Hi to everyone here! My main music streaming platform is YouTube (not YT music) for many years and one of strange consequences of that, it is I totally don’t understand the whole concept of musical genre, because it is almost never isn’t specified there on clips and no one can clearly explain what it is and how to understand that some random track belongs to pop, post punk, rock etc and why.
I can’t answer anyone, which music genres I love or what types of music I listen to, because I literally don’t know and don’t know how to understand it by ear. When I listen to the track I can’t say it sounds as rock, metal etc. It is just music for me. I can describe more specific musical qualities as time signature, bpm, rhythmic patters etc, but they are well defined, while genres are not. In addition I really like listening to covers, which makes things even worse, because they are often written in different musical manner and it only mixes up my understanding.
I want to add genres to tracks I listen to them, so I want to learn about them and invite you share with me and other people your experience/knowledge, how you determine which music genres a particular track belongs to.
I propose this format:
[genre name]
quality 1
quality 2
but it is only recommendation and in fact you are totally free in it. You can write about all genres you know something about them, or only about your favorite. All useful information is welcomed!
Additional question: in your understanding, is musical genre instrument specific? I mean, piano cover of rock or pop song is still in rock/pop genre or it is not?
You are also welcomed to add your additional questions about genres as part of this thread if you have them
i dont really know how to answer this, genres are really just categories that people apply to music recordings to help them find similar stuff.
I think they work in a general hierarchy with the main ones that you’d find CDs/vinyl/tapes divided up at a record store - blues, classical, country, hip-hop, jazz, pop, rock etc.
From there it depends on how deep you want to go; new genres and styles are being thought up all the time, what was usually the responsibility of music journalists is now under the remit of internet taste makers.
The top “layer” of genres are quite easy to establish, they have quite clear cut characteristics (i.e. a jazz recording probably doesn’t have much in common with country). As you go “deeper” it gets more technical and particular, and sometimes hard to easily distinguish.
In those cases you’re options are to either follow other people’s classifications or spend a lot of time researching what characteristics make jangle pop or post-punk revival.
Keep in mind that art generally doesn’t like to conform to being put into boxes, so a lot of artists making music generally disregard genres and some will purposefully make music to try and challenge preset characteristics, which can of course develop then new genres. An easy shortcut however is to stick alternative in front of the top-layer genre (e.g. alternative rock, alternative pop, alternative country etc.).
Also music can often be filed under multiple genres.
TLDR; genres are what you make them, some people don’t care for them at all and others ride-or-die by them
Most broadly, I’d assess genre by what radio station it would “sound most like” the other music on. A lot of that is determined by instrumentation and production.
Dashing out some quick thoughts here of common elements that come to mind. Exceptions to all of these exist, and you can combine a lot of these to get other common intermediate genres like pop-country or rap-rock. These are mostly instrumentation details (there are lots of other more subtle patterns that you’ll start to spot if you listen to radio frequently, but instrumentation’s easy to identify and explain):
Hip-hop/rap/trap: 808-style drum machine; deep synth bass; rapped vocals
Country: steel guitars, banjo, acoustic instruments, electric guitars
Pop: belted vocals, prominent synthesizers, emphasis on delay/echo effects in the production, more extensive distortion on electric guitars than typical in country
Dance/EDM: four-on-the-floor drum patterns; sparse vocals; thin hi-hat & shaker layers in percussion; prominent use of synthesizers
CCM: mostly determined by lyrical themes or the artist; often anthemic sound; live tracks common; inspirational
Rock: Harshest distortion on electric guitars compared to pop/country; screamed or strained vocals; drum set rather than drum machine
Metal: Similar to rock; if there are “blast beats” or growled/unclean vocals it’d probably get called metal. I’m used to the “rock” station playing a decent bit of what I think of as “metal” (Five Finger Death Punch, 69 Eyes, Judas Priest) so the hard rock/metal line isn’t very distinct
Classical (in the broad sense, not just the classical era): Typically all-acoustic; orchestral instruments, or solo instruments/small groups that are typical in the orchestra (piano, violoncello, and so on); if vocals use operatic squillo it’s probably classical.
(If it was originally made to go with a film or TV show it likely would not be considered “classical” even if it’s otherwise stylistically similar; that generally falls under “soundtrack” genre, which as far as I’m aware doesn’t generally get radio play.)
Worth noting that a lot of stations will play crossover tracks; for instance the country songs “Choosing Texas” by Ella Langley or “What I Want” by Morgan Wallen have been getting a lot of pop airplay this year; the dance/country crossover song “Miles On It” by Marshmello and Kane Brown got a lot of country airplay last year, etc.
piano cover of rock or pop song is still in rock/pop genre or it is not?
Yes, I’d typically consider a piano cover of a song originally in the rock or pop genre to inherit the genre of the original song. The instrumentation is more of a clue to the genre (it’s the most obvious and easiest way to identify, IMO), but genres often carry more hallmarks of their traditions in the harmony and melody, and that would generally be retained in a cover. Some covers deliberately combine or change the genre, as in the “Punk Goes…” series. I’d tend to consider those to land in both the original and the new genre, as elements of both are generally still present.
honestly, Rate Your Music usually has good genre tags, especially for more popular releases, and they’ve got descriptions of said genres too. there’s also the Rate Your Music Box Set project with lists of iconic tracks from specific genres, usually showing the development and history of said genres (and also includes several genres not added on RYM proper yet)
another good source (especially once you’ve got a genre name) is YouTube. you can probably find a video or video series or playlists with many examples of songs
these two sources is where most of my genre knowledge comes from
for clarity, I don’t really use the words subgenre, style, or similar words, I just call them genres all the way down. different sites will use these words tho, like Discogs has a genre+style system, or Rate Your Music has genres which can be subgenres of other genres and can also be categorized as Genres and/or Scenes/Movements. MusicBrainz is quite similar to RYM in that everything is a genre, but they can be subgenres or fusions of other genres. the RYM/MB style seems more compatible with most music players I’ve used
as a general rule, most genres are defined by sound, like what rhythm the drums play, time signature (or lack thereof), the instruments or sounds used, and so on. there are a few that aren’t based just on how the music sounds but by other criteria (RYM calls these scenes, I believe), like Riot Grrrl, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), or Christmas Music, but many of these to have stylistic similarities anyways
the best way I’ve found to learn genres is just by listening to examples
The meaning attached to the“classical” tag on MusicBrainz is even broader than that. What you described would more precisely correspond to the tag “western classical”. (I’m not saying that you are wrong, just emphasising that no one completely agrees on genres.)
In terms of my vinyl and other physical media, I use broad genre categories that probably no one else uses … some people would probably be horrified by the categories I use! That doesn’t make me wrong, or them wrong, it’s just how I sort my music so that when I’m in a particular mood, I can put my hand on a suitable record.
With my “digital” music - mostly ripped CDs - which are on a server, I can be a lot more complex with genres and still find generally what I want, while the algorithm can generate similar music more easily.
That is a slightly weirdly wide personal choice. That would make anyone playing a piano, and even folk music classical. Someone playing a violin does not mean classical music.
Genre is a very personal thing. We all categorise differently based on what we listen to.
Well, I was trying to note some common traits of what I perceive as the most popular genres, rather than prescriptive definitions. Mostly within the context of what I hear on commercial American FM radio stations.
I think it’s fair as a rule of thumb to say that if you run across solo piano on commercial radio, it’s probably (Western-canon) classical. Sure, there’s plenty of oddball stuff on NPR or community radio, but those are fairly niche markets as far as I’m aware, in terms of economic or chart presence.
It doesn’t seem like I hear folk music much on the radio unless it’s crossed over to country, so I didn’t mention it. Though, note that I said most classical music is acoustic, not most acoustic music is classical - very different things!
