well that's another thing.Įven more confusing is the re-use of existing genres to classify new music. Whether those genres are agreed upon by a majority. Meanwhile, "genres" are probably being invented daily by 14 year olds on youtube comment threads.
The longer a "genre" has been around, the more likely there is a (somewhat) consistent definition for what it means. The thing about genres is that they change over time. I'm biased towards understanding older genres, because it's sometimes easier to describe new music by referencing (a combination of) older genres, as opposed to making up a whole new name. Some people will only refer to a producer's most recently released music and say "so-and-so makes " Taking a popular example - if you look through Porter Robinson's discography there's electro house like "Say My Name" and ambient/dream pop/synth pop like "Sea of Voices".
Some producers will focus on only a few specific styles and others will be more diverse. An old site from 10-15 years ago that does a good job at using example songs but sucks at having technically functional descriptions is Ishkur's guide. For example in the future bass description: "it is common to find the utilization of a sort of "twinkly" sounding rise (gradual rise in pitch), including arpeggio chords, and vocoders" - as a musician/producer I know what a gradual rise in pitch, arpeggio chords, and vocoders sound like, but my guess is that the general population doesn't really know. The thing that is missing in Wikipedia are direct examples of the technical descriptions. Some of the Wikipedia "electronic music genre" entries are pretty helpful in that they include some of the technical ~and~ qualitative elements in their descriptions. Some common structures have emerged, probably one of the more recognizable is the "build-up/breakdown" or "drop" structure that is associated with big room/trap/main stage/festival music (or "EDM" to some) and trance music from the early 2000s Structures would be like "16 bars playing one loop, 16 bars playing another loop, 8 bars playing another loop" and so on. Becoming familiar with these sounds (and various types of sound waves) is part of understanding genres better, along with recognizing commonly sampled drum breaksĪnother one would be song structure/composition. Sometimes it's more obvious - Daft Punk "Revolution 909" using sounds from the TR-909 drum machine. The 808 kick drum and the iconic sound of its low end "tail" is used everywhere (e.g. What kind of snare sounds are used what kind of kick drum is being used? Does the bass synth play on every 16th note? Is there a syncopated, staggered rhythm being played by an electric piano while the drums seem to play a repetitive beat?Ī popular example: the TR-808 drum machine has become pervasive in a lot of genres you can really hear this in hip-hop/breakbeat styles from the 80s/90s - here's a simple example where you can see the machine itself. This is a huge space, but some common elements occur within genres. Timbres (instrument/synth selection) and other percussive rhythms would be the next differentiation. If you can stomp on the ground every beat and it matches with the kick drum, then you have a four-on-the-floor beat. broken beats (dubstep, drum and bass/jungle, most hip-hop, garage).
Kick drum pattern is easiest to understand by contrasting four-on-the-floor (kick drum every beat) vs. "hard techno") to separate different BPM ranges. For example, music labeled "house" tends to always be in a certain range, whereas music like techno can be quite varied in range, but will sometimes have additional qualifiers (e.g. Tempo being how fast something is - this website is amazing for figuring out song tempos.
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One way to start learning how to separate genres is by tempo (BPM) and kick drum pattern. But they are not to be ignored - when something is "airy" or "lush" it can help evoke an understanding that "warm pads playing major 7 #11 chords over 4 octaves" doesn't really convey The qualitative side would be like "drum and bass is energetic"įor a community discussion, I find sticking to the technical side easier, since qualitative elements are often in the eye of the beholder. The technical side would say things like "house music is around 117-133 BPM, prominently features a four-on-the-floor kick drum and snares on the 2 and 4" and may go on to say things like "occasionally uses: low frequency bass line that plays a musical phrase over the course of 4 or 8 bars" There are general concepts around genres - I would take two approaches: technical/music theory and mood/"qualitative" I wrote this post a while ago about classifying genres: