[Music] Overgenrefication of Electronic Music

[OriginalVocalMix]

Everyone I know who doesn't listen to EDM gets really confused by all the different genres, has it gone too far?

For instance, we've got House, Deep House, Progressive House, Electro House, Tech House, Techno, Trance, Progressive Trance, Hardstyle, Hardcore, Hard Dance, Psytrance, Gabber, Goa Trance, Moombahton, Moombahcore, Jump Up, DnB, Liquid DnB, Dubstep, Brostep and Happy Hardcore, just to name a few.

It's pretty easy for me to understand all the different genres because I actually listen to a lot of them, but I can imagine it's fairly hard for outsiders to the scene to make sense of it all. It's gotten to the point they call everything with a 4/4 kick drum "Techno", when in reality most of it Electro House.

So, thoughts? Are there too many genres, are all these new ones like Moombacore and Jump Up useful? Or is the scene going too far?

[Deleted]

Never heard of moombacore, but jump up is useful because it's what you describe the dumb version of dnb that was the inspiration of today's dubstep(brostep) with its wobbly stuff. But yeah I agree, genres like progressive x are useless just like IDM, psytrance/goa trance(seriously what's the fucking difference), neurofunk/techstep(I could guess the difference but most of the time I can't see it)

[Yig]

I've been listening to electronic music since the 80s and 90s, I've never really paid any attention at all to these classifications.

[Sandoggg]

i think every major genre of music has lots of sub genres. i have never heard of half the things you mentioned, but my interest in electronic is only skin deep.

my interest in 'metal' is a bit further; lets see how many i can name

prog rock, alt rock, black metal, death metal, melodic death metal, symphonic metal, hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo, metalcore, mathcore, ..i'm out.

i only know those because those are what i listen to. there are metalheads that know a lot more i'm sure. and in a conversation i might have with a metalheads, these subgenres would be very meaningful. in a conversation with my dad, they'd be meaningless.

so no, no such thing as overgenrification.

edit: looking through my library, some i forgot =P
doom metal, thrash metal, grindcore, nu metal(trololo), folk metal, gothic rock, post metal (?), prog metal, powermetal (lol), and i see some melodic black metal. i bet all these together are 33% of metal classifications or less.

[Badpaladin]

There's a difference between actual subgenres and blogger tags.

[shocktopuslol]

to me its all the same.
Rap is Rap,
Electronic is Electronic ( i know a few subgenres but thats because i know what real DnB and Dubstep sounds like, not this skrillex shit all the kids listen to these days)
metal is metal (all metal sounds the same to me)
shitty pop music is shitty pop music.

the only music i can really listen to is rap, shitty pop music is just not on the fucking cards, and i hate metal where it is so distorted and you can barely understand what they are saying, so i like rap (but no all this little wayne and young money shit the kids listen to these days, thats fucking gay).

[Labz]

I stay away from that kind of music. I don't find it pleasant to listen to and although I'm being very biased, that's just my 2 cents.

[Deleted]

people like to be precise you know

[Deleted]

Babylon Zoo, The Chungwit, the biff-boff and the puff pastry hangman...

[Marimba]

"Overgenrefication" is present in pretty much in everything that isn't mainstream.

[Badpaladin]

"Overgenrefication" is present in pretty much in everything that isn't mainstream.

Not really. Mainstream music isn't genre-specific. Well, I guess one could argue the case that Funeral Doom Metal won't be seeing much time on Mtv as opposed to dance music, but mainstream music still "suffers" from having a lot of genres.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

Everyone I know who doesn't listen to EDM gets really confused by all the different genres, has it gone too far?

For instance, we've got House, Deep House, Progressive House, Electro House, Tech House, Techno, Trance, Progressive Trance, Hardstyle, Hardcore, Hard Dance, Psytrance, Gabber, Goa Trance, Moombahton, Moombahcore, Jump Up, DnB, Liquid DnB, Dubstep, Brostep and Happy Hardcore, just to name a few.

It's pretty easy for me to understand all the different genres because I actually listen to a lot of them, but I can imagine it's fairly hard for outsiders to the scene to make sense of it all. It's gotten to the point they call everything with a 4/4 kick drum "Techno", when in reality most of it Electro House.

So, thoughts? Are there too many genres, are all these new ones like Moombacore and Jump Up useful? Or is the scene going too far?

Basically it's just too much for the simple human finds to know the different between. Some are very obvious differences. Some are harder to identify. But to me, it really doesn't matter what genre it is (for me). If it's a damn good song, who cares what genre it is, just enjoy it right! Just try not to listen to the YouTube comments, bloggers, and people that only know the genre by how overrated dubstep has became in the last year or 2.

As for the "scene going too far". Eww, I don't like that it's called a "scene" when it's just music being music. Leave the "scene" for the hipster type rock and rollers. (Not the real rockers that love Albums, and not just hits). I don't think it's going too far, I think it's doing the opposite, some geners are merging, some DJs are just going to the more popular genre, I was disappointed when I found a DJ i very much appreciated just started making dubstep. It was a sill move by him imo but, whatever does it for him. There's a lot of genres of this type of music. The least educated of it call it "techno" or "dubstep" the more educated know the different between DnB, Dubstep, Trance, House, and Techno, and the ones who absolutely love this kind of music, we know mostly all of the sub-genres. I just don't pay attention to it and go on enjoying the music for what it is. Masterpieces in my eyes. Not matter how much I bash on dubstep, they'll keep on listening to it because it makes them happy, just like how no matter how many times people bash trance and vocal trance, i'll keep on listening to it because it makes me happy. Gets me motivated. Makes me think, ideas pop into my head when I listen to it. Just keep on listening and don't bother trying to teach the unwilling how many subgenres there are of "techno".

[skeebopshapow]

metal has the same problem.

hipsters will be hipsters, and thats really all you can say about it. the real world isn't so silly

[Pheraz]

metal has the same problem.

hipsters will be hipsters, and thats really all you can say about it. the real world isn't so silly

but metal is kind of dead in many cities, sadly
everyone and his mother is listening to electro stuff and feels so trendie about it...

[Sackman]

I've been listening to electronic music since the 80s and 90s, I've never really paid any attention at all to these classifications.

Yeah these people who classify them bore me, If I like it I listen if I don't I don't.

And overclassification? Yeah. To me its House, Hardstyle, Techno, DnB, Dub. And then it's either mainstream or not. The rest are needless classfications for people trying to be unique or inventive or something.

It's like if we started classifying piano pieces into rhythm, stocatto, high-pitch, low-pitch, sombre, energetic, major, minor. etc (which you would do if you were analysing the piece, but if you're just listening its either just a piano, or its based on an era)

---------- Post added 2012-01-12 at 10:51 AM ----------

i think every major genre of music has lots of sub genres. i have never heard of half the things you mentioned, but my interest in electronic is only skin deep.

my interest in 'metal' is a bit further; lets see how many i can name

prog rock, alt rock, black metal, death metal, melodic death metal, symphonic metal, hardcore, post-hardcore, screamo, metalcore, mathcore, ..i'm out.

i only know those because those are what i listen to. there are metalheads that know a lot more i'm sure. and in a conversation i might have with a metalheads, these subgenres would be very meaningful. in a conversation with my dad, they'd be meaningless.

so no, no such thing as overgenrification.

edit: looking through my library, some i forgot =P
doom metal, thrash metal, grindcore, nu metal(trololo), folk metal, gothic rock, post metal (?), prog metal, powermetal (lol), and i see some melodic black metal. i bet all these together are 33% of metal classifications or less.

I know of the metal genres, there is rock, metal, death metal, melodic metal, alternative. The rest are people trying to be cool and unique again. It's an analysis of what the song is, not a genre. Progressive metal is sometimes, death metal, with blues or folk guitar solo's and screamo vocals. What's it then? Problulko?

So yes, such thing as over classification. You like it, or you don't, and if you're explaining it to someone you might say "it's like such and such", but we don't need genres within genres within genres so people feel special.

[OriginalVocalMix]

There's always new "genres" surfacing. Moombahton? Halfstep? Future Garage? These "genres" are a fad, and are (to me) useless. If anything, bring out more actual sub-genres. More sound descriptions.

I agree, I wish genres were more descriptive of sound. Minimal Techno, Ambient Jazz etc.

[Rampant Rabbit]

Generally you'd have to use multiple genre tags for artists or albums. If you recommended me an album and just said it was "IDM", that would tell me absolutely nothing. I know what IDM is. I listen to IDM. Yet, it tells me nothing. You'd have to start using sound descriptions rather than genres.. glitch, breaks, beats, minimal, ambient. Stuff like that.

There's always new "genres" surfacing. Moombahton? Halfstep? Future Garage? These "genres" are a fad, and are (to me) useless. If anything, bring out more actual sub-genres. More sound descriptions.

I wouldn't call IDM a genre anyway.

I find it hilarious when I see new artists labeling their own music as Intelligent Dance Music. For all I know it could be the most pretentious bullshit I would ever have heard and in most cases that IS the case.

I'd say it's more of a label that listeners put on the artists music because they can't grasp the technicality of it. Which is understandable as some of these artists actually do work magic with these programs and techniques.

OT: As Badpaladin said:

There's a difference between actual subgenres and blogger tags.

[OriginalVocalMix]

I wouldn't call IDM a genre anyway.

Have you listened to any IDM? It's a pretty distinct genre. What would you call artists/songs that fit into that catagory?

[Howard Moon]

metal is kind of dead in many cities, sadly

NEVER! \m/

[Rampant Rabbit]

Have you listened to any IDM? It's a pretty distinct genre. What would you call artists/songs that fit into that catagory?

IDM is far from distinct. Ambient, Glitch, Drone, Minimal, Techno, Garage and the list goes on.

I remember reading a few funny quotes on this "genre" on the wiki page ages ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intelli...usic#Reception

These somewhat resemble my opinion on it but not completely. But you get the point I hope.