«
»
Editorials

THE OCEAN BREAK DOWN THE MEANING OF THE SUB-SUB-SUB-SUB-SUB-GENRE

 Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 10:48am by

The OceanEver get frustrated with the seemingly endless categorization of music into neat little genre labels that don’t necessarily seem to mean anything? It’s something that’s often griped about here at the MetalSucks Mansion, and it comes up often in conversation with musicians as well. In an extremely well-written essay for Headbanger’s Blog by singer and sampler Robin Staps and visual artist Nils Lindenhayn, The Ocean break down why we feel the need to classify things into seemingly endless sub-categorizations, and they discuss the pros and cons of doing so. The gist: genre labeling is often bullshit but is a necessary evil that arises from the very basic human need to understand.

It’s an essay that’s well worth your read.

-VN

Tags: ,
  • Tommy Toughtits

    I really enjoyed that. Ever since I got into metal a few years ago, I have had an obsession with labeling things. If anything, I think it’s a response to the diversity that is found under the penumbra of this genre we all know and love that is “metal”. Obviously if I’m talking to my girlfriend I’ll say a band is ‘metal’ instead of ‘southern sludgecore’. Granted, things can tend to get a bit out of hand, and a lot of bands are more than just one thing, but generally speaking it reflects well on metal that there is such variety.

  • Fink

    Words (and subsequently labels) provide structure to thought and allow for communicable discourse. In order to be able to talk about something artistic or emotionally evocative, we try to put labels to the concepts so that we can convey them to others as well as organize them for ourselves. Labels provide context and allow us to more easily identify and sort through our own thoughts.

    I don’t believe that words precede thought, or that the two are one and the same, as we then would always be able to convey how we felt perfectly, and that is obviously not the case. I think we are simply more comfortable with labels as they provide a reference point for which we can interpret our thoughts and allow us to approach abstractions logically and analytically. Words serve as a filter, and must then necessarily come after thought, as a result of thought.

    My two cents. I thought the article was quite good, though I obviously wasn’t in total agreement with some of what was said. Well-written though, and certainly interesting.

  • Sammy

    Two of the most thought out, thought-provoking, intelligent and coherent comments on this site, ever. Awesome.