In Honor of Genres (excerpt from chapter 27)

I suppose everyone can identify musical genres that we simply love to hate. This is music that we listen to, at various junctures in our lives, but somehow can never relate to. If you're a big fan of traditional country and western music, for example, chances are good that you don't become excited about rap music, contemporary jazz or opera. When an artist crosses over, experimenting with different musical forms, it could work well or it could fall flat. Sting and the Police merged reggae with rock quite seamlessly, for example. Emerson, Lake and Palmer were very much influenced by classical music in their rock compositions. The Dave Matthews band rocks but there are plenty of surprise elements of other genres inbedded in their songs. Yet these are giants, not those who pretend to be musically versatile.

Have you ever been totally misled by a song title or even the name of a band (for example, music by the group named Barenaked Ladies doesn't match in my head)? One of my wife's relatives once bought a single called "Hush," assuming it was a bedtime lullaby to play for her young daughter. When she brought it home, to her dismay, the Deep Purple tune was anything but a gentle sleep-time song. Deep Purple: one of the loudest rock bands in history. Genre confusion at work in our perceptions.

In my analysis of musical tastes, a search in ITunes uncovered 42 genres by their definitions. I expected rock, blues, jazz, but I also encountered "Disney." The annoying strains of "It's a Small World" instantly and once again invaded my mind. And "Spoken Word" as a genre? I'm thinking Arlo Guthrie's talking tale "Alice's Restaurant." Or maybe even (check this one out): Lorne Greene's "Ringo," a '60s chatty chartmaker from Bonanza's "Pa Cartwright." Other genre names were totally alien to me, namely Kayokyoku, Anime and J-Pop. I decided that I really didn't care for the sample cuts, or maybe just couldn't get a sense that they were an actual genre.

Okay, so everyone has specific tastes and favorites, but with an open ear we may just find something fresh outside of our element. It's like tasting a new food or seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time. Still, our prejudices about the music may emerge, now matter how hard we try.