Genre Busting_ the Origin of Music Categories _ Music _ the Guardian
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Music's phrasemakers (clockw ise from top left): Brian Eno, Bikini Kill, William S Burroughs and Ornette Coleman. Photograph: Redferns/Corbis Music comes from everywhere, and so do the names we call it by. There's a longstanding cliche that only the music business needs genre names – everyone else either likes it or they don't. That is, of course, bunk, as anyone who's heard enough people trot out lines such as "I like all music except for rap and country" is aware. Not least because quite a lot of those genre names come from the artists themselves. Gospel, for example, was more or less invented by Rev Thomas A Dorsey. As Georgia Tom, Dorsey played jazz and blues piano before turning to the Bible for inspiration in 1932 and selling songs such asPrecious Lord, Take My Hand to churches in Chicago, then across America. His group's name was the University Gospel Singers. Similarly, bluegrass Genre busting: the origin of music categories Where did the terms retro-nuevo and skronk originate? Or hip- hop? Michaelangelo Matos runs through an exhaustive catalogue of music's phrasemakers and trendsetters Email Share 13 1 Share 0 Michaelangelo Matos The Guardian, Thursday 25 August 2011 22.04 BST Jump to comments (228)
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