The definitions of the various musical genres...

[Harbinger]

As i'm attempting to upload my files for enjoyment among my colleagues, i came upon an interesting stumbling block: what musical styles are my music classified? Is there an OFFICIAL description amongst us electronic musicians?

Classical music, especially thru the prism of time, can be easily classified: Classicism, Romanticism, and Baroque, and only the music scholar needs to know about Rococo, Neo-classicism, and Expressionism. But with the advent of recording possibilities, the Neomodern composer may branch off into many denominations -- Minimalism, Post-impressionism, and even Soundtrack.

Now with electronic music, especially since the 80s, contemporary music REALLY seeks classification. Digitalization and sampling since the 90s lends to this problem even more. We all know what "rock-and-roll" is, but do you know what the difference between hillbilly rock and country rock is? What about techno and electronic, space music and ambient, industrial and avant-metal?

Now that even amateurs and hobbyists can use sequencers and trackers to create the music THEY want to hear, we're finding that everyone has their own style and often one's musical taste, even in one song, can be hard to classify.

Do we have or do we even need an official page on what the different musical styles are? If there's none "out there", perhaps us trackers are best-qualified to designate what each genre is, with examples, and what each is not. We may hafta go with consensus if this is the case, but we should leave it to those experienced in many different forms (at least in listening or having studied)...

[KrazyKatz]

You make a point that I've had trouble with myself. "New" styles that catch on generally find names by themselves. Look at "Rock 'n Roll" for example which was coined by a DJ saying its time to Rock 'n Roll.

If you save a song in .mp3 format it has a whole list of genres in the tag and you could look for an applicable one. Sometimes "Other" will just have to do.

[Sam_Zen]

I don't have much feel with this problem of classification, because, next to real electronic pieces which couldn't be done otherwise,
electronics can cover the whole existing amplified or acoustic field. One can make a classical symphony piece, reggae, or african drums.
So I guess there's a difference of intention. Does the author wants to make an electronic composition, or use the electronics to make a model of 'the real world' ?

Nevertheless, I found a textfile with a list somebody had made on the old MPF :

Electronics :
New Age
Gothic
Darkwave
Dark Elektro
EBM
Industrial
Hardstyle
Hardtrance
Rave
Happy Hardcore
Hardcore
Gabber
Terror
Speedcore
Splitter
Extratone
New Beat
Techno
Detroit
Brighton
Acid
Hardtek
Downbeat
Big Beat
Breakbeat
Acid-Jazz
Trip-Hop
Drum&Bass
Jungle
Digital Hardcore
Breakcore
Ambient
Illbient
IDM
Experimental
Noize
Funk
Vocal-House
House
Hard-House
Acid-House
Trance
Electro
Psy-Trance
Goa

Rock :
classic rock
hard-rock
rock'n'roll
Medieval
punk
stoner
skate-punk
deutsch-punk
punkrock
trash-punk
oi
oi-punk
grindcore
heavy metal
goth-rock
ska
ska-punk
crossover
crust-punk
nu-metal
speed-metal
black-metal
death-metal
epic-metal
power-metal
trash-metal
ballad
country
folk-rock
alternative
indie-rock
grunge
emo-core
hardcore

House (Everything with steady beat and groove and funk.Warm and soulful music. Also eurodance and that kind of stuff as long as the beat is steady)
New wave/synthpop (All kinds of synth stuff that is about catchy melodies)
Trance (Steady beat, usually melodic, possibly hypnotizing.
Dance (I normally think dance is quite stupid as a genre definition, but it could be useful here to separate the eurostuff from other forms of trance.
Eurodance could be here too.)
Techno (Music that is primarily about percussive sounds. Mechanical music. The beat is usually stead)
Industrial (I don't think there is much tracked music in this style that isn't hardcore or experimental so I don't know if this is very usefull)
HipHop (Rap and HipHop here, could be included in breakbeat since there isn't much tracked HipHop available)
Breakbeat (Non-steady beat. This could include everything from electro to urban to nu-breaks and nu garage)
Jungle (Includes DnB. Focused on the (re-)use of drumloops to create complex rhytms. Also uses a lot of bass. Very hard and fast.)
IDM (Rhytm is usually complex, but the sound is more melodic than in jungle (and the drums aren't as hard).Can also be ambient-like when using textures. Includes glitch)
Hardcore (Music that is hard. Usually with fast BPM and distorted bassdrum. Includes Happy Hardcore.)
Ambient (Mostly without beat. Relies on the use of textures. Includes Dark ambient and soundscapes and all that.)
Experimental (The odd stuff. Includes noise. Could include mods with only one sample if they are strange enough or experiments with rhytm.)
Rock (Basically everything with guitars and drums. From light pop to hard rock)
Metal (Everything harder than hard rock}
Classical/Orchestral (Includes everything orchestral)
Jazz (Everything Jazzy)
Ethnic (Everything non-western.)
Demo (Chiptunes and demo music.)

[LPChip]

Actually, a chiptune is a style on its own. Its not demostyle, although demostyle isn't really a style like the others.

Demostyle is near soundtrack, except that its usually fastpaced and aimed to be played next to a graphical representation of something that should stun the viewer of amasement.

The same can be done with audio. Try to make a song that is so amasing. Usually thats demostyle, but for demostyle there's a certain fibe. Hard to explain. Chiptunes can be used in demostyle and it has been done frequently, but they still are 2 different styles.

[Sam_Zen]

You're right. I just publish this list by the way, disregarding whether I approve the content.
Many more items can be argued about. I certainly don't like the single item 'Ethnic' for everything non-western.
Or the single item 'Experimental' for everything which is not made according to the classical rules.

The same problem occurs in the genres-list of a ID3 tag, as mentioned by KrazyKatz. As soon as it's not from
the classical western perspective, one only can choose 'other'. The default MIDI bank on a PC has the same problem.
The complete replica of a western symphony orchestra, a small rock band, one channel for a complete percussion section,
and a few numbers left for some 'exotic' things.

[Harbinger]

Wow, i didn't realize there were so many. I bet most of those came about in the 90s...

As an 80s reject, however, i remember the terms techno and new wave very clearly, and the styles they represented. I agree with the New Wave description -- dance and pop with extensive use of "packaged" (as opposed to experimental or artistic) synthesized sounds, with vocals being clear and rarely Fx'd.
Techno, though, was more of an umbrella term that encompassed anything synthesized, including rhythmic parts. New wave, IOW, came under the heading of Techno...

But i like this list. It seems pretty comprehensive, and we can use this to help us in our uploading/downloading. I think, tho, we should refine the definitions where necessary (some of us may better understand certain genres because we are into that style) then sticky it.

[Dictator]

The same problem occurs in the genres-list of a ID3 tag, as mentioned by KrazyKatz. As soon as it's not from
the classical western perspective, one only can choose 'other'.

...unless using ID3v2. Then you can write whatever you want to the genre part of the tag.

[Saga Musix]

ID3v1 is indeed pretty outdated, i see no reason for still supporting it.

[KrazyKatz]

ID3v1 is indeed pretty outdated, i see no reason for still supporting it.

This coming from someone who uses a tracker. Haha!  

[Saga Musix]

Tracker vs Sequencer is not the same as ID3v1 vs ID3v2 - With a tracker, you really can archieve the same results as with a sequencer, and in many cases, it's even easier. But you definitely can't do the same things with ID3v1 as with ID3v2

[KrazyKatz]

Yeah what you're saying makes perfect sense. I was just laughing about the irony of us trackers who still use .mod formats to point whats "outdated" and what's not.

[Sam_Zen]

I wasn't talking about a version, but as an example of the general setup of such a list.
I know with ID3v2 one can edit whatever term as genre, at least there is one empty field for it.

[älskling]

The problem, Sam Zen, is that you focus too much on western lists!  :wink:

E.g. an african tribe might list both schranz and bluegrass as "western contemporary music", and a martian may refer to rai, gagaku and britpop as "earth music".

[Sam_Zen]

It may be my focus, but it's severely there, taking almost all the space.
And what about the martian, with 36 different music styles on his planet, who can only replace 'other' by 'martian'?

A bit more flexibility in such a predefined list could be appropriate I think.
I would be quite pleased already, if I could enter 4 or 8 different custom styles in the list, according to the view of my own work.

[älskling]

It may be my focus, but it's severely there, taking almost all the space.
And what about the martian, with 36 different music styles on his planet, who can only replace 'other' by 'martian'?

The martian probably uses a martian list. That was the point of my post.

A bit more flexibility in such a predefined list could be appropriate I think.
I would be quite pleased already, if I could enter 4 or 8 different custom styles in the list, according to the view of my own work.

And what is stopping you?