It’s okay to be stumped when your friend invites you out to see his favorite math rock funk band — tonight with a Zydeco guest washboard player!
The variety of musicians in the Valley is immense, and so is the range of music they play.
So, if you ever wondered whether an 8-bit drone gypsy jazz trio is something you’d like to see, here’s a list defining some of the genres you can find being performed in the Valley.
8-bit: Using old computer and video game technology to create music, like a remix of the Super Mario Bros.’ “Goombah” tune.
Acid jazz: This modern twist on jazz fuses it with funk, house and hip-hop.
Afro-beat: Traditional percussion-driven Nigerian music combined with jazz, funk and a little chanting.
Alternative rock: Born in the ’80s, alt -rock is kind of a blanket genre for anything with a guitar that doesn’t fit the mainstream sound. Alternative styles include indie, post-punk, and new wave.
Americana: A convergence of rock, folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, et al.
Americana-ana: A convergence of rock, folk, country, blues, rhythm and blues, et al. — cranked up to 10, dude. (Or possibly something invented by Uncle Hal’s CrabGrass Band.)
Bluegrass: Mix equal parts English, Irish, and Scottish traditional music, jazz, and blues. Garnish liberally with banjos.
Cajun: New Orleans has been a chief exporter of Cajun music for more than a century. The genre has the unique distinction of following more of a waltz or two-step time instead of employing traditional four-beat bars. There’s accordions, there’s fiddles, and steel guitars; there’s usually a triangle. And it all sounds a little like early country music.
Celtic: Traditional Irish or Scottish music. One of the few band ensembles that regularly includes a fife.
Death metal: Loud, fast, hard rock by bands who sing a lot about death.
Doom metal: A sludgy form of metal with slower tempos that produces overtones of dread.
Drone: The name is apt. The music is minimalist and rely on long tones and repeated sounds to create clusters of sound.
Funk: Oh, baby. Funk is full of heavy bass beats, horn sections, fat percussion, and upbeat jazz.
Gypsy jazz: Jazz music that really swings. Its birth is often credited to Jean “Django” Reinhardt.
Horrorcore: Terror-themed hip-hop.
Indie folk: Applying the “indie” label to a musician is similar to applying “alternative,” all it really means is outside the norm. For folk, this often means fusing folk with another genre such as jazz or pop country.
Industrial: An experimental music style that emulates the brutally robotic noises of progress, but with the added bonus of a melody.
Jungle: Fast tempo techno music with double-speed breakbeats and kicking bass. Souped-up party music.
Klezmer: The music of traditional Hasidic and Ashkenazic Jews, the music is up-tempo and jammed with wild clarinet licks. Mostly sung in Yiddish, but, really, the language of good times is universal.
Math rock: Rhythmically complex and guitar-based, math rock draws influences from progressive rock and minimalist composers.
Neo-soul: Hip-hop, rap or R&B the blends early forms of the genres with contemporary beats. Often the lyrics are socially conscientious.
New age: Melodic, usually instrumental, with long soft-sequence tonal shifts and beats; Often synthesizer heavy.
Noise rock: Anything you thought of music, just throw it out the window, and maybe record the sound because it could be awesome sampled in a new song. Noise rock pushes the boundaries of experimental music.
Punk: Oi, oi, oi!
Rockabilly: Rock ‘n’ roll mixed with country, punk, and sideburns.
Roots rock: The term “roots” gets tacked onto a musician’s style if she or he is playing tunes that sound similar to the genre’s earliest songs. So, roots rock features a lot of vocal harmony, electric guitars on top of catchy songs on three or four chords.
Shoegaze: Distorted guitars chug below high and breathless vocals.
Worldbeat: Any style of music that combines folk with music from other countries such as samba, tango, or raga.
Zydeco: Think of it as Cajun blues, but with a washboard.
Contact Kristin Palpini at editor@valleyadvocate.com.
