In the new age of music, listening has never been made easier. From largely-known platforms such as Spotify to lesser known streaming services like Qobuz, it is almost impossible to avoid hearing a new song. With up-and-coming musicians making names for themselves every day and songs being churned out faster than we can fathom, musical genres have become a hot topic, heeding the question; are music genres now irrelevant? 

First off, what is a music genre? In short, it is a categorization system that organizes songs based on similar musical conventions or musical styles, the most popular being pop, rock, hip hop, R&B and country. Most of the time, an artist will silently declare their genre by fitting their music into one of the conventions with a stage name and logo to compliment it. As the music scene expands to everyone, musicians have started to incorporate other genres into their songs, take “emo rap” as an example. The artist takes the lyrical themes of “emo” music and fuses them with the beats and rapping of hip hop. With the amount of mixing possibilities being endless, this in turn creates subgenres. Arguably, this is where people start to question why musical genres are a thing if you can just combine two main, or “umbrella” genres and create four or five other possible subgenre combinations. The amount of “types of music” has come to a staggering 6,000. Genres can range from pop to psychobilly, a genre that mixes rockabilly—a “classic” rock and roll and western R&B fusion—and punk rock, a lyrical variant of rock and roll that takes (mainly) on the themes of challenging the government.

With the lines separating genres now blurred, it is tough to find a person who will not respond with “I listen to everything” when asked what their favorite genre of music is, since, in reality, they probably are listening to a mix of everything. Knowing this, why are music genres even a thing? There are multiple theories to suggest why this is: the human need to fit in, the need for structure and organization or a matter of cultural and geographical boundaries. If we accept the theory that music genres originated as a way for people to categorize themselves and connect with other people who share views and tastes, then would not the creation of sub and microgenres be an indicator that we as humans are attempting to narrow down our own preferences in search of specific groups that align with not only our music tastes but also our own morals and world views? It is a slippery slope to fall when considering what a person’s preferred genre says about them. 

In short, with the rising combinations of musical genres, subgenres and microgenres it is easy to see why people would rather just dismiss the idea of genres entirely. Is that ever going to happen? Probably not. Are people still going to post their Spotify Wrapped charts for weeks to come after its release? Definitely, yes. At this point in time, it is safe to assume that the relevance of musical genres is a way for record labels to organize their artists’ audiences and read those demographics so they know who and what to target for advertising.

Image from Spotify via newsroom.spotify.com