Music Tech Forum: So many genres so little time

This week we looked at different production styles based on genres and genre clichés. We started off with funk and looked at the difference between American, English, and Australian production styles. The British were more dry and dark, the Americans had more reverb and we just tended to copy one or the other. I wonder about Australian production, is there really an Australian sound? I think there probably is but it really differs from band to band instead of being a sound that you can pick from any band as ‘yep that’s gotta’ be Australian.’ We moved on and did Reggae/Ska, Blues, Jazz, and Hard Rock/Heavy Metal.

I think one of the most interesting things about many of them were the kind of ‘rules’ or ‘conventions’ involved with different genres. Like if you recorded a Jazz record and just compressed as if it was squared under an elephant would it still really be a jazz record? Or has it become such a large part of the Jazz sound that it starts to define it? I’ve really started to wonder about how much control production and mixing techniques have had over the over all defining sound of a genre. I think that maybe too much of a defining sound is what can make a genre die out or become boring. Nu Metal for example was really built on a specific production sound; all the bands really sounded the same. Not just in the content and arrangement of the music but the actual ‘sound’ of the records.

This contrasts I think with the Heavy Metal/Hard Rock stuff we looked at which changed over time. While musically the genre has diversified over time, not every band in it writes a record and than has it sound exactly the same. Granted they probably all use double + tracked guitars, I mean it certainly has it’s conventions but there is enough room left for bands to sound different from each other. Also I imagine I need a better understanding of each genre to really understand something like this, but for me the big question lately is, how much can change between a band writing and arranging a song to be recorded and how it sounds at release? But more importantly, how much should change? Or, how much change is too much?

References/Links: Music tech forum 10th May
Metallica at Last.Fm.com - http://www.last.fm/music/Metallica
An example of a Metal band with changing production styles.