What makes a music genre unique.

[Last Hussar]

Just at a Blues gig (it's the break) and wondering;

What makes a music genre that genre?

Not after specifics, but wondering what is it that defines a genre?

[Ithoriel]

Consensus among fans and music critics, maybe?

[Orcs]

I am no musician, but a similar use of the instruments and rhythms in the music. Some instruments are synonymous with certain genres eg Saxophone and trumpet with jazz, Steel guitar with country etc.

[flamingpig0]

No Idea

[Ithoriel]

Saxophone and trumpet with jazz

So ..... this is jazz?

[fsn]

Music genres are malleable.

What is described as R&B now, is not what R&B was when I was a youngling.

"Jazz" is like "crisps"* it comes in many flavours.

Rap is not music.




*"Chips" to our colonial cousins.

[Raider4]

What is described as R&B now, is not what R&B was when I was a youngling.

I hear the term 'R&B' I think of Dr. Feelgood.

[FierceKitty]

I rather like the way musicians often give academics the finger in the matter of generic definition. Benny Goodman did a rather good version of the Mozart clarinet concerto, and I've heard a classical pianist insert jazz cadenzas into Mozart piano concerti (with perfect success, and in complete accordance with 18th-century rules). For ages critics held up Dave Brubeck's cerebral style and Gerry Mulligan's cool, laid-back act as irreconcilable opposites - until Mulligan stepped into the void when Paul Desmond left Brubeck's group, and (you guessed it, right?) the mix was as right as olive oil and garlic.

I spent too long in academia. When artists show self-appointed authorities up, they have my total support.

It doesn't happen only in music, either.

[steve_holmes_11]

Consensus among fans and music critics, maybe?

I think this nails it.


Critics will create a name (to save a hundred words) to reflect new trends in an established genre.


Fans of a particular genre will obsessively subdivide it.
In this they are ably assisted by critics, who welcome any help they can get.
(For example Metal): Thrash, doom, death, trad, prog...

Until you reach:
"Ahh mister Record Shop owner, Why do you only have a Metal classification.
Do you even stock any Neue Deutsche Härte?"

In this matter I align with Lemmy "We are Motorhead, and we play Rock and Roll".

[Last Hussar]

To elaborate;

Post Modern Jukebox do modern songs in a 50s or 60s style. Something that definitely isn't (say) Jazz originally IS jazz when they do it.

Same song...

Not the same genre. Why? Is it the instruments? Is the time signature different?

[steve_holmes_11]

Musicians have usually been ahead of the curve in this respect.

Big band members staying behind after formal rehearsal to "jam" produced Bebop.

British Trad Jazz rhythm sections, doing a bit of skiffle laid the foundations for the British Invasion bands of the 1960s.

[Orcs]

Rap is not music.

Sir. I think you have misspelled this supposed type of music. You seem to have missed off the capital C.

[Ithoriel]

Nothing wrong with a bit of rap, now and again.

Jazz on the other hand, not at all to my taste.

[flamingpig0]

Without wishing to open up yet another front in the cultural war can anyone explain why rap isn't music?

As a contention it seems to have a lot of problems

Not Music

Music

Music

[flamingpig0]

Nothing wrong with a bit of rap, now and again.

Jazz on the other hand, not at all to my taste.

I am the reverse I don't really like  rap but am partial to a bit of Jazz

Apparently both the above are part of the same genre

[FierceKitty]

Jazz is the touchstone, I think. When I hear the line "I love classical but can't stand jazz", I know there's a very high probability that the person in question understands Fanny Adams about classical too, but probably has a "best of Mozart" or "100 opera choruses to sing along to" playlist on his Youtube account, and would have walked out of a session of Bach improvising on the organ.

[DHautpol]

I think this nails it.


Critics will create a name (to save a hundred words) to reflect new trends in an established genre.


Fans of a particular genre will obsessively subdivide it.
In this they are ably assisted by critics, who welcome any help they can get.
(For example Metal): Thrash, doom, death, trad, prog...

I think that there's a lot of truth in this.  Critics and music journalists will put similar works into "bags" for convenience.  Before you know it, the soft walls of those "bags" have been turned into hard walls.

As to personal tastes, I have very broad tastes and my listening varies a lot, even in the same session. I'm into opera, Mozart, Beethoven, Bowie, Stones, U2 and jazz (prefer modern to trad), also a bit of sucker for a requiem mass (try Cherubini's for Louis XVI). I don't like folk or C&W. 

[Orcs]

Nothing wrong with a bit of rap, now and again.

Jazz on the other hand, not at all to my taste.

Yes, some Jazz I like , some I don't - it can be really weird , actually more weird than this forum and that saying something 

[Ithoriel]

Jazz is the touchstone, I think. When I hear the line "I love classical but can't stand jazz", I know there's a very high probability that the person in question understands Fanny Adams about classical too, but probably has a "best of Mozart" or "100 opera choruses to sing along to" playlist on his Youtube account, and would have walked out of a session of Bach improvising on the organ.

I don't really like either, though I would take classical over jazz any day and twice on Sunday.

Not through any lack of trying on the part of ex-girlfriends and various relatives.

I have fallen asleep during live concerts by Stephane Grapelli and also by the London Philharmonic. I am an equal opportunities philistine!

Somehow I never fell asleep to Hawkwind, Ian Dury, Blondie, 10cc, Fairport Convention, Leonard Cohen, Queen or even Good Charlotte. To name but a few.

To be fair I don't actively listen to music most of the time, it's just audio wallpaper mostly. "Listening to the soundtrack of my life" to quote Less Than Jake

It would be a dull old world if we all liked the same things.

[Last Hussar]

So how do you know it falls under Jazz?