Cross-Genre Conventions

When thinking about genres, my mind immediately goes to music. You have your basic genres—rock, pop, country, R&B, classical, indie. Everything in music is divided and labeled. Artists and record companies are pretty much backed into a corner when it comes to labeling their music. Most albums are “sonically cohesive,” meaning that all the songs flow well together, and fit into the same genre.

Lately in the music industry, genres have come into question more often than usual. For example: Taylor Swift is one of the biggest names in music today… but it wasn’t always that way. Having got her start in the extremely limited world of country music, she wasn’t always able to branch out into the world of pop music the way she has today. The conventions of country music, though fitting and comfortable for some artists, were the very thing holding Taylor back. Country music is defined by its signature (conventional) sound: twangy guitars, fiddles, banjos, and usually thickly accented vocals. Listening to Taylor’s earliest music, you’ll hear all of those things. At the time, she was intent on fitting into the country genre. But as she and her music grew up, she started to steer away from that sound and those conventions. While it was beneficial to her overall career, her refusal to stick to country music’s conventions earned her the cold shoulder from country radio, country fans, and country stars alike. Taylor has now left the genre behind, and since her departure, country music has suffered a significant loss of attention, particularly from the Swift-aged demographic. All the eyes that were once on the genre because of Taylor Swift have moved along with her.

In this video, country artist Gary Allan is straight up asked “Is Taylor Swift country? Is Carrie Underwood country?” His answer is interesting, because he implies that genres in music are sort of going by the wayside anyway. Artists and record labels are paying more attention to demographics than they are to country music’s conventional sound. The music industry is becoming less about the art, less about the conventions, and more about the numbers. Concrete, conventional genres don’t seem to matter as much anymore. This is evidenced by several highly successful cross-genres, such as Indie-rock, pop-country, pop-rock, pop-punk, and punk-rock, which have all found a much more mainstream home in music these days. Perhaps crossing-genres will become something of a new convention in the music industry.