One of my biggest pet hates is musical ignorance. Nothing angers me more than when someone sums up an entire genres of music with one or two words. Prime examples include calling all dance/electonica music “doof doof” or “techno”, any rock music heavier than Nickelback “heavy metal” and calling all urban music “rap”. I’m not saying I expect everyone to be well-versed in all genres of music out there (thanks to Myspace, there’s not a soul alive who could possibly know them all) but it’s so ignorant to label an entire genre of music with something as simple as “techno”. It’s even more ignorant to say you don’t like “techno” or “rap” because you have essentially said you dislike entire, vast categories of music, many of which may overlap with the kinds of music you happen to like.
These days it’s cool for bands and singers to cross as many genres as possible, that’s why we have sub-genres like indie-electro, urban house, grindcore, and power metal among many other strangely named styles that no one can really comprehend properly. And let’s face it, rock and roll from the 1950s was originally developed as a fusion of blues, gospel and country music! Chances are, the band you were so sure was just a rock band is actually some electroclash, post-modern idie-pop band with soul tendencies.
If you don’t know what sub-genre of music a song falls into, don’t be an idiot and call it something like doof doof music or “that rap crap” because you’re just making yourself look like a fool. Either learn a little more about music beyond ROCK, RAP, TECHNO, CLASSICAL, COUNTRY and RETRO. Because for godsake, even HMV has more of a clue about sub-genres and god knows you probably shop there for all your music. And if you can’t be bothered educating yourself, shut the hell up and let the rest of us enjoy all the varied style of music available to us this day and age!
