Off The Record: The New Punk Rock - Turning To The Traditional

Technological innovations, such as the Internet, have made learning music a much less complicated undertaking; as so many Web sites cater to the do-it-yourself music market, anyone with an Internet connection can, essentially, learn an instrument. With a generational wave of new guitarists competing for label attention, some musicians have turned to infusing popular forms of music with the traditional, the unusual, or the downright bizarre, to make themselves stand out from their contemporaries.

The result is a number of "niche genres;" in some cases, only one or two bands may fall under the domain of a niche genre - essentially, that genre is "created" by those bands. In other cases, a number of similar-sounding bands who utilize the same characteristic elements may be pushed into the same category - The Pogues, Flogging Molly, and Dropkick Murphys, for example, all fall under the dominion of the "Celtic punk" label. The problem? Those are three very different bands.

Genre definition is far from an exact science; oftentimes, critics will christen a band as belonging to a certain genre, even if the band itself neither identifies with nor advocates the use of such a classification. Many consider AC/DC pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal, yet the quintet refers to its music simply as "rock and roll."

With so much music rushing the world's airwaves, the desire for organization is understandable. After all, while Iron Maiden, At the Gates, and Rhapsody of Fire are all metal acts, the bands hardly sound the same; the Casualties and Green Day are both variations of punk, but it would take a deaf ear to confuse the two.

At the same time, some of the genres people use to define music are becoming increasingly ridiculous; calling a band "alternative melodic deathcore with progressive tendencies" only brings about the reverse effect of clarification - after all, the point of utilizing genres is to clarify. Sure, some bands like to experiment with their sound, but not every little musical nuance necessitates the creation of a new genre.

Music thrives on innovation, and influences shouldn't be neglected, yet no two bands are ever quite the same even when their genre is generally agreed upon. Maybe there are some bands that sound more similar to others; maybe, for some, this is useful to clarify. For me, though, there are really only two categories of music that matter: the music I like, and the music I don't.