How do yous seperate alt music genres? I'm not talking about labels or sub cultures, I'm talking the genres if music. For me its definitely something I struggle with when it comes to blurry ones like weather somethings folk or midwest emo.
Heres my little break down of them :>
Emo- strained vocals, sang from the nasal pallet, usually accentuates or mimics an american accent. Heavy drums and electric guitar, rare use of acoustic guitar, usually contains one instrument line with a complex melody or the whole band plays complex rhythm. Bass and guitar mimic eavhother more than other genres and lift eachother in the sound. Uses a mix of major and minor but tends to use minor keys in happy songs.
Midwest emo- similar to folk with vocals, but more reminiscent of emo by shouting to shout rather than to avoid singing, sounding whiney and strained, singing from the front of the mouth and nasal palette. Messy overlapping layers, heavy drums, complicated guitar lines and usually more use of acoustic guitar. More emotional and personal themes rather than political, lyrical story can range from feeling deep to sounding like an angsty teens vent depending on the person and song. Fair use of major or minor keys, leans heavier on minor.
Folk- "bad" vocals- voice cracks or more shouting than singing typse stuff, acoustic instruments, light drums, but stiffer rhythm and usually quite fast, fair bit of syncopation. Normally light mood and themes of politics, the environment, nature, or the world surrounding in general. Uses all sorts of keys, but tends to sound atonal or model due to major instrumentation and vocals breakihg the key.
Grunge- music can range from blurring on metal or blurring on emo mixed with goth. Usually messy layers with more subdued vocals- not trying to sound strained and accentuate imperfections like emo, or trying to sing with little emotion or technical flaunting like goth. Vocals normally have limited range and seem simple or kinda mumbley? Heavy instrumentation, with more bass and low tones. Lyrical themes are usually unimportant and can be harder to catch as theres more use of metaphor and personification to hide the theme than genres like emo where screaming the problem is more common. Rare use of major keys, more usually modal or maybe minor.
Art rock- usually grouped in with emo or alternative due to sounding too alt for regular rock. Complex melody lines, less emphasis on sounding heavy and focuses more on treating music as a preformance rather than an outlet. Lyrics and vocals are usually sung regularly, but arent seen all that important, lyrics do usually hold some very impactful lyrics. They tend to walk around the theme with a mix of straightforward lyrics and metaphors but its rare the theme is bluntly presented.
Punk- punk tends to blur on all alt genres with political themes (sprouting labels like punk pop, punk rock, and etc). Punk is defined by political themes and counter culture, if either are met a song could be counted as punk- if its only the latter met then its important its to an intense degree. Punk music alone blurs with metal and occassionally folk depending if the tone is overly positive or negative (also influenced by the key). Rough vocals, more shouty than singing but not for the sake of emotion more to go against the aesthetics of pretty vocals. Focus on usual for the singers accent to thicken almost like the singers brute forcing the notes out of the body- most common in the uk, but can be seen from all countries.
Note that my word is not god and I'm not great at genres, also genres are just boxes they dont matter that much.
Anywho, thats enough from Blue!
