Automatic Slim

What genres of music do you think have the most variety: lyrical, musical, etc? What genres have the least variety?

I don't mean 'which type of music has the most sub-genres'. A genre might have a lot of sub-genres, but if those sub-genres are just the result of hair-splitting, then it might actually have less variety.

I confess that I might be biased, as my favorite genres are metal and jazz. I am trying to expand my musical horizons.

Metal has a lot of variety: doom in all its flavors, upbeat power metal, folk metal, raw black metal, Christian metal, industrial, viking metal, stoner, glam (if it counts), nu metal, etc. There's quite a large stylistic range present in metal.

Lyrics are quite varied as well. How many single genres contain songs about: Moby ****, Oliver Cromwell (Reverend Bizarre), Vikings, love, dragons, politics, depression, monsters, saviors, gods, trolls, aliens, demons, suicide, partying, and marijuana?

Jazz has a fair amount of styles: ragtime, dixieland, swing, stride, cool jazz, bebop, hard bop, free jazz, fusion, smooth jazz, latin jazz, jazz mixed with classical, jazz mixed with world music, etc. On the other hand, jazz can't really be said to have lyrical themes, as most jazz doesn't have vocals.

I also know that classical has a lot of variety, but I am less familiar with it.

I would think that pop has the least variety. I don't think I've ever heard a pop song that wasn't about love or partying. (I take pop in small doses.) Is this a misconception?

I won't claim that the above is gospel. I'm sure there are other genres with much variety I don't know about, and pop might surprise me with it's variety.

If this has been done before, I apologize. I used the search function with various permutations of 'genres' and 'varied' and found nothing similar in the first few page results.

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BTown

In my opinion you somewhat contradicted yourself by saying that you didn't mean just sub-genres then you went off naming sub genres of metal. I Like metal and all but to be honest there isn't much variety, metal is metal to me, well, lyrically i guess it's different.

Anyway I think Folk is probably the broadest genre. But you know what I consider Folk could be something totally different to you due to (my opinion) genre being in the eye of the beholder.

If I wanted to go out on a limb I could say Grunge, but I'm sure that would spark some hate. Lyrically it's all the same for the most part but musically it's pretty broad. Lke what do these two bands have in common (Other than them both being from seatle)?

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Automatic Slim

Well, it isn't that metal has a lot of sub-genres that indicates that it has a lot of variety. If a sub-genre describes an actual divergence in style, then it is a marker of variety. Even without the sub-sub-genres, metal still has a fairly diverse range of styles. I think one could legitimately subsume most metal into 4 huge categories: fast, mid-paced, slow, and extreme vocals. But where's the fun in that?

I'm not familiar with folk. I guess that makes sense, as there are tons of folk cultures in the world. In what specific ways is folk diverse?

Well grunge contains some of my favorite bands (AIC, Tad, and Melvins), but you are right. There is no real connection except that they're from Washington state. Maybe one should consider grunge a form of folk music originating in the Pacific Northwest?

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sidewinder

Rock and electronic are pretty varied. There, I win.

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Antonio

well alot of rock, jazz, alternative and metal that i have is fairly varied. but that's just me i guess.

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jackhammer

Pop music should never be judged on the pap in the charts and it can encompass a huge array of sounds. Artists like Saint Etienne, Early Talk Talk, Crowded House, Shop Assistants, Prefab Sprout and Metric providing pop sensibilities whilst assimilating other sounds into their make up.

Another genre with huge variety is Electronica. You can go from downtempo to bone grating Breakcore and still class it as Electronica.

Metal does have a lot of variety but not as much as people think with endless subgenres melding into very very similar sounds. It's only when bands step out of their comfort zones that the genre generally becomes more than the sum of it parts.

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right-track

I agree. I think pop has the most variety, but I don't think it should be included in this debate for the reasons Lee gave.

jackhammer

I think 'Pop' is the most maligned of genres unfortunately and is a catch all for many bands that are not what you would call mainstream. Divine Comedy are a case in point. Ridiculously good band who deserve a lot more credit for their unique sound.

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Piss Me Off

Genre-wise i may have to agree with pop unless you go for a vague rock tag, as rock is absolutely bloody huge and can encompass pop as well.

Style wise the reason i like a lot of noise rock is because it's so varied, i very rarely find two bands that are the same.

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right-track

90% of what is deemed pop is criminally poor. The dross that is churned out these days from what appears to be a soul destroying, endless conveyor belt of prefabricated piss poor tunes, shames what used to be a respectable type of catch all music populated by people who could (generally) play their instruments.
There ought to be a new genre of music called 'sub-par pop' for these latter day abominations.