Not All Classical Music is Created Equal.

[abracanabra]

Yes, I'm aware that the subject line is kind of a no-brainer. Still. Music gets lumped together into categories, and it generally doesn't fit very well unless you subdivide those categories up even smaller, in which case figuring out what's what is just ridiculous. And there are still things that escape classification. For example, I'm still trying to figure out what Faith and the Muse would be classified as. It's kind of industrial and kind of celtic and kind of punk and kind of--yeah. Is that what the "alternative" genre was created for, or is that something else again?

I am thinking these thought because I am currently being forced to listen to Radio Luxemborg Symphony and the New Zealand Orchestra, winnowing out what doesn't work as I go. I'm trying to get a mood for writing "The Unkindness of Ravens" AKA "Battlefield Crows." I've been listening to Wagner's Siegfried, but now the Muse is downloading lots of music, and for some reason, playing CDs sometimes messes up the connection.

Comments

[malcubed.livejournal.com]

Everything I've heard by Faith & the Muse is definitely Goth-Ethereal. And also definitely NOT classical.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Goth-Ethereal?? I see.

No, I wasn't thinking of it as classical, just as being a good example of something I was having trouble classifying.

[fireandsmoke.livejournal.com]

I kinda thought that alternative was Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Dave Matthews Band, Counting Crows, Match Box 20 kinda stuff. A jumble, really.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Precisely. A jumble. A bunch of things with sort of the same feel, but no solid boundaries that one can point to. And since I'm not really a music person, I can't instinctively figure these things out.