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Metal is the same, often it's the true(TM) fans who come up with the micro-genres as a way to beat people over the head for not knowing that "foo" is "bar". It

Metal is the same, often it's the true(TM) fans who come up with the micro-genres as a way to beat people over the head for not knowing that "foo" is "bar". It's the pretentious of wine culture applied to music basically.

scns 7y ago
Tribalism at work?
pimmen 7y ago
This is basically spot on. But, these micro genres can be useful for the "true" fans too, if they know a fellow fan and feel like they want something within a genre, but with some specific features (like just a tad slower tempo, more vocals or something) they can just say "heard anything good from <sub_genre>" instead of "heard anything good from <genre>, but with <list_of_really_tiny_differences>".
karmickoala 7y ago
I used to follow this in rock. Despite being misused like the way you mentioned, it also serves the purpose to help you find new artists based on the genre and sub-genre. If you like a specific thing about a track and you'd want to listen more like that, the taxonomy helps you find it and how they relate to other (sub-)genres. However, I do concede that there is a lot of pretentiousness.
keymon-o 7y ago
People enjoy certain patterns in some genre and then they explore and develop it further. When that pattern becomes more known it gets a name for easier referencing. All music eventually starts to sound boring and micro genre is how fans find what they like about genre and continue enjoy it. I don't understand craft beer fad and obsession, but I know beer has many tastes and many interesting stuff can come out. Why would I call someone pretentious just because they develop something I don't care about.
CapricornNoble 7y ago
Agreed. It wasn't until later in life that I realized how obnoxiously hipster-ish metal fans can be. Band t-shirts are great conversation starters, but it quickly devolves from finding common ground ("Oh, you like Behemoth? Me too!") to bringing up super-obscure music to look like you are "deeper in the scene". "If you like black metal of course you've heard Zarzagamel's latest, right? It's a solo project from southern France with a limited release on vinyl."
CuriouslyC 7y ago
Eh, as a metalhead, the music is incredibly diverse and it's useful to be able to state your exact preferences clearly, and for promoters to be able to describe bands quickly. Personally I'm not too anal it, but I did laugh at a girl who thought Megadeth was death metal. That was pretty funny.

scns 7y ago

Tribalism at work?

pimmen 7y ago

This is basically spot on. But, these micro genres can be useful for the "true" fans too, if they know a fellow fan and feel like they want something within a genre, but with some specific features (like just a tad slower tempo, more vocals or something) they can just say "heard anything good from <sub_genre>" instead of "heard anything good from <genre>, but with <list_of_really_tiny_differences>".

karmickoala 7y ago

I used to follow this in rock. Despite being misused like the way you mentioned, it also serves the purpose to help you find new artists based on the genre and sub-genre. If you like a specific thing about a track and you'd want to listen more like that, the taxonomy helps you find it and how they relate to other (sub-)genres. However, I do concede that there is a lot of pretentiousness.

keymon-o 7y ago

People enjoy certain patterns in some genre and then they explore and develop it further. When that pattern becomes more known it gets a name for easier referencing. All music eventually starts to sound boring and micro genre is how fans find what they like about genre and continue enjoy it. I don't understand craft beer fad and obsession, but I know beer has many tastes and many interesting stuff can come out. Why would I call someone pretentious just because they develop something I don't care about.

CapricornNoble 7y ago

Agreed. It wasn't until later in life that I realized how obnoxiously hipster-ish metal fans can be. Band t-shirts are great conversation starters, but it quickly devolves from finding common ground ("Oh, you like Behemoth? Me too!") to bringing up super-obscure music to look like you are "deeper in the scene". "If you like black metal of course you've heard Zarzagamel's latest, right? It's a solo project from southern France with a limited release on vinyl."

CuriouslyC 7y ago

Eh, as a metalhead, the music is incredibly diverse and it's useful to be able to state your exact preferences clearly, and for promoters to be able to describe bands quickly. Personally I'm not too anal it, but I did laugh at a girl who thought Megadeth was death metal. That was pretty funny.