Sailing the seven seas of Microhouse
August 15, 2016 8:49 AM   Subscribe

MusicMap is an interactive music infographic developed by Kwinten Crauwels that traces the evolution and influences of several genres/sub-genres in contemporary popular music, ranging from Gospel from the 1870s to the electronic music of the late 70s. Very much like the classic Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music (previously), zoom in from the super-genres and clicking on a genre gives you its' genealogy, as well as a brief history, historical context, and samples (here, full videoclips).
posted by lmfsilva (6 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
Given the 225 citations that on first glance look darned impressive, this is leagues above Ishkur's guide, which was "created in "about two weeks" and intended to be a "a non-technical, irreverent critique of electronic dance music. Its purpose is to entertain before it informs." (Old Wikipedia link, as the current page is gutted to the point of being meaningless.)
posted by filthy light thief at 9:34 AM on August 15, 2016


OTOH, it's 100% less snarky than Iskhur's Guide, which makes it a lot less fun to peruse.
posted by aubilenon at 9:37 AM on August 15, 2016


I do disagree with some findings - under no logic I could put Madchester bands (Stone Roses and Happy Mondays) under dream-pop/shoegaze. While Stone Roses could be considered to be on the dancier side of guitar dream pop (technically, they are indie rock or even proto-britpop), Happy Mondays weren't either. They were a post-punk band on Es (and everything else under the sun) that did guitar dance music that was ready to be remixed.

Same with choosing Primal Scream's Loaded on Twee. By the time of Screamadelica, that ship had sailed a long time ago.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:08 AM on August 15, 2016


I find Every Noise At Once more usable.

Even with multiple guides available I still can't disentangle the various subgenres and have long since given up... and I make electonic music myself.
posted by Foosnark at 12:05 PM on August 15, 2016


I really like that there are included playlists and examples. I've been enjoying the hell out of some music I'd never heard of before much less realized I would enjoy!
posted by Carillon at 12:30 PM on August 15, 2016


They'd spelt Albert Ayler's name wrong and put Soft Machine's 'Hope for Happiness' in their jazz fusion playlist, a tune I don't think anyone could describe as fusion. These are major crimes in my world, so I didn't explore any more and anyway I'd only be looking for mistakes so I could snark about them. Genre is probably the worst way of mapping music as it's so subjective, even if you get it 'right'. I remember very strict definitions amongst my schoolmates as to whether particular bands were Metal or not (this was the late 70s) but now as Foosnark says, the subgenres of every genre are now so numerous (and fleeting) as to be worth, well, nothing much. But music tends not to fit too well into data shaped holes generally.
posted by peterkins at 12:47 PM on August 15, 2016 [1 favorite]


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