But i think i am just keeping up with the kind of music i am playing, will try not to get back into that vicious cycle!

 

[tophattedslasher]

+1

I totally agree with what you said. guess its about finding your identity, wanting to stick with it, then realising that you're just stereotyping yourself.

 

[headwan]

correct me if im wrong.................is this abt ppl obssess with one
genre of music,and critic or looking down on other genre????????

 

[gordonzz]

i listen wad i wan..who cares who dont like..

anyway.. this is human nature yeah.. some 'greatest' song with greatest solos.. etc.. some people wont like oso.. same logic.

 

[DoubleBlade]

When i play Malmsteen and Vai's music in the lecture theatre on my notebook during breaks , my friends always tell me to change song cause most of them , in fact all of them have been fed with radio/MTV friendly songs all their lives that they would just dismiss malmsteen's/Vai's songs as trash....

But yeah , I listen to whatever I want. One man's meat may be another man's poision...

Sometimes we are often too cosy being in our very own comfort zone that we detest changes....

 

[purplehaze3691]

It all come from the same 7 note, either higher or lower octave, fast or slow, loud or soft only, with vocals or no vocals. So just enjoy the music

Cheers
purplehaze3691

 

[super_punk]

i think to an extent it is necessary as it provides the artist and the fans with a little bit of closure and security.

otherwise how you gonna answer the conundrum:
" What kind of music you like?"

but i agree it can be limiting. especially in the genres which are not so mainstream namely hardcore punk, metal, uhh gangsta rap?
pretty much anything that has a cult of fans and followers.

 

[Pyro]

For me, I listen to all kinds of music. Except pop, hip-hop and the likes. I just can't seem to be able to understand it. I listen to punk rock, all kinds of metal, all kinds of rock. Basically, anything that falls under the grandfather of rock, I will listen.

 

[serialninja]

+1 to "it's human nature"

it's just what we do. categorization helps us understand the world around us, whether it's warranted or not.

 

[SherT]

Well in my view categorisation is alright, but only to a certain extent. Push that boundary, and we end up seeing things like bands being dissed for not being "punk" or "rock" enough. :?

 

[vernplum]

Genre classification is entirely necessary - there is simply too much music being released for an individual to listen to it all - therefore, for practical purposes, how do we know what to buy, given that most of us don't have unlimited financial and temporal resources?

We are creatures of habit and tend to go with stuff that we like. If I like heavy metal for example, and hard rock, and punk, it is unlikely (though of course there is no reason why not, but I generalise for illustrative purposes) that I will like Lithuanian Butt Opera, or Peruvian Nose Flute music. Similarly, if I am a fan of Baroque violin quartets, it's a good chance that I will also like similar classical Airs and Adagios, but will not be that inclined to like the latest release from Cannibal Corpse.

Genre classification, as you can see, saves us time and money, and stops Mozart fans from being scared to death. Did you know that there around 15000 new music releases *daily* around the world?

Did you also know that 65% of statistics used to emphasize a point are invented on the spot?

 

[MichaelAngelo]

hmm...what i'm trying to say is not that we do not need a classification for our music. Yes, it is necessary, for practical purposes. But my point(and the threadstarter's point also, i believe) is that many people are forfeiting good music that may not be from their favourite genre just for pride sake. I think its really really superficial and childish how they like to use very deep sounding words eg. "its losing our dignity to listen to punk rock!", or "we got to stay true to our music!" when they darnit don't get what the heck they are even proclaiming! Just using strong words for pride. SO SUPERFICIAL! COS DEEP INSIDE, WE STILL KNOW THERE IS THIS SONG SOMEWHERE FROM ANOTHER GENRE THAT WE LIKE.

Why do they an indecency in their pride that they have to defend then? Well...it starts from wanting to be cool, to be accepted.-Acknowledge this or not, it is true.

See, often, when we get into this new genre of music, we are fresh in it, full of enthusiasm, we believe that our interest in it will never die, we think it is the coolest of all, the best of all...etc. so we start talking big, to our friends, to our schoolmates, to our bandmates, we tell them, "so and so band sucks! this and that band then is cool!" but slowly, as time goes by, we come back to the real world and realise that there are nice songs beyond our genre too...AHA! thats when we feel stuck. We wanna share with others how nice this song sounds, but because its in a genre we previously dissed, or condemned(eg. "I'D RATHER DIE THAN LISTEN TO POP MUSIC!"), we know that people whom we dissed the genre to know how much we hate it, so we don't dare to share it, continue dissing that genre(and proclaiming that you will stay true to your music, unlike this and that band), and inevitably thickening and strengthening that psychological wall that keeps you from freely enjoying your music. Then we secretly, or rather, privately listen to the songs we like, thats not from our genre, hesitantly, once in awhile, as our own conscience is bugging at us for doing that. We may also privately learn to play that song, so that we can enjoy playing it. But in front of our band, we don't dare to play, when we meet someone who plays another instrument from another band in the genre we dislike, we play that song with them. Although i find that hypocritical behaviour, and I dont personally practice that, I know people who do. Thats why i see the need for us to break it, get out and get free! Don't let that big fat rotten ego of ours to get in the way of GOOD MUSIC!

dunno if you guys get what I am trying to say, hope you do, have a good day, i'm gonna study for my tests. :?

 

[SherT]

+1 to Michael

:supz:

That's EXACTLY my point. For practical purposes, yes, we still need genre labels, but is really neccessary to carry it so far as to miss out on good music for the sake of prride?

 

[spikes]

Is jet a rock roll band or pop?

 

[gordonzz]

Is jet a rock roll band or pop?

rock and roll