Do you think there are way too many "Genres" and "Sub Genres" for rock?

Question

I mean, check out this Question I just found...

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AiWZ8ShuPu1DDtfnu5sLEB8jzKIX;_ylv=3?qid=20080825204018AASaLFW

Seriously....WTF??????????

Answer 1

No I don't think so. I like genres, and they're easy to learn if you spend a couple minutes trying to learn about it. Math rock is an awesome genre, as well as mathcore. If you don't like using genres, then don't use them. There's really no point in everyone bitching about them because a lot of people find them useful.

Answer 2

I think it's super confusing, but it also makes some sense too.  For example: I love punk rock, there are tons of different sub genre's of punk that all make sense to me, but from an outsiders perspective it seems overwhelming and useless. (Pyschobilly, rockabilly, horror.. etc)

I believe it is bands trying to be different and to make a name for themselves in a new genre, it's a way to be noticed.

Answer 3

Good question...Whatever happened to..give this a listen? It's a bit like George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead"..all these zombies wandering round the mall in circles waiting to see an open portal to the next 'Big Thing'..Ive always believed in searching for yourself..and WOW..Can you find some Music...That's my take..for what it's worth.

Answer 4

I think all you need are these:

Rock

Metal

Pop

Teen Pop

Blues

Jazz

Bluegrass

Country

Classical

Hip Hop/Rap

Can't you fit any type of music into one of those categories?

Answer 5

Oh yeah dont even get started on this one LOL

I think every one has heard my speech, YES....just...yes lol

Answer 6

lol math rock????? sounds to me like someone was watching sesame street lmao...

there are way too many sub genres... its impossible to keep up with them all!

Answer 7

h**l yes!

Its hard to keep up with all these genras,same thing with metal.

Answer 8

Yeah, just a bit, eh? Its getting nuts!  

Answer 9

Its our fault.  We try to compartmentalize everything to its most obscure detail and then name it.  For me, its simple:  Pop, Rock, Progressive, and Metal.

A Supreme Court Justice once said (referring to pornography)"I can't define it, but I know it when I see it."  Maybe we should take that approach to our music...."I don't know what you call it, but d**n, that's good (or bad) music."

Answer 10

Nah, there are not too many. There are so many different styles that you need to have all these sub genres. If you have ever listened to all the different types of rock and metal genres then you would understand why there needs to be so many because some of them are really quite different.

HOWEVER! I don't think people should start bands and say yeah we are only going to play punk rock or one specific genre or something. If that is the case then you are already categorising yourself. You should make music based on what you think sounds good and what you come up with.

Edit: don't diss math rock/metal! lol Some of it is good! It's called math rock because they use a wide range of timing signatures, rather than just standard 4/4 timing which you can hear in a lot of pop music and pop rock etc. and generally things like the guitar parts will involve a lot of complicated riffs, so if you are talking about the guitar parts, on tablature, they look as if they are just a mixture of numbers or math. The musicians who make math rock are generally quite skilled as well if you listen to some of the parts they have in songs, however I'm too much a fan of math metal vocals.

Another edit: Another argument for more sub genres in metal  and rock is this argument. Lots of people say they like rock and then you ask them oh do you like black sabbath and led zeppelin then? Their answer: No I don't like that type of music, I prefer Nickelback << now this is proof why sub genres need to exist because these two types of music share some common characteristics but are very different. So in this case you would divide Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath into the classic rock category and divide Nickelback into the modern rock category.

Answer 11

Rock is such a diverse genre, that there have to be a lot of different categories to sort it into. Like, with country, you can put most of the songs into one category, with rap you can put most of the songs into one category, but with rock how could you even think of putting something like The Beatles with the Jonas Brothers? That is if you consider the Jonas Brothers rock....

Answer 12

i think rock has had wayyy too many babies with roll.  

Answer 13

There is way too much, That's why I just stick with the basic.

Answer 14

Yet another weird sub-genre. I've only heard of Mathcore. And those are only the sub-genres we know, I bet there's another hundred more we haven't even heard of.  

Answer 15

h**l YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Why the h**l do we need so many genres? This is exactly why I don't bother learning genres, I'm quite ignorant in the many different genres there are, and I'm proud :)

Answer 16

"Genre-izing" bands isn't really annoying. One reason is it divides bands into real-rock and fake-rock (or maybe rock that evolved and influenced by so many other genres too much that they lost the sense of being rock).

What's extremely annoying are people who badly misgenre-ize bands.

And it helps what particular sound a person is looking for. Imagine, if there's no genres and subgenres, a person with a classical rock taste, for instance, may buy an emo album of an emo band, not knowing that its sound is very different from what he's looking for, since that album is labeled "Rock". That's a really disappointing situation.

Many years ago, rock is just rock, just plain "ROCK". It gave them no reason to categorize rock, since all rock bands sounded similar at that time. But today, rock is so diversed. A rock-fan who loves classical rock will most likely loathe emo music, which is categorized as rock too (I don't know why).

Answer 17

ahaha yess!! i cant keep up with it at all!   i just  say after a while i like music no patricular genre.. if its a song and i like it i will listen to it.  

Answer 18

Well, there's:

heavy rock

metal

punk

emo

grunge

alternative

soft rock

....I think they're the main catergories. Doesn't all rock fit into one of those most of the time?

Answer 19

There is different genres in any music catagory, whether it be from classical (baroque, symphony) or hip hop,.....( R&B, rap, crunk) Just the way it is

Answer 20

YES!!!

WHO CARES?! Ok, genres are useful for describing things, but is it really neccessary for 2 billion metal genres and 300 'cores'? Come on.

Answer 21

They left Shitrock out.

And I couldn't agree more.

Answer 22

I think there are too many.  IMO If its metal and I like it that is all that matters to me.  Math Metal?  Do they help you with Algebra after the show?  WTF!

Answer 23

there have been way too many rock and metal subgenres for a long time now...it's gotta stop, people are getting real confused and who really cares what the difference between black metal and mathcore or whatever other bullshit names they can come up with is?

Answer 24

Yeah, I do, but I actually kind of get "math rock." At least the description is in the name (I agree, it's a bit silly and it would be trimmable fat though if the system was streamlined). My problem really was given a wonderful rant point as soon as I saw "post post rock." Have we really gotten so convoluted and ridiculous that we have to go "post post" The way I see it, I try to use them only for the sake of this website, in kind of a "when in Rome" sort of a way, but I really have very little use for these academic boxes. The real basic stuff, sure, but someone once posted in here "it's called post pop punk, know it." My mind was blown. I also don't get how everyone takes it so seriously. That and of course, especially with the emo kids, they get so huffy about it, but you can't even get a consistent answer about what is and what isn't.

At any rate, my stance is that it's just silly. I get it, people love lists and boxes, but it is pretty out of control. I leave it to people with much more organized brains than myself.

***********

I totally agree Rangerreatta about the Supreme Court pornography case. I've referenced that quote many times in similar discussions around here. So true.

Answer 25

Yes.

Answer 26

hahahahahahahhaah math rock...

i dont think you can say there are "too many" because different things appeal to different people. and think changing the simplest thing can effect the music SOO much. so maybe thats why they classify things as other genres. But really whats the need to keep up with the genres?

Answer 27

to label certain genre is necessary to mark a difference between styles, the bad thing here is when people use terms such as avant garde rock , post-rock etc. because that's a way of snobism

Answer 28

yeah i think when there is a category called math rock then we have a problem.

and wtf was up with that explanation and video. wow. we really do have too many genres when there is a following for math rock. lmao

Answer 29

Maybe there are too many sub-genres for rock, but it does help give a better idea of the type of music a band plays. For example, you could say Simple Plan and Smashing Pumpkins are both rock, but they both have completely different sounds. Simple Plan are Pop-Rock while Smashing Pumpkins are Alternative 90s Rock.

But I guess sub-genres like math-rock are stupid. It doesn't give you much clue to what math-rock bands sound like.