RE: Rick Beato's The Death of Music Genres

I wanted to discuss the new video by Rick Beato about the death of music genres, as well as provide my own perspective as to why it's a very complex topic. In the modern age, genres are so widespread and terms are becoming dominant. Does hyperlabeling hurt or help the existence of these genres? Is this a good or bad thing? Let's talk about that!!!!!!!

I was really fascinated by Rick Beato's recent video and the general topic of it, as I've always tried to tackle the modern age of oversaturation in the music world! It inspired me to make a response video and give my own PoV on the whole thing. But what're your thoughts of this topic, though?! Be sure to let me know down below!!!!!!! But for now, cheers, rock on, stay heavy and have yourselves a fantastic rest of your day or night, depending on when you see this!!!!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

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[TheMetalTempestYT]

I was really fascinated by Rick Beato's recent video and the general topic of it, as I've always tried to tackle the modern age of oversaturation in the music world! It inspired me to make a response video and give my own PoV on the whole thing. But what're your thoughts of this topic, though?! Be sure to let me know down But for now, cheers, rock on, stay heavy and have yourselves a fantastic rest of your day or night, depending on when you see 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

[Owlrider]

Rick Beato was primarily talking about the mainstream music industry. That's his schtick really, talking about it and just how bad it has become, and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. However mainstream music isn't everything, in fact it's becoming less and less relevant thanks to the widespread usage of the internet and social media. If anything there are more genres and sub-genres(and sub-sub genres, sub-sub-sub genres, etc, depending on how deep you wish to dig). The thing is that with the widespread usage of the internet and how readily available information of all kinds is, we as a society have sacrificed the concept of accuracy. I'm not talking about mis-information, that's a whole other can of worms, but rather how certain popular terms are being inconsistently used.

Whether it's a term like 'woke' borrowing from outside of music, or a term like 'Heavy Metal' from within music, different people mean different things when they use these terms and the end result is that the boundaries of what each genre and sub-genre entail become muddled in popular culture and conversation. It doesn't mean the distinctions no longer exist, it's just that you have to always have to specify precisely what you mean when you use a certain term as the term itself has been so widely misused it has lost its original(accurate) meaning. Moreover where in the past people went to authoritative sources like encyclopedias or dictionaries to find the correct definitions of certain terms, these days these sources no longer exist. I mean encyclopedias and dictionaries still technically exist, but they're no longer authoritative when it comes to modern culture as they've fallen far behind in times.

The above mentioned Heavy Metal is a perfect example. Some people refer to all 70s and early 80s era metal, from Black Sabbath to Venom and everything in between, as Heavy Metal. This is of course grossly inaccurate and misses a whole lot of nuance, but it is a very common usage of the term. The more accurate definition would be the NWOBHM movement, with bands like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Saxon, etc. Black Sabbath itself is not Heavy Metal of course but rather the first metal band in general and the first Doom Metal band specifically. Whereas bands like Venom and Bathory were the first Black Metal bands, which were very different from what we know Black Metal as today as our current notion of what Black Metal is has been overtaken by the second wave(Norwegian) of Black Metal rather than those original bands.

Then there also is the opposite problem, of having too many types of sub-genres. Some are sonically based, others aesthetic/scene based, some strictly lyrical, etc. There is a difference between a sub-genre like Thrash Metal and Gothic Metal in terms of how the sub-genre is defined, which in turn can and often does muddy the waters. A band can play Thrash sounding music but with a Gothic aesthetic, which than makes it challenging to define them in terms of musical genre. The rabbit hole goes even deeper with for example Blackened Death Metal vs Black Death Metal, which to most people sound like the exact same thing but there is actually a major difference between the 2: with Blackened Death Metal(and other blackened sub-genres too) playing the original(Death Metal in this case) music with Black Metal lyrics(most commonly satanic) whereas Black Death Metal is playing Black Metal music but with Death Metal lyrics instead of the Black Metal ones.

So if you're a person that calls Black Sabbath and Venom as 'Heavy Metal' bands than for you musical genres are indeed dead. However if you delve into the nuances than you realize there is a vast rich world down there beneath the surface. However if you delve too deep than you can also get lost unless you're musically literate, have a good ear and can accurately catch all the nuances in what you're listening to. Most people don't fall within this category, so to most people whether it's oversimplification or hyper-complication, musical genres have lost a lot of their meaning and thus value to you.

[emmyloutidwell]

I think the main reason why many people feel like the concept of genres is dying is because a lot of mainstream music recently has tried to check every single possible genre box in order to appeal to the widest possible demographic or to get on the most radio stations or playlists. I feel like this is especially relevant with the relationship between pop, country, and hip hop in the last decade or so. About a decade ago, Nashville noticed that hip hop and pop were having huge moments, suddenly they’re trying to be all three of those genres so as to widen their audience. Now it almost feels like the reverse is happening, with artists like Beyoncé and Post Malone making country albums because country music was massively successful last year. And while I’m not necessarily opposed to genre crossover songs, that sort of thing has happened so much that in some ways, the lines between those three genres have gotten blurry enough such that the artist and marketing seem to determine the genre more than the actual music. Thing is though, music accessibility is at an all time high such that it’s easier than ever to completely ignore what the mainstream music industry is doing, which has led to the explosion of all those microgenres - they usually just don’t hit the mainstream radio stations or charts.

[Solifuga]

On one hand, you have people on TikTok following a goth fashion style while blasting mainstream pop and trap as opposed to something that style was initially associated with, like gothic rock, industrial, grunge, etc. On the other hand, you've got a of subgenres/micro labels that anyone can find if they want to take a few minutes to dig in. All that nerdy stuff is right there. All that's really changed is accessibility, and the way information and fashion gets spread across the collective human consciousness, the way it influences us has changed. Because of social media, we have more power, more incentive to tweak very individual aspects of fashions and styles to fit us in our own little bubbles. I don't really get it when someone says that music genres are dead, that comes across to me as catastrophizing.

[gothicshark]

I grew up in an age where genres and fashion were hand in hand, if you wore Doc Martins with colored laces you told the world what bands and politics you had. (Seriously lace code was a thing - I had Oxblood Docs with Pink laces, still do)

It was a weird time before the Internet, Radio and TV basically set all trends.

Punks in one corner, Goths in another, Metal heads across the way, preppies being loud in the center. Meanwhile goth was just goth, it included Goth, Goth-rock, Industrial, Industrial-Metal ... etc same with metal you either listened to metal or didn't there was no distinctions between the styles sure the names had already started, but a metal head was a metal head and you kind of listened to what you could get. Because you were lucky if the record store had a selection. Goths and punks had top copy tapes and passed them around. Because no way Tower was going to have Christian Death.

Then I went into the Marines (1989~1992), when I got out everything had changed, Tower was stocking Metal, Punk, and some goth, people could be more finicky about the bands they liked, and most music was now being sold on CDs.

Also, the internet was a thing, and people were sharing ideas around the world for the first time ever...

By the time 2000 came around you could make music into digital files and share them online, I ended up with about 2500 mp3s of goth, industrial, punk, and metal. (Thank you, Napster and Livewire, and other download tools) I used Win-Amp to play all my music.

Then I went to college and focused on my career for a bit. When I was looking at music again around 2010 it was a new age again, genres kept drilling down. You could get hyper specific like Botswanan Metal ... seriously cool btw. Say you like Enya but metal there is a hyper specific genre for that Celtic Folk Metal ... fun.

But with this hyper specificity fashion no longer follows the music, someone might look preppy or PSL Mom and be into the Blackest of metal, meanwhile the goth looking person is all J/K-pop and not even Visual Kei (Mana and Gackt are my heroes)

So yeah, music and fashion are no longer tied, and genres are hyper specific so you can quickly find what you want. What's hard is if you know what you want and do not know the terms. Which is why I enjoy your show. Because I'm bad with names, and old. (Edit grammar & spelling)

[martinarguelles]

In hardcore there's a bit of a meme that goes "The scene ended when I stopped going to shows."
There are a lot of times where I feel Rick just doesn't really take his own age biases into account.

[Rosterized]

I feel like almost entirety of the consensus on this topic is that at the same time people miss the times when we would all relate to the same music we all "grew up with" but then again people really appreciate the freedom we have today of discovery without needing to spend crazy amounts of money to do that. And thats exactly my take on the topic aswell lmao

[MichaelSheaAudio]

I think Rick kind of oversimplified a bit. Eras would be defined differently by different people. The 80s could be defined by it's pop music, but it could also be defined by it's heavy metal, or glam metal, or thrash, or punk, or early hip hop. The 90s could be defined by grunge, but it could also be defined by the more developed hip hop sounds, or skate punk, or europop, or nu metal, or boy bands and girl groups. It's easy to look back and pick out one thing, but there were tons of musical movements all happening at the same time back then as well. If anything, the radio stations became less inclusive and played fewer styles of music, and as the internet became more widespread, people have been able to turn off the couple styles of music that were chosen for them and forced upon them, and go find what they enjoy as an individual. We're always told to be ourselves, but now that we are, there's a problem? 🤔

[PsillyApeUSA]

lol no they’re just evolving and some are devolving. Rick is an old soul. He’s very nostalgic and truly misses classic rock good ole days. He isn’t salty about it so I can’t hate. I agree with your take bro. Merry Christmas you heathens 🎄 🙏 peace

[dimitriid]

Beato is someone I enjoy watching when it comes to long form stuff: Interviews with many Jazz legends but a healthy amount of shredders and rock folks, and less frequent now but his theory stuff is also rather good.

However, on occasion *he's not above egregious clickbait* and even when he *does* believe at least some of the controversial 'old man yells at cloud' takes you can tell he's turning it up to get hate clicks and interaction.

Now I personally don't like that stuff like, at all. I get it, the man it's trying to get paid so I don't hold it against him but I usually just skip the stuff I know it's gonna be clickbait.

EDIT: Also lol why Rick "Vito" he famously always pronounces his last name, Beato.

[Count_Deangeli]

Yeah, internet carved up the music market to countless little niches, it's hard for anybody to impose globally specific trends or fashion

[oleksandrbyelyenko]

I see your argument but I think you misunderstood Rick. And have to be on his side at this topic. There is no genre that defines a decade. Like 2010's. Is it defined by K-Pop or J-Pop, classic rock revival or synthwave? There is no uniform genre that prevailed. And that's what Rick meant. That you can't define decades by music eras anymore.

[Brutal_Cabrera]

This topic is too complex for my brain to wrap around. But yeah It would be very annoying if someone said this band is some brand broad genre then I listen to said band and it's not exactly what they said

[bchil]

You talking about knock off Pat Finnerty