I was taking a leisurely weekend stroll through my local library and came across this book - Appetite for Definition: An A-Z Guide to Rock Genres by Ian King. My first thought when I picked it up was “Here’s something other people might find useful, but not me. I’ve got enough years of music obsession under my belt to have these industry marketing terms down cold.” And then I opened it up, read the index, and put my ego back in my pocket. I was definitely seeing some genre names on the list that meant nothing to me – never heard ‘em before, no idea what they meant. Seemed like a prime opportunity to play a little game, right?
I made a list from the index of five rock music genres I’d never heard of, using the author-provided list of artists who best represent that genre. I gave them all a quick listen and tried to come up with my own definition for that genre based on any common sounds or themes the bands might share, or that I might imagine they share. Finally, I read Mr. King’s definition of the genre to see how close I came.
I decided to stick to the main index entries and not go down the rabbit holes of more esoteric genres presented as sidebars in the book. I can’t imagine I’ll ever need to know what Taqwacore is, for example. Some micro-genres, like Japan’s Visual Kei, are limited to a single country, while another, Zeuhl, only includes the music of the French band Magma. And I can pretty much guess what Nintendocore is, but I didn’t want to go there.
One disclaimer, though. I found it was impossible to find the music of these bands and not learn something about them in the process, usually where they were from and the year the records I listened to were made. I did a pretty good job of limiting the clues to just those pieces of info.
01 Genre Name: C86
• Representational Artists: Bodines, Mighty Lemon Drops, Pastels, Shop Assistants, Wedding Present
• My Best Guess: C86 releases seems to be clustered from the late 80s to the late 90s. The Bodines were apparently the most flash-in-the-pan on the list, they were nowhere to be found on streaming services. None of the bands seemed to have dominated the sales charts in their day so I went with either a greatest hits compilation or the album with the best reviews – without reading the reviews, of course.
The jangly indie-rock guitar sound of R.E.M. was the one constant among all of these bands, along with a definite lo-fi approach to recording. The Mighty Lemon Drops struck me as a constant barrage of references to other bands. I could hear a lot of R.E.M., but also U2, the Clash, and “Everything You Do” is a direct cop of the Police’s “Every Breath You Take.” The Wedding Present, the only band on the list still active, was less varied in their sound and the least interesting with their jangly drone. The two standouts to my ears were the Pastels’ A Truckload of Trouble: 1986 – 1993 and the Shop Assistants’ lone release Will Anything Happen. The Pastels’ male/female vocal duo and shambling rock were a pleasant, less experimental echo of Lou Reed and Nico’s work with the Velvet Underground. Anything Happen could be a lost female-fronted Ramones album, although lacking the production oomph and Joey Ramone’s sharp lyrical humor. So, what does C86 mean?
No clue, actually. It’s definitely an alternative, indie-rock sound with heavy nods to R.E.M.’s guitar sound and a DIY attitude. Since all of the bands are obviously British, I’m going to take a guess that the name of the genre refers to a specific location, perhaps a club or indie record label at the eye of the storm.
• The Real Answer: C86 was the name of an influential cassette compilation of similar-sounding bands the venerable U.K. music magazine New Musical Express sent to its subscribers in 1987. The focus was primarily on up-and-coming Scottish bands, a bit more geographically specific than my guess, with a love of “Byrds-like jangle pop” as their common denominator. I skipped a generation with my R.E.M. reference (they were obviously Byrds-influenced, too), but otherwise I’m gonna say I was in the ballpark.
02 Genre Name: Crust Punk
• Representational Artists: Amebix, Chaos UK, Disorder Doom, Dystopia, Hellbastard
• My Best Guess: My expectations going into this one were very low. Unless these bands wrote and played songs about bread or pies, I didn’t have much confidence I would be able to determine how the word “crust” applied. I was hoping the name wasn’t a personal hygiene reference, to be honest.
No ideas came to me as I listened. They’re all a kind of punk, but not the same kind. Amebix is slow, chugging, and doomy. Chaos UK is more typical British punk, faster, shouty and limited to two or three chords per riff. Dystopia goes back to the slower, sludgy approach, with plenty of dissonant noise tossed in and screaming thrash metal vocals, and the gloriously named Hellbastard sounded like Dystopia: The Sequel with heavier drums and more growling.
These bands are decidedly not my cup of punk music. In fact, only the Chaos UK record sounded like punk music to me, the rest were more solidly in the doom- or thrash-metal camp, more like early Metallica than Sex Pistols. Other than all of the bands being from the U.K. I couldn’t detect any unifying theme. I got nothing, except a slight headache.
• The Real Answer: According to Mr. King, the genre name sprung from Hellbastard’s first demo recording called “Rippercrust” and defines a look more than a sound. Studded, ripped clothing and wildly unkempt hair, often dreadlocks, worn by the bands and their fans. The term “crust punk” was used more often by the bands referring to their fans than the other way around. After giving these records a listen at 9:00am on a weekday, I found it hard to care.
03 Genre Name: Cuddlecore
• Representational Artists: Cub, The Softies, Tiger Trap, Tsunami, Tullycraft
• My Best Guess: After enduring Crust Punk, I welcomed the shift to something called Cuddlecore. I was hoping for tinkling pianos and songs about teddy bears by that point. Not exactly what I got, but a nice palate cleanser, nevertheless.
Cub is a female-led trio, a little bit of punk, a lot of catchy pop with scratchy guitars. Too lo-fi sounding for commercial success, probably, but the repetitiveness of the lyrics and little-girl vocals have the ability to burrow into your brain. The woman who founded Tiger Trap later begat the Softies, and I was starting to wonder if a female vocalist was an essential component of the genre. Tiger Trap was a lot like Cub, hooky and a little punky, but the Softies went a lot, well, softer. They sound like a folk-rock version of the music I’d already heard. Quite lovely, actually, and It’s Love is the record I’ll be going back to. I hadn’t heard the other bands yet when I started to come to the conclusion that Cuddle Rock referred to catchy indie-pop, slightly punkish around the edges, with those upbeat little-girl vocals (none of the singers are any kind of blues belters), seemingly centered in the Pacific Northwest and Canada around the time of Pearl Jam and Nirvana. The release dates of the albums I sampled would seem to indicate Cuddlecore was a small branch on the Grunge family tree. A quick listen to Tullycraft put a tiny fly in the ointment, since they have a male co-vocalist, but the female singer has a prominent role on their records and the songs fit the overall sound so I’m sticking with my guess.
• The Real Answer: Once again, an unknown fashion element comes into play. My guess about the where, when, and why was pretty close, but there was no way to know that a shared band / fanbase “infantile” fashion sense was part of the scene. Seems a little icky to me. Cuddlecore is considered to be the poppier cousin of the PNW riot grrrl bands, another branch on the Grunge tree in the 1990s, so I’m feeling like I got reasonably close with this one.
04 Genre Name: Hypnagogic Pop
• Representational Artists: Ariel Pink, Ducktails, John Maus, Peaking Lights, Zola Jesus, Pocahaunted, The Skaters
• My Best Guess: I'm sure I could have gotten a handle on this one simply by looking up the word “hypnagogic.” My spell-check didn’t flag it so it must be a thing. But that felt like cheating, so here we go.
I was hampered by not knowing that definition, though. The similarity with the recommended artists’ sound is pretty obvious right off the bat. All the records owe a huge debt to mid- to late-60s psychedelia. Ariel Pink is poppier, like the Zombies, say, while Ducktails sounds less focused and more ambient, flirting with electronica. Mr. Maus goes all the way there, his music is as breezy and trippy as the rest, but heavily synthesizer based. His 2011 album, We Must Become the Pitiless Censors of Ourselves, is quite fun and interesting, actually, a record New Order fans should give a spin.
After listening to the rest, I found the style easy to relate to and understand – these artists seem to be striving to update early psychedelia by stirring in a little British dance club electronica. Or vice versa. Sometimes dreamy, sometimes drone-y, would this be the soundtrack for a rave? Are there certain drugs meant to be consumed while listening? Let’s find out.
• The Real Answer: According to the music journalist from The Wire magazine who invented the name, Hypnagogic Pop refers to a batch of U.K. musicians in the 2000s who used vintage electronic instruments to create a left-of-center, mildly hallucinatory version of 1980s U.K. new wave pop. Apparently, the genre doesn’t exist anymore. According to the author the artists and sounds were absorbed into a genre now called chillwave. Personally, I don’t think the guy who coined the term Hypnagogic Pop went back far enough with his references and influences, I hear older psychedelic music, but maybe that’s just my age talking.
05 Genre Name: Youth Crew
• Representational Artists: Chain of Strength, Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, Youth of Today, Warzone
• My Best Guess: The name of this genre made me approach with caution. It sounded a little Hitler Youth-ish to me. After giving these bands a listen, I wasn’t able to determine any particular political slant, mostly because the lyrics were all but unintelligible. Definitely a hardcore punk genre, in the same camp as the agit-punk of the far superior Rage Against the Machine. Lots of yelled vocals and buzzsaw guitars and f-bombs but without the guitar genius of Rage’s Tom Morello. And almost entirely without songs, I noticed. No fussing around with melodies or bridges or any of that typical songwriting crap. If I’m honest, I couldn’t tell these bands or records apart. Judge’s Tell It to the Judge has slightly more interesting guitar work, maybe.
I’m going to guess this is a localized scene somewhere and there’s a political message I’m missing. I don’t care enough about any of it to dig deeper.
• The Real Answer: I didn’t pick up on the actual connection at all. Youth Crew was centered around NYC in the 80s as an alternative to the hardcore punk drugs and alcohol scene. The bands involved preached a drug-free, booze-free, even meat-free lifestyle, and dressed like jocks. Huh.
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