I maintain "genre" is the bin the music store is going to put your stuff in after you've died. Until then, I am not going to worry.

I have also watched the seeming proliferation of "genres," most of which I have never heard of (though I see music reviewers discussing them knowledgeably, as if there might actually be something there). Considering that "country" is so grossly misdefined these days, I have not been sure the other labels warranted much attention. I had an awful time trying to find out what Norwegian Black/Death Metal was, so I could write (because I'd been asked to) a Norwegian Black/Death Metal song, and I still have people telling me I didn't get it right.

Back in the good old (fewer genres) days, when people would ask what kind of music the Dodson Drifters played, we'd tell them "bluegrass punk." That usually shut 'em up (and that was the goal). If there ever had been charts for bluegrass punk, we'd have been at the top, because we had no competition. And maybe that is what the current one-band-one-genre movement is about.

Joe

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