Alright, this is getting out of hand!

I was looking up yet another band on MySpace today and noticed that they now have expanded their music definitions. I hate seeing music boxed and labeled, but most folks need a little security in their lives, and labels make the world feel a bit safer.

I just have to ask some questions though, because there seems to be an awful lot of genres (god, I hate that overused word!) that weren't there awhile back. I mean, I grew up with rock, and hard rock and country and country-western (not the same thing).
Then there was pop, and classical and jazz (heehee!); I grew up with Big Band and folk music. There was acoustic stuff and electric stuff, though we didn't try to break those into seperate definitions. One was just unplgged, the other a touch(!) louder.
As I grew up, things like punk came out. And heavy metal. To listen to what we called heavy metal today and compare it to what started that name off is laughable. Those now-old fogies (Zepplin, Sabbath, BOC, even Iron Maiden) are such music lightweights when put up against the wall-o-sound, make-your-ears-bleed groups out there now! My brother's in one of those bands- Machine Head- and really, they are more melodic than most of that ilk.

When I was little, there was Motown and soul music, and the blues, and on a rare occassion or two, some crossover hits from those sounds into other genres. Then came hip-hop. Okay, not my cup of tea, but hey, it obviously has its market value.

and now (getting to the crux of this diaribe), there is triphop......

I gotta wonder. I mean,I thought you had to hop before you could trip.

Seriously though, some of these new genre titles do have me scratching my head, music fanatic that I am, though I am sure the kids today would put up their noses and shrug me off as being "old". Of course, they have no idea who the Beatles were and how much they alone changed the music industry when I was barely in school, so poo on them. They have much to learn too, sadly from history books and legends that have turned to myth.

Some of the other titles that got a laugh out of me were things like "crunk". what the hell is Crunk?! Crunchy Punk?

Or Happy Hardcore. Okay, now that's just an oxymoron, like christian punk or metal. Something just don't jibe.

Though I question its correctness, I think turntablism is pretty self-explainatory.

Screamo....okay, well, you got me on that one. I imagine groups of kids who have managed to deafen themselves at metal gigs standing around trying to be heard by one another.

Post-hardcore. Damn, are those guys getting that old already?! What the hell does that make me?!? I was around long before hardcore was!


In truth, I understand the human need for boxing and defining things. We do it to everything. Have you seen the growing list of dinosaurs in the last few years!? There were a max of like 100 when I was in school. It has got to be in the thousand by now, and growing almost daily. I suppose music can survive it, because when you get past the industry's need to know how to sell something, people will listen to what what appeals to them, not just because something fits into a certain catagory.

I suppose new titles to things give the kids some sense of elitism, which we all needed at some point during growing up. And in this world where we are so in touch with what everyone else is doing, and how quickly fashion changes, having something to call your own makes people feel better.

Me, I got music. If you can play well, I don't need to know anything else. If you can't, I won't be hanging around.

(Coming soon to a blog near you, a review of the wonderful new CD by Buttercup, Hot Love.)