Is it me, or is it VERY hard to distinguish genres?

[Justlikeapill]

Is it me? I have a really hard time distinguishing genres from each other, and then once you consider all the subgenres, my head wants to explode. I can tell what's Happy Hardcore or what's hardstyle or DnB, distinct things like that, but WOW! You people really know your shit when it comes to telling the difference between all the different types of electronica! I don't even think I've heard LITERAL techno before :P All of this music just really sounds very similar to me, I just know that I like almost all of it and it's 90% of what I listen to every day. People tell me 'Just listen to the beats!" to tell the difference... yeah, easier said than done when you don't know what you're supposed to be listening for lol. And this music changes so rapidly over time, and even from artist to artist within the same genre!

Am I the only one who listens to electronica a lot but feels this way, or am I just the only one with the balls to admit it to a bunch of other enthusiasts lmao? It's like that old saying: "I may not know art, but I know what I like!"

[hydroxide]

i would have to agree. when i 1st started going to parties, i was like...."how am i going to distinguish these styles?" then as i listened more...it did become easier...i would suggest listening to the actual sounds that are used to make up the track...as opposed to just the "beat"

granted i feel you on the whole changing from atist to artist....it just kinda takes time to figure out who does what? more or less depending on what you are into. feel free to IM me if you'd like to chat about it more. peace.

[chattycheetah]

Originally Posted by hydroxide

i would have to agree. when i 1st started going to parties, i was like...."how am i going to distinguish these styles?" then as i listened more...it did become easier...i would suggest listening to the actual sounds that are used to make up the track...as opposed to just the "beat"

granted i feel you on the whole changing from atist to artist....it just kinda takes time to figure out who does what? more or less depending on what you are into. feel free to IM me if you'd like to chat about it more. peace.

Like this guy says, distinguishing the different genres just comes with time. There a lot of genres that are similar. The beats help you distinguish the genres but so does where the beat hits too! I first started out with ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music.

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That thing was so freakin helpful. Now that there are a multitude of sites where you can preview tracks to purchase (like juno or beatport), you can always go there and just choose a track or select a genre to check out. You can search by artists and often see what that track they produced is classified under. It's helpful in learning what a genre sounds like for the most part. Or you can just rely on that ole ear

[thinkgreen]

It's hard to distinguish music at raves more than it is in real life. It's really obvious when you're just listening to music on the computer or in the car or something, but at the rave it gets a little more confusing.

[chattycheetah]

Originally Posted by thinkgreen

It's hard to distinguish music at raves more than it is in real life. It's really obvious when you're just listening to music on the computer or in the car or something, but at the rave it gets a little more confusing.

Agreed!!! Especially when there is bad sound bleed between areas