"Hey man, have you heard about this band Aardvark Jean Condominium? You haven't? You gotta, bro. What do they sound like? Well, they're a psychopop band with traces of dub, swamp blues, and freak folk. They're spearheading this new genre called Psychodubswampfolk. You probably haven't heard of it."
Where once popular music could be classified into a few distinct genres — with rock, country, hip-hop, and jazz being the big ones — now there are subgenres of subgenres. Take a look around Wikipedia and Pitchfork, and you'll see bands classified as blues shouter, truck-driving country, nu jazz, and horrorcore. And those aren't even hilarious enough to make this list of 15 of the most amusingly specific (and often terrible) genres of music. (I'm not including "joke" genres like rape gaze, which is a thing that actually happened. Sigh.)
#15. New Wave of New Wave
Description: "British alt-rock, in which bands displayed punk, post-punk, and New Wave influences."
Examples: S*M*A*S*H, Done Lying Down, These Animal Men, and Elastica
#14. Livetronica
Description: "Electronica that blends such musical styles as rock, jazz, funk, and electronica."
Examples: Ozric Tentacles, Sound Tribe Sector 9, and Digital Dharma
#13. Folk metal
Description: "Fusion of heavy metal with traditional folk music."
Examples: SKYCLAD
#12. Happy hardcore
Description: "Typified by a very fast tempo, often coupled with solo vocals and sentimental lyrics."
Examples: Raver Baby, Moon Dance, Slammin Vinyl, and Hardcore Til I Die
#11. Epic doom
Description: "Metal with a heavy classical influence."
Examples: Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus, Solstice, and Doomsword
#10. Nazi punk
Description: "Punk rock, but with lyrics that express hatred of Jews, homosexuals, communists, anarchists, anti-racists, and people who are not considered white."
Examples: The Dentists, Ethnic Cleansing, White Pride, and White Boss
#9. Chillwave
Description: "Heavy use of effects processing, synthesizers, looping, sampling, and heavily filtered vocals with simple melodic lines."
Examples: Com Truise, Keep Shelly In Athens, and Warm Ghost
#8. Nerdcore
Description: "Hip hop with themes and subject matter considered to be of general interest to nerds."
Examples: 2 Skinnee J's, Beefy, Schäffer the Darklord, and Optimus Rhyme
#7. Chap hop
Description: "Mixes hip hop with elements from the Chappist or steampunk subcultures and stereotypical English obsessions such as cricket, tea, and the weather."
Examples: Professor Elemental and Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer
#6. Unblack metal
Description: "Black metal sounding artists whose lyrics and imagery promote Christianity."
Examples: Armageddon Holocaust, Crimson Moonlight, Vaakevandring, and Sanctifica
#5. Wizard rock
Description: "Developed between 2002 and 2004...wizard rock bands are characterized by their humorous songs about the Harry Potter universe."
Examples: Harry and the Potters and Draco and the Malfoys
#4. Disco polo
Description: "Influenced by Ukrainian/Belarusian/Russian folk songs and italo disco."
Examples: Big Dance, Shazza, and Toples
#3. Crunkcore
Description: "Combines crunk hip-hop with elements of screamo."
Examples: Blood on the Dance Floor, Millionaires, Hollywood Undead, and I Set My Friends On Fire
#2. Lowercase
Description: "Extreme form of ambient minimalism in which very quiet sounds bookend long stretches of silence."
Examples: Steve Roden
#1. Nu metal
Description: "Elements of metal with other genres, including hip hop and grunge."
Examples: Linkin Park, Mudvayne, Godsmack, Disturbed, and Seether
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If anybody besmirches chap hop, I will be obliged to don my fighting trousers.
Seconded.
And seriously, why would you post Cup of Brown Joy instead of Fighting Trousers?
Also, Mr. B sucks.
Where has chap hop been all my life (aside from England, obviously)?
I love Fighting Trousers. Thank you interweb. I owe you a penis picture.
Co-sign.
Nu Metal is a genre of stupid, not music.
A co-worker is a fan of the Nerdcore, and it seems like many of these dudes have no idea how flow works. Though that criticism is less prevalent on the example track.
Also, is Downtempo the official gender name for those Nujabes/Fat Jon/chill out hip hop-ish adult swim beats?
*genre, curse you autocorrect
Most of the top-shelf Nerdcore guys are actually pretty decent rappers… They lack charisma, but many of them are great at constructing rhyme patterns. It’s a niche that sometimes grabs my attention.
Downtempo is one catchall descriptor which can net you those type of beats, but it can also get you stuff that sounds nothing alike. I just refer to it all as hip-hop.
I’m a fan of nerdcore, and now that I know chap hop exists, I’ll probably be a fan of that too. Judge away!
But seriously folks — I’m actually glad that we have overly-specific “subgenres of subgenres.” I’m all for any type of classification that helps me discover more of the music I like and avoid the crap I don’t. Some of these are pretty crazy.
what, no grindcore?
The Itunes tells me I’m a big proponent of German Death Trance and Appalachian Murder Ballads… I’m not sure how Sound Tribe Sector 9 found me but who am I to f*ck with the algorithm?
Musical taxonomy has been bullshit for pretty much all my life. I imagine it was useful at one time, but now it’s silly and crazy redundant.
Skrewdriver: We can’t get a record deal because the industry is run by Jews.
Everybody: No, it’s because you suck.
#7 – That chap hop band is re-TARDIS.
I had no idea Nu Metal and Folk Metal were weirdly specific.
Actually, who hasn’t heard of Nu Metal?
Maybe I spend to much time on music forums. :/
Also, I like progressive technical rock/metal with mathcore influences. \m/
How did you left out Witch House ???
Chillwave is actually a good genre with it’s influence being very popular in hip-hop nowadays
i actually wrote quite a few wizard rock songs.
[soundcloud.com]
my wizard rock if you’re interested, which you probably aren’t.
Shitty video example of chillwave. Com Truise would’ve been a much better choice. Also, Washed Out. Or maybe Toro y Moi. Mathemagic springs to mind too.
DON’T JUDGE ME
*hops on fixie, rides to fair-trade coffee shop*
this is hilarious… i’m actually surprised more electronic music subgenres aren’t in here. you know, all those ones that have “step” at the end.
I’m into Crap-Hop-Crunk-Drop, It’s like listening to a recording of a man eating his own teeth whilst drilling 5 holes in the side of a dairy cow, but played on 45rpm. You’ve probably never heard of it, it’s not what you’d call “mainstream”…