Musical Genre is THE MOST Important Thing

What IS music genre? How important is it? Is it even really a thing?

These are all questions I tackle in this video - hopefully you find this video interesting, informative, and maybe even entertaining! I talk about everything from blues, to folk, to rock, to jazz - and artists from Jacob Collier to Chris Thile, to Duke Ellington... and everything in between!

#music #videoessay #genre

[lnataliec]

Like some other commenters below, I feel like I just uncovered a YouTube treasure trove in your excellent videos. I've loved thinking about genres since realizing that genre can describe many things including both musical vocabulary and cultural context, and there's absolutely no need to describe each song using exactly one genre. I agree that you didn't say anything that wasn't obvious, but I think you said it really well. All the genre skeptics and genre zealots should watch this!

[charlierichards]

These videos are insanely well thought out and well made. I genuinely think this is one of best explanations and analysis of music!

[danilotavaresofficial]

I love this channel.
excelent video.

[jamesdaniels]

Been looking forward to this one since you announced it!

Couple of things, first, I don't know if you watch the comedian Dave Gorman, but he had a whole segment about music gatekeepers, calling them "extractor fans" which I think is a brilliant way to describe them.

Secondly, I think genre is only useful when describing songs, because anything more than that can start to get blurry, take The White Album for instance, nobody in their right mind would say that Honey Pie, Revolution 9, Helter Skelter and Rocky Raccoon are the same genre, but they all appear on the same album and work, for the most part, coherently, likewise for artists who experiment with different genres throughout their career, like Bowie, The Beach Boys and The Jam.

Thirdly, I disagree somewhat with the idea that folk lyrics aren't allowed to have standards or not be complex, like in The Times They Are A-Changing, Dylan's first line is "Come gather round people" which is a very clear standard practice from all over different cultures, including the folk genre, and also on the topic of Dylan, he sometimes uses very simplistic lyrics to tell his story "I had a dream about world war 3, she said it was a bad dream". I wouldn't say that is a very complex lyric, but it achieves the goal of what Dylan is trying to talk about.

All in all though this was a really well presented and well thought out video that has introduced new ideas and new ways of listening to me.

[chuckscs]

You are an excellent journalist (but you’ve probably hard that a lot)
Thx for…