Differences in genres

I’ve been listening to a lot of music recently and one thing I’ve noticed is that differences in genres may simply be different choices of instruments. The notes and rhythms themselves may be fairly similar or even the same between two genres, but the main thing that distinguishes the genres are the timbral and instrumental differences.

For example, blues music, rock music, and country music are fairly similar in terms of notes and rhythms. But many of the differences between them are in the specific choices of instruments and timbres of those instruments. They’re all genres that are tonal and have mostly diatonic chord progressions, and often use a 12 bar blues form. They all have solos and often those solos use pentatonic scales. The melodies are often using a pentatonic scale. They often have drumsets that play a backbeat and include guitars, bass, vocals and maybe piano.

But the timbres of those instruments may be different. Country music has twangier vocals than the other three. Rock music often has singing in a higher register than the other three and/or more aggressive singing. The guitars in rock music will likely have more distortion than the other three. Blues music may have electric guitar with light distortion while country music often has acoustic guitar or a clean sounding electric guitar. The basses between these three genres will likely have different timbres as well. Blues music and country music may include an acoustic double bass while rock music would be more likely to have an electric bass.

These are just some of the differences between the these genres.

One thing I think is interesting is that you can “change” the genre of a song simply by choosing different instruments. Some sounds are so ingrained into one style of music that simply changing the instruments you’re hearing, even if they’re playing the exact same notes and rhythms, can change what genre the song sounds like.

My guitar teacher in high school did an exercise with me where he told me to start soloing in A minor pentatonic. He started playing an accompaniment that sounded like blues music, with a 12 bar blues and dominant 7 chords. I was playing a blues solo. He then told me to keep soloing as he changed the accompaniment. He switched it to a power chord based accompaniment, using the same 12 bar blues structure and suddenly I was playing a rock solo. He then switched to strumming the same 12 bar chords, without the dominant 7s, and suddenly I was playing a country solo.

Simple and subtle changes between instrumentation can change a lot about a genre of music.

If you’ve never noticed this before I recommend listening to some old school rock musicians like Chuck Berry, and then listening to the Beach Boys or the Beatles. Then listen to something slightly more modern like Queen or Journey and continue getting more modern until you’re listening to the Black Keys or Band of Skulls. As you do this, starting from the beginning, you’ll notice how related all of those different styles are. You could do the same thing, starting with Chuck Berry, and listening to blues artists or country artists.

It’s an interesting exercise to do.

ISJ