MUSIC is not a GENRE

SUPPORT MUSIC IS NOT A GENRE ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE The conventional wisdom regarding music creation is that it involves instruments, voices & traditional elements of composition like chords, melodies, harmonies, rhythm. That is both true & false. TRUE that most music of the last 500 years has been created with most or all of these elements. FALSE because there are m...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE This is the second half of a two-part interview with Shok - music producer, multi-instrumentalist, & songwriter. He's also the creator of the Not-So Ebb spoof on Nitzer Ebb, producer/host and DJ of the popular Twitch channel MyLiveTube, part of the electro swing band Red Light District, AND a founder of Newgrounds.com - one of the fi...

SUPPORT MUSIC IS NOT A GENRE ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE Rock is like a slab of sidewalk. When it’s hot, it expands. When it’s not, it contracts. In the mid 1960s, rock was super hot. Thus you get complex expansions of the simple rock sound like chamber pop & concept albums. Same for the mid 1970s when prog rock reigned. In the late 1960s when the excesses of the previous...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE This is the first of a two-part interview with Shok - music producer, multi-instrumentalist, & songwriter.  He's also the creator of the Not-So Ebb spoof on Nitzer Ebb, producer/host and DJ of the popular Twitch channel MyLiveTube, part of the electro swing band Red Light District, AND a founder of Newgrounds.com - one of the first o...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE Once in a while I profile a band that is a perfect example of why genres & labels don’t work. Alice in Chains is one of those. They’ve always been lumped together with the other Seattle-slash-grunge-era bands – even though if you listened to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, STP, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, and whoever else ba...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE Music is layered vertically & horizontally. You’ve got the vertical stack of ensemble music – orchestra, band, choir. Then there’s the horizontal layout of composition – chords, melodies, verse/chorus, theme/variation. Which means even an a cappella voice is layered. In each case, you’re dealing with multiple parts that shape the who...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I’m from Philly. Born there, lived there a little, grew up near there & was there every week for decades. It’s in my blood in more ways than one. But that pales in comparison to my dad’s experience. He was born there, lived there 30 years, and visited family there every week for many MORE decades. Why does this matter? Because place...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I love naming things. Songs. Albums. Podcasts. Children. The list goes on. Names are powerful. So naturally I’m fascinated by them. In researching this podcast, I wanted to see if anyone has tried to make a comprehensive list of every band name ever in history from all types of music. Nope. And I was kinda happy about that because I...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I spend an hour with Fred Sauter, musical theatre librettist, songwriter, performer, pet care specialist and Task Rabbit extraordinaire. For more on Fred, check out these links: Fred Sauter Official Fred Sauter on YouTube Fred Sauter Live --- Bedbugs!!! The Astronaut Love Show To donate to The Rainbow Lullaby, go here: https://gofund...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE WTF?!? That’s what goes through my head every time I think of the Beastie Boys. ONE because how is it these self-described funky-punky idiots were one of the main acts that changed the face of music in the 1980s? TWO because how did they then become well respected innovators, outspoken activists & legends, with a long career to rival...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I spend an hour with Rich Berta, musician, singer, writer, and the creative force behind That New Life. For more on Rich and That New Life, check out these links: https://ampl.ink/yPnRo https://thatnewlife.bandcamp.com This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE When a new band finds the right name for itself, it’s magic. They don’t always get it right the first time. Imagine if “Jeremy” was released by Mookie Blaylock. Or if The Hype did “With or Without You”. Or the Young Aborigines scored a hit with “Sabotage”. Those band names do not support the attitude & spirit of the songs. Thankfully...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE What is pop music? Whatever your head just said is wrong. Or if not, it’s not the whole story. One definition is it’s anything popular. “Pop” is right there in the word, right? But that’s TOO facile. Let’s dig deeper. Where does “pop”/“popular” come from? The shared root means “people”. Like in “populace” or “population”. So pop musi...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE Pop music is wonderful. More diverse than its reputation suggests. But it’s not everything. And while it can often be very accepting of new ideas, it can also be a bully. The bouncer who passes quick judgment from a few superficial cues. That’s why it’s critical that agitators exist. I don’t mean artists who deliberately shun the mai...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I spend an hour with Carrie Klein & Joel McGlynn, a.k.a. hot glue & the gun . They are a theater rock collective specializing in CRAFT music, and creators of the Gluey Zoomy Show. For more on hg&tg, check out these links: IG: @hotglueandthegun ( http://instagram.com/hotglueandthegun ) YouTube: http://youtube.com/hotgluethegun website...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE Grunge was a thing. Born in the 1980s, came of age in the early 1990s, and got coopted and run into the ground by the end of that decade. It was powerful enough to change the landscape of pop music and culture in general, before pop culture changed it into a parody of itself (Nickelback anyone?). If you were caught in that storm, the...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I spend an hour with Gustavo Rodriguez - musician, talent booker, writer, producer & podcaster. For more on everything Gus does, check out these links: IG HANDLE @sandovar SILBIN SANDOVAR - music https://briansilbinandfriends.bandcamp.com/album/brian-silbin-and-friends https://open.spotify.com/album/1MWy3iIozZKssB6wY98u40?si=06YCiOdN...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE One of the many great things about doing chronolographies is finding out the whole family tree of a band. For most bands, a breakup is not the end. I’m not talking about the reunion tour after the farewell tour (times infinity). The main creative forces in a band don’t just stop creating after “the end”. Some go on to solo careers –...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I spend more than an hour with James Castelli, a quintessential polymath.  James is a composer, performer, teacher, astronomer, astrophotographer, vintner, family genealogist, and my second cousin once removed.   For more on everything James does, check out these links:  ORIGINAL MUSIC https://jamescastelliomega.bandcamp.com https://...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE Loss is a constant. Loved ones. A job. The end of a relationship. The end of an era. Your youth. It hurts the most when there’s a lot of love & desire. If we want to love, we have to accept that loss is always eventually a part of it. And so it goes with music. When a favorite band or artist is alive and well, every new album or sing...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE I spend an hour with amazing singer/songwriter/producer, audiovisualist, emotional engineer & my good friend & colleague Daniel Cousins. He's also the creative force behind the supernatural electro rock band, Albatross Heights. For more on Daniel and the AH experience, go here: http://albatrossheights.com This episode is sponsored by...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE We need to get sick. We need to be tired of the same stories again & again. History is NOW, and enough is enough. Too many artists – too many people – have been taken advantage of by those in power, pushed around & forced to either comply or risk major rejection. So many of us have been manipulated, exploited, stepped on, shunted asi...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE The first of a two-part interview with the legendary Nicky DeMatteo, singer, recording artist, piano man, actor, and my father. For more from Nicky, check out these links: Nicky's live performance of Phantom of the Opera - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy5RzJfsX1U Nicky LIVE virtual concert - https://youtu.be/2c-H52N3GQQ Nicky's re...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE There’s a frame of mind that insists that the connections between genres are tangential & theoretical at best. Of course, MUSIC is not a GENRE is out to debunk that myth. It’s hard enough to battle that mindset in the popular realm – like how country people don’t like hip hop or rock people don’t like dance. Those boundaries are blur...

SUPPORT ME ON PATREON WATCH MUSIC is not a GENRE VIDEOS and MORE The first of a two-part interview with the legendary Nicky DeMatteo, singer, recording artist, piano man, actor, and my father. For more from Nicky, check out these links: Nicky's live performance of Phantom of the Opera - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yy5RzJfsX1U Nicky LIVE virtual concert - https://youtu.be/2c-H52N3GQQ Nicky's re...