Microgenre

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A microgenre is a specialized or niche

shitgaze, and vaporwave
.

Etymology and definition

Hyper-specific formulas and subgenres have always featured in popular culture. In a 1975 French article about historical fiction, "microgenre" and "macrogenre" were invoked as concepts. The author defined microgenres as "a narrowly defined group of texts connected in time and space", whereas macrogenres are "more diffuse and harder to generalize about."[5] Further discussion of the microgenre concept appeared in various critical works of 1980s and 1990s.[3]

Music

Early history

Historically, musical microgenres were usually labelled by writers seeking to define a new style by linking together a group of seemingly disparate artists.[6] For example, when Lenny Kaye invoked the phrase "garage-punk" in liner notes for the 1971 compilation Nuggets, it effectively created a style of rock music that, until then, was nameless and lingering in obscurity.[7] The process of recognition for "power pop" was similarly formulated by a circle of rock writers who advocated their own annotated history of the genre.[8] Music journalist Simon Reynolds has suggested that early examples of "genre-as-retroactive-fiction" include "Northern soul" and "garage punk", both of which were coined in the early 1970s, and later followed by "freakbeat" and "sunshine pop". According to Reynolds, such "semi-invented" genres were sometimes pushed by record dealers and collectors to increase the monetary value of the original records.[9]

Successful attempts that resulted in widespread usage include "

drum-n-bass, dubstep and techno also contain a large number of microgenres.[10]

Digital age

The concept of microgenres gained prominence during the

digital age, and despite its earlier history, is more often associated with later trends.[11] The speed at which microgenres achieve recognition and familiarity also accelerated substantially.[12] This 21st-century "microgenre explosion" was partly a consequence of "software advances, faster internet connections, and the globalized proliferation of music".[13]

In 2009, a writer for the

New York Times observed that indie rock was then evolving into "an ever-expanding, incomprehensibly cluttered taxonomy of subgenres."[14] By the early 2010s, most microgenres were linked and defined through various outlets on the internet. Each of them, according to Vice writer Ezra Marcus, were "music scenes [created] out of thin air".[4] Pitchfork's Jonny Coleman commented: "The line between a real genre that sounds fake and a fake genre that could be real is as thin as ever, if existent at all. This is the uncanny genre valley that publicists-cum-neologicians live in and for."[15]

Chillwave—termed sarcastically in a 2009 blog post

distroid, hard vapor), not to mention its corollaries in this decade’s internet rap, which largely shared its collagist, hyper-referential approach to sound."[14]

Criticism

In 2010,

glo-fi, and hypnagogic pop as a "prime example" of a cycle involving the invention of a new category that is quickly and "brazenly denounced, sometimes in the same article".[19] Grantland's Dave Schilling describes the "chillwave" designation as a pivotal moment that "revealed how arbitrary and meaningless labels like that really are. It wasn't a scene. It was a parody of a scene, both a defining moment for the music blogosphere and the last gasp."[20] PopMatters' Thomas Britt argued that the "staggering number of niches created by writers and commenters to 'distinguish' musical acts is ultimately binding. If a band plays along and tailors itself to a category, then its fortunes are likely tied to the shelf life of that category."[21]

Other fields

The spread of

digital publishing in the 21st century led to the rise of ever-more niche microgenres in literature – from Amish romance to NASCAR passion.[22]

In 2020, Netflix identified 76,897 different microgenres in its algorithms, which it had used to develop successful series like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black.[2]

List of microgenres

Main article: List of microgenres

See also

Look up microgenre in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

  1. ^ Stevens & O'Donnell 2020, pp. 1–6.
  2. ^ a b Stevens & O'Donnell 2020, p. 6.
  3. ^ a b Stevens & O'Donnell 2020, pp. 1, 6.
  4. ^ a b Marcus, Ezra (May 12, 2017). "Wave Music Is a Marketing Tactic, Not a Microgenre". Vice.
  5. ^ Stevens & O'Donnell 2020, p. 1.
  6. ^ a b c Halciion (April 9, 2014). "(micro)genres of music explored". AQNB.
  7. ISBN 978-1-78279-093-8
    .
  8. ISBN 978-0-472-03470-3
    .
  9. ISBN 978-1-4299-6858-4
    .
  10. ^ Ramanthan, Lavanya (April 17, 2014). "Factory Floor album review". The Washington Post.
  11. ^ Stevens & O'Donnell 2020, pp. 2, 6.
  12. ^ Stevens & O'Donnell 2020, p. 3.
  13. ^ Kneschke, Tristan (February 10, 2017). "On Wandering the Paths of a Spotify Analyst's Mad Music Map". PopMatters.
  14. ^ a b Friedlander, Emilie (August 19, 2019). "Chillwave: a momentary microgenre that ushered in the age of nostalgia". The Guardian.
  15. ^ Coleman, Jonny (May 1, 2015). "Quiz: Is This A Real Genre". Pitchfork.
  16. The Wired
    .
  17. ^ Scherer, James (October 26, 2016). "Great artists steal: An interview with Neon Indian's Alan Palomo". Smile Politely.
  18. Vulture.[permanent dead link
    ]
  19. ^ Hinkes-Jones, Llewellyn (15 July 2010). "Downtempo Pop: When Good Music Gets a Bad Name". The Atlantic.
  20. ^ Schilling, Dave (April 8, 2015). "That Was a Thing: The Brief History of the Totally Made-Up Chillwave Music Genre".
  21. ^ Britt, Thomas (April 2, 2014). "Pattern Is Movement - Pattern Is Movement". PopMatters.
  22. ^ Melbourne, Dr Beth Driscoll, University of (2019-05-13). "The rise of the microgenre". Pursuit. Retrieved 2021-03-08.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Bibliography

Further reading
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