hurleyj4
member
universal indicator
Joined: 04/02/08
Location: Grand Rapids
Posts: 82
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categories and genres obviously have subjective and objective levels
I'm a bit anal w/ genres since I've been big into electronic dance music and I think organizing that music meticulously by genre (i.e. (actual) techno, progressive house, electro breaks, acid) is helpful, especially for DJ purposes. This is easier than other types of music because EDM is dominated by the 12" single/4-track EP format, so you can categorize a single release easier than a whole album because albums tend to cross genres, especially in modern music.
I personally have categorized everything NIN from The Fragile onwards as post-industrial, including Ghosts I-IV and The Slip. I feel this is a fair label because it's effectively vague - as touched on in the previous paragraph there are obviously (many) other 'genres' captured by different tracks within a single NIN album but I think each shares a post-industrial essence in common. I also disagree w/ NIN being 'progressive' - while the art itself may be progressive, the music really isn't (which is not necessarily a bad thing). Rush is progressive music - the songs can be extremely long and will change in mood and structure throughout a single track and often have dynamic time signatures, Trent typically employs 4/4 which I've always preferred (call me simplistic) save tracks like MOTP which is in something close to 7/4 I believe?
A member mentioned earlier that Corona Radiata was the most 'original' track; to be honest when I first heard CR I immediately dove into my closet and rifled through it until I found my old Quake cd. I've been rocking that soundtrack ever since.
And by the way - I recently have come to begin using the term 'indie' to categorize music; I used to be totally against it, but I feel that it can be used in a vague way as well - I think the term 'indie' can just refer to music that disregards the mainstream conception of what a song 'should' be, how you 'should' play guitar, how you're supposed to release a record & have it sound, etc etc, basically independent of preconceptions about music or already established genres. Joy Division and New Order were a very indie group since those guys esp. Bernard Sumner w/ his simplistic yet effective guitar playing and Peter Hook w/ his upfront repetitive monotone basslines (the style of which many artists including Trent still employ today, see Echoplex or The Four Of Us Are Dying) but nowadays we call Joy Division post-punk and New Order new wave/synthpop because what they did as indie groups established new genres.
The worst 'genre' - IDM. So pretentious and condescending. "This music is smart, everything else is STUPID." Nobody who actually produces "IDM" calls it IDM.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/2008 11:43AM by hurleyj4.
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