The Diferent Types of rock music

[Yisselda]

Can some one help with this? I am curious to know what are the Diferent types of Rock music? I mean broadly as their are always arguments as to what is what. I mean the genres, like death metal, grunge, hair , punk. :twisted:

[Jules]

That's a biggy! Do you just mean rock as in rawk / metal, rather than everying played on electic guitars?? (Otherwise we could be here for eternity!!).

One place that's a good start is www.allmusic.com.
There's a few ways of navigating it :
You can navigate by genre at the top, so here's the 'big picture' of rock
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/x.dll?p=amg&sql=F0ROCK

Or just hard rock :
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...0088&sql=C4482

(Which has Heavy, Hair, Glitter and even Sludge, but no Grunge!)

Another way of searching through are the Music Maps on the left hand side - they're more timelines - for instance :

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...88&sql=K|36||1

[DeepFixer]

I would go for a very simple definition, roughly quoted from Our Man Lemmy: "There's two types of music: the kind you like, and the kind you don't like!" :D

You could probably spend a long time siting different types of 'Rock,' and by the time you were done, five more would've been invented!

I remember that insound.com used to have a pull-down menu of 'music genres' for you to browse through, and they had many different genres there. 'Space Rock,' 'Surf Rock,' 'Shoe-Gazing(?),' 'Stoner Rock.' 'Trance Rock,' and on like that.

I think I'll stick with Lemmy's definition

[Dead-Air]

Lemmy is certainly one of those types who defies genres personally, so the comment is complete appropriate coming from him. Despite Motorhead forever getting lumped in with metal, he came out of space rock and obviously knows a thing or two about punk. Without Motorhead you could have no thrash or death metal, and yet they don't fit into those subgenres at all.

I think for every word in the dictionary there's a subgenre of rock that somebody or other will get behind!

[Brainstorm]

Newbie to site!

Well i've been reading some of the posts in the forum,very interesting stuff indeed.
I'm new on here and having been a Hawkwind fan for as long as i can remember am amazed i didn't find this site earlier!! :lol: :lol:

[techtor]

New Wave rock

Heya. I'm a follower of the 80's new wave movement... and there's lot of rock there. Don't know if there are any listeners of this movement here... but I bet you're mostly of diff genres. :D

U know, I've heard a lot of terms trying to define different kinds of rock and metal. I've heard death metal, dark metal, acid rock, glam rock, hard rock, soft rock, punk rock, power ballad, hardcore rock, hair bands, pop rock, folk rock, rock in the head, etc. I guess they'll be as many as the record companies want them to be... makes a good basis for selling stuff.

[Moody]

Lemmy got it right - have you read his 'White Line Fever'?

Once you start to subdivide genres etc., you are killing music.
No Spirit is so small that it can be divided up into compartments.

Two types of music; Good and Bad.

To me it all comes down to TONE; the kind of rich, full, throaty tone that all good music has.
Bad music is always shallow, tinny and vapid - lacking in tone.

All the various sub-genres of rock are mainly a marketing thing, and so aligned to money, not music.

When Hawkwind were starting out, such labels didn't exist and the bands were able to play anything out of sheer creativity.

Listen to the Hawk's first album, and how different it is to the next one and the one after that.
Despite the musical scope, they all have the TONE that all great music has.

Also, good music dances in the head and opens up vistas of the imagination; it can be listened to again again without tedium.

Hawkwind have passed the test of time - their music, like their spirit is immortal.
And they are beyond classification, as 'space rock' doesn't actually MEAN anything.

[techtor]

Sub-genres

Moody, I agree w/ you on the point about sub-genres... they're a marketing thing... as I said, good for selling stuff. Think of how much the record companies and paid music download sites are earning over this. Better that when it comes to a song, either you love it or hate it... or just could plain bear w/ it.

I have yet to gain my first taste of Hawkwind and Blue Oyster... I've missed a lot I must say.

[Moody]

Hawkwind is something of a 'Total-Art-Form'.
All aspects of human creativity are included within its ambit; it really eludes all barriers.

It is also a community, like a viking war-band.

Hawkwind itself gives the lie to the classification madness that tries to define musicians as if they were fossils.

I know less about BOC [although I've listened to much of their stuff and admired it, particularly Black Blade].
I recall that in a way BOC actually set out to be the heaviest band on the planet - they sought to be 'blacker than black'.

And that in itself is soemthing of an occult ambition; maybe Hawkwind themselves had a similar goal.

Some are drawn to sweet delight; some are drawn to the Endless Night.


Stacia Leach of Hawkwind

[Theocrat]

Hawkwind is something of a 'Total-Art-Form'.
All aspects of human creativity are included within its ambit; it really eludes all barriers.

It is also a community, like a viking war-band.

Sounds like like your describing
R. Wagners idea of 'Gesamtkunstwerk'.

[Bill]

With only a hand full of exceptions, most of the best, most enduring music was exactly that which DIDN'T adhere to one classification. Or was much more than the one that was usually pinned on the band.

Led Zeppelin, much more than a blues band.
Beatles, much more than a pop band.
Genesis, much more than a prog band.
Motorhead, much more than a metal band.

[Wizard]

I think there is no reasons to divide rock music to different types. Just listen what you like.

PS: I like death and speed metal :P

[Cypher]

I think I would go with DeepFixer's quote:
"There's two types of music: the kind you like, and the kind you don't like!"
People, particularly the music press, try to fit bands and musical styles into neat little boxes. I suppose it can give some indication of the 'flavour' of rock, or other music for that matter, that a band or artist plays. In Time Out, a London magazine that lists gigs. Attempts are made to inform their readers, as to the genre certain bands fit into. I am often amazed by the number of categories they can come up with. If all else fails, they stick two or three together, such as 'nuggety funk, old-skool, soul, punk, psych blues'!
So the original question is almost impossible to answer, as new or combined definitions abound. That said, if I was to say what the rock bands I like, are catagorised as, it would be 'post-rock'- a totally meaningless term.
:D

[DeepFixer]

Yeah, most music 'definitions' are for what bin to put it in in the record store (arrgh, showing my age with that term!)

Once, in describing Hawkwind, I used the phrase 'psychedelic-heavy-jazz,' whic sort of fits their early stuff.

[M-A_19]

Yeah, most music 'definitions' are for what bin to put it in in the record store (arrgh, showing my age with that term!)

Hey, get with it daddyo! music definitions exist so we can fill in the "genre" field on our MP3 files!

what's a "record store" anyway?