I was wondering if there’s a website like this; for example, you look up “country” and it lists things like use of dominant seventh chords, acoustic instrumentation, etc. Actually, basically a similar idea to the values the Music Genome Project tracks, but coded to genre. That is, if I woke up this morning and I wanted to write a pastiche of a post-rock song, I could go to this resource and put together some semblance of a prototypical one from it. The more specific the genres, the better!
I’m not looking for humorous stuff, like “to be a blues artist, take a well-known disability and the name of a fruit and…”
Eek. You’re asking for something particularly challenging here, and I don’t think you’re going to find any place online which will better what Wikipedia can offer.
The problems with trying to codify genres in this way are varied. One is that of actually drawing boundaries between different genres in the first place, which can only be an artificial and ultimately subjective process. Another is that you might find that various genres end up with identical lists of basic musical elements - the actual differences might be in the subject matter of lyrics, the audiences to which they are directed, trends/influences/philosophies behind the music, and so on.
This becomes more of a problem if you’re trying to be more specific in subdividing into subgenres. It’s easy to see how lists of features of jazz and baroque would differ greatly. (Whether it would enable you to write a pastiche is another matter.) How much could one really say about, for example, thrash metal, death metal and grindcore that would enable others to place music into one or the other genres as you have defined them, let alone create pastiches?
Use Wikipedia as a starting-point for whatever you intend to do - and what is that, by the way? In some cases there’s very good articles which give details descriptions of styles and techniques. There’s also other equally good articles which do no such thing, because to attempt to describe some musics in this way would be unhelpful.
It’s interesting that you chose that example. Barring some acts that draw from multiple genres, it’s pretty easy to classify music between thrash and death metal or thrash and grindcore (death metal and grindcore are distinct genres, but they’re closer by enough that you’d need some practice to distinguish between them). So clearly there is some set of features that differentiates them. The trick is figuring out what those features are, and figuring out how to communicate them.
Precisely my point. Being able to hear that there are differences is one thing, putting it into words is often something far more difficult, and to use catagorisation as a starting-point will only lead to dead ends. Where do the boundaries of neoclassical music lie? Is it helpful to describe grunge without reference to a whole fashion and aesthetic which surrounded it? ‘Film music’ is a common enough term, but does it have any unifying features at all?
It’s a fascinating question - I have sought in vain for a style guide to genre in the CDDB/Gracenote site. In the true Wiki spirit, everyone gets to have an opinion, but there are no hard definitions to base your opinions on. That’s partly why I’ve ignored ‘genre’ in RealPlayer and iTunes from about the first week I used them.
You may have some luck asking about the ‘rules’ of genre from some people who use Band in a Box or you could try asking Bob ‘Notes’ Norton who refines styles for BiaB. There is also the Yahoo Band in a Box Mailing List as a resource. (Hope that got you to the right page - you might need to search Yahoo lists in some other way if you’re not already a member.)
So, I apologize if I’m telling you things you already know. Band in a Box is a program where you enter a chord progression (and optionally a melody) and select a style. Based on the style you select, it will add drums, bass, guitar, piano, strings, etc. and it will come up with an accompaniment in that style. The program comes with a large library of styles and sub-styles. As well, the user can edit styles, write his own styles or add styles from another writer. ‘Notes’ Norton is someone who makes his living partly from writing styles for BiaB. Anyway, the people who have written the styles seem to have pretty strong ideas of what it takes to make a Country or Metal or Samba version out of the same progression.
If you like, I’m already a member of the Yahoo list, and I’d be happy to ask for any guidance they can give on your behalf. I’m about to be away from any computers for the rest of the weekend, so it’d have to wait until Monday, but I’d be happy to pursue the question.
Sorry, I can’t help, but this thread reminds me of when I took Music Theory in college. Before taking it, I thought we would learn stuff like why Russian music sounds Russian, why Irish music sounds Irish, why cowboy music sounds…etc., and that we’d learn how to write music in all those styles.
And to my great disappointment, we didn’t learn any of that.
But now I know why a Bach Chorale sounds like a Bach Chorale, so I’ve got that going for me.
That’s partly why I’ve ignored ‘genre’ in RealPlayer and iTunes from about the first week I used them.