2012’s New Genres of Music: Are These for Real?

Every year comes with its new sounds, trends and fads.  But with music bloggers all racing to identity The Next Big Thing, things have become a little silly over the last decade or so.

Instead of having One Big Thing (think grunge, New Romantics, Britpop, Madchester, etc.) we have now have people trumpeting these micro-micro-niches.  This list of so-called new genres of 2012 illustrates my point.

This year is supposed to go down as the year of drill, hipster house, ratchet, Tumblr wave and seapunk.  Heard of any of them?  Can you identify any of the artists in these so-called scenes?  No, I didn’t think so.  

Here, for example, is an example of the hot (?) dubstep spin-off called “trap.”

Question:  How many of these sounds will we be talking about in a year?  Answer:  That’s right:  none of them.  Probably.

(Via The Atlantic)