What songs are the epitome of a genre?

June 2, 2005 6:04 AM

EpitomeFilter: I need some help making a playlist of songs that define a genre. Basically name a genre of rock (but not nessarily limmited to) and give me a song that has all the elements that make up that genre...

For example: Grunge=either "Touch Me I'm Sick" by Mudhoney OR "About A Girl" by Nirvana....

posted by ShawnString to Media & Arts (18 answers total)

This is going to be a seriously contentious thread. I feel like such a tool even writing some of these genre names.


Lofi Indie - Sebadoh's "Got It" or Archers of Loaf's "Web in Front"
Post-rock - Slint's "Washer"
Hardcore - Shotmaker's "Sky"
Mathrock - Volta do Mar's "Breaking Ribs for Tom Thayer"
Mathcore - Akarso's "Leave Quietly"
Screamo - Saetia's "Corporeal"
Metal - Cave-in's "Juggernaut"
Prog-rock - Yes's "Close to the Edge"

I feel dirty.
posted by saladin at 6:26 AM on June 2, 2005

Response by poster: no its cool....this is the kind of stuff i want! i am doing this to help broaden my muscial horizons....
posted by ShawnString at 6:43 AM on June 2, 2005

Trip-Hop - Portishead's "Sour Times"
$.02
posted by tayknight at 6:55 AM on June 2, 2005

EBM: Front 242 - Headhunter
Electro-Industrial: Numb - No Time
Powernoise: Converter - Death Time
Aggro-Industrial: Ministry - So What
Technoid: Gridlock - Estrella

I, too, feel dirty.
posted by Jairus at 8:30 AM on June 2, 2005

Glam - Mott the Hoople - All the Young Dudes
Swing - Benny Goodman Orchestra - String of Pearls

be here all week...
posted by OneOliveShort at 8:42 AM on June 2, 2005

Not directly what you were asking for, but if you're just looking for more info about various genres, I've had fun just poking around the Wikipedia music genre pages (most of the actual articles also cite examples and link to artists).
posted by p3t3 at 8:56 AM on June 2, 2005

^sorry, my link was fudged. correction to Wikipedia link.
posted by p3t3 at 8:59 AM on June 2, 2005

Progressive Metal: Dream Theater - "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle And The Sleeper"
posted by Oneirokritikos at 9:21 AM on June 2, 2005

Rock in Opposition - Henry Cow's "Living in the Heart of the Beast".

Brutal Prog - probably something from Hella's first album.
posted by kenko at 9:53 AM on June 2, 2005

Zeuhl: Magma's "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh"
Doom metal: Boris' "Absolutego" or Sunn 0)))'s "My Wall".
(British) Folk Rock - Fairport Convention's "A Sailor's Life".

Of course the idea that you can sum up something like folk rock, even restricted to british-derived music, in one song is laughable.

Probably something but I don't know what: Tim Buckley's "Buzzin' Fly". Sounds like the epitome of something, but I wouldn't know the name.

Surf Rock - something by the Ventures or the Shadows? Santos & Johnny?
posted by kenko at 10:00 AM on June 2, 2005

I'd say Boris and Sunn O))) are more drone than doom; they're more along the lines of Earth than most doom metal is, kenko. [Still great, though.]
Doom/death metal: My Dying Bride, "Turn Loose the Swans"
Funeral doom metal: Pantheist, "O Solitude"
Irish folk: The Bothy Band, "Farewell to Erin"
Black metal: Emperor, "I am the Black Wizard"
Post-rock: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Dead Flag Blues"
Space rock: F/i, "Threshold"
Stoner metal: Sleep, "Jerusalem"
Secular medieval: Corvus Corax, "In Taberna"

I too feel sullied. Blech. "Best hour-long playlist of songs that define a given genre" would be better....
posted by ubersturm at 10:23 AM on June 2, 2005

ShawnString, if you're doing this to help broaden your horizons, the exemplum of a genre might not be good. You might be put off by something in the definitive example that, had you gone in by a more gradual path, you would have come to appreciate.
posted by kenko at 11:07 AM on June 2, 2005

Twee: Belle and Sebastian, "Seeing other people."
Lo-fi indie should surely be Pavement, maybe "Here" or "Trigger Cut."

Extremely hard question: defining song for New Wave?
posted by escabeche at 11:27 AM on June 2, 2005

Twee: I Love You- Beat Happening
Post-Punk: Too Many Creeps- Bush Tetras
SoCal Punk: California Uber Alles- Dead Kennedys
Stoner Rock: Asphalt Rising- Fu Manchu
Garage Rock: Pushin' Too Hard- The Seeds
Classic Country: Your Cheatin' Heart- Hank Williams

(I agree that it would be better to pick a genre and get 10 examples than to look for the ur-type with each. Otherwise, you're looking at Jeff Beck for your Heavy Metal and Swing, Swing, Swing for your jazz).
posted by klangklangston at 12:09 PM on June 2, 2005

Twee: I Love You- Beat Happening
Post-Punk: Too Many Creeps- Bush Tetras
SoCal Punk: California Uber Alles- Dead Kennedys
Stoner Rock: Asphalt Rising- Fu Manchu
Garage Rock: Pushin' Too Hard- The Seeds
Classic Country: Your Cheatin' Heart- Hank Williams

(I agree that it would be better to pick a genre and get 10 examples than to look for the ur-type with each. Otherwise, you're looking at Jeff Beck for your Heavy Metal and Swing, Swing, Swing for your jazz).

Oh, and new wave? Just What I Needed- The Cars
posted by klangklangston at 12:10 PM on June 2, 2005

Power Pop: "Surrender" -- Cheap Trick
British Invasion: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" -- Beatles
posted by litlnemo at 12:38 PM on June 2, 2005

Free Improv: Derek Bailey, "Niigata Snow".

Am I joking? Who knows?
posted by kenko at 2:11 PM on June 2, 2005

You can find a very good description of the different subgenres of emo at here.

In the completely opposite direction, Ishkur's guide to electronic music is an amusingly written guide to 180 different variations of bleep blop, including electro-industrial trance, buttrock goa and nu style gabber. It even has several samples of every different style.
posted by cheerleaders_to_your_funeral at 3:36 PM on June 2, 2005