Be Your Own Genre!

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In replying to a comment on NYLPM I really wanted to use "Douglas Wolk music" as a descriptor but decided it might come off negative when actually I like Douglas Wolk music just not in that context. I also thought that people might not know what I meant but to be honest this was less of a fear.

Bear in mind that I wouldn't have been talking about the music DW makes but the music he seems to particularly like/champion. Obviously his tastes range well beyond DW music. But I think most people can be genre-ised in this way.

But can they? If someone said "Tom Ewing music" would you know what they meant? What about "Josh music" or "Nathalie music" or "Lord Custos music" or "[your name here] music?"? What are the defining cliches of your very own peronal genre?

― Tom, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Once Tom decribed the Massive Attack/Mos Def collaboration from Blade II as "Dan Perry music"... and he was SO RIGHT.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What a brilliant question. And yes, I agree completely, most people can be categorized this way. It goes to the core of what someone finds valuable in music. (Tom Ewing Music, in case you were wondering, Tom, is all about catchy, radio-ready songs that are danceable). I hear Ewing music on the radio at work every day.

― Mark, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

do me do me

― mark s, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark, this isn't a pick-up joint, you know.
"Nathalie music" > heheh Obv something to avoid at all costs. There's probably something that connects all the records I listen to, but I have yet to find out WHAT it is (it would certainly save me some money hahah). Used to think it was anything that wasn't histrionic or overly transcendental or even intellectual, but instead "body-music." Oh yes, someone told me that most of the music (films and books) I consume is American. I dunno. You tell me.

Everyone sooner or later surprises me and hence breaks down the genre I constructed for them. Case in point: Josh likes Me'Shell NdegéOcello. Yes I looked that up on Allmusic so I spelled it correctly. hahaha.

― nathalie, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Mark S music = a tiger mating with an ickle fluffy housecat.

― nabisco%%, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

housecoat

― mark s, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

When I worked at the record store, we had this shorthand. "Oh that, that's Sean music." "You'll like this, it's Jason music." Usually it was said with a touch of dismissal, ie. if Jason was calling something "Sean music" it meant that he didn't really like it that much but knew I would.

I consider my tastes pretty broad, but I still think there's something out there called "Sean music" or something called "Tom Ewing music" or "Douglas Wolk music", none of which means that we can't listen to and enjoy other things.

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Jack Cole" music -- askewer, visceral, lo-fi -- or so it is assumed. Like Sean said, a short hand for dismissal because I am opinionated -- though in the world not composed of 1's and 0's, I tend to keep my mouth shut and nod my head though assumptions can be made from the snippets people hear coming from my car or stereo at home. Though I may listen to the Carter Family or the Breeders or the Left Bank, my tastes are pigeonholed by people remembering the Dead C or Half Japanese they may have heard, that standing out more and defining for them who I am. Nick Drake fades into the background (or makes me seem normal now that VW has made him popular), but the Shaggs make them think they have me nailed tastewise. For some I think, it is incomprehensible to be able to appreciate a song in a traditional melody/structure sense while also liking noise. Personally, sweet and sour go fine together.

― Jack Cole, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"where is the common thread? I never could see the essence"

― Josh, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I should say despite that everyone I know on the computer seems to think there's 'josh music'.

― Josh, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Actually I take back what I said. Genres are necessary, but they mainly exist to be contradicted. huh

― nathalie, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Is anybody going to argue with, say, "Strange Attractors Audio House puts out Ned Raggett Music."

― Mark, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey, how'd you know I know Chris? I was e-mailing him the other day. :-) Landing tour, hurrah!

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Wait--what _is_ "Douglas Wolk music" (or, at least, can you give me some idea of what you would've meant by it)?

Years ago, when I worked at CMJ & would occasionally wave the flag about something, my co-worker Cheryl Botchick would yell "Douglas- rock!" The three examples of this that come to mind offhand are Dog Faced Hermans, Mika Vainio and the Mountain Goats, who honestly have very few points of stylistic similarity that I'm capable of describing...

― Douglas, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

That's the essence of DW music - absolutely stupefying eclecticism, but usually among virtually unknown (even amongst music geeks) artists. Not a bad thing at all! But I knew exactly what Tom was getting at with his original post.

― Clarke B., Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I've been thinking about this. If there's a "Michaelangelo Matos music," it's incredibly joyous--'ardkore/jungle, the Cardigans, Ivy's Apartment Life, a lot of the South African and Kenyan stuff I dig, handbag house ("Excited" by M People is one of my favorite records EVER), britely colored pop of many stripes. Which is odd considering that the records I hold closest--There's a Riot Goin' On, Metal Box, Maxinquaye, Luomo's Vocalcity-- have sort of the inverse of that feeling, like a depressive overhang that the artists are trying to push their way through.

― M Matos, Tuesday, 9 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

DW music = eclectic, but you could imagine it fitting on an imagined Wanna Buy A Bridge II without any difficulty. I ended up using "post-punk splatterbeats" or something equally crap.

― Tom, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I love mark s.

Cue new "mark s and Nick agree on something!" posts.

― Nick Southall, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Brit acquaintances use the term "DaveMusic" as shorthand for non- chart-pop and N. Americans use it as shorthand for anything that isn't Nickelback

Sorry for yet another Shameles Publicity Bid but I think I've come up with the perfect name for my own stuff - "backpacker pigfuck"

― dave q, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

"Jeff W music" = music. I thought that was obvious.

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Edna W music = tinny, trebly Northern Soul, in a vast, sweaty (yet perhaps withal necessarily alchohol-free) club in Oregon, with Michael Wood on The Bass and ... the pinefox ... on The Tambourine.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Our road manager has such distinctive taste in music that by the end of the tour we were dismissing loads of things (Jim O'Rourke, anyone?) as "Jesse Music".

It happens, it is unavoidable, even if you have quite broad tastes generally, when you have a strong bent in a particular direction. Katemusic = dirty dronerock, obviously.

― kate, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

What about "Josh music" or "Nathalie music" or "Lord Custos music"
To create Lord Custos music, use the formula In this Thread as a recipe. Stir in some thought-provoking lyrics, a couple memorable hooks, and some creative percussion. Mix thoroughly. Serve loud with oversweetend abstinthe and a dash of tabasco. Enjoy!

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

If anyone out there would like to make CD-R's or mixtapes of such music to me for "taste-testing", I'd be more than happy to be a guinea pig. Contact me at my email address.

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

mark s: "do me do me"
Out of context this sounds realllly incriminating.

― Lord Custos III, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I feel the music I like is too narrow to say Ronan Music about something, what that means is "do me do me".

― Ronan, Wednesday, 10 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

tell us what you like so we can stereotype you, then

― big shwinging shlongdong, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Hahaha there so is Ronan music. Feel the vibe!

― Tom, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

tom have you adopted the hahaha?!

― Josh, Thursday, 11 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

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