Music genres you consider opposites

[Pink Jazz]

I was wondering, if you would consider two music genres opposites, what would they be?

I would consider smooth jazz and country to be polar opposites. Smooth jazz is a genre that is pink and smooth, while country is a genre that is brown and honky-tonky.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Progressive rock and punk rock, if only because one of the reasons for the musical emergence of the punk movement was rebelling against the perceived excesses of prog rock.

[JayhawkCO]

Kenny G and Gwar.

[kphoger]

folk music / ambient music

[kurumi]

Progressive rock and punk rock, if only because one of the reasons for the musical emergence of the punk movement was rebelling against the perceived excesses of prog rock.

When bands like Cardiacs manage to do well mixing both, it's a notable thing

[gonealookin]

Jam and pop.  In pop every note is rehearsed and fits in a specific place; (good) jamming is about the improvisation resulting from communication between the musicians.

[hbelkins]

Rap/hip-hop and everything else.

[kphoger]

Rap/hip-hop and everything else.

Actually...  How about...

rap / instrumental music

[mgk920]

Hard core rap and Muzak (remember that?)

Mike

[wanderer2575]

Rap/hip-hop and everything else.

Actually...  How about...

rap / instrumental music

You win the thread!

Humorist Dave Barry's description of rap:  "A bunch of angry men shouting, possibly because the person who was supposed to provide them with a melody never showed up."

[brad.jons]

For me, I have this pair in mind:

- Classic music vs Electro music

[Henry]

Rock & roll and Top-40:

Rock & roll uses real instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, horns, etc.), and Top-40 uses a bunch of fake sounds coming from a keyboard synthesizer.

[MikieTimT]

Gospel and hip-hop.

[DTComposer]

Rock & roll and Top-40:

Rock & roll uses real instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, horns, etc.), and Top-40 uses a bunch of fake sounds coming from a keyboard synthesizer.

Why are the sounds "fake"? Are we unable to hear them? Do they not actually exist?

***

For opposites in both sound and intent, how about Baroque and Classical periods (i.e. Handel through Beethoven), much of which was written in service of institutions of authority (the church and the monarchy), and punk, much of which was written to tear down those same institutions.

[kphoger]

Rock & roll and Top-40:

Rock & roll uses real instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, horns, etc.), and Top-40 uses a bunch of fake sounds coming from a keyboard synthesizer.

Why are the sounds "fake"? Are we unable to hear them? Do they not actually exist?

To expand on that...  How is a keyboard synthesizer any more "fake" than an electric guitar running through effects pedals?

[The Nature Boy]

Rap/hip-hop and everything else.

I would argue that rap and country are very similar, at least in concept. Both started out as an art form for working class expression but the mainstream form of each became so commercialized that it's unrecognizable today.

[kurumi]

Rock and Rock in Opposition should count

[bugo]

Gospel and hip-hop.

A lot of modern rap has a strong gospel influence. Hip hop is an incredibly diverse genre. and DJs and producers borrow from all different kinds of music.

Humorist Dave Barry's description of rap:  "A bunch of angry men shouting, possibly because the person who was supposed to provide them with a melody never showed up."

Rock & roll uses real instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, horns, etc.), and Top-40 uses a bunch of fake sounds coming from a keyboard synthesizer.
[/quote]

What in the fuck is that supposed to mean? There's no such thing as a "fake" or "real" sound. I don't know if you're attempting to distinguish between analog sounds and digital sounds, but a lot of early keyboards like the Moog synthesizers were analog. A guitar chord is no more valid than a beep you created in Audacity and modified and used in a song.

Your head is about to explode, but there are guitar synths. Judas Priest infamously used guitar synths on the Turbo album. I played one about 30 years ago, and it was pretty cool. One of the presets was a drumkit, and each string was a different drum. It would have taken a lot of energy into playing a beat with a guitar, but it could be done.

[kphoger]

I played one about 30 years ago, and it was pretty cool. One of the presets was a drumkit, and each string was a different drum. It would have taken a lot of energy into playing a beat with a guitar, but it could be done.

Then there's Roy Wooten's "SynthAxe Drumitar".

[thspfc]

Rap/hip-hop and everything else.

I would say it's most opposite of country.

[kphoger]

rap / instrumental music

I would say it's most opposite of country.

I chose instrumental music because rap is chiefly defined by its lyrics.  The concept of rap with no lyrics breaks my brain.

[ErmineNotyours]

Gospel and hip-hop.

A lot of modern rap has a strong gospel influence. Hip hop is an incredibly diverse genre. and DJs and producers borrow from all different kinds of music.

Humorist Dave Barry's description of rap:  "A bunch of angry men shouting, possibly because the person who was supposed to provide them with a melody never showed up."

Rock & roll uses real instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, horns, etc.), and Top-40 uses a bunch of fake sounds coming from a keyboard synthesizer.

What in the fuck is that supposed to mean? There's no such thing as a "fake" or "real" sound. I don't know if you're attempting to distinguish between analog sounds and digital sounds, but a lot of early keyboards like the Moog synthesizers were analog. A guitar chord is no more valid than a beep you created in Audacity and modified and used in a song.

Your head is about to explode, but there are guitar synths. Judas Priest infamously used guitar synths on the Turbo album. I played one about 30 years ago, and it was pretty cool. One of the presets was a drumkit, and each string was a different drum. It would have taken a lot of energy into playing a beat with a guitar, but it could be done.

While Autotune has been around for a while, there has been a recent trend of beats snapped to a grid, or a drum machine that doesn't obviously sound like a drum machine at first.  "Real" music, that is music descended from blues, is looser and not always on the beat, so modern processed music seems too antiseptic.  Or at least that's my excuse for not keeping up with new genres.

[kphoger]

While Autotune has been around for a while, there has been a recent trend of beats snapped to a grid, or a drum machine that doesn't obviously sound like a drum machine at first.  "Real" music, that is music descended from blues, is looser and not always on the beat, so modern processed music seems too antiseptic.  Or at least that's my excuse for not keeping up with new genres.

If a beat held strictly to tempo is what disqualifies music as "real music", then you just disqualified Mozart.  While rubato melody was normal during his time, he insisted that the underlying accompaniment (i.e., the beat) be kept to a very strict tempo.  I believe even Chopin, famous for his rubato, may have similarly kept a strict beat while allowing the melody a great deal of liberty—even between right hand and left hand in the same piano piece.

[bm7]

Gospel and hip-hop.

A lot of modern rap has a strong gospel influence. Hip hop is an incredibly diverse genre. and DJs and producers borrow from all different kinds of music.

Humorist Dave Barry's description of rap:  "A bunch of angry men shouting, possibly because the person who was supposed to provide them with a melody never showed up."

Rock & roll uses real instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, horns, etc.), and Top-40 uses a bunch of fake sounds coming from a keyboard synthesizer.

What in the fuck is that supposed to mean? There's no such thing as a "fake" or "real" sound. I don't know if you're attempting to distinguish between analog sounds and digital sounds, but a lot of early keyboards like the Moog synthesizers were analog. A guitar chord is no more valid than a beep you created in Audacity and modified and used in a song.

Your head is about to explode, but there are guitar synths. Judas Priest infamously used guitar synths on the Turbo album. I played one about 30 years ago, and it was pretty cool. One of the presets was a drumkit, and each string was a different drum. It would have taken a lot of energy into playing a beat with a guitar, but it could be done.

While Autotune has been around for a while, there has been a recent trend of beats snapped to a grid, or a drum machine that doesn't obviously sound like a drum machine at first.  "Real" music, that is music descended from blues, is looser and not always on the beat, so modern processed music seems too antiseptic.  Or at least that's my excuse for not keeping up with new genres.

Electronically composed music (I assume that's what you mean by "beats snapped to a grid") isn't a new thing, DAW software have been very widely used for music production since the early 90s. So if you consider that to be "fake", it's been around for over 30 years now, just as long as autotune has.

Saying that "real music" is music that came after blues doesn't make much sense to me either. Was all music before blues fake as well? And besides that, when listening to non-electronic/"real" music, I've never noticed anything being off-beat unless the person playing the instrument messed up, which is very rare in an officially released recording.

[bugo]

While Autotune has been around for a while, there has been a recent trend of beats snapped to a grid, or a drum machine that doesn't obviously sound like a drum machine at first.  "Real" music, that is music descended from blues, is looser and not always on the beat, so modern processed music seems too antiseptic.  Or at least that's my excuse for not keeping up with new genres.

Recent? They've been using DAWs since the 1980s, and click tracks even further back. Rick Beato has talked about this on his channel. As for the only authentic music being blues, that's total nonsense. Classical music is not based on blues. A lot of rock bands have purged any traces of blues out of their sound. I don't completely disagree with you about programmed drums, but they have a time and a place and should not be discarded just because you feel that they are "fake". A processed guitar tone is "fake". Anything played on a synthesizer is "fake". A lot of bands use digital amp and speaker modelling instead of lugging heavy Marshall stacks around with them, because it is so much easier to deal with.