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The weekend is upon us, you know what that means. It’s time for the Question of the week!
Genres are definitely interesting and discussions about them can definitely be fun, but one should avoid getting too hyperfocused on them. To me, genre labels only exist to help you, so that whenever you discover music you like, you can more easily find more music like it. Other than that, I believe good music is good regardless of what genre(s) it falls under.
To celebrate the colourful palette of music, what are the best songs that you know, that combine two or more genres? Especially ones that you’d think won’t work together, but do anyway. (Also this isn’t talking about mashups of songs. Those are cool and fun, but they’re a whole different thing)
I’ll start us off. First, a classic. Remember that time Rammstein made a song in Spanish and mixed in trumpets and latino elements into their usual style? Well, now you do. You’d never think that Spanish folk music and German industrial metal would gell well, but it works amazing and is easily one of the most fun and amusing songs the band has produced:
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You cannot talk about genre bending without mentioning Bosnian party animals Dubioza Kolektiv. They often call their shows a “Balkan, ska, punk, reggae extravaganza”, and it’s a fitting description, though even that cannot capture the breadth of their sonic diversity. Like this track, blending Balkan folk music, dubstep, reggae, punk rock, a touch of hip-hop and more into one eclectic but amazing banger:
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Another band that needs to be mentioned in such a discussion is Armenian-American metal legends System of a Down. They are well known for not giving a single damn and just dumping every kind of music they like into their own creations and somehow they always make it work. Rock, folk, punk, reggae, metal, hip-hop, flamenco, even polka?? They truly sound like nothing else in the world which is why I believe so many people, including myself, fell in love with them. Here’s a particularly wacky track that goes through multiple styles in just a few minutes:
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We definitely need to give folk metal itself a shoutout, as it is, by its very definition, a blend of ethnic folk music and metal, creating countless truly unique sounding bands out there. For this example, how about some Mongolian folk music with the iconic throat singing, courtesy of the epic Mongolian/Chinese/American band Tengger Cavalry:
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To spice it up, how about our homeboys from Sofia, Bulgaria, the hip-hop/electro/metal machines from Abysmatic. Truly one of the most unique sounding artists I've ever heard and ones I had the pleasure of seeing live this year. They blew us away with the performance, as expected.
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Then to wrap it up there’s Russian group Neuromonakh Feofan (Нейромонах Феофан), who are so wacky, I don’t even know what to call them. Electro drum&bass slavic folk rock? That’s the best I can think of. There is one other thing I can definitely call them though - awesome!
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Alright, I think I rambled on long enough. Now I wanna hear from you guys. What is the best multigenre bending fusion track you can think of? I can’t wait to hear what’s out there 🙂
don't know about best song. maybe this one.
https://open.spotify.com/track/3SEQr67idjm1fg9Ig5GSkS?si=beead51932f64a58
this whole album blends genre really well, but this song in particular blends Pink Floyd, Florence and the Machine, Lana Del Rey, and Opera- yes, OPERA! https://open.spotify.com/track/5iszuZcALwu2yqpIUkGr52?si=5b176bcf53ea4ece
Great question, @Joan!
One example of a track that I’d say mixes multiple genres is “Izgubljena” by the Croatian band Daliborovo Granje; it’s my favorite song of theirs.
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According to an interview from last year by It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine, the band wrote about their musical inspirations, “As we’re music enthusiasts we love music in general, doesn’t matter the genre, if it’s good, it’s just good and there’s no shame in liking something, so we listen to basically anything and have inspirations in a wide spectrum of genres and bands.”
I think that Daliborovo Granje’s open-mindedness to inspirations from a diversity of music genres has been conducive to creating their own eclectic sound; they describe themselves as a “psychedelic/experimental/post rock band” on their Bandcamp page, and also mention there that they play “instrumental music influenced by various world music melodies combined into the standard post-rock / psychedelic rock genre.”
I’m uncertain of the specific genres that comprise the “various world music melodies” influencing Daliborovo Granje’s music. However, these melodies might be inspired by Balkan folk music and Anatolian rock, since their 2020 album Hainin is tagged with these genres on the Rate Your Music website, along with genre tags for psychedelic- and progressive rock music.
Cheers!
A little-known song by the one-and-only Chicago. Not sure what'd you call this fusion, maybe R&B jazz and soft rock? Not quite sure, but the instrumentation of this song is really something I've never heard before. Hope you enjoy it!
https://open.spotify.com/track/3YxBBvWnhl3CHHLpVAu5vO?si=d28afcd3bed74c95
Hi, I have a similar answer, I've just heard a track sent to me by my brother, it's by Louise Tucker, she is an accomplished opera singer I gather who attempted (maybe as an experiment) a foray into pop (which I adore), this track from Best of... is called Dancing By Moonlight and it is an absolute gem.
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