10 Subgenre Definitions We Could Use Right Now
Different musical genres, and our understanding of them, will inevitably change over time. It’s strange to think the original Detroit techno shares a genre umbrella with the transcendent music Ben Klock plays … unless you don’t listen to any electronic music at all, in which case it probably all sounds like bleep bloops anyway.
With this natural evolution, many people want new ways of describing music, and for many reasons: the music could be so genre-bending it’s unlike anything we’ve heard before, the culture around a style of music can shift completely, or, you know, they’re trying to sell a product and you have to keep things fresh.
In the spirit of Left-Field House and other strangely sliced styles, here are some proposed subgenre terms we should probably start using:
Big Room Deep House: The type of deep house people who own Herschel backpacks listen to
Bubblegum Liquid: Liquid drum & bass featuring asinine vocals, but is fun for a good guilty pleasure jam. Easily found for blocks at a time on Digitally Imported
Desert House: House music with Middle Eastern flair, sampling anything from Arabic chanting to touches of sitar
Esoteric Downtempo: Music of any genre that’s below a certain BPM, as long as it’s lauded by Resident Advisor
Lit-Fi: Lo-Fi that really makes you want to dance
Minimal Electro: This technically already exists, but the world needs more of it (reading this helps to manifest it!)
Sleep House: Music that sounds like it could be played at an All Day I Dream event, or by any of its affiliates.
Tech House: A catch-all descriptor for music that isn’t quite deep house, but like, maybe not techno?
Techno: Anything you want, as long as you put the word “proper” in front of it
Trap Shit: All trap music, including anything Skrillex has produced since 2009
These are only a handful of almost-necessary subgenre definitions to more accurately describe the atmosphere and tone of certain music styles. What are some others you wish we could all agree upon?
