dj music is the same kinda deal. basically, the tune can be the same but with more bass and its a whole new genre. It comes from ****off bands saying their sound is different to the genre that they officially belong to. So they sound more pretencious like "oh were not rock", the blatant rock band says, "were emotional-rock" as if previous rock ballards were written by straight faced vulcans and there was never emotion in music before. And then Emo progresses to join with New-Punk and New-Ska and your all of a sudden making ANOTHER new genre. Sure eventually, new sounds will come out because the abilities of musicians and technology will allow new types of music to come out, but for the most part you could catagorise most music in less than 20 genres if you were pushed.

For a soundtrack to be successful you must be able to hum it aloud - that's all I'm saying, and many of John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith's work is.

As for genres, it is almost impossible to categorise into 20 genres, mainly because no-one will agree on what genre a particular song belongs in. On top of that, when people can't decide they called it after the decade it was released. Anyway, if you take Rock as a genre, there are at least 20 possible sub-genres which include;

Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Death Metal, Nu Metal, Soft Rock, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, Ska (yes Ska), Indie, PritPop, Grunge, Black Metal, Punk Rock, Glam Rock, Gothic Rock, Rock, Rock 'n' Roll, Rap Rock, Rap Metal, New Age Rock, Progressive Rock, Alternative Rock, Christian Rock.... need I go on? - thought not!!!

You can do this with most genres, from Electronic to Pop, even classical to a certain extent (with Operatic, Choral etc.). The problem will always be classification, because artists (and the non-manufactured are to blame here) want to believe they are innovaators, and the easiest way is to "create" your own genre - and very few artists can really lay claim to this accolade.

@Vektrix: I believe it's BritPop rather than PritPop, but it might vahe been just a slip of the key ().
Anyway, you're right in most aspects, there's a great confusion in genres. Still, as a fan of sympho black, I should defent my point.
So, if you take classical black (e.g. Immortal, Marduk, etc.), add to it more melody, some keyboards and a touch of the classics (e.g. in their last CD, "Death Cult Arbageddon", Dimmu Borgir employed a 46-piece Prague Philharmonic Orchestra), what you get is sympho black - powerful, mean, satanist (that's why black metal was called this way), yet touching.

"Beer is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin

Music was better back then! This is exactly what I feel. Music in the mid 90s (bear in mind im only 16 now) from bands such as the SPs, Soundgarden, Nirvana etc. is so much better that all the commercial nu-metal rubbish we get today, but even nu-metal (some of it is okay - if you look hard enough and stay away from mtv or kerrang) is better than DJ Tosspot or MC Autoque that we get on the radio these days. People also take this new ****ey music too seriously, I mean apparently I smell and must never wash cos I like "grunge" music. It's a pathetic state of affairs. Someone needs to go and kick some arse in the music industry, we need a nirvana of the 21st century to give the music scene a good seeing to.

You Nirvana junkies I swear............don't get me wrong nirvana was a great band.....but they sold out by their third album and you know it......Nirvana was no less corporate rock than blink 182. I will always give a nod to grundge music though for making it all right to rock once again. it seems like music goes through these phases were no one can appreciate a good power chord and some screaming........after Cobain died it happened again.......all these whiney wussy bands came out under the guise of "grundge" and "punk" and all they really did was cry about crap that they really didnt have to deal with......I think the next band that changed it again was Korn, they came out with "blind" and people stopped whining and started yelling, I guess if your singing about crap that no one really cares about, then I want you to scream your head off about it, Don't get sad, get mad. but it's happening again I can already see the trend towards wussyness coming out in bands like linkin park, they started out screaming "shut up when I'm talking to you" and now they whine "I've become so numb" it's crap ....

Good?....Bad?......I'm the guy with the gun.

well i'm rather partial to the music of Frank Sinatra myself..

spandau ballet were quite good and the original Oliver Cheetam song I Like to party is one of the best. Most of the eighties songs i listen to are from GTA Vice City mind

@taw not sure if your sinatra comment was sarcasm (?)...have you heard the jamie cullum album yet? its a bit of an acquired taste, but I'm lovin it at the moment....

@ Doom_Lancer

Maybe Nirvana was a bad example, but bands such as Silverchair, Bush and Sonic Youth are prime examples of how music should be. (None of these bands are sellouts btw)

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after Cobain died it happened again.......all these whiney wussy bands came out under the guise of "grundge" and "punk" and all they really did was cry about crap that they really didnt have to deal with

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Thats bull**** man, I don't know what scene you were looking at in the early 90s but you're way off with that comment. Grunge died way before cobain blew his head off. That was the biggest musical movement of my life - it was aimed directly at me, I was 14-18 when it all kicked off. Yes its true that some of the larger bands sold out near the end, Pearl Jam and Nirvana included. But there were some classic bands of that era that wouldn't even p*ss on Korn if they were on fire....Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, Silverfish, Dinosaur Jr, Violent Femmes, Ramones, Jane's Addiction, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, Stone Temple Pilots, The Cult and Alice in Chains.

Korn my arse.

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it was aimed directly at me, I was 14-18 when it all kicked off.

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Did it feel like the songs were all about how you were feeling at the time? I dont mean to undermine the love you have for grunge, i dont think there's an angst ridden teenager who didnt slap an album on and prophess their love for it and wax lyrical about how the music has changed their life and how its all so true to them.

Its because its true to all of them. Theres a good chance that if your not a great looker and cant really get a girlfriend, or not really interested in the "expected" avenues of growing up (i.e. getting into sports, doing well at ****ty school subjects) and like your music a bit more intelligent and thought out, chances are your going to fall head over heels into the target market of these bands.

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Did it feel like the songs were all about how you were feeling at the time?

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its an interesting question with a very simple, yet complicated, answer. The answer is No not at all, but I liked to think that they were. The truth is, I had a very normal upbringing. I had the usual teenage angst, hated my parents for a couple of years, drank myself silly with my friends at the weekend blah blah blah...but the fact of the matter is that I wasn't screwed up at all. I did well at school and I was ok at sports.

Grunge was a weird thing...the music says that you have to be screwed up to listen to it, but there was a culture too...and that culture was actually quite normal in comparison to the british indie scene that was kicking off around the same time. The manchester scene was all about experimentation, mild drug use, euphoria, telling your parents to f*** off and so on. The grunge scene was about loud music, drinking, sharing teenage angst etc etc. Closely related yes. The same, no.

The grunge scene was slated by the rock community too, which was bizarre, because all it was really just a new teenage version of the old mullet rock that had dominated the decade before.

So basically, yes I'd like to think I got something from the lyrics. But no I never honestly ever thought that the music related entirely to me. But on the other hand, I never once felt out of place in a dark dingy grunge club. So something happened....I just don't know what.

A cool time it was though...and I won't have anyone knock it.

oh not at all. Grunge set up my love for Indie and Alternate Rock. It taught me that alot of women are whores, deserving of nothing more than my absolute contempt and that its ok to be bummed out once in a while. You'll also find that the alienated youth of yesteryear are actually quite the interesting bods now, the pop king and queen are proably...well who cares? after school no one gives a **** about those kinda people ANYWAY.

Everyone has their own taste in music. Some of you "older folks" (no offence intended) like "oldies" such as those before the 90's. I prefer the newer music that has come out in the last couple of years, but it's all opinion.

I'm not saying that all older people like only oldies, or anything like that. I'm just trying to make a point.