BY MIKEY MIGO
You love music. We all do. Otherwise, you'd not be reading these words and I wouldn't be writing them. Music touches our souls, our hearts, and helps a lot of us get through the day. The melodies get stuck in our heads and the admiration for our favorite artists grows. This is the simplest way to describe being a music fan that I can think of.
The music we love DOES effect and reflect our personalities. Sometimes we all get close minded and start living out the music cliches. We might not do it on purpose and we might not care, but many music fans can be classified based on their appearance and attitude. Children, teenagers, and young adults are the most likely to fall into these stereotypes, but I think it's an experience we can all relate to.
In my past, I have Hair Metal Glam, Vanilla Ice "rap", Grunge, Goth, Hip Hop, and other styles that I've made a fool of myself for mimicking. I'm sure everyone has their own stories, but today I want to look into the different stereotypes that today's most popular genres have and shed a little light on the legitimacy of the folklore that goes with each musical styling.
The Rock Cliche
The Cliche: This one is probably the most general of all the genres. I'm going to focus more on the general and classic rock side of it today. General rock fans are boring. I picture blue collar, clean cut, people who don't REALLY get that into music. They'll come home, take off their tie, put on a macho shirt, and go rock out to AC/DC in their garage as they tune up their Harley. General rock lacks the edginess of its subgenres and is usually whatever is on the radio. Some of it is complete garbage, Nickelback I'm looking at you, and some is glorified pop music.
Musically, most genres on this list owes everything to rock music. Some of the greatest bands of all time are considered simply as "rock", but in current times it's mostly Top 40 bands. I think "Sugar Ray" was considered rock. Image wise, this one is a mixed bag. A flat out "rock" fan could be under many different looks, but I think of the painfully bland people.
The R&B Cliche
The Cliche: R&B music makes its money by being sexual and smooth. It's like an adult version of pop music for those who want to have sex while listening to people sing about it. There's the occasional whisper or high note to "compliment" the usual tempo and sensual tone. Whenever anyone parodies someone singing "America the Beautiful" they do it in a mocking manner to R&B. They do this because things are just so over exaggerated and extended that it sometimes becomes ridiculously funny. The R&B singer is normally dressed up in border-line pimp suits OR they'll almost be naked to show off their augmented body. Most of the people who listen to R&B use product in their hair, wear TOMMY, SEAN JEAN, or whatever clothing line is popular at the time, and usually have some type of shiny jewelry.
To me the "R&B" look is just a better groomed Hip Hop look or a more "sensual" Pop look depending on how you want to look at it.. I can't think of many R&B songs that ARE NOT sensually aimed. That doesn't mean a creative twist can't be put on it from time to time. R Kelly's "Trapped in The Closet" concept was and still is a very innovative and unique idea regardless if you like him or his musical style. I think most people, even those like me who don't follow it, has at least one or two R&B songs they do like or have some sort of personal attachment to. People fall in love and out of love everyday. Because of that I don't think is going anywhere.
The Hip Hop Cliche
The Cliche: Hip Hop or "Rap" Music is all about violence, drugs, money, and treating women badly. There's no musical talent involved except for pressing a few buttons in order to steal samples from "real musicians". Rap is disrespectful of authorities and has no moral code. The "musicians" and fans all dress in baggy pants, sport jerseys (excluding hockey), wear hats to one side, lots and lots of jewelry (including in their mouth), and drive cars with spinner rims. The videos are normally with booty-shaking women, money being thrown around, and the artist being boisterous.
To not consider hip hop as a legitimate form of music is close minded and ridiculous. Most of the popular hip hop music on the radio and on TV fits into the stereotypes, but when you look a little deeper to guys like Mos Def, Talib, and Saul Williams you're treated to something way more pure. There's plenty of sampling going on, but there's also some great musicianship happening if you look out for it. Sadly, I think most of the absurd stereotypes people associate with hip hop is more aimed towards the race of it's origin than the actual content of the musical genre.
The Pop Cliche
The Cliche: Pop music is sappy commercial drivel. It's an offset of R&B with bouncier and fluffier topics. It's mostly always about love or heartbreak. Lyrically, there is not much effort as the word "love" is used in 72% of all pop songs(I made that number up) and is rhymed with "above" 86% of the time(again, that's probably a lie). Image wise, pop artists are normally clean cut and presented as "safe, wholesome, fun". If you're a male pop star your sexuality will always be in question. After a pop star makes their rounds as "safe and wholesome" they'll progress forward as being edgier and sexier as time goes on. Eventually pop stars will grow up to be R&B stars, fade away completely, or get stuck in pop music hell.
Pop is unfairly grouped as Spears, NSync, Backstreet Boys, and other boy bands. Michael Jackson's style of pop music was very innovative and still looked upon as a measuring stick of what to do and not to do. A lot of R&B and some of the more popular rock music can be considered "pop music". Justin Timberlake and Usher come to mind as two huge stars who border on pop and R&B. Lyrically, MOST pop music is disposable drivel, but there's always a few hidden gems out there if you open your mind up a bit. It's not JUST short of "popular music" that's for sure.
The Country Cliche
The Cliche: Country music is only for middle and lower class Caucasian rednecks and any other under educated people they can trap into their hold. They all wear cowboy hats, jeans, cowboy boots, and say "Yee-Haw". Most of the songs have the same content of "losing my wife, my trailer, my pick up, and my dog". The entire genre provides a jingoist view on America and never EVER questions the government. Female country singers are all just prettied-up pop singers with a "twang" to their voice. It seems the only two types of male country singers the "rough, bad ass silent" type and the "sleeveless, tanned, good ol boy" type. Lyrically the music is very simple. There are not many lyrics in country music that have more than four syllables. The entire genre is one huge beer and wife beating homage.
This is the hardest genre for me to rationalize as it's my least favorite. Not ALL country music fits every stereotype, but most of it fits into the cliches on some level. Johnny Cash is considered country; he's respectable and had some very well written songs. Same can go for Hank I, Hank II, and a hand full of other iconic performers. It's not JUST for white people as there's the great "Cowboy Troy" involved with the genre, but he's treated like a novelty act. There's also Darius Rucker of "Hootie" fame is now cashing in on the country genre. The Dixie Chicks, or at least the cute little one, actually spoke up against Bush and the government. The backlash was ridiculous and just short of a blacklisting by the country music community. I'm sure there's white collar Americans (probably in the South or Middle America) who love country and I'm sure it's not ALL the bad. I'm not writing the genre off as the cliches I've listed, but that's just me attempting to be fair. Now I'll bite my tongue and continue...
The Emo Cliche
The Cliche: The word "scene kid" was basically created for what was to come with Emo-like trends. Emo music is all whiney with the occasional cry/scream. It all sounds the same. Lyrically it's mostly always about a girl, about being ridiculed, and "whoa is me" nonsense. It's like the new-wave Goth scene of yesteryears lost their darkness, but not their depression. Emo bands and fans all dress in tight girl pants, random shirt that has nothing to do with Emo, Chuck Taylor's, and have crazy Hitler hair cuts. Sometimes they have spikey hair with random colors almost akin to an Anime character. For some reason, razor blades and slitting wrists became associated with this genre. For the most part, Emo fans cycle through bands faster than their checker board printed wrist bands.
Emo blew up pretty big. It's not on the level of a hair metal or grunge influence, but I put it on par with disco. I like AFI and a few bands that can be grouped in with "emo", but for the most part the whiney vocals do all sound the same to my ears. I HAVE heard an emo song that's chorus was "this razorblade is meant for me" so that cliche just might be valid. I don't know why this genre choose the razorblade as it's self-destruction of choice; maybe because more words rhyme with razor blade than "Uzi". There's nothing original here, folks. It's the doom and gloom of Goth with an altered take on pop punk fashion. I think every so often the teenage crowd needs a genre they can all rally behind and this time around it's emo. Stupid kids.
The Metal Cliche
The Cliche: Metal is all growling and thrashing. There is no melody as everyone plays as fast as they can. The people who listen to the music are crazy because it's all angry and violent. We learn from Dio's "devil horns" that all metal is the music of Satan and all that involved is evil. Physically speaking, the most common stereotypes for metal fans is that they're all meat heads who wear old dirty Metallica shirts with no sleeves, cut off cargo shots, and army boots. The hair situation is long hair, shaved head, and sometimes a goatee. There are other types of metal that blend with other genres. There's Goth metal, Emo metal, and Dark Metal. Each have their own little touch be it more make up, accessories, or costume.
There are many bands and fans who make this cliche seem pretty dead on, but to sum up the entire genre this way is silly and unfair. There are plenty of metal vocalists who have just as great singing voices as their screaming voices. While it may be faster and more aggressive, for the most part there is plenty of melody in metal. I know many clean cut Christians who love metal. You don't have to be a "freak" to like gothic or dark metal as well. I've seen some pretty nerdy people at Marilyn Manson concerts and don't get me started on the geekiness of old school metal guys who still hang out in the parking lots at summer shows. And besides, I'm sure there are plenty of meat head metal fans who leave the sleeves on their Metallica "Master of Puppets" shirt.
The Indie Cliche
The Cliche: This could also be considered "college radio" cliches. All indie bands look like R.E.M. circa 1987. They name themselves and release albums with "quirky" titles. Indie bands all have this mellow yet "my emotions are deeper than my father's pocket book" vibe. They wear thrift store clothing and VANS shoes almost as if they're a ball less punk fan on a grocery store job interview. Kind of like a depressed lumberjack. Throw on the Buddy Holly glasses and you're in. The fans disregard ANYTHING that is "mainstream" simply because it is. Fans will follow any trend they can to one-up "everyone else" by being the first to know about this "new up and coming band that sorta sounds like less mainstream The Postal Service".
Indie trends DO exist if you think about the bursts of attention and then the sudden "on the next" mentality that seems to be popular. Just look at "We Are Scientists", "The Shins", "Snow Patrol", "Artic Monkeys", and even "Modest Mouse". The people I do know who listen to this type of music does in fact dress "thrifty", but it could also be because of this genre's knack being on college radio. I mentioned them before, but R.E.M. proves that some indie bands can have cross over appeal but it seems once they cross over the bands start to fall into other genre categories. Some would say that R.E.M. went from being a college radio "indie band" to being an "artsy rock band". The distinction is relative.
We ALL fall into these cliches at one point in our lives. It doesn't make us any lamer than anyone else. I suppose it just means we're all trying to find ourselves and sometimes we jump into a group in attempt to do so.
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