# The nature of music genres



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

I'm reading a book about "Industrial Music," and it talks about music genres and their functions.
Music genres are a social invention. People identify with music because it reinforces certain identity traits. 

It also says that genres go through a 4-stage life-cycle: 

1. Avant-garde: starting out as novel and different, involving a small group of people
All the way to
4. Traditional: Assimilation by the institution, or death, where the genre has become so traditional that it is no longer viable

This seems to be why so many artists dislike and reject labels; because after a genre or style has been assimilated by the industry, they no longer want to be associated with that group of people.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

millionrainbows said:


> I'm reading a book about "Industrial Music," and it talks about music genres and their functions.
> Music genres are a social invention. People identify with music because it reinforces certain identity traits.
> 
> It also says that genres go through a 4-stage life-cycle:
> ...


At first I thought most genres we speak of are both traditional _and_ viable. But I assume you use viable to mean a genre that composers continue to explore (i.e. write contemporary music) rather than a genre that people continue to listen to. In that sense, the evolution of genres from stage 1 to stage 4 seems almost inevitable. The questions are how long does the process take and how much output is created for a given genre?


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

mmsbls said:


> At first I thought most genres we speak of are both traditional _and_ viable. But I assume you use viable to mean a genre that composers continue to explore (i.e. write contemporary music) rather than a genre that people continue to listen to. In that sense, the evolution of genres from stage 1 to stage 4 seems almost inevitable. The questions are how long does the process take and how much output is created for a given genre?


Industrial music had its roots in earlier times; at first the term referred to music played in factories during WWII to increase production and make workers happier. Music used in this way is a tool of the State, used to affect people's minds and as a political force.

The present Industrial music ethos tried to reverse this, and use music to create an "anti-environment" to resist corporate conditioning. The Italian Futurists had a similar idea, as well as Dadaists.

So in this sense, a genre such as "industrial" would die, or lose its effectiveness as an anti-establishment force, when it grew to the point that it became a "commodity" which was being used by the corporate industry to simply sell more records.

Yes, the progress from stage 1 to stage 4 is inevitable, as we saw with punk rock: it started with a small sub-group of rebels (they Sex Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Clash), then became accepted by industry (The Clash, Nirvana, Pearl Jam), then became ubiquitous and even conformist (Indie music, REM, Tom Petty,Green Day).

In this sense, genre-driven music like rock is a living, changing social entity, which has life-spans and limited viability.

Classical music seems marginalized by comparison. Perhaps this is because CM, and contemporary, are less market-driven, and less of a commodity. Still, this may be the area where real music and ideas about it are "preserved" for possible inspiration or use by others outside in the 'real world.' Some of the Industrial music people were inspired by Stockhausen and electronic music.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

The four life stages of a genre:

1. Avant garde, i.e., when a music is new, daring, and cutting-edge

2. Scene-based; i.e., a substantial number of people take interest; socially-driven

3. Industry-based; the genre gets assimilated and more mainstream; greater numbers

4. Traditionalist; music becomes passé, inauthentic, derivative, no longer valid

These stages have to do with how music is used - aesthetic experiment vs. social engagement vs. corporate economy vs. cultural preservation - and by whom.

from 'Assimilate' by S. Alexander Reed


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## Guest (Aug 30, 2016)

That's an interesting model. I'm thinking perhaps that the "natural" flow is 1>2>3>4 but that motivated individuals may able to drive it in the other direction?


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

The Four Stages remind me of the description that the actor Herschel Bernardi gave of the typical career of a character actor such as himself. The steps went:

1) Who is Herschel Bernardi?
2) Get me Herschel Bernardi!
3) Get me a Herschel Bernardi type!
4) Who is Herschel Bernardi?


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

dogen said:


> That's an interesting model. I'm thinking perhaps that the "natural" flow is 1>2>3>4 but that motivated individuals may able to drive it in the other direction?


That could happen; the "lounge music" genre recycles old industry-driven artifacts (organ music, lounge singers, accordion music, detective music) and looks at them as somehow fascinating, and for avant-garde or obscure tastes...


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## Guest (Aug 30, 2016)

It occurred to me that happened with prog rock; it definitely did the 1-2-3-4 thing but it still has pockets of vitality due to the efforts of those who aren't content to see it languish at 4.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

1. "Who is Nirvana?"

2. "Somebody get me a Nirvana!"

3. "Somebody get me something that sounds like Nirvana!"

4. "Who is Green Day?"

5. "Somebody get me a Green Day!"

etc…..


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