Genres And Categories

Whenever i talk about my music, i'm forever being asked to define it in some sort of narrow bracket. I guess everyone likes to categorize things, especially where music is concerned.

In my case though i generally think its not that easy, i'm sure it has something to do with my own perception of my music and the fact that i genuinely don't want to fit into any category but i really dont think that my music fits into one. Sure, i can call it Electronica, aside from being a slightly pretentious sounding American term it probably fits my style better than anything else through simply being vague. Breakbeat is another label that kinda fits my stuff but in many ways this kinda implies that its like all the other Breakbeat/Nu Skool Breakz stuff that forms a well-defined genre in itself these days. For my third category here on MySpace i have struggled to choose between Industrial, IDM and Experimental yet none of these fit perfectly as i think they all suggest different things (and for some reason MySpace wont let me change it anyway). Other sites i have found ask for just one or two genres, which makes it even more difficult for me.

Of course i understand why these labels have to be here, it makes it a lot easier to find something if you narrow your search down to criteria such as genre, the internet is a very big place. But in day to day life it kind of annoys me the way i have to try to explain my sound instead of being able to say something simple like "i make dubstep". No disrespect to those that make music to fit one genre, but that idea just bores me now.

This whole thing with genres and categories happens everywhere in life. Kids express their "individuality" by dressing the same as their peers and idols then call themselves Emos or Chavs or whatever they wanna be known as. TV, film and literature again have categories, yet its the films or books that aren't so easy to define which (in my opinion at least) stand out from all the generic crap. Not to forget all the other categories people are (usually) born into like class, race, religion etc.

It seems that no matter how different or individual people like to perceive themselves as being, we all have a tendency to want to belong, to want some sort of order in our lives. Liking one particular genre of music over another helps us to create an identity for ourselves, its gives us a common interest with other people of similar tastes, it helps us decide the sort of clubs we want to go to or the forums we visit online, it helps us to predict whether we like an artist based on whether they make music that fits a genre we like. The problem is that it creates a sort of exclusion for anything else that doesnt fit. And that makes it harder to break away ourselves so we end up sticking to one thing.

The conclusion i've come to in myself is to be more open-minded in my tastes and to be less restricted in the music i make. I know i'm not alone in thinking like this, there are many others like me, its just there really isn't a simple label for people like us.