Genre: Do People Need To 'Get Over Themselves?'

Hiya everyone, hope you're good.

So today I've been thinking about music and how genre has such a huge hold over people. After watching an interview with The 1975's Matt Healy in which he was asked why he was writing a song for One Direction, as in, 'why on earth would you work with them' which sparked his answer 'people need to get over themselves'

Which really got me thinking.
So I thought I'd talk about my opinions, share some things I've experienced in life, and hopefully get some of your opinions too. Be prepared for a long'en, leggo...

I get the need to label music under certain genres, there are certain types of techniques that 'belong' to certain genres and over the past few years, genres have grown and kind of become umbrella terms. More and more sub-genres are popping up under these umbrellas. For example, there used to just be house, then deep house, then future house and so on, it grew from there and continues to grow.

In this interview Matt touches on how people tend to take these genres far too seriously. Yes there will probably be a genre or a few genres that some people prefer to listen to, but it's literally become a part of some people. In society today, genre is seen as a projection of personality and I think can be the case. But then that projection, to me, often just displays how closed minded some people can be.

If you were to shuffle through my iTunes song list I can guarantee you'd probably be shocked at the variety. For example, when it comes to Mainstream, I'm a huge fan of The Weeknd, Drake, Nas, Dr Dre, The Eagles, Kate Bush, Journey, Queen, Marylin Manson, System of a Down, Slipknot, One Direction, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Lana del rey, Nirvana, The 1975 and so many more. They can all be considered as the 'mainstream masters' of their genres. But then I also step away from the mainstream and try my best to discover new music all the time, from every genre. I think society needs open their minds and not stick to a specific type of music and more importantly, society needs to stop judging and basically 'deciding' someone's self worth based on their music taste.

I think as long as you can tell an artist is genuinely connecting with their music and using it as a form of expression and a way to reach out to entertain and even help their fans, then what's wrong with admitting you like them? There should be no 'guilty pleasures' as long as you like it, great. You enjoy that. I've seen people bullied for liking a certain type of music, people who wont talk to other people because of what music they listen to. It's ridiculous.

What are your opinions on music genres? Do you think genres are relevant or are artists blurring the line between genres more now, therefor maybe rendering genres 'unnecessary' in the future?

Let me know what you think! Have you ever been treated differently because of the music you enjoy?

G.x