[Music] Overgenrefication of Electronic Music

[Stormcall]

It happens with most genres. In metal for example you have classic/traditional/"heavy metal", power metal, speed metal, thrash metal, prog metal, death metal, black metal, doom metal, stoner metal, metalcore, glam/"hair" metal, hardcore, nu metal, rap metal, goth metal, industrial metal, folk metal, grindcore, then you branch out into the sub-subgenres and the hybrids you get power-thrash, blackened death, doom-death, melodic death/melodeath, "viking metal", tech death, blackened thrash, "epic doom", power-prog, deathcore, mathcore, symphonic black metal, symphonic power metal, funeral doom, etc etc etc.

Some of those shouldn't exist as a label at all(looking at you, viking metal), but there you go.

And yes, sometimes it can be helpful. If some dude says "I like metal give me some new bands to try", because he heard Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, and Hammerfall and liked all of them, chances are good he's not looking for Cannibal Corpse, Nile, and Bolt Thrower. Now if he says "I like power metal, give me some new bands to try", I have a much better idea what he's looking for and what to suggest.

[Deleted]

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.

The main flaw about IDM tag is that you can't dance to it. Therefore it's not dance music. Sure bro, lemme see how you dance to VS, AFX, Squarepusher or some other shit.

[Howard Moon]

The main flaw about IDM tag is that you can't dance to it. Therefore it's not dance music. Sure bro, lemme see how you dance to VS, AFX, Squarepusher or some other shit.

Hey Aphex Twin and Squarepusher have quite a few danceable tracks. It all depends on how you define "dancing". Jolting your body along with the beat while flailing your arms randomly seems to me as valid a dancing technique as any other, IMO.

[Coldkil]

Throwing my .02$ in the discussion.

I'm not an electronic music fan at all, i listen to metal music. I can say at least 20 different genres of metal, but most of the times people who aren't fan of the genre just say "it's the same as the others".

This is due mostly due to a couple of reasons:
- first, if you don't like that kind of music, probably you don't recognize the differences between sub-genres and probabaly you don't even pay attention to it; for you it's all "crap" or "music i don't like"

- second, every now and then a new artist/band pops up, and more often nowadays than in the past they try to get into a saturated music market stating that they are "different from others" and they "take inspiration from X and Y, but their music is something new"; many new people define their music as a new genre while in fact they bring nothing new (it can be totally worth to listen to anyway)


Music is something that makes you feel things that are different from anyone else. If you like any kind of music you'll find interesting new info on that and discovering underground bands and less mundane things. The rest goes in the "heap opf things i'm not interested into".

[Rampant Rabbit]

The main flaw about IDM tag is that you can't dance to it. Therefore it's not dance music. Sure bro, lemme see how you dance to VS, AFX, Squarepusher or some other shit.

Define dancing. I get your point though, you're still mostly wrong however. I went to ISAM Live from Amon Tobin and it wasn't dancable at all. Then again, it's a visual showcase driven by music.

You can totally dance to plenty of AFX's (and all his other pseudonyms) and Squarepusher's tracks.

[Deleted]

Define dancing. I get your point though, you're still mostly wrong however. I went to ISAM Live from Amon Tobin and it wasn't dancable at all. Then again, it's a visual showcase driven by music.

You can totally dance to plenty of AFX's (and all his other pseudonyms) and Squarepusher's tracks.

dancing as in there's a specific dance for it, like shuffling. Also, I'm really jealous. Tobin's sound design is amazing, and this new visual thing... holy shit.

[Rampant Rabbit]

dancing as in there's a specific dance for it, like shuffling. Also, I'm really jealous. Tobin's sound design is amazing, and this new visual thing... holy shit.

Shuffling is overrated. There's no better dance than to let your body listen to the music, especially at gigs from Aphex Twin any sort of technical DJ.

Yeah you should go check it out if it comes to a place near you. Really worth it. Wasn't the best experience for me though as it was at a festival where 50% of the audience didn't even know who Amon Tobin was, saying it was boring and leaving half-way through.

[Badpaladin]

I dunno, I think EDM (and IDM, whatever that bullshit is) is confused with Electronic Music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlVIrQb7Vk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BZ_vNEQJ2I

Call me a cynic but I can't really see people dancing to this.

[Bender]

It happens with most genres. In metal for example you have classic/traditional/"heavy metal", power metal, speed metal, thrash metal, prog metal, death metal, black metal, doom metal, stoner metal, metalcore, glam/"hair" metal, hardcore, nu metal, rap metal, goth metal, industrial metal, folk metal, grindcore, then you branch out into the sub-subgenres and the hybrids you get power-thrash, blackened death, doom-death, melodic death/melodeath, "viking metal", tech death, blackened thrash, "epic doom", power-prog, deathcore, mathcore, symphonic black metal, symphonic power metal, funeral doom, etc etc etc.

Some of those shouldn't exist as a label at all(looking at you, viking metal), but there you go.

And yes, sometimes it can be helpful. If some dude says "I like metal give me some new bands to try", because he heard Blind Guardian, Gamma Ray, and Hammerfall and liked all of them, chances are good he's not looking for Cannibal Corpse, Nile, and Bolt Thrower. Now if he says "I like power metal, give me some new bands to try", I have a much better idea what he's looking for and what to suggest.

I agree with this, sub genres are needed. It might have been exaggerated lately but there needs to be quite a big number. Remember that anything rougher than Black Sabbath would be classified as the same if there weren't any subgenres. That would pretty much lump the entire metal music sound into one category. As all metalheads knows there are astronomical differences in sound between some of the sub genres.

[Rampant Rabbit]

I dunno, I think EDM (and IDM, whatever that bullshit is) is confused with Electronic Music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlVIrQb7Vk4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BZ_vNEQJ2I

Call me a cynic but I can't really see people dancing to this.

That too. Electronic Music is a thing on it's own.

I can totally see people going down on Swarms and Volor Flex. Like I said, there's no better dance than to let your body listen to the music.

[jreg]

Are there too many genres? Not at all. Just because it can be confusing to an outsider doesn't mean it's overclassified. Admittedly, a few of the subgenre names are pretty stupid, but it's just a method of categorization. It requires one to listen and perceive in order to associate the various categories with various sounds. The larger umbrella genres can be too ambiguous to be useful beyond breaking down basic patterns and relevant musicality.

To call something IDM is about as revealing as calling something rock. It may fit within its broad envelope but it doesn't explain the sound of the band. This is where subgenres come into play. You don't have to like them, but for others, it's pretty useful even if you might think the genre label is stupid - others will get a better picture from it.

An example of the aforementioned is purple sound - not very revealing but once you delve into it, next time someone mentions it, you'll have a pretty good idea what it might be like.

As an aside, virtually no artist likes being "labelled". You'll never see one agree to a subgenre label because they don't like its "restrictive confines" or something to that effect. Reality; it's just a way to categorize for those people who like order and palpable division. It's as equally valid as the whimsical comments of "let the music speak for itself" or "don't box it in genre stereotypes".

[Badpaladin]

That too. Electronic Music is a thing on it's own.

I can totally see people going down on Swarms and Volor Flex. Like I said, there's no better dance than to let your body listen to the music.

I guess we have different views on what dancing would be, then. There's a live video of Isis (Post-Metal band) where the entire crowd just stands transfixed, with most people just sort of swaying back and forth with their eyes closed. I mean, there's a few people headbanging at the end of the crescendo, but for the most part people are just sort of meditating to the music rather than "metal dancing"(lol that sounds so horrible).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rghMEMzLqcw

Poor video quality.

[Rampant Rabbit]

I guess we have different views on what dancing would be, then. There's a live video of Isis (Post-Metal band) where the entire crowd just stands transfixed, with most people just sort of swaying back and forth with their eyes closed. I mean, there's a few people headbanging at the end of the crescendo, but for the most part people are just sort of meditating to the music rather than "metal dancing"(lol that sounds so horrible).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rghMEMzLqcw

Poor video quality.

There are plenty of gigs where the audience just stands there with their arms folded, and heads nodding, but honestly, that's what you get most of the time with bands like that. Not to sound like a generalizing cunt but this is how my experiences with Post-Rock, Post-Metal and styles alike have been.

I've also seen plenty of individuals completely giving in to the music moving their bodies in any sorts of ways, and yes I would define that as dancing.

[Howard Moon]

Call me a cynic but I can't really see people dancing to this.

Give me enough drugs and I'll dance to anything!

[psychedelica]

I dont get why people name Non-official genres. Dubstep is techno. call it hard techno or others but its the same. alot of techno sound with non balanced rythyms.

the same with "Emo" its alternativ rock music but with the lyrics of depressed teenagers.

[Rampant Rabbit]

I dont get why people name Non-official genres. Dubstep is techno. call it hard techno or others but its the same. alot of techno sound with non balanced rythyms.

the same with "Emo" its alternativ rock music but with the lyrics of depressed teenagers.

You really have no idea what Dubstep or Techno is now do you?

[Badpaladin]

I dont get why people name Non-official genres. Dubstep is techno. call it hard techno or others but its the same. alot of techno sound with non balanced rythyms.

the same with "Emo" its alternativ rock music but with the lyrics of depressed teenagers.

That's an incredibly ignorant stance on both Dubstep and Emo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS38JBh5gcw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9yEvty9oqs

I could probably pull out hundreds of YouTube links to prove why there's a need for proper definitions in music.

[Deleted]

I like to just call everything music.

[psychedelica]

You really have no idea what Dubstep or Techno is now do you?

yes i know what techno or Dubstep its. however ive heard simmilar tone and rythem, the only different is retarded Robot sounds.

and i dont like the name Emo. sure its dark voice however alot of its sound comes from alternativ rock/ Psychedelic but it has lyrics of depressed/ teenage angst.
and yea i listen to "emo musikk" if you count placebo

but i guess all have different acknowledge of what sound is.

[Badpaladin]

yes i know what techno or Dubstep its. however ive heard simmilar tone and rythem, the only different is retarded Robot sounds.

and i dont like the name Emo. sure its dark voice however alot of its sound comes from alternativ rock/ Psychedelic but it has lyrics of depressed/ teenage angst.
and yea i listen to "emo musikk" if you count placebo

but i guess all have different acknowledge of what sound is.

No, genre classification is not subjective. There are agreed-upon classifications for what certain music sounds like. It's advisable to educate yourself on what these genres entail.