Spotify Wrapped 2023: 'Music genres are now irrelevant to fans'
Spotify Wrapped 2023: 'Music genres are now irrelevant to fans'
With over 6,000 classifications on Spotify, fewer fans choose their music by genre in the digital age.
How very punk rock
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The issue is trying to use genres as specifically as possible instead of being a broad category that covers a wide range of music.
Metal is the worst for this. The vast, vast majority of people would call everything from Black Sabbath to Metallica to Pantera to Death to Behemoth "metal", but the genre snobs need to differentiate it all for some reason.
Yet, we're perfectly okay to call everything from Blue Oyster Cult to Fleetwood Mac to Nickleback "rock".
I agree with your general point about metal subgenres but they do help me a bit. For example, I've got no disrespect towards the subgenres of nu-metal or the trve cvlt type of black metal but it's just not for me, so if I see something tagged as that I can easily avoid it. As I say, that is in no way a diss of those genres, they're just not to my taste.
Worse... Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, Jimi Hendrix, Devo, Blue Oyster Cult, Fleetwood Mac and Nickelback are all considered rock.
Rock just means electric guitar, electric bass, and drums with a time signature 4/4 style to songs and verses chorus form.
There are even plenty of rock songs in other signatures. The Beatles had a bunch of songs that were either 3/4 or both 3/4 and 4/4.
The Beatles were always experimenting, something that is rare today.
A lot of amazing songs are 3/4, but it's hard to find new music post 2000 in 3/4.
I love metal, but maaaaan fans take subgenres too seriously. I once saw a bar fight in my very peaceful city where one guy was shouting "That's not sludge metal! That's stoner metal! You don't even know what sludge metal is!"
And I find myself doing that shit, too. I was talking to a buddy a little bit ago and realized that I had just said "I'm currently listening to a German symphonic folk metal band, but the vocals are pure black metal."
Thats extreeme metal elitism, but you also prooved the usefulness of genres. How else, without using genres, would you describe that german band as efficiently as you did so someone like me can understand it and say:
Sounds awesome, whats their name?
Ha. Thanks.
Name is Equilibrium. That description is for their first three albums. Their later albums are more power metal.
Specific genres are awesome to find new bands, that you like, because they sound similar. If I like power metal and you recommend me Behemoth, because I like metal, your suggestion has no value for me, while I probably would like another power metal band like Blind Guardian.