Am I the only person who's baffled and irritated by the proliferation of meaningless sub-genres in electronic music...? Case in point, from the current Future Music.

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Plan A was to do Techno, then it slightly deviated to Electro-House, Hard Electro and Electro-Rave.

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Does it really matter? I mean, WTF is the difference...? Is there anyone here who could listen to a track and confidently assign it to one of those categories?

Trouble is, when someone (like me) does come up with a decent genre nobody wants to know

I've been promoting the idea of music for long motorway drives - it's got to be {ahem} a driving upbeat rhythm, slightly interesting tune but not enough to take up to much attention. I call it 'Road'

Can't seem to get anyone else to accept it though

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It wasn't me!
(Well, actually, it probably was)

Back in the good old days every electronic band/artiste had their own genre. Some were good, some weren't. That's the way of things.

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Gear List: reverse only.

They mean something if you are into it, nothing if you are not, just like anything else.
I dont think it means that there are a myriad of hard catagories out there - things are always in flux, but its a way of suggesting what elements are important in the music. Thats all.

Its also a bit of fun as well, if you see some of the catagories made up on soundcloud every month!
A way of making light of the trainspotting mentality.

Electro rave - bit of electro, with err rave...whats not to understand?!



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Quote Folderol:

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Trouble is, when someone (like me) does come up with a decent genre nobody wants to know

I've been promoting the idea of music for long motorway drives - it's got to be {ahem} a driving upbeat rhythm, slightly interesting tune but not enough to take up to much attention. I call it 'Road'

Can't seem to get anyone else to accept it though

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That's because 'MOR' already exists.

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hourglass | random thoughts | doubledotdash!? collective

I still don't really understand what 'Urban' is and why it needs its own section in HMV.

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http://www.partyfearsthree.co.uk

Quote Steve A:

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I still don't really understand what 'Urban' is and why it needs its own section in HMV.

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Music that's congested and overpopulated?

Quote Steve A:

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I still don't really understand what 'Urban' is and why it needs its own section in HMV.

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Urban is what cop-out journalists use to describe music involving black people.

So Hip Hop is Urban but so is Leona Lewis.



But I think it's pretty unfair to target just electronic music. "Stoner Rock" anyone..?

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I'm All Ears.

Quote Steve A:

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I still don't really understand what 'Urban' is and why it needs its own section in HMV.

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Because it's not politically correct to have a sign saying "WEED DEPARTMENT" in a high strett store.

I believe in Oxbridge stores they have an "urbane" section instead.

Quote ken long:

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But I think it's pretty unfair to target just electronic music. "Stoner Rock" anyone..?

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Quite. Or Shoegaze!

Genres are created by music journalists in order to pigeon hole artists I think.

I'm reading the book "Last night a DJ saved my life" which is about the history of the DJ and I'm still in the early chapters. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the music business as the opening chapters cover the birth of radio and the radio announcer, followed by the radio DJ. Anyway it refers to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Freed

(a coincidence that I was reading about the real Moondog the other day)

who was playing black music which at the time was know as Ryhthm and Blues, but as it migrated into the white households, especially when Elvis arrived it became known as Rock and Roll.

Music doesn't need genres if you are a consumer, you either like the piece of music or you don't, but it helps people write about it or express what they are into.

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http://soundcloud.com/richie-royale
http://www.mixcrate.com/richieroyale

The most hateful one is "Intelligent Dance Music".

There's a frightening Wikipedia page about the 'folk metal' genre, with a genuinely scary audio snippet...

..let me stick my filter in here..

Categories are a way of life - more so today than before, for the reason that 'people' do not want complex reasoning ...

I really like 'electronic music' and the more I learnt about the genre the more I discovered subtle nuances, some deliberate, some accidental.

The proliferation of technology allows us to combine any former dedicated sound e.g. monk chants and electronic drum beats awashed with reverb.
But what does one call this if you're trying to sell this track/CD? Tossing it in the same bin as Great Choral Classics will not help sales...will it? In steps the 'categorist'...

Current listing in Amazon
Ambient (17,428)
Big Beat (1,486)
Disco (12,517)
Drum & Bass (9,789)
Electronica (318,903)
Freestyle (2,265)
House (142,306)
IDM (4,069)
Rave (4,931)
Techno (80,485)
Trance (33,548)
Trip-Hop (6,580)
Turntablists (633)
World Dance (34,357)


And btw my musical genre is definitively URBAN as opposed to "Soul-Rock-Pop-Rap-Electro-Funk"


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C.LYDE
http://soundcloud.com/c-lyde

Quote nathanscribe:

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I believe in Oxbridge stores they have an "urbane" section instead.

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Hate the term 'IDM'!

I've also been seeing more and more people using the term 'EDM' or 'electronic dance music'. Since when has it been anything other than just dance music?! Completely unnecessary.

Heck, I've been making EDM for 25 years, and I can't categorize it half the time either.

Try here:

http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

It's out of date, but it's a good start.

In dem days, anything that was not in the primary genres was called 'fusion'. I loved this word. I used to say to my clients I am a fuser. They thought I meant a confuser.. Old folk huh?

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Samplecraze
Stretch That Note

Quote A. AuCr:

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Heck, I've been making EDM for 25 years, and I can't categorize it half the time either.

Try here:

http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

It's out of date, but it's a good start.

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I still refer to that quite a bit, even if it is a bit out of date


Martin

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YewTreeMagic