Genre, we hardly knew ye

[Corpsey]

Genre Is Disappearing. What Comes Next?

As record stores close and streaming algorithms dominate, the identities that music fandom supplies are in flux.

www.newyorker.com

Is genre dying – and is that a good/bad/indifferent thing?

Was it only ever a convenient tool for cataloguing and marketing? Or does the idea of genre have a positive, shaping influence on music?

Are any of these questions interesting?

Or are they not?

 

[Murphy]

Good questions

All styles = no style

Records require some organisation or you get lost fast, same with digital. Streaming I’m hopeless at organising, eg YT playlist with 3400 odds tracks that have slowly accumulated. Spotify I can’t be fucked with soz

Music is always evolving but I haven’t actively sought new-new releases for about 8/9 years, choosing to focus on Discogs wish lists (ground to a halt under Covid and work). Still, a good 200 sitting there, waiting, lurking, until the chaos settles and then I’m going in like a Pathfinder

Death of genres? Yes and no. Some classical composers claim new arrangements are increasingly problematic due to infringement on previous chord structures and arrangements, so they came up with Relational (imagine The Hafler Trio intercuts with strings, brass, whatever)

Matthew Shlomowitz - relational

Matthew Shlomowitz, composer

www.shlom.com

 

[woops]

Good questions

All styles = no style

Records require some organisation or you get lost fast, same with digital. Streaming I’m hopeless at organising, eg YT playlist with 3400 odds tracks that have slowly accumulated. Spotify I can’t be fucked with soz

Music is always evolving but I haven’t actively sought new-new releases for about 8/9 years, choosing to focus on Discogs wish lists (ground to a halt under Covid and work). Still, a good 200 sitting there, waiting, lurking, until the chaos settles and then I’m going in like a Pathfinder

Death of genres? Yes and no. Some classical composers claim new arrangements are increasingly problematic due to infringement on previous chord structures and arrangements, so they came up with Relational (imagine The Hafler Trio intercuts with strings, brass, whatever)

Matthew Shlomowitz - relational

Matthew Shlomowitz, composer

www.shlom.com

used to know someone from the PRS who said you can't copyright a chord progression

 

[wg-]

Everything seems blurred if the only vantage point is the internet.

 

[Corpsey]

I guess the point that article is making (erroneously or not) is that for many (particularly young) people the internet IS the vantage point for music now, and so they're no longer concerned with genre.

 

[Murphy]

Playlists surpassing mixes?

 

[Murphy]

used to know someone from the PRS who said you can't copyright a chord progression

Think they were using it as an excuse to compose these sounds that were neither here nor there, almost ignoring entirely that juxtaposition has been going on for decades. Rowing with instruments was, how can this be put delicately, comedic

 

[Murphy]

I mean how would you describe this?



(apologies in advance)

 

[woops]

Playlists surpassing mixes?

playlists and mixes surpassing albums perhaps which is amazing because the right DJ/playlister can invent, compile, define and exhaust a completely new/imaginary/desired genre in 1 list or mix

1st person to use the word "c*r*t*" is a w*nk*r

 

[woops]

in fact any person to use that word is

 

[wg-]

I guess the point that article is making (erroneously or not) is that for many (particularly young) people the internet IS the vantage point for music now, and so they're no longer concerned with genre.

I'm not so sure about that personally but we are talking about Americans here so who knows.

From my own point of reference, I think my younger relations are still quite territorial about this stuff, especially the K-Pop acolytes who are borderline obsessed. The UK rap lads too.

Just seems very presumptuous to make declarations like this when the whole world is shut down and stuck indoors- When venues open back up do they all become vapid genre-less blurs? Probably not.

 

[entertainment]

I've always liked genre. Ideally you would say that it's good as long as it's descriptive but I think it's alright as a prescriptive influence as well if the alternative is no genre.

There is energy in singularity, opposition, friction and even dogma. For me, the mush signifies entropy.