there’s a genre for everything
Nowdays, there is a genre for everything. If you can’t shove a band into an existing label, just make up a new one…it’ll catch on. In a society that thrives on labeling, it makes us uncomfortable to not be able to categorize something or someone. That’s where genres such as “blackened death-metal” and “twee pop” come into play. In this series we will introduce you to popular, yet confusing, genres and sub-genres, to help you keep up during your next psuedo-intellectual-hipster conversation.
Part One:
Let’s start off with the most depressing of subgenres, the desperate and gut-wrenching music dubbed Sadcore. Its name is both ambiguous and telling all at once. Bands who fit into this category often have lyrics that wallow in their pity, much like Goth music. Most sadcore bands are backed by soft and fuzzy acoustic guitars or pianos and are characterized by the need to cry in fetal position as you consume it.
According to the all-knowing pages of Wikipedia.com, Sadcore is “an infrequently employed subgenre term used by music journalists to describe examples of alternative rock characterised by bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies and slower tempos.”
Examples include older artists such as Mazzy Star, Low, Joy Division, and Nick Drake and contemporaries like Iron & Wine, Bright Eyes, Jeremy Enigk, and Sigur Ros.
For more information on the saddest of genres, check out Sadcore.com.
The next installment of Genre School will lift your mood with a lesson on Twee Pop.
