Help me understand music

[Alphathree33]

So, I play classical guitar. I can read music. I can tell you what a fugue is, and a sonata, and a concerto.

If you ask me what musicians I like, I'll give you answers like J.S. Bach and The Beatles. I'm 31.

Now, I really *want* to understand contemporary music. But I'm completely overwhelmed by it. I don't even really understand what the categories are.

I know there's house, techno, EDM, something called EDC which might be like EDM. I know there's all these indie bands and groups. But I really have no idea what I'm talking about.

How do people come to discover all of this stuff? What are the general categories? How do I classify something when I hear it? And why do they like listening to it?

Anyway, I realize I sound like a total idiot. Please help.

 

[phucheneh]

Like with any form of entertainment, I think it simply needs to be understood that the unwashed massed have terrible taste. That terrible taste is varied by environment, upbringing, ect. That's why some people listen to true 'top 40' pop, some listen to [pop] country, or [pop] rock. It's all pretty alike in it's lack of variety, and all influenced by the same trends.

You identified two. The current surge in 'techno' elements, especially 'brostep.' And the big piles of bands calling themselves 'indie' because it sounds better than 'redactedcrap from talentless hacks.'.'

The common thread, IMO, is stupidity. People who listen to pop music exclusively are simpletons. In some cases where one really doesn't listen to music much at all, but pop is all they know, I'm less severe in my judgement. But people who can tune in to top 40 radio, day after day, listening to the same awful shit songs 5-10 times a day? Sorry, that's ironclad proof of mental retardation.

As far as classification or why people like what they do: who knows. People pursue what they like. People are different. Start looking around and see what you like.




Offensive slur removed.


esquared
Anandtech Forum Director

 

[Alphathree33]

OK, that's somewhat helpful. But I'm actually NOT referring to "top 40 pop" because I can figure that out. There's a fairly limited number of artists and songs that are well played on the radio. So I understand that bit.

But it's all this other stuff-- like brostep. What the heck is that? Is it like "dubstep"? What about house? Or techno?

Would you call all of that 'pop' music too?

 

[mammador]

this is just my own view of things:

- since the 90s and crappy popular music people just like whatever now...most don't pay attention to top 40 like they did long ago.

- Main genres that exist today are Western classical (both old like Bach and modern composers), rock music (classic from Zeppelin to well a shitload from death metal and all the rest), funk, jazz (very wide also, not just Satchmo's classics..), rap, RandB, what they call world music but IMO that's a BS term (I prefer calling it from the region, so African, Indian, Arab, Chinese, etc.) and electronic music.

-Things like techno and other electronic music emerged in the 80s in the USA and became mainstream in the 90s.

But the trick IMO is just to find whatever you like....I don't have a favourite genre, I like stuff from classical to jazz fusion, rap, "world music", classic rock like Zeppelin, etc.

 

[alzan]

What mammador said.

I have two classifications for music; that which I enjoy listening to and that which I don't. Categorizing is somewhat pointless since the classifications (these days at least) appear and disappear relatively quickly.

If you still find a need to classify different genre's then pick a loose category; you'll be close most of the time.

 

[JEDI]

any sites that give me top40 in a loop w/o commercials?
link?

 

[Mixolydian]

Just stay faaaaaar far away from Music Theory and you'll be fine.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

If you want an exhaustive resource for discovering new music, check out the website RateYourMusic. The idea is that people rate assorted music they listen to and with the forums and such it adds a social element, but as a consequence they have a very thorough collection of data on music from all genres and years. Their custom charts are primarily responsible for my tastes branching outside of metal (which was in turn cultivated by the thorough Metal-Archives database). Ultimately, if you want to expand your knowledge on releases and artists alone (getting away from the theory side), it's a simple matter of investing time in digging through resources and listening to enough music that you can start to link certain elements of artists or genres together (and don't worry if you find that someone else's arbitrary classifications don't match your own).