I would go with Country & Western - to include old, new & alt-country, and Grass & Roots - which would include Old Time, all the grass variants, and Roots/Americana.
I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe not in each thread, but either in a summary at the end, or in the index thread.
As promised, here’s the updated genre list:
[ul]
[li]Avant-Garde/Experimental[/li][li]Blues[/li][li]Classical[/li][li]Contemporary Classical[/li][li]Country & Western[/li][li]Electronica[/li][li]Funk[/li][li]Gospel[/li][li]Grass & Roots[/li][li]Jazz[/li][li]Metal[/li][li]Modern Rock[/li][li]Non-Western (aka “World”)[/li][li]Opera[/li][li]Pop/Dance[/li][li]Punk/Post-Punk[/li][li]R&B/Soul[/li][li]Rap/Hip-Hop[/li][li]Rock[/li][/ul]
Based on the feedback I’ve gotten so far, and what I know about the various styles, this seems like a pretty good way to organize things, except I wonder if funk really deserves its own thread. Even with that, it’s about as many threads as I wanted to do anyway, so it works out well. The rock thread tacked on to the end is what I was previously calling classic rock.
I expect that some of these will go pretty quickly, and some will last quite a while. Now I just have to decide what order to go in.
So what happened to film music? Did you ever make a decision? I still think (despite some overlap in composers) that original scores merit their own category (though song-compilation soundtracks can easily fit into your existing genres).
And what about 20th century theatrical musicals?
I meant to include but left it off the list. I’ll put in a thread for film music and musicals.
I disagree that early 20th century pop is significantly different from modern pop (even if that comment were said in jest which I’m not sure about.) Even though there’s at least 3 distinct “pop” eras if not more since 1900, they all rely on sung melody moreso than any non-classical genre, which is enough for me to lump them together. Otherwise you could say we had 4 pop genres before even the Korean War!
Now, dance OTOH, might be a separate category. Disco, synth dance, and techno and other electronica are more similar than different.
Oh, also, does progressive rock deserve a spot on this list? It seems that some pretty essential music falls into that category (some Genesis, for example).
Prog rock fits in the rock/modern rock threads.
I’ve decided to use this thread for announcements, figuring that there are probably quite a few people subscribed and I can reach them this way. Project planning has ended, so please let this thread sink until the next announcement.
Classical has been launched.
I know you want this to sink, but I have a question about your overall vision - do you mean essential as in “great music” or also including stuff that’s more relevant in a zeitgeist sorta way - as in, stuff that’s super-popular or iconic even if it’s not musically great?
I’m not defining what I mean by essential. That’s up to each contributor to decide for themselves. My criteria for adding something is how historically significant it was, how representative of a particular style it is, and how much I like it, but I don’t have any expectations as to whether other people will apply the same criteria.
Perhaps a topic for choral music?
Opera has been launched.
Starting this week, I’m going to do two threads a week rather than one. Expect the next thread late Wednesday night.