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Definitions
Although it seems anal-retentive, keeping careful track of our language and using it consistently are necessary tasks in the communication of ideas about music. In the complex spread of genres within which we work, these terms help give you a coordinate fix on the mental location from which each band is coming.
Neoclassical
In popular music, originally meant guitar flourishes by whizzards such as Yngwie J. Malmsteen, who borrowed technique and riff shaping from classical music to liven up his intensely technical solos.
Ambient
Any music designed to fall in even cadence over an unchanging or constantly-changing beat, providing a sense of detachment within linear emotion and enabling the repetition of musical figures for textural development.
Noise
1 Sounds made from objects not recognized by mainstream society as "instruments";
2 A genre in which music is encoded in noise.
Post-Industrial
Music which sought to exceed industrial, by either going further into noise or delving into more abstract melodies and combinations of arrangements.
Trance
Music designed to lull the listener into a semiconscious state and then address the subconscious mind with gradually shifting layers of repeated motives.
Drone
A style which crosses many genres, droning is the process of repeating or sustaining a tone at cadence, often with harmony created by the throbbing of a note and its detuned double.
Postmodernism
This philosophy arose after the functionalist and structuralist modernism, and sought to express the ambiguity of perception which confronts the human mind in an attempt to dissolve what were seen as oppressive and modernistic structures.
Tribal
Primitivism in sonic form, tribal sounds are centered around ritual and the primal expression of elemental musicianship.
Soundscapes
Constructions of primitive harmony that conjure visual emotions of changing topography in the mind of the listener.
Darkwave
New-wave, gothic and dark pop rolled into one: darkwave is synthesizer music with neoclassical allusions in phrasing and a moribund aesthetic.
Darktech
Darkwave from the industrial side of the genre, darktech is any form of electronica or synthpop which emphasizes noise, digitally precise beats, or abstraction to the level of postmodern-era machinery.
Industrial
Music designed to sound like the sonic output of mechanical or electric devices, often using harsh distorted sounds alongside synthesized tones to produce a dualistic view of technocratic society.
Grindcore
Ultra-punk music that took the open riffs of hardcore bands and sped them up with metal influences in rhythm and vocals, creating a roaring flood of negative and fractured emotion.
Metal
Any of the musics which arose from the second neoclassical inspiration in heavy metal, most notably the black metal and death metal genres.
Progressive
Progressive music shapes form around conception, where "normal" music applies conception to form.
Synthpop
A style invented by Kraftwerk, whose mixing of neoclassical melody, soft melancholic vocals and sequencer percussion unleashed a range of electronic and industrial musics.
Rock
The product of Asian music as filtered through African-European cultural hybrids in America, rock music uses a form of pentatonic scale and a simple verse-chorus-bridge pattern.
Technopop
The name Kraftwerk favored for their musical and conceptual brand of synthpop.
E.B.M.
Electronic body music is what most people would currently identify as industrial: strange tempos and bizarre beats, undulating and often brutally distorted sound, designed around punklike song structures in a dance music context.
Techno
Synthpop converted to pure rhythm music, techno takes the conceptions of performance experience and linear narrative to a new level of popularity.
Popular Music
A term for the music which is recognized in making a cultural contribution at the broadest level, often called "pop" in the diminutive.
Organic
Sounds made without divisions of the spectrum of tone, and/or noise music which emulates natural patterns.
Medievalist
From the conservatories of the world, medievalist bands emerged combining ancient melodies with modern rhythm and arrangements.
Dub
Careful tape editing and mixing produces a steady flow of self-modifying beats with any combination of instruments and vocals supporting them, called "dub" from a beat rant by W.S. Burroughs.
Folk
Any music associated with the unique and ancient roots of a culture. Usually acoustic stringed instruments, vocals, and portable percussion gear are played.
Blues
Syncopated music using a pentatonic scale of Semitic/Asian origin, mixed in America with the influences of Celtic gospel hymns and European-American ballads of the day.
Melodic
Music whose primary organizational principle uses melodic phrasing.
Harmonic
Music whose primary organizational principle is structures of harmony.
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