Thoughts on Genres

While riding along with my roommate tonight on the way to get some delicious chicken wings, sampling all of our new music of course, we got into a discussion about labeling certain music and genres and wondered, how do you really classify a genre? Sometimes it's simple, yes...Backstreet Boys = pop, Garth Brooks = country (with the exception of the random CD under the pseudo name back in the 90s), Bone Thugs = rap (that's right, I just gave a Crossroads shout out).  But, now more than ever, there are compilations among artists of all different types of genres, bands going in new directions with each album, how can we so easily classify artists as just one genre?  Sometimes I get so confused just describing a certain sound that I realize I sound like a complete idiot.  What the hell does Americana meets electronic, meets soul, meets rock-and-roll even mean? In bands like Miike Snow, the electronic sound is growing in popularity, but it's not quite the techno I would generally think of...I guess you could really call most of it Rock, or Country, or some other general term, but there are so many sub-genres these days that it is so easy to get caught up in the labels. When you have Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley and James Mercer of the Shins coming together to create the unique sound of Broken Bells, a little rhythym, a little Indie sounding, (or rather the typical Indie sound because they are not on an independent label, which is what really classifies Indie right?)...and now I have just confused myself.  And they aren't the only ones, there are new sounds coming out of old names constantly.  I mean hell, Kings of Leon is about to go Country or Americana-ish in their next album? The important thing is that it's good, its a little rock, a new type of rock though, a merging of genres if you will.


While discussing these labels, Laura made an excellent point that I might be missing out on some great new artists by just focusing on and "Indie" genre, and honestly, many of the bands I have listed may not be that "Indie" anyway.  So for now, I will broaden the spectrum a little, still focus on the smaller bands, but mostly just get back to the fundamental roots of the music and my interests, and just enjoy.  Indie, Country, Rap, Folk, Americana, Electronic, the lines are blurred together so easily.  So let's just say screw the labels and enjoy the music....


*Special thanks to Laura for the edits and bringing up an interesting topic, and to Sus for the brainstorming sessions on GChat*