One song can have different genres!

R

roady

Digital Marketer
How many of you agree? How many times have you been confused as to what genre a song belongs to?

Do you judge a song on the basis of just the background music? Or just the instruments? Are genres subjective to different people?

Thing is - my friend asked all this all of a sudden when I was telling him about how cool house genre (techno) is and he asked me to help him understand.

I don't have full info. myself but taking the case of house/techno genre, I judge on the basis of simple Electric guitar + the bass (and the beats per minute) attached to the music. I mean, i don't know how to explain but yeah!

My question is - Do YOU guys give importance to the genre, a song is attached to? If so, How do you guys judge as to what genre the song goes to?

Understanding trance is still easier. But talking about classic/jazz/pop/country etc, it can drive a lot of people crazy.


I'll take one example and lets discuss that.

Smack My B**ch Up - Prodigy.

[youtube]hZPECFQ4NhE[/youtube]

If you've listened to it, what genre you think this belongs to? and Why!



Hoping to have a good discussion on this with you all!

Cheers
 
Anorion

Anorion

Sith Lord
Staff member
Admin
electronica... that's like the widest electronic genre, everything electronic is a subset of electronica
then the track is somewhere between dance and techno
a very specific genre would be big beat
 
OP
R

roady

Digital Marketer
Okay.. so why is this song particularly clubbed in the 'Country' genre? It's quite old and famous so should get a couple of responses.

[youtube]D1Xr-JFLxik[/youtube]
 
Ronnie11

Ronnie11

Judgement Time!!
i know a lot of metal fans were confused with bands like children of bodom as to what sub genres they come under as well...a lot of forums went nuts to decide whether COB is thrash metal or melodic death metal or power metal etc...hard to classify such bands...
As anorian said..electronic is a wide genre...have to be a bit more specific in it...seeing new additions nowadays with inclusion of something called dubsteps etc..its evolving...



Case in point of cob is this song...mixture of power metal in relation to the keyboard solo in the end...a bit of melodic death metal in between & also with vocals...it varies between songs...
 
OP
R

roady

Digital Marketer
Eggman... contribute something valuable :/

Also, Digitally imported has some really nice library of songs.. house mainly. They posted an image today on their facebook page ->

*img29.imageshack.us/img29/4263/housemm.jpg

@Ronnie - Yeah, I understand that there's confusion in the sub-genres and that's... fine with me. But like.. what about main genres? I mean, the song that I posted - White horse - why is it clubbed under Country? That's what I'm trying to figure out. Is it some different bass, beats, mix that differentiates? (what a rhetorical question but too bad the answer isn't that easy to find). :)
 

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Nanducob

Nanducob

Wise Old Owl
I can obviously tell that COB comes under deathmetal because of the of vocals and we can actually guess what subgenre is by the lyrical themes,the instruments,playing styles etc.The Musicians/Bands doesnt follow any 'strict rules' to be fit into any genre,if they did then most bands/artists would have sounded the same.Thats the reason why Pearl Jam never sounded like Alice in chains.Kurt cobain wanted to make an ultimate band like his idols-Pixies,Sonic Youth etc,but what he ended up with is a band different than his idols and a bullet to the head.Take the case of the band Fear Factory ,they were Industrial Metal genre at first and later theyve progressed into more of a Death and Thrash sounds.The same can be said with the band Staind-They debuted as Nu/Alternative Metal and later evolved in to a more Hardrock/Grunge-ish sound.
Another factor that makes two artists sound similar is their 'influence(s)'.Stevie Ray Vaughan played the Blues but it is evident from his playing that he was highly influenced by the rock idol Jimi Hendrix.There is some Phil Anselmo in Randy Blythe's vocals. .etc

Sometimes the genre is decided by the artist/band itself,like AC/DC considered themselves as just a 'Rock n Roll' band ,but to be specific they would be a Blues induced Hardrock band.
 
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