Favorite Genre & Why

[jet_porkins]

I used the search tool and found no immediate results under "favorite genre," so I'm going on a limb and assuming this thread hasn't been done before.

The poll is self-explanatory. Choose your favorite genre listed! In an attempt to be as inclusive as possible, I will generalize genres (i.e. "Rock" will represent metal, oldies such as the Beach Boys/Beatles/Elvis, punk, classic rock, etc). If you are very passionate about some variant of a genre such as metal, please specify. If your genre isn't listed, please click "other" and specify.

The rules are: Describe why this is your favorite genre (perhaps you might provide anecdotes of how you came to really enjoy said genre?). You may choose to be brief, or you may express your deepest feelings in an eloquent, properly punctuated explication. Also, provide between 1 and 3 of your favorite YouTube videos from your genre (NO MORE THAN 3!). Reach in and bring out your inner-musician on this one (even if you aren't a musician) :thumbs:. EDIT: New Rule: Everyone has to watch the first video I post. Jeff Coffin's badassness must be known throughout the series of tubes we call the internet.

I'll start:

<<<<<>>><<<<>>>><<<<>>>>><<<>>>>

I have plenty of reasons to love jazz. The obvious would be because I really love the sounds it produces -- such as harmonies, melodies, the instrumentation used, and the millions of different grooves and rhythms. Delving further yet, within jazz are jillions of sub-genres: dixieland, bebop, big band/small combo, avant garde, post-modern, funk/fusion, modal, latin, and the list can go on. I'm a lover of mostly everything it provides. I guess you could say I love the diversity jazz provides. In today's post-modernist world, it reaches out to just about every fundamental western genre (and even many world music genres, considering it has African roots) in some way or another.

I'm a big fan of improvisation. My favorite feature of jazz is that two different groups can play the same tune and the interpretation can be totally different. In addition, the same group can play one tune twice in completely different interpretive ways. Even if a tune - let's say, How Insensitive - is played in the same style by groups A and B, the improvisation that takes place in the middle will always be different, and might even come to a point where the intensity of the improvisation changes the style completely. I also find the math involved in improv to be fascinating.

Also, as I've stated before, I really dig the grooves, especially when an odd meter is involved, say when a tune is in 7.

Here are a few videos:

Completely badass sax solo by Jeff Coffin. The group is Bela Fleck and the Flecktones:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUMGSr3b67g

Branford Marsalis quartet performing John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" mov I. For those of you who actually care to watch these videos, I encourage watching this one all the way through. This improv is pretty intense, and the groove will stick with you for a little while.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHtVgM14sM

My third is John Coltrane's "classic quartet" (Coltrane, McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums) playing "Impressions." Also featuring Eric Dolphy on Alto Sax http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUzFbT5JT1M

 

[kineaesth]

You are a bad and evil man how do you expect me to choose Queue Queue

Okay so maybe I can say 'electronic' and if I had to be specific I'd say dubstep or IDM (IDM is cheating because no one makes IDM people just call it IDM so it's very varied). Anyway so yeah probably that.

I grew up with that shit, basically. My first ever CD I bought was this totally awesome garage/jungle/breaks compilation and then I had a brief flirtation with house and moved on to drum and bass and nowadays I like most everything that isn't bad ranging from dubby reggae influenced electronica to frenetic breakcore.

So yeah that's probably cheating but you're a dick for making me choose Queue Queue

 

[jet_porkins]

Don't forget to vote.

EDIT: Also,

You are a bad and evil man

I get that sometimes.

EDIT(2): Up to 3 videos are also allowed but not required, in case you had a YouTube vid in mind.

 

[kineaesth]

Well that's not a very good poll now and you've just limited the effectiveness of this thread.

Also Techno is not really a genre, I think you mean electronic/dance or something.

Techno is a pretty specific sub genre and the only people who still make it or listen to it are stoned Germans.

You're lucky usually I get much more grumpy when people call all electronic music 'techno'.

One time I killed a guy.

Also I'm not going to vote.

 

[Viperidae]

Oh, oh, is jungle jazz? They use the same Funk/Soul drumline for every song, yet it turns out different every time due to the artists' improvisation and technical skills. I hear Venetian Snares even makes some of his songs in 7/4!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUt0_E2_mUk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFiuPFTsLX0

In all seriousness, I hate genres. If used to describe the sound, so be it. If used to describe the artist, gtfo.

 

[Dog--]

I like almost all genres (except rap, I just can't get into it), but a close race between classical and rock, I'd go for rock just because it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll.

 

[jet_porkins]

Well that's not a very good poll now and you've just limited the effectiveness of this thread.

The vision I have for this poll is to visibly see statistics of who on HL2.net listens to what, as opposed to browsing through everyone's posts. As stated before, I felt like I did what I could to be inclusive.

Also Techno is not really a genre, I think you mean electronic/dance or something. Techno is a pretty specific sub genre and the only people who still make it or listen to it are stoned Germans.

I'm sorry, wish I could fix it.

One time I killed a guy.

Lies.

Also I'm not going to vote.

Loser...

...I kid. Do what you want.

 

[Pesmerga]

I can't pick, so BOOGIE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxwCCdTGvOM

 

[Dog--]

I forgot my video, here's the first 2 parts in a 5 part song by Rush. 2112.

This is the Overture and Temples of Syrinx (not shown (the other 3 parts) Discovery, Soliloquy, and Grand Finale).

I said rock, but sub-genre-ing here I'd say prog rock/acid rock whatever you wanna call it.
Overture and Temples of Syrinx - Rush (2112)
Thunderstuck - AC/DC


BTW that Sax solo (first vid) was awesome. I know it may make people hate me, but I liked the bass playing better *runs*

 

[kineaesth]

Well now I'm acting like a jerkface. It's just that having a poll forces people to choose genres that don't quite sit with them, whereas explaining what genres they like, or, even better, what music they like, is a lot better.

Like if Techno said Electronic or something, I'd vote for that maybe because it seems relatively close to my largest musical interest, but as it is I'd vote 'other'.

 

[Dalamari]

Rock, that's my main genre. Electric guitar just gives me a hard-on, that's about all there is to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA3lTf-lh6E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDBIbJKjAZQ

I sorta count electric blues stuff like SRV and Jimi as rock.

 

[knut]

I don't have a favourite genre. I don't think I ever could want to favour one type of music above another. I'm not even sure what half the music I enjoy the most goes under, genre wise, and I like it that way.

 

[jet_porkins]

BTW that Sax solo (first vid) was awesome. I know it may make people hate me, but I liked the bass playing better *runs*

Dude, I can totally sympathize for that. The bassist, Victor Wooten has monster chops.

Also, your first video rocks.

 

[Iron Kat]

Rock because that's what I've really been brought up listening to. My mum and my brother started listening to bands like Linkin Parkthe Red Hot Chilli Peppers and I started getting into that stuff as well.

 

[Dog--]

I really like live shows where the artists look like they're having fun and goofing around and rockin out and stuff, rather then just standing there playing their instrument. Makes it SOOO much better.

 

[jet_porkins]

Live is better period.

 

[Adabiviak]

My taste is entirely too varied to be quantified like this, but lounge probably describes the biggest amount of my favorite songs.

 

[Qonfused]

I picked "other" since "techno" makes people think of club shit. Electronic music, mostly.

 

[Fliko]

Ahh, lets see..
Good Hip Hop is much more interesting then Rock if you ask me (Thought my terms of good are super strict. I've only found a few bands I actually like in the genre)

Rock is pretty cool, but it can get old every now and then.

Blues is amazing, though old, can be uninteresting because lots of music was formed from the ideas the Blues set out.

Jazz can be very very interesting BUT! I think that it is a very loose term, and lots of the Jazz I've heard is too perfect. Everything's too in key, too in tune, etc. etc. When things aren't perfect, then things are absolutely amazing.

Funk has some sweet beats, but I still think it sounds too 'perfect' too.

To choose 1 genre is too hard, I love a blend of genres. Say, add the improvision of jazz to Rock, with maybe some Hip Hop or R&B inspired lyrics (Singing style, not the written style), and things may turn out absolutely amazing (Or just a giant fruit cake of genres, if not done properly). To say something is 1 genre is often limiting to the artist.
(For example: Trent Reznor has mashed a lot of different genres into his music in Nine Inch Nails, not just moving from genre to genre on his albums, but he also has a certain style that mixes certain points from different genres. He has mostly everything in his music if you listen closely enough, which makes it less accessible, but once given time, it is all that much more better)

EDIT: Heres some videos to show you the blends I like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4fhUAMnF7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Zjp2-zTCA

 

[99.vikram]

I'm all about rock. Everything from old school AC/DC to grunge and post-grunge, prog rock, even some post rock. If I had to believe in a God it would be Jim Morrison, not just for what he did with the guitar but his entire attitude to music.

I'm not a big fan of metal and thrash, but I do enjoy Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Metallica, Anthrax, Lamb of God etc. now and then.

That said, I also like BoC and many bands in other genres, and some genre-bending bands.

 

[jet_porkins]

Other than the comment about everything being too in-key in jazz, I agree with everything you said, Fliko. That's too far a generalization regarding jazz that borderlines untruth. I can name you dozens of artists that take liberties with tonality, key, and sound (this is not to be nitty-picky about every little thing you might say, I just feel that as jazz's ambassador on this forum I had to say something). Some artists today are very inside-oriented. They'll play only what's in the key or chord they are playing in 100% of the time in every tune, like Scott Hamilton. It's not bad playing by ANY means, it's just one philosophy. Then you have John Coltrane who likes to modulate and sequence in various keys over the same chord. Jazz in itself these days is just about impossible to define since the sub-genres are very distinct, and might as well be their own genres. Robert Glasper is one of my favorite jazz pianists and he's playing jazz over hip-hop, and even does gigs with rap artists. I get maybe why you'd think jazz artists play too in-key and too square, depending on how much you've listened to it, and who you have listened to. But yes, as you said, jazz is a very loose term. In today's world, it's more hip to play both in and out of key in an improvisation than it is to play too much of either side of tonality.

 

[blackout]

Rock, but to be precise: alternative.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Rock, most probably rock.

 

[brad92]

Errr...I'm really gonna have to go Techno or 'Trance' more specifically. I'm a huge Rock fan. As big as they come. But I have a very personal connection to Uplifting Trance. It captivates my emotions like no other music. Ensnares my senses. Enlightens my imaginations. Almost like a spiritual experience.

Sounds strange but that's the way I feel about it. Sounds like I'm on drugs I guess haha. Definetly am not folks!

 

[kineaesth]

So I could basically become your messiah by cobbling together some saws, sines, kicks and snares, and running the whole lot through a THROBBING sidechained compressor?

Not to cheapen trance or anything, I'm sure it's actually reasonably interesting.

 

[blackout]

Errr...I'm really gonna have to go Techno or 'Trance' more specifically. I'm a huge Rock fan. As big as they come. But I have a very personal connection to Uplifting Trance. It captivates my emotions like no other music. Ensnares my senses. Enlightens my imaginations. Almost like a spiritual experience.
Sounds strange but that's the way I feel about it. Sounds like I'm on drugs I guess haha. Definetly am not folks!

you sound like a hippie, no offence. :

 

[brad92]

That's what I thought. Only I'm 16.

 

[The Monkey]

Rock could've been divided in different subgenres.

 

[Kula Meenur]

Trance.

 

[Dr.Freeman]

Definitely rock!!!

 

[losttheskyagain]

Classic rock, blues, classical, and baroque. And very little indie, but only because of an ex.

 

[Pesmerga]

We'll all know losttheskyagain is over him when one of her posts doesn't reference her ex.

 

[losttheskyagain]

Lawl, it's a different one.

Oooh oooh and I forgot jazz, wtf.

 

[Robert-]

Metal.

Makes me feel good, no matter what mood I'm in.

 

[Mordekai5]

Horrorcore and Underground Rap.

Mostly because it is music that really gives the finger to most mainstream music. Often containing lyrics about topics of Satanism, the Occult, Witchcraft, and Murder, it is only appreciated by a select few. My favorite record label would be Serial Killin Records, and they can be found at www.skrwillrise.com

 

[Vegeta897]

Mostly because it is music that really gives the finger to most mainstream music.

So hardcore.

Anyway, no way I could choose a favorite genre.

Currently I'm most into funk breakcore, jungle, and whatever in the hell name you can come up with for what The Flashbulb does.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Poll fails. Radio boxes for the win.

I'm mostly into music with rock leanings (electric guitar, drums, etc.), but besides that I'm easy. Lately I've been listening to things that belong to genres which begin with "progressive-" or "post-", and perhaps end in "-metal." But you know, whatever.

 

[G(ordon)-man]

Alt rock is the way.