I’ve spent a lot of time on allmusic lately, reading about bands, trying to find new music, etc. It’s a pretty good site, if the reviews are only of variable quality (the editors subscribe to the ‘popularity is directly proportional to quality’ school of reviewing’) The information seems very accurate, and the sheer amount of material included is quite overwhelming.

So, if anybody should know about music genres, what they are, and what define them, it should be allmusic, right?

Not so much.

Their rock genre page alone has some 300 genres listed. The other broad genre pages aren’t quite so bad – and the classical page is sadly deficient – but my overall impression has been “big mess”.

So why do I even care, you ask?

Back when I was younger, and a classical music snob who hated popular music, I heard people talk about ‘acid punk’ and ‘death metal’, etc. and wondered what on earth those terms meant. When I listened to the music in question, it all sounded relatively the same to me – guitars, drums, and singing. Later, as I started to become more interested in popular music, my first question was always, what do I call this type of music, and how do I tell that that is what it is? Nobody seemed to know the answer.

Classical music, you see, has a relatively simple classification system. The basic genres are: Pre-Baroque, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern. Classical music is divided by time period, and within each period the music is fairly consistent. The are, of course, arguments as to what piece goes where; opera also complicates things somewhat, and the “Modern period” of music is almost as big of a mess a popular music is. Someone should probably make a better genre system for Modern period music, but mostly Modern composers are seen purely as individuals – their music is usually so unique that it isn’t really like any other. (Unless is is, in which case the are grouped under the name of the most famous\first composer in that style) So it’s pretty easy to at least get an overview of the genres in classical music.

The reason for this is, of course, is that: 1. Classical music was only systematized decades, or even centuries, after it was written, and 2. we tend to only listen to a few composers from each period, both because there weren’t as many composers then, and because the ‘poorer’ ones are ignored. (‘poorer’ being a relative term…) It’s just not that hard.

Back to pop music. Popular music genres are much, much different. Firstly, bands frequently label themselves in some fashion, insisting that they are ‘electro-acid-punk’ or some such. They are often incorrect, or else they make up unnecessary genre names. Secondly, individual bands often change styles, causing even more confusion. Thirdly, people are just plain confused, and marketing considerations, just wanting the next buzzword, don’t help anything. People end up just liking ‘X’ band, and those bands like ‘X’ – and so we get Pandora, which tries to describe music by a list of adjectives. This is unfortunate, I think, if only because people miss out on things that they might really like.

But there is some consistency in the genre system. I thought I could understand it for a long time. At first, I thought it was just a matter of listening to enough music – but even finding out what genre a given band play proved to be difficult, and I just became more confused. Than I looked for a clear explanation, or a chart/diagram. Still no luck. There is a ‘metal’ chart floating around out there, but it’s not really informational. I also found an alt music genre site, which is mostly just inconsistent and confusing. And, after looking through allmusic, it seems obvious that understanding existing genres fully is a futile task. Even professional critics do not understand them.

So here’s what I’m going to do: Make a classification system based primarily on sound, and then on lyrics to a lesser extant. Non-musical aspects of economics (indie vs. mainstream), and philosophy (fancy stage shows vs. just music) will be ignored whenever possible. It’s not that those things aren’t important – they are – I’m just trying to simplify things.

I’ll try to place existing genres within the system, and make a note where bands are incompatible. My goal is to create something that will allow people (and myself!), to fully appreciate and understand the amazing range of expression available in modern popular music, without becoming bogged down in fan/critic arguments and misleading names.

If anybody has suggestions, let me know.