IN MY SENIOR YEAR, AS PART OF A CLASS I TOOK ABOUT A&R, I WAS ASKED TO TAKE A DEEPER LOOK INTO MUSIC GENRE TITLES, THE WAY IN WHICH VARIOUS MUSIC INDUSTRY ORGANIZATIONS DEFINE AND USE GENRE TITLES, AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT YIELD TO THE CREATION OF NEW GENRES.
What’s in a name? Juliet of Romeo and Juliet posed this question first—-referring to family name as meaningless in the name of true love. Many echo similar attitudes when speaking of genre titles and their capability of truly defining music.
Whether we believe genres do society good or bad, we do need to somewhat agree that genre categorization is necessary. In his book Genre in Popular Music, Fabian Holt explains, “naming a music is a way of recognizing its existence and distinguishing it from other musics. The name becomes a point of reference and enables certain forms of communication, control, and specialization into markets, canons, and discourses” (Holt 3). In this essay, I will be discussing four genres—-hip hop, Latin, adult contemporary, and R&B—-and the multiple ways in which their genre names have been defined, used, and understood by Billboard charts, NARAS' Grammy Awards, and Arbitron.
HIP HOP
In my own words, I’d describe hip hop as spoken word put to a beat. The rhythmic music is bass-heavy and lyric-centric, with an emphasis on rhyming, flow, and vocal agility. Billboard divides its charts into categories and subcategories and hip hop is found in the “R&B/Hip Hop” category; specific chart names are “mainstream R&B and hop” and “hot rap songs.” Meanwhile, NARAS separates hip hop and R&B into two categories for the Grammys—here however, hip hop is called “rap.” Lastly, Arbitron—a media and marketing research firm that measures US local-market radio audiences—places hip hop under the radio format titled “Urban,” with subcategories formats titled urban AC, urban contemporary, and urban oldies (Arbitron.com).
In order to understand this jumble of categories, we need to understand the purposes of each industry organization. The Billboard charts are meant to track music sales and airplay; the charts have historically been dedicated to “measuring music popularity” (Billboard.com). NARAS, on the other hand, was created with this philosophy in mind: “we shall judge a record on the basis of sheer artistry, and artistry alone” (Grammys.com). These words come out of NARAS’ first Credo, drafted in 1960, and meant that the Academy pledged to award musicians based on talent only. Lastly, Arbitron, according to its website, describes itself as a media company that is dedicated to “serving the media…as well as advertiser and advertising agencies” (Arbitron.com).
Hip hop’s merge with R&B on the Billboard charts most definitely has something to do with retail; the charts measure record sales and hip hop and R&B are often sold side-by-side in a retail space. However, we’re still left with the question of why Billboard names the art form “hip hop,” while the Grammys title it “rap,” and Arbitron titles it “Urban.” The Grammys’ more specific description of the art form must have something to do with their mission of judging the art—-and not the supposed superficiality or popularity of the art form which existed in a larger category of hip hop culture. Lastly, Arbitron’s naming of the art form as “urban” so transparently reveals their main mission: measuring audiences and their listening habits. Hip hop was music of the African American community and such people lived in urban areas.
Having thought through all these terms, do they sufficiently describe the music? In a Village Voice article titled “Hip Hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin’ For,?” journalist Greg Tate laments over hip hop’s corporate transformation—“what we call hip hop is now inseparable from what we call the hip hop industry,” he says (Tate). At one point, Tate describes the constricting and detrimental effects of the genre name; “And have no doubt, before hip hop had a name it was a folk culture…but from the moment “Rapper’s Delight” went platinum, hip hop the folk culture became hip hop the American entertainment-industry sideshow."
LATIN MUSIC
Now, how do the three aforementioned organizations understand Latin music? Latin music, in my own words, is music from Latin America that contains Spanish lyrics, is percussive-centric, guitar-centric, and includes certain instruments like hand drums and maracas. Now, Billboard charts have Latin music charts, which are separated from the world music charts. The Latin charts are divided into several subcategories—Latin Tropical, Regional Mexican, Latin Rhythm, and Latin Pop. The Grammys create more subcategories for Latin music; they include Latin/Pop, Latin Rock/Alternative, Latin/Urban, Tropical Latin, Mexican, Tejano, Norteno, and Banda.
Already what’s interesting here is that the Grammys identify “Latin/Urban” music—-which in my mind is reggaeton music. What’s even more interesting and strange is that the Billboard charts don’t at all recognize reggaeton music, while the chart’s mission is to measure popularity. Reggaeton is incredibly popular and leaked into the mainstream with songs like Daddy Yankee’s 2004 hit single “Gasolina.” Lastly, Arbitron has a myriad of radio station formats listed under Latin; these formats include Latin Urban, Mexican regional, Spanish adult hits, Spanish contemporary, Spanish contemporary Christian, Spanish Tropical, Tejan. This list seems to be very specific and detailed and divided based on religiosity or age. Once again, Arbitron is in the business of identifying and analyzing people.
ADULT CONTEMPORARY
The genre called “adult contemporary” is truly unique in relation to the other aforementioned genres. While hip hop may have been a genre name somewhat suddenly stamped upon the music, the term “adult contemporary” is completely and utterly artificial. The reason I say this is because the genre name has nothing to do with the music. While “hip hop” comes from the gibberish lyrics the Sugar Hill Gang sang, it has something to do with the music (it mimics the beat)—-just like “Latin” as a category notates where the music is from, and just like R&B (which will be discussed) stands for “rhythm and blues,” which has everything to do with the music.
Billboard places “adult contemporary” underneath their “pop/rock” section. Along with “adult contemporary,” Billboard has charts like Adult Top 40, Mainstream Top 40, and Triple A. On the other hand, NARAS defines this category on its own and names it “Traditional Pop.” What’s not consistent here is that NARAS’ principles were centered upon judging music for its artistry; it’s surprising to see NARAS define a type of music by its listeners, who are older, and therefore “traditional.”
Lastly, Arbitron seems to love the name “adult contemporary” and actually identifies seven different subcategories for its radio formats—A/C, Hot A/C, Modern A/C, Triple A, Soft A/C, Smooth A/C, and Rhythmic A/C. Once again, Arbitron’s categorization of music is largely about demographics due to its allegiance to the advertising community which operates its campaigns based on demographics.
Of all the three industry organizations, I don’t believe any have even closely captured the music typically associated with “adult contemporary” with their genre name choices. And you know why that is? It’s simple—-“adult contemporary” is not a true genre classification since it merely describes an age group and merely infers music that is soft and harmless to sensitive aging ears.
RHYTHM AND BLUES
The last genre to be discussed is R&B (rhythm and blues.) To me, the characteristics of this genre is usually strong and powerful vocals, gospel-inspired vocals, forlorn lyrics reminiscent of its predecessor blues, and often times horn-centric in instrumentation. The first organization to note in this case is Arbitron, which fails to designate a radio format for this genre. The radio format that is closest to R&B would probably be “New AC/ Smooth Jazz.” Perhaps the decision to not designate R&B as its own radio format had to do with studies that showed the American demographic lacking in interest. Or perhaps R&B has been swallowed into urban radio, but somehow fails to be clearly stated.
NARAS is on the complete other end of the spectrum, giving out seven awards for the R&B category, the same amount of awards listed under the “Rock” category. Perhaps the Academy deems R&B equal in its artistry as with rock music.
At first, one might seem pleased with NARAS’ separation of R&B and hip hop—-as clearly they are too different music forms, despite the fact that they are both black music—-as opposed to the Billboard charts’ lumping of the two genres. However, at one particular point in Grammy history, the two genres did in fact overlap; in the year 1999, Lauryn Hill not only won Album of the Year, but she also won for Best R&B album, while being nominated for Best Rap song (Grammys.com). Such an instance was a spectacular case of an artist who wasn’t just one thing, but was just simply a talented artist—period. Fortunately, the Grammy genre categories were not constricting in such a situation and simply awarded Hill with five Grammy awards.
NEW GENRE FORMS
Before predicting the emergence of a new genre, or even considering the current industry conditions, it is important to pose the question: what circumstances yield to the creation of a new genre?
Cultural diffusion—-specifically the movement of [musical] ideas from one region to another—-certainly plays a key role in the creation of new genres. For example, bossa nova—-music from Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro region—-was initially introduced to Americans through cultural diffusion. Yet, the explosion of bossa nova truly occurred with the release of hit single, “The Girl from Ipanema,” featuring the unforgettably delicate vocals of Astrud Gilberto.
A similar story can be told in reference to the emergence of hip hop as a new genre. While hip hop emerged locally—-developing in the streets of South Bronx in the late 1970, as opposed to being imported from elsewhere—-it exploded into the mainstream with the release of one hit single, the Sugar Hill Gang’s “Rapper Delight,” which simultaneously gave birth to the genre name of “hip hop.” Only then—-once given a name—-could the art form become a genre of music.
Before outlining current industry conditions and analyzing how they might spur a new genre, let’s remember that hip hop did not emerge as a genre, but began as a culture of DJing, MCing, b-boying, and graffiti writing.
With that context, we can investigate the effects of the current industry climate on the creation of new genres. With today’s advanced technology, cultural diffusion can happen very easily. Technology allows for the sharing of global musical ideas, as it also creates a platform for more advanced production and mixing, which can all give birth to a new genre of international music—-something that could be called “international mashup.” Remixing and creating mashups—essentially creating new material through the cutting and pasting of music—has become widely popular because of the (comparatively speaking) simplicity of today’s music production software, as well as the accessibility of music for the use of sampling. For example, within the sector of DJing called turntabling, CD-playing technology allows musicians to find, repeat, and manipulate particular musical passages with much ease (Katz 120).
I forecast the next phase of the mashup phenomenon to be the “international mashup”—-incorporating the technique of remix and mashup, as well as incorporating sounds from around the globe. While in my mind, such a genre seems completely possible, I don’t anticipate such a genre to appear on the Billboard charts any time soon. This being because the newest Billboard charts are all business-related and provide different measurements for tracking music—such as Top Ringtones, Top Digital Albums, and most recently iLike Profiles: Most Added (Billboard.com). However, I do believe the Grammys philosophy is one which is opened to the expansion of genres; one example being the disco category, which was added in 1978 (Grammys). While saying that, it doesn’t seem like any of the three organizations are racing to define new genres, but rather working to create data and measurement for new emerging technologies. For one, Arbitron is beginning to track internet radio and as mentioned before Billboard is continually updating its charts with the newest digital trend.
While it’s incredibly easy to be resistant towards the classification of music—-of course, you surely remember the many times you’ve stormed through Virgin Megastore aisles wondering where a particular album would be stocked—-it’s also incredibly difficult to picture a world without genre classification. We’d be living in a world of music anarchy—-and yes, Virgin Megastore would be a real traffic jam! While there’s much more the industry can do to allow for the fusion of musical genres, I think it’s time we embrace the fact that genres are here to stay. And of course the differences between genre names make our life a little more interesting.
