All right bands, producers, marketing people, music critics and random other people, the constant new sub-genres need to stop. I feel like every time I look at a new song, it comes with a new genre unique to it and it alone. This doesn’t do anything to help music listeners define a genre at all. It doesn’t make it less confusing. It makes it more confusing.
I don’t know what most sub-genres really are anymore. A few of us once had a discussion at work of all the random sub-genres of rock once and what each one meant and all I really got out of is that none of them mean anything at all. People are really trying to differentiate themselves from all the other crap that came before and all they are doing is making themselves look like idiots.
I went to the Wikipedia article that put out a list of all the sub-genres of rock and there are nearly 150 different sub-genres for rock alone. Now I grant that this list included pop and country genres and I don’t really think those really belong in rock. But can anyone really tell me without reading about it what the “Oi!” genre is all about?
So here is the deal. I am going to list approved genres of all music. And we should just stick with it because they are distinct and tell you about what you are listening to:
* Pop
* Rock
* Country
* Techno
* Rap
* Ska
* Punk
* Heavy Metal
* Classical
* Blues
* Jazz
* Hip Hop
* Polka
* Swing
And to anyone who asks… Indie is not a genre, it is whether the musician is signed to a major label or not and honestly if you heard them on the radio, they aren’t indie even remotely. I will also note that I personally don’t like my inclusion of Alternative music, though much of that was just Rock anyway.[1. This isn’t entirely true. Alternative was about mixing many different styles that usually didn’t include Pop, Country, Rap or Hip Hop. On an alt channel you could generally hear Rock, Techno, Ska, Punk, Blues, Swing, or Heavy Metal at any point in time. It was an amalgamation of musical styles which is why I liked it.]