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THE GENRE POLICE, HOW TO HAVE A CONVERSATION ABOUT MUSIC IN MIAMI
The terms ‘electronic music,’ ‘techno,’ and ‘electronica’ have been somewhat interchangeable over the years, but the most sensible overall label for it seems to be EDM, or Electronic Dance Music. Even if you can’t necessarily dance to it, if it’s music made with electricity (ie, samplers, computers, synthesizers) and not strictly ‘real’ acoustic instruments (like guitars, drum sets, symphonic instruments, etc.), then it can fit inside the EDM blanket. If you came to Miami to hear the music, you are a part of the international EDM community.
Here are some definitions and loose guidelines for talking about genres of music during Winter Music Conference. Within the EDM/DJ culture, a genre of music, for the most part, comes from the balance between tempo (beats per minute or BPM), what types of sound are in the track, and how it makes you feel. Don’t worry, everybody is an expert yet will have different opinions about all of this, but these are some generally agreed upon starting points:
House – 120-138 BPM.
I don’t care how many times I’ve heard the phrase “House is a feeling. It’s a … spiritual thing” – when you get down to it, the biggest defining factor of house music is its speed and its ‘four-on-the-floor’ kick drum beat. To be a house track, it has to be between 120-138 BPM (you might have a little wiggle room on the faster end), and you must have a generally consistent 4/4 (“one oink per beat”) rhythm. This is what allows one house track to be mixed seamlessly into the next. On the slow end are deep house tracks, on the fast end are hard house tracks. This is probably the biggest genre in electronic music, with hundreds of variations determined by geography, chronology, or random description. Think Chicago House, Detroit House, Scouse House, Funky House…
Trance – 129-145 BPM
Ah, trance. It’s typically high energy, feel-good dance music, and the way many people are introduced to electronic music in general. Frequency washes, dramatic chord changes, sounds geared to poke at your emotional state and your adrenaline system. Trance is the sugar and caffeine of electronic music. Is it the most popular genre of music in the EDM community? Probably. It seems to have the most active fans – thus the constant winning of trance DJ’s among voting circles (which drives lots of people crazy, but apparently they can’t collectivize well enough to vote for their own preferences). Trance DJ’s also tend to play to the largest crowds in the biggest venues with the highest production value, at least right now.
Techno – 118-145 BPM.
Techno used to be an overarching reference to electronic music, but over time it sort of turned into a subset of itself. It can have a house or broken beat, it can be hard or soft, deep or progressive. There are fewer rules in the techno genre, and often it’s when a house track breaks from structural or tonal norms that it becomes techno (ie. when a house track gets too noisy, too arrhythmic, or just gets weird- suddenly you’ve got techno). Consider the foundation of the techno sound: its generally agreed-upon roots are in the angst filled streets of industrial Detroit, so its darker sounds can tend to nod away from the happy feelings of house or trance. It also has a reputation for being extremely repetitive. Yes, the same drum pattern can repeat for eight solid minutes. And yes, that, is techno.
Breaks – 128-139 BPM.
Breaks tracks generally have what feels more like a rock (broken) beat, but can also be anything that doesn’t have the kick drum every count in this tempo range. If, during the course of the track, the kick drum rhythm is mainly syncopated, it’s a breaks track (ie. some variation on: BOOM – chick – ba-BOOM BOOM – chick). Breaks tracks incorporate the same elements as all of the other genres, it’s strictly the rhythm that defines it as a separate genre.
Tech House – 122-135 BPM.
I’ll admit right on that this is my favorite genre. It has the basic pulse and tempo of house, but includes limitless variations of texture, structure, and format. What separates tech house from techno is mostly in its subtlety. Whereas lots of music describes as techno will jam itself down your throat, tech house tunes have the ability to be a little less abrasive and melody driven. They are house tracks that have stretched their arms out a little bit, maybe gotten a little plainer, a little more focused, and a little more rhythmically creative. In my opinion, the tech house concept allows more for the live performances that artists are using now with their Ableton setups, too.
Minimal – 120-130 BPM.
Richie Hawtin can break tempo boundaries whenever he feels like it, but minimal music and DJ sets generally sit in the 120-130 BPM range. The most defining characteristic of minimal music is, get ready for this: how minimal it is, and how much space there is within the tracks. Often stripped down to just a few elements for extended periods of time, minimal music can be awesome to dance to, vibe to, or nod your head to, and often if you’re really seriously concentrating on it, you can hear every single change that happens during a track. The biggest complaint about minimal music tends to be that, for as interesting as some of the textures and sounds can be when you hear them clearly, it can get boring reeeeeeally fast. It takes an exceptionally good DJ to play an extended minimal set.
Drum & Bass (Jungle) – 165-180 BPM.
Usually a fast broken beat, but anything goes so long as it’s in that tempo range. From its name, you might assume that the genre included only drums and basslines, but this initial definition has expanded over the years to include some really amazing melody-driven material, as well as spawning a whole lot of semi-industrial chaotic noise at super-speed. If a tracks sounds like it’s made up of pots and pans falling down a staircase, you’re probably listening to drum & bass. There are a million sub-genres of D&B, from jump-up to jazz-step, but for the most part, it’s the speed of the track that defines it as drum and bass.
Dubstep – 138-142 BPM
This is the genre with the most restrictive BPM base right now, but you certainly can’t take away from the creativity and talent that’s swarming into dubstep right now. Regularly with a half-speed stuttered beat tending to be far more rhythmically complicated than a standard breakbeat, dubstep format and structure is whatever it wants to be. It tends to be seriously bass-heavy, so to get the full experience, you almost have to hear it played through big speakers. A friend of mine says she cries for people who listen to dubstep for the first time over laptop speakers. Its roots are in reggae, speed-garage, and two-step, but lately it’s transformed itself into somewhat of a unique monster.
Hip-hop, trip-hop, glitch-hop – 65-105 BPM
Hip-hop is a slow broken beat with rap or R & B lyrics behind it. Make it a little more electronica-ish and psychedelic, and you’ve got trip-hop. Take away or chop up the vocals into Insanityville and add crazy basslines and textures, and it’s glitch-hop.
Downtempo/midtempo/chillout/ambient/beatless – Slower than 120 BPM
Millions of subgenres here, too, and next to impossible to explain other than saying they tend to feel ‘slow’ and/or ‘thoughtful’. Hip-hop, trip-hop, and glitch-hop are in this range, but they are their own beasts. Chillout, ambient, and beatless music are often defined as such because they have no kick drum at all.
Electronica – Pretty much any speed.
Electronica is kind of a catch all. If electronic music doesn’t fit anywhere else, you can call it electronica. These tracks tend to be a little quieter, because intrinsic volume isn’t as important in the mastering stage of production (because they aren’t really ‘club’ tracks). It’s pretty rare to hear something you might call Electronica get played on a main stage or at a club or dance venue. It can be weird, experimental, or obnoxious. It can change tempo, structure, or dynamics at any point. A lot of electronic music from the ‘90s was labeled electronica, maybe for lack of a better term at that point.
Progressive –
There is a school of thought that says that ‘progressive’ in itself is a genre, but I don’t buy it. There is progressive house, progressive trance, progressive breaks, etc. To me, it’s more of a descriptor. If a song is narrative, if it moves from one place to another, if it tells a story, if it builds, if it progresses (for crying out loud), then it’s progressive.
Genre Soup
You can always add descriptors to genres without any regret, so long as you mention them confidently. In my opinion, the more descriptors the better. If you hear a track, and say, ‘hey, that’s a cool funky nu-disco progressive minimal breaks tune!’, then I will get a better idea of what they music sounds like.
A few common add-on descriptors to get your imagination started:
Epic – big breakdown, big buildup
Indie – usually means there’s a guitar in it somewhere
Dark – in a minor key, intense
Funky – has a swung drum beat or a funk bassline in it
Nu – either ‘next wave of’, or ‘as opposed to old-school’
Tribal – basically means it has bongos in it. I’ll leave it at that.
Electro – I’ve heard the debate about electro rage on for so long I’m not sure what to say about it. Some people say that electro is a subgenre of house, but then old-schoolers will punch anyone who says that in the face, saying that electro is its own thing, but they’ve never really been able to describe it to me. There is what I understand to be the electro ‘sound’, which is roboty vocals and sawtooth basslines and chinka-chinka scraping hi hats, but too much of that in a row during a set makes my brain feel violated. Calm down, DJ, you’re freakin’ me out.
Hard – usually means fast, distorted, or noisy
Geographic considerations: Often there will be a geographic area associated with a genre or subgenre, i.e. UK Hard House, Detroit Techno, Chicago House, Miami Breaks, etc. The only way to really understand those references is to listen to music that is specifically labeled that and learn what those descriptors mean.
Some suggestions for talking about music:
Don’t get boxed in -
If you want to get the most out of your Miami experience, be careful defining yourself to others in terms of a certain kind of music. If you get pegged as a house-head, a trance-baby, a drum-and-bass junkie, a dubstepper, a new-schooler, an old-schooler or a techno snob; you can lose opportunities to hear and appreciate new and interesting music. Genre wars are counterproductive and unfortunately plague the US EDM community. As a whole, we should support each other instead of fighting about what we like. Keep an open mind.
If you don’t know about something, don’t say that you do -
Especially in Miami during Conference, there are industry professionals, experts, and socialites that truly do know everything about their music and their culture. It’s better to say “I’m not familiar with that artist/label/band/track/venue” than to pretend that you do and get found out later.
Don’t present your opinions as fact -
It’s good to speak confidently about music, but it’s extremely annoying when people present their opinions as fact, especially when it comes to talking about what music is better than other music, or which genres or artists and better than other genres or artists. If you catch yourself falling into this trap, rethink what you are trying to get across.
Don’t be a hater –
I can’t tell you how many people I know that say things like ‘techno is stupid’, ‘trance is for people who don’t know any better’, ‘rap isn’t music’, ‘country music is lame’, ‘classical music is boring’. Hey, you all – enough already. Seriously. You are welcome to your opinions about music and what you like and what is or isn’t good or bad, but don’t disrespect the people who spend their time and dedicate their lives to their craft. You can critique music on how it makes you feel and whether you understand it or not within the constructs of your life experience, but don’t negate the effort that people put into what they believe in. Very few things are more destructive than ignorant haters, and I am embarrassed that during some points in my life, I’ve been critical of music that I haven’t understood. If you don’t like something, then don’t like it – but that doesn’t mean that it’s bad or has no value. And believing haters is almost as bad as being one. Don’t let someone else’s opinion about music effect your ability to enjoy something new.
This year in Miami, take what you know and love and add to it. Learn and appreciate, critique and observe, party and run like maniacs through the streets.
Just watch out for the genre police.
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