Genres - Albums that defined them (?)

[fusionbassist1]

Hi guys,

Myself and a couple of friends have decided to do up a barn in the middle of nowhere for personal recording, mastering and sequencing purposes and thought it would be a great idea to have a target to aim for recording-wise once we got the place up and running properly.

The aim is this

"compose and record/sequence a single song for every genre we believe our musicality would benefit from learning about."

the list of genres (after much debate) go like this........

Blues
Reggae
Latin
Country
Folk
Pop
Jazz
Hip-hop
House
Drum n bass
Metal
Rock(we decided two genres from 'rock' as it's a bit of a umbrela term,we decided on a heavy 'metal' song and a light,general 'rock song')
Funk
R n B

As research for each genre we believe we should buy (not illegally download (Y) several albums that defined or that live up to the stereotypical image people have of that particular style of music. I'd like the people who believe they specialise or have a particular intrest for any of these genres to try and narrow down the 3 albums you find most important to defining that particular style you like. Both the list and the albums suggested are/will be purely opinion based so I'd like to try and avoid a war of words that enters the realm of genre philosophy.

I personally will probably find this experience more useful than the others as someone who wants to get very much into a wider variety of session work in the future so i'll really appreciate any feedback BC members can give on any of the genres.

By all means tips in what define the specific sound in terms of live,multitracked or sequenced instruments are welcome as well are multiple suggestions as to what albums corespond to what genre, either agreeing or disagreeing with each other.

We decided not to include any genres that have a 'fusion' element such as 'folk-rock' etc and also decided against putting a era to each genre ie '50's blues' so this may make the task all the more difficult to help with.

Sorry about the long post but this could be a really good thread that could prove really useful in the future for people's research purposes.

Thanks a lot,

Ben.

[wateroftyne]

Hmm.. your genres are a little.. unspecific.

Hip-hop / House / Drum n bass - very specific.

But:

Blues...?

Country...?

Folk...?

[Rich]

'Jazz' as discussed before is such a broad term it'd be impossible to name one particular album. To cover several of the sub-types therein, I'd suggest things like John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", Miles Davis' "A Kind Of Blue" and "Tutu", Return To Forever's "Romantic Warrior", Weather Report's "Heavy Weather", Stanley Clarke's eponymous 1st album, Django Reinhardt's "Djangology", the list could go on and on. Of course, YMMV when it comes to the 'classicness' of some of these.

[neepheid]

Your chances of consensus on this are slim at best - everyone's got their own opinion on this.

[lowhand_mike]

metal, hmm, black sabbath (not sure on album) Metallica 'Master of puppets', Faith no more 'The Real Thing' mainly cos their style spawned so many of the nu metal we have now and by those three you cover a broad spectrum, things is you could easily break metal down into several genres as could you with rock, oh i forgot guns and roses, they could easily spill across both of your 'rock genres' being both heavy (not necesserily metal) and light

[Dubs]

I wrote a 3000 word essay on the hybridisation of musical genres in my first year of uni...i could have written a 20,000 thesis. I wish you the best of luck...

[WILD FROG SHOT]

Err, House?!? SERIOUSLY, the last thing we all need is more house. It's unlikely that you'll get any session work for that; most of it will be sequenced bass, and even if you have to perform it'll always be very basic or mimed...

[BassMunkee]

Hmmm,
Metal - Death Metal, Doom Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, Drone Doom, Melodic Death, Noise Metal, Industrial Metal...
Rock - MOR, AOR, Post Rock, Pop Rock, Punk Rock, Gothic Rock...

Specifity.

[fusionbassist1]

indeed.a silly task it is.

i'll try and phrase it this way then. If you had to suggest 3 albums that fall under genre 'x' that are considered important to that genre what would they be?

to try and narrow down some of the genres (remembering for a lot of these genres I'm coming from a no experience zone) we came up with a few names to go with what we consider stereotypical sounds for various styles.

first thoughts were :

blues --bb king and buddy guy (as I've seen Buddy live and BB king is just a name I hear batted around quite a bit)

country - youtube search brings up john denver but I have no idea without listening (i'm at work) if that's correct. I've been exposed to rather a lot of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and I'm told they're country but yet a gain, not a field i'm familiar with.

I play in a traditional folk band who play very old welsh and other celtic melodies but as i'm there on a purely read the dots basis I don't know what else I should check out. We may settle with getting in a fiddle player and doing one of the sets I've previously done with the folk band.

I listen to a fair amount of Jazz and absolutely love kind of blue and I think we'll go for that sort of sounds as is pretty chilled and won't strain our theory muscles. I guess that makes our 'jazz' genre more specifically modal jazz?

Thanks for the suggestions so far. keep the discussion coming

on a further note I also had to write a 2,500 word essay on the evolution of popular music through the 20th century and the subsequent spider diagram showing the bridging and development of genres was one of the hardest tasks I've ever had to try and complete.

[Old Horse Murphy]

How about:

Urban Sh*t- Walthamstow by East 17

[thedontcarebear]

Metal has to be Black Sabbath, either self titled or Paranoid, and Metallica - Ride the lightning.

And RNB, Stevie Wonder - Songs in the key of life I'd say too.

Edited August 19, 2008 by thedontcarebear

[thedontcarebear]

[quote name='BassMunkee' post='265445' date='Aug 19 2008, 01:08 PM']Hmmm,
Metal - Death Metal, Doom Metal, Speed Metal, Thrash Metal, Drone Doom, Melodic Death, Noise Metal, Industrial Metal...

Specifity.[/quote]

All those are sub genres, which originated in Metal, it doesn't need to be more specific.

[Noisyjon]

My 2p...
Rock.
1. Guns N Roses - Appetite For Destruction,
2. AC/DC - Highway To Hell,
3. Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin 2.

Metal.
1. Metallica - Master of Puppets,
2. Slayer - Reign In Blood,
3. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath.

Edited August 19, 2008 by jonthebass

[BassMunkee]

[quote]All those are sub genres, which originated in Metal, it doesn't need to be more specific.[/quote]
Yes, but I'm a pedant.

[fusionbassist1]

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='265465' date='Aug 19 2008, 01:24 PM']All those are sub genres, which originated in Metal, it doesn't need to be more specific.[/quote]

THANK YOU!

I'm not trying to make a definative guide to the genres of music. Just a place for me to start with music I'd like to elarn more about. Surely people could only benefit from this?

It doesn't seem there are many country, folk or reggae people around......or are there?

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I'll post a lsit fo what we've got so far once there's a rather comprehensive list.

Cheers.

(We're re-considering the 'electronic' genres)

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='fusionbassist1' post='265500' date='Aug 19 2008, 01:47 PM']It doesn't seem there are many country, folk people around......or are there?[/quote]
I'd be one of them (amongs other things).

I'd suggest some albums, but I'd need you to be more specific. They're huge genres.

[waynepunkdude]

I can see where I'm not wanted.........

[RussFM]

What, no punk?

[thedontcarebear]

Folk - Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman, but that is because I love Cat Stevens, Folk is too hard, and it's world music and depends where you are from, Bob Dylan even.

[fusionbassist1]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='265506' date='Aug 19 2008, 02:00 PM']I'd be one of them (amongs other things).

I'd suggest some albums, but I'd need you to be more specific. They're huge genres.[/quote]

As an introduction to country music then, if you wanted someone to see various areas of the style through some well known artists what albums would you lend someone from your collection?

This is why I came to the BC forum as I don't like buying 'best of' albums due to me later having to buy the actual albums if I decide i like a certain artist or whatever.

I can't at this point be more than specific than just 'country' or 'folk' as I don't know how to yet.

Without using this as an excuse but I'm still in my teens. I aspire to do as much session work as possible and I've already done some international gigs on a purely session basis in various styles and settings but to further this I'd like to get to learn the basics of genres i'd normally pay no attention to and by getting suggestions from people who know these genres in and out the learning process should be far more enjoyable and valuable to me.

EDIT : on the Punk issue. I started out on punk and would love to hear what albums the punks suggest. My cd collection currently rocks the clash - the clash + london calling and the stiff little fingers - inflammable material to name my past favourites. I also have an LP of nevermind the bollocks and a live stiffs album. There's no time limit on how long we want this genres project but we did try our best to prioritise the genres we know least. sorry if i offended any mohawk clad BC'ers

Edited August 19, 2008 by fusionbassist1

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='fusionbassist1' post='265535' date='Aug 19 2008, 02:27 PM']As an introduction to country music then, if you wanted someone to see various areas of the style through some well known artists what albums would you lend someone from your collection?[/quote]

[url="http://www.amazon.com/Further-Beyond-Nashville-Various-Artists/dp/B00006JYJK"]Job done...![/url]

[skankdelvar]

Blues - Muddy Waters - The real folk blues / Stevie Ray Vaughn - Couldn't stand the weather / Jimmy Reed Greatest Hits

Folk - Dick Gaughan - A handful of earth / John Martyn - Solid air / Richard and Linda Thompson - I want to see the bright lights tonight

Pop - Beatles - Sergeant Pepper / Abba Gold / Madness - first album

Rock - Rolling stones - Exile on main st / Sugar - Copper blue / Green day - American idiot

Good luck.

[alexclaber]

Rather than definitive albums it's easier to ask for suggestions on essential albums. I'm not sure if any album can ever be definitive of a genre. Also quite lot of genres are more about singles than albums so compilations are your best bet.

Reggae - Exodus or Babylon By Bus (Bob Marley & The Wailers)
Country - Patsy Cline best of
Jazz - Kind Of Blue (Miles Davis)
Hip-hop - Black Sunday (Cypress Hill)
Drum n bass - New Forms (Reprazent)
Metal - Master Of Puppets (Metallica), Paranoid (Black Sabbath)
Rock - Back In Black (AC/DC)
Funk - Tear The Roof Off (Parliament best of), Foundations of Funk (last '60s JB best of)
R n B - Hitsville USA (Motown compilation)

Rock is the most ridiculously massive genre to try and define - AC/DC nail all those hard rock clichés so well though...

Alex

[gilmour]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='265559' date='Aug 19 2008, 02:52 PM']Funk - Tear The Roof Off (Parliament best of)[/quote]

Exactly my suggestion, every bassist should have some Parliment They're playing at Bestival this year and I can't get a ticket

Also for Funk I'd also add - The Meters, completely different thing to Parliment but sill funky as hell.

For Drum n bass I wouldn't look any further than Ronnie SIze & Reprazent's first album. I think that they too are playing a Bestival and I still can't get a ticket!

Edited August 19, 2008 by gilmour

[fusionbassist1]

[quote name='gilmour' post='265572' date='Aug 19 2008, 03:12 PM']Exactly my suggestion, every bassist should have some Parliment They're playing at Bestival this year and I can't get a ticket

Also for Funk I'd also add - The Meters, completely different thing to Parliment but sill funky as hell.

For Drum n bass I wouldn't look any further than Ronnie SIze & Reprazent's first album. I think that they too are playing a Bestival and I still can't get a ticket![/quote]

ANy particular meters album? I own a Parliament best of already but I might aswell get a propper album ....I have something against best of's and compilations.