Twos and Threes

As I launched the evening's foray into the classifications of electronica, one crystal-clear fact emerged: WAY to many sub-genres exist. The next paragraph lists each one as presented by Wikipedia. Please have something better to do with your time than reading through this drivel.

Ambient, Ambient house, Ambient techno, Apres Rave,Dark ambient, Drone music, Psybient, Breakbeat, Baltimore Club, Big beat, Broken beat, Florida breaks, Nu skool breaks, Progressive breaks, Rap, Disco, Cosmic disco, Eurodance, Euro disco, Hi-NRG, Italo dance, Italo disco, Nu, disco, Spacesynth, Downtempo, Acid jazz, Balearic Beat, Chill out, Dub music, Ethnic electronica, Glitch, Illbient, Minimal Electronica, New Age music, Nu jazz, Trip hop, Electronic music, Berlin School, Electroacoustic, Electro, Electro backbeat, Electro-hop, Electro-grime, Freestyle music, Techno bass, Electronica, Electropop, Folktronica, Glitch, IDM, Nu Jazz, Post-disco, Trip hop, (UK) Garage (UKG), 2-step, 4x4, Bassline, Breakstep, Dubstep, Funky, Grime, Speed garage,, Hardcore/Hard dance, Bouncy techno, Breakbeat Hardcore, Breakcore, Darkcore, Digital hardcore, Doomcore, Freeform, Gabber, Happy hardcore, Hardstyle, Jumpstyle, Makina, Noisecore, Speedcore, Terrorcore, UK Hardcore, House, Acid house, Boogie, Bubblegum dance, Chicago house, Crack house, Dark house, Deep house, Disco house, Dream house, Electro house,Euro house, Fidget house, French house, Freestyle house, US garage, Ghetto house, UK Hard house, Hard NRG, Hi-NRG, Hip house, Italo house, Jackin' house, Kwaito, Latin house, Merenhouse, Minimal house/Microhouse, Progressive house, Scouse house, Swing house, Electronica, Tribal house, Tech house, Hi-NRG, Eurobeat, Eurodance, Hard NRG, Italo Disco, Nu-NRG, New Beat, Techno, Industrial, Aggrotech, Ambient industrial, Cybergrind, Dark ambient, Dark electro, Death industrial, Electronic body music, Electro-Industrial, Industrial rock, Industrial metal, Coldwave, Noise, Japanoise, Power noise, Jungle/Drum and bass, Clownstep, Darkcore, Darkstep, Drumfunk, Hardstep, Intelligent drum and bass, Jump-Up, Liquid funk, Neurofunk, Oldschool jungle, Ragga-jungle, Darkside jungle, Raggacore, Sambass, Techstep, Trancestep, Rock/Punk influenced electronic music (Dance-rock), Alternative dance, Coldwave, Cyber metal, Dance-punk, Dark Wave, Digital hardcore, Electroclash, Electro rock, Electropunk, Ethereal Wave, Industrial rock, Industrial metal, New Rave, New Wave, Synthpop, Post-disco, Progressive rock, Synthpunk, Techno, Acid techno, Detroit techno, Free tekno, Ghettotech, Minimal, New beat, Nortec, Schranz / Hardtechno, Tech house, Tech trance, Techno-DNB, Techstep, Yorkshire Techno, Trance, Acid trance, Ambient trance, Classic trance, Dream trance, Euro-trance, Hard trance, Hardstyle, Nu-NRG, Progressive trance, Psychedelic trance/Goa trance, Dark psy, Full on, Nitzhonot, Psyprog, Psybient, Psybreaks, South African psytrance, Suomisaundi, Tech trance, Uplifting trance, Vocal trance, Post-disco, Dance-pop, Boogie, Nu rave, Hardcore breaks, Rave breaks, Jungle techno, Chiptune, 8-bit, Bitpop, Demoscene music, Picopop, Scoobycore, Game Boy music, and Gamewave.

Several of these sub-genres have strikingly similar definitions, with little or no nuance standing them apart. Coming clear is the conclusion that too many artists think (or thought) too highly of their musical compositions, and ridiculous classifications emerged where pieces of music could have tidily nestled into existing categories.

Master percussionist Kinah Boto, who taught me drum set during my masters program at Georgia State University, floored me with a comment he once made. "Music is all about twos and threes, nothing more nothing less."

He is mostly right: I venture a guess that 99% of all music heard in this country has rhythms that can be subdivided into two beats or three beats. Boto's point is that the labels we slap on various musics are mostly worthless. Every piece of music is a purposeful set of sounds, and the sonic characteristics of a composition are unaffected by any terminology pinned to them.

As this week commenced, I was determined to define the major genres of electronica, delving into the idioms and finding my place in them. This has become an overwhelming and pointless proposition; one that has undoubtedly bored most of my readers. You have my apologies along with my word that I shall return to the more gripping autobiographical tales that brought you here in the first place.

This quasi-academic exploration germinated moments after I put the finishing touches on a piece of electronic music for the Redline Project. Pretty well pleased with the result, I wondered how the sounds would stack up against other music in the same genre. It was only natural then to wonder which genre would comfortably hold this music.

My best guess was, and still is, Trance music. Wikipedia claims Trance pieces have the following characteristics: a tempo between 130 and 155 beats per minute, short synthesizer phrases, and a form with dynamics that build and deconstruct throught the piece. Check, check, check.

Settled then; this composition entitled Tremont is a textbook example of Trance music. I am positive that electronica aficionados everywhere would have a bird over this classification. Ahh, the beauty of solo writing an uncontested blog.