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32 votes
Accepted

Why does rap music belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

It's probably worth mentioning what "rock and roll" actually is. There are two definitions of "rock and roll". The first definition is a genre popular of music that originated in ...
Joe Kennedy's user avatar
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27 votes
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What's the difference between house and techno?

I would answer this in two ways: HISTORICALLY, "house" and "techno" are two regional variations of post-disco club music that grew up more or less simultaneously. House music is associated with ...
Robert Fink's user avatar
  • 2,073
19 votes

"Oh we got both kinds. We got Country and Western." But what's actually the difference?

Country music is originally from the American South, it has origins in rural folk music, and originally centered around the lifestyle of farmers, miners and other blue-collar, rural Americans, usually ...
Chris Sunami's user avatar
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18 votes
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What defines rock music as a genre?

Which patterns, instruments, characteristics (or whatever) does a song need to have to be considered rock? Era: Given that 'Rock' evolved (and encompasses) 'Rock n Roll', one defining aspect of ...
DA.'s user avatar
  • 773
16 votes

How to determine the genre of a song?

Visit http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html Scroll to the right and you'll find a little search box at the top of the screen, so now type in an artist e.g. Queen All genres associated with all songs ...
Stephen Bridgwater's user avatar
14 votes

Why do music genres exist?

In answering your title question, I agree with the other answer here (from Tetsujin): genres exist because classification Is What We Do and our brains our wired for the use of heuristics (see, for ...
Lin's user avatar
  • 968
11 votes

Why do music genres exist?

Humans like pigeon-holes. They make people feel comfortable that they can categorise something, to put it in a slot they already understand. Humans are very uncomfortable with things that don't fit ...
Tetsujin's user avatar
  • 7,521
10 votes
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Is "soundtrack" really a genre?

In the technical musical sense described in Wikipedia, soundtrack isn't a genre. It's better to think of iTunes genre as a one-word album description chosen from a menu of simple choices. It's usually ...
Karen's user avatar
  • 224
9 votes
Accepted

Why is the word "blue" so commonly used everywhere in Jazz: from lyrics, song titles, to record label names?

The blue note refers to a particular type of note: In jazz and blues, a blue note (also "worried" note1) is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch than ...
DA.'s user avatar
  • 773
9 votes
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Are there other "psychedelic" genres than rock?

There is certainly a psychedelic funk genre, or so the creators of the band Funkadelic, a portmanteau of "funk" and "psychedelic", believed. They released three albums during their actual psychedelic ...
Joe Kennedy's user avatar
  • 4,325
9 votes

Does aging affect our taste in music?

A recent scientific research project actually demonstrated that yes, statistically speaking, your personal tastes align less and less with what's currently popular with each passing year. http://www....
Chris Sunami's user avatar
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9 votes
Accepted

What exactly is 'epic music'?

joseem invited me to provide an answer based on my previous answer in I would like to get some fresh epic music. "Epic" music will be slightly different for everyone, and I think we can separate it ...
Richard's user avatar
  • 2,025
9 votes
Accepted

What's the difference between Bluegrass and Country?

Bluegrass is a sub-genre of Country Music with characteristics that differentiate it from mainstream Country: The instrumentation is purely 'string band' based: Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Fiddle and ...
PiedPiper's user avatar
  • 6,004
8 votes

What defines rock music as a genre?

Theodore Gracyk (Rhythm and Noise, Duke UP, 1996) makes the interesting claim that what separates "rock" from jazz, blues, soul and other kinds of rhythm & blues (including 1950s rock 'n' roll) is ...
Robert Fink's user avatar
  • 2,073
8 votes

Why do music genres exist?

Most genres initially develop within a tight-knit, geographically delineated community of musicians and fans. They embody, in some sense, the culture and the preoccupations of that group. As they ...
Chris Sunami's user avatar
  • 14.9k
7 votes

Is there still any potential for a major new popular music genre to appear?

First of all (this is a personal gripe), 'pop' isn't a genre of music. It's short for 'popular' and therefore, by it's very nature will keep on inverting itself. What was 'pop' (popular) in the 50's ...
Pat Dobson's user avatar
  • 3,186
7 votes

Are there other "psychedelic" genres than rock?

There's also psychedelic folk, from Simon & Garfunkel and the Byrds in the 60's through to modern groups like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, and the Shins. Leaves That Are Geen - Simon &...
Chris Sunami's user avatar
  • 14.9k
7 votes

Why does rap music belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

The Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame covers a multitude of "popular" music that is legendary and groundbreaking. Their inductees range from Jelly Roll Morton to Metallica. The Hall seeks to induct artists ...
Johnny Bones's user avatar
  • 7,109
7 votes

What's the purpose of having so many subgenres of music?

No-one needs them. It's man's proclivity for pigeon-holing, which in recent years - & given so little movement in popular music in the past couple of decades - has seen rise to finer & finer ...
Tetsujin's user avatar
  • 7,521
7 votes
Accepted

What's the purpose of having so many subgenres of music?

The sub-genres exist because someone wanted them to exist. This is really a specific case of a much more general question of why people put things in categories in the first place. It's a deeply ...
Cort Ammon's user avatar
6 votes

Is there still any potential for a major new popular music genre to appear?

Yes, of course. What is the popular genre changes quite a bit from decade to decade. Sometimes quickly, sometimes not. We also keep inventing new genres, as well as a seemingly infinite range of ...
DA.'s user avatar
  • 773
6 votes

What's the difference between house and techno?

House - very melodic music influenced by 80s disco and electro; house has simple beats and real voices house examples here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki6wWg2o8uQ Techno - very percussive, ...
plopidrahtis's user avatar
6 votes

Is vaporwave the first global genre that originated online?

Arguably, no. There are other examples like seapunk and chillwave: [Chillwave] is also a prime example of shifting the idea from defining a musical movement's birth in part by a specific geographic ...
MMM's user avatar
  • 1,176
6 votes

What genre of music does G3: Vai, Satrianni, Malmsteen represent, what is the name for their guitar tone?

Closest common label for those three dudes would be shred, which was the hot thing in the mid/late '80s. The style arguably invented by Malmsteen is neo-classical metal, which the other two are not ...
Meaningful Username's user avatar
6 votes

What genre are groups like Chevelle, Helmet, Tool

These are different genres of music. Tool and A Perfect Circle are progressive metal/rock, sum 41 are punk etc. If I had to chose one common root/genre for all of them I would say rock/metal.
papakias's user avatar
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