Musical opinions that you just don't understand

[purlieu]

"rock", "dance" etc.

Depends on just how many genres you want, but if you're using rock to mean guitar music, then you're effectively putting Slayer and Belle & Sebastian in the same category, which is useless. Dance would suggest that jungle and house are the same kind of thing, when they're two types of music that use completely different sounds, textures, tempos and largely made using very different equipment.

I do think there is too much of an obsession with micro-genres within electronic music, particularly dance music, hence things like Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music (in which he mostly takes the piss out of various micro-genres), and hence the daft arguments on some Discogs listings, but I think genres that go beyond the absolute basic HMV ones are also useful.

Having easy, widely understood terminology to differentiate between '60s psychedelic rock, punk, glam metal, twee indie-pop and the Kaiser Chiefs is useful, in a way that 'rock' doesn't remotely cover.

[Clownbaby]

^ agree, I think a kind of middle ground between the incredibly vague genre labels and the hair-splitty ones is fine for most people

[Brundle-Fly]

I have a dear old friend who exclusively only listens to soundtracks, particularly James Bond scores. I remember him raving about Duran Duran's View To A Kill when it first came out. I said, maybe he should check out their other stuff. Before I even finished my sentence he quietly said, Naa. Same story with A-Ha.

He'd wax lyrical about the sonic majesty of John Barry, Ennio Morricone, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith scores and I asked him surely he would adore the likes of Debussy, Holst, Ravel or Vaughan Williams? All maestros of descriptive orchestral music, but no, unless it's tied in with a fucking big-budget movie he's not interested. ie: -Samuel Barber's Adagio For Strings = good. Anything else by Barber = bad. It's not that he didn't occasionally enjoy non-film music though. He quite liked Yello(but only The Rhythm Divine single with Shirley Bassey/ see Propellerheads History Repeating too)The James Taylor Quartet and Barry Adamson. What a departure. He explained he has his own unsaid rules about record collection purchases and he doesn't want to diversify from them.  Fair enough. A one, two, three... "Underneath the mango tree, me honey..."

[The Mollusk]

I think a kind of middle ground between the incredibly vague genre labels and the hair-splitty ones is fine for most people

I'm quite accommodating of varying degrees of new/convoluted genre labelling but there is also something to be said for using multiple tags, especially since almost all music archiving websites have this sort of indexing system in place. Something can be primarily jungle whilst also incorporating bits of classical and metal without there being the need to invent a new genre name just for the sake of it having its own rightful place.

[Better Midlands]

He quite liked Yello(but only The Rhythm Divine single with Shirley Bassey

Where does he stand on Oh Yeah? It's in all the films.

[grainger]

Depends on just how many genres you want, but if you're using rock to mean guitar music, then you're effectively putting Slayer and Belle & Sebastian in the same category, which is useless. Dance would suggest that jungle and house are the same kind of thing, when they're two types of music that use completely different sounds, textures, tempos and largely made using very different equipment.

I do think there is too much of an obsession with micro-genres within electronic music, particularly dance music, hence things like Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music (in which he mostly takes the piss out of various micro-genres), and hence the daft arguments on some Discogs listings, but I think genres that go beyond the absolute basic HMV ones are also useful.

Having easy, widely understood terminology to differentiate between '60s psychedelic rock, punk, glam metal, twee indie-pop and the Kaiser Chiefs is useful, in a way that 'rock' doesn't remotely cover.

Fair point - you've won me over! (If that sounds sarcastic, it's not, I mean it).

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It was called Jungle in those days. Not Drum and Bass.

Maybe those do all describe significantly different styles of music, I wouldn't have the first clue. I can't help but imagine the list being read aloud by Brian Butterfield, though.

As a liker of heavy music, I have no problem with Drone/Doom/Stoner/Sludge Metal all being categorised as basically the same thing.

[grainger]

Although I definitely didn't mean that rock=[electric] guitar music. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is pop, for example.

[Brundle-Fly]

Where does he stand on Oh Yeah? It's in all the films.

He'd like it.

[Pauline Walnuts]

Let's have a look at the Rock selection,

[Absorb the anus burn]

Where's Zeuhl?

[Pearly-Dewdrops Drops]

On the topic of the thread, which is distinct from just listing popular artists that I don't personally like (of which there are obviously many), I not only dislike but am completely mystified by the popular adulation for Kanye West. Just don't get it. Lazy, simplistic production. Terrible vocalist. Dumb lyrics/content. Zero charisma as a public personality. It genuinely feels like a They Live situation where I'm seeing/hearing things completely divorced from what others are seeing/hearing.

I think he's the only popular artist I've had that experience with (which, again, is different from just not liking someone's music). Very strange.

[Brundle-Fly]

I liked Diamonds with Jay Z but mainly because it samples Diamonds Are Forever. God, I sound like my mate now.

Fuck me, that came out FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!

[JaDanketies]

Kanye West

What's weird about Kanye West is that he is (one of) The Biggest Hip Hop Stars in the World and it's hard to name many of his songs. Go ask your friends; I doubt the average person could reel off more than two. However, you've probably heard loads of his songs.

I like most of what I've heard, but I don't seek him out. People who 'know' music say he's a fantastic producer. 

[The Mollusk]

Well I think he's great.

Damn that's some fine discourse.

[JaDanketies]

Psytrance? Is there some kind of 'lucid' trance out there? Surely all trance is 'psy'?

I think psytrance describes a 'scene' rather than a particular genre of music.

But I don't have some particular issue with genre aficionados making up loads of genres. I mean, death metal is fine, but deathcore is pop music, blech.

Black metal, I think, also describes a scene better than a genre. Burzum and Deafheaven have got as much in common as The Pogues and The Corrs.  You could make some general comments about black metal that might apply to the majority of so-called black metal bands, but not all, and some of your comments would also apply just as much to a similar majority of crust punk, post-hardcore, grindcore, etc bands.

[BlodwynPig]

Good point, I'd forgotten the slightly over subscribed 'Electronic' styles.



I'm sure there's people out there arguing if this 12" is nerdcore or not.

BBC Breakfast's DJ Naga tearing it up to the new sound of Skweeeeeee

[BlodwynPig]

I do have a bone to pick with Discogs, no Future Funk genre to add to my expanding collection of Future Funk releases. Not vaporware, not chillwave or nu-disco. Future funk.

[phantom_power]

I always thought it was Gabba

[purlieu]

Psytrance? Is there some kind of 'lucid' trance out there? Surely all trance is 'psy'?

I've never fully understood the difference between 'psy' and 'goa', but they're largely used retroactively to describe the original trance sound of long, repetitive, often not heavily melodic tracks, as opposed to the Ibiza / Eurotrance that became hugely popular at the end of the century. There are obviously some crossover points (Binary Finary's '1998', BT's first album, etc.), but the two ends of the spectrum are extremely different. Possibly because the commercial stuff is most well known it tends to get categorised as 'trance', and the earlier stuff comes under 'psy' and 'goa'.

[purlieu]

I do have a bone to pick with Discogs, no Future Funk genre to add to my expanding collection of Future Funk releases. Not vaporware, not chillwave or nu-disco. Future funk.

It's a bit like before vaporwave was added and it all had to be tagged as 'Experimental', 'Smooth Jazz'. I'm sure it'll arrive eventually. The fact that they got harsh noise wall through, which is pretty much the single most niche genre imaginable, means there's hope yet. I'm sure it's been discussed heavily on the forums.

[Better Midlands]

I've never fully understood the difference between 'psy' and 'goa'

I was goinig to say the same, is Psy a bit more acidic?

Whilst I'm here Disco Polo *checks Google*
Disco from Poland - ok :/

[JaDanketies]

I more mean like psytrance seems like 'doubleplus good', two words that mean the same. If it ain't psy it shouldn't be trance. Basshunter is not likely to give someone the emotional state of 'entranced', not that there's anything wrong with the guy.

[purlieu]

While I agree, I suppose the more common usage of the name seems to have superseded its origins. While I agree that Alice Deejay isn't exactly trance-inducing, it's also true that very few metal bands are actually magnetic, nor is the Earth's crust made of rock music.

[pigamus]

Where's Zeuhl?

There is no Zeuhl, only Dana

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

why do you think pop music has a target audience

Because it's marketed through very focused channels with specific demographics in mind, and done that way because a lot of money has been invested and they want to see a return? If it didn't have a target audience then the spending would be reckless.

Also, because a lot of the artists themselves are part of an artificial construction rather than simply 'person with talent got through on talent'. And even the ones they pluck from obscurity they mould into 'artists'. The artists becomes what the label wants them to be. Who knows, maybe Ed Sheeran is suppressing some really on-point opinions about Julian Assange.

I mean, this is before we get on to the lyrics contain that reference things young people identify with, that are about being young now, rather than nostalgically gazing at some wistful past.

You're still allowed to like it, no-one's saying that. And if you can like it despite knowing that it's cynically constructed to appeal to a very specific viable commercial market that doesn't really include mid-30s men, with lyrics that bear no relation to your life, then that's fine (it is!). Just like they're fine if people they didn't market the music to end up buying it.

[JaDanketies]

Billie Eilish is genuinely good though

[grainger]

Let's have a look at the Rock selection,

Fucking hell.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Missed some cheers

[grainger]

When I see a list like that, I just want to throw all music onto a fire.