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Tuesday Fun: Genre Masher

Humans by nature feel a need to classify things. We make sense of the world by putting things into neat little piles. This includes music, of course, where we have this insatiable desire to create endless taxonomies of musical genres.

Spotify says that it’s identified 91 distinct genres of metal. About a year ago, there was a post about a guy who identified 1,264 sub-genres of popular music which listed such gems as blackgaze, deep filthstep, skweee [sic], charred death and laboratorio.

This brings me to Genre Masher, a tweet bot that cranks out random nonsense genre labels. Some samples:

  • Ant-Black Alternative House with Muslim styling
  • Proto-Classic Avant Garde County
  • Post-modern Post-modern Folk with Satanic influences
  • Glam Agrarian R&B
  • Anti-Viking Alternative House with Folk leanings
  • Children’s Ragtime

Occasionally the bot stumbles on a real genre (Elevator Pop, Bubblegum Pop), but mostly the results are stupidly fun.

Hey, here’s a thought: if you’re in a band and you’re looking for a unique sound, why not give Genre Masher a try? Maybe you can be the first Anti-Hardcore Hip Hop with Folk influences band. Think about it.

(Via AV Club)

Alan Cross

is an internationally known broadcaster, interviewer, writer, consultant, blogger and speaker. In his 40+ years in the music business, Alan has interviewed the biggest names in rock, from David Bowie and U2 to Pearl Jam and the Foo Fighters. He’s also known as a musicologist and documentarian through programs like The Ongoing History of New Music.

Alan Cross has 39667 posts and counting. See all posts by Alan Cross

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