Should scenes and movements become genres here?
Recently, RYM has been classifying scenes and movements as genres: https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/scenes-and-movements/
As you can see in that link, there are dozens of different scenes and movements in the music spectrum. Here are several of them related to metal, along with their descriptions:
Cascadian Black Metal - "Scene hailing from the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and Canada marked by nature-centric imagery, oftentimes incorporating elements of Post-Metal."
Gothenburg Sound - "Pioneering Melodic Death Metal scene of Gothenburg, Sweden."
Kawaii Metal (already added to MA) - "Fuses various Metal substyles with J-Pop's upbeat melodicism and song structures, utilizing kawaii lyricism and an idol music aesthetic."
NOLA Sludge - "New Orleans–based Louisiana Metal scene, commonly cited as the birthplace of Sludge Metal."
NWOBHM - "Acronym for new wave of British Heavy Metal, which occurred in the late 1970s, taking some influence from Punk Rock."
Visual Kei - "Fashion-oriented styles that take influence from Gothic Rock, Glam Rock, and Heavy Metal."
I'm a little surprised that Neue Deutsche Härte isn't on the list since I think of it as more of a scene than a genre.
Anyway, I'll be the first to answer the question and say N-O. Scenes and movements should not be considered genres. I wouldn't base a genre on its country or era. That's what scenes and movements are for, and they're a separate category from genres that are all generally flexible about when and where their bands are. Furthermore, scenes and movements are meant to firmly stick with one location or time, and I've seen some releases from artists that are labelled, for example, Kawaii metal even though they're American or NDH even though they're Finnish. Of course, those artists are allowed to play a style similar to those scenes and movements, but it doesn't mean they're considered part of that. It would just be a bad case of inaccuracy. The least RYM genre-voters can do is vote in a scene or movement for an artist not part of it as a secondary genre, and the primary genre(s) can be what their style really is. I'm not trying to be strict or exclusive, I just want things to be less confusing and make more sense. Scenes are scenes, genres are genres, simple as that.
So do any of you think scenes and movements should become genres in the site? Discuss!
Visual Kei and NWOBHM were there for a long time beforehand, at least as far back as when I still used the site. Probably because they had more of a solid thing going for them. NWOBHM is a scene, see how we don't call people who sound like Venom NWOBHM imitators even if Venom is a NWOBHM band. There is a general style someone can imitate, but it's a faux passe to rate an album that isn't part of the scene with it. Visual Kei meanwhile, well, I think you have to pay a bit more attention to Japanese media to get it, but that's also something that has an affect on the music most of the time even if it is based around a band's fashion. It's not really relevant to a metal site.
Otherwise, I'd have to say no based on those offerings. Can't talk about the black metal one, but NOLA Sludge sounds like something someone made up to sound more important than he really is, plus, aren't half the albums there also supposed to be southern metal or something? I'm not really sure what they're trying to do with Gothenburg, since half those bands aren't from there, just imitating someone who is. Which if we treat as a genre, is weird, because the big three have vastly different sounds, and I say that even not really caring much for MDM. TBH, I'm surprised they haven't already included stuff like the New Wave of American Metal from the '00s and the New Wave of Traditional Metal which has been going off and on since the late '00s.
A big NO from me too. A genre of music based on geography is not a genre at all. I am quite happy to talk about specific scenes, but to consider them as genres is counter-intuitive. For example, the NWOBHM consisted of a number of bands who didn't at all sound the same. What did Venom and Demon have in common musicallly? Pretty much F.A., but they were both part of the NWOBHM. Marseille and Angel Witch? Praying Mantis and Vardis? Very little similarity in musical style, but all part of the same scene.
I don't know anything about Visual Kei, but unless the genre name is a massive misnomer, it sounds to be more an aesthetic choice than a musical one.
No need to worry about this one. Ben & I have no intention of incorporating something like this. It seems completely absurd to be adding artists to the US power metal genre when they're from Italy & equally ridiculous to NOT add an Italian artist to US power metal when they sound exactly like the US acts that make up the subgenre.
No need to worry about this one. Ben & I have no intention of incorporating something like this. It seems completely absurd to be adding artists to the US power metal genre when they're from Italy & equally ridiculous to NOT add an Italian artist to US power metal when they sound exactly like the US acts that make up the subgenre.
What he said!
We definitely don't need to worry about that now. Seems like RYM is aware of the scene/genre situation and will fix the issue in a later update. Here's what they had to say:
"For the moment Scene and Movement voting is still mixed in with genre voting on this page, even though they are now displayed separately. The voting UI for this will be improved at some point in the future.
"For Scenes and Movements the primary/secondary vote distinction is irrelevant, it is recommended to just vote them up in the Primary section but in the future the voting data for these will likely be combined. Again this is something that will be improved in future site updates."
