Understanding Popular Styles

1
Understanding Popular Styles

• Genre 2
• Simon Warner

2
Genre

• Last week considered meanings associated with the
  term genre
• Examined its application in areas such as
  theatre, cinema and television
• Today I would like us to focus on popular music

3
Terminology

• I would like to consider two further related
  terms today

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Terminology

• Meta-genre
• Genre
• Sub-genre

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Genre

• Lets start by thinking of how we might establish
  a list of genres for popular music

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Popular music genresA suggested framework

• Pop
• Rock
• Reggae
• Country
• Folk
• Blues
• Soul
• Dance
• Jazz

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Sub-genres

• Sub, Latin, under, below
• Sub-genre, category/classification below a genre
• Let us see how many sub-genres linked to that
  list of genres we can come up with

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Breaking genres down into sub-genres

• Pop
• Rock
• Reggae
• Country
• Folk
• Blues
• Soul
• Dance
• Jazz

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Genres and sub-genres

• Pop - Top 40, boy band, bubblegum, MOR
• Rock - progressive, punk, hardcore, indie
• Reggae - ska, bluebeat, ragga, dancehall
• Country - bluegrass, zydeco, CW
• Folk - Breton, Celtic, Irish, singer-songwriter
• Blues - country blues, electric blues, RB
• Soul - funk, hip hop, rap, garage
• Dance - disco, house, techno, drum bass
• Jazz - free, trad, tailgate, bebop, acid

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Sub-genres that marry two genres

• We might also mention those sub-generic form that
  arise from hybrids of two genres, where genres
  marry. Any suggestions?
• Country rock
• Country blues
• Folk rock
• Jazz rock

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Sub-genres of sub-genres?

• We might also feel that a genre like rock has
  produced a sub-genre like heavy metal which now
  has a string of sub-genres of its own.
• Thrash metal
• Speed metal
• Death metal
• Nu metal

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Or punk..

• Hardcore
• Straight Edge
• Emo
• Ska punk

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Meta-genres

• Meta, Greek, above, beyond
• Shuker says that meta-genres are "rather loose
  amalgams of various styles (eg alternative rock,
  world music)" (1998, p147)

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Meta-genres

• I think there is an argument for suggesting that
  popular music itself might be considered a
  meta-genre, as may dance music - an umbrella term
  that can embrace dozens and dozens of musical
  styles from tango to techno, Latin to ambient,
  bossa nova to big beat, the waltz to world beat.

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Meta-genres

• Popular?
• Dance?
• World?
• Traditional?
• Test Can we fit all our genres into one of these
  headings?

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Popular music genresA suggested framework

• Pop
• Rock
• Reggae
• Country
• Folk
• Blues
• Soul
• Dance
• Jazz

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Placing popular music genres in a meta-genre

• Pop - Popular
• Rock - Popular
• Reggae - World
• Country - Traditional
• Folk - Traditional
• Blues - Traditional
• Soul - Popular
• Dance Should it be Club? Disco?...Dance
• Jazz Traditional? Popular? World?

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Genres/sub-genres/meta-genres

• Worth familiarising yourself with this structure
  if you are
• Attempting analysis of a musical style
• Trying to place it in relation to other musical
  styles that might have shaped or influenced it
• Endeavouring to relate the history of a
  particular musical form