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[lbarbs]

I have developed a scale that can be used to describe most guitar based music:

It has four components.

Style: (0-20), where 0 is folk/country, 5 is folk-rock, 10 is rock and 20 is heavy-satanic-fantasy-death-metal

Mood: (0-10), where 0 is kill-me-now-depressive, 2 is Coldplay, and 10 is lets-jump-up-and-down-like-idiots-on-speed

Originality: (0-10), where 0 is yet-more-coldplay/arctic monkeys, and 10 is Eberg.

Popularity: (0-10), where 0 is the band at your local, and 10 is the beatles.

Discuss.

[Garcin]

I think that giving music numerical scores is silly.  Listen.  Enjoy.  Guitar can be very technical but boring.  It can be very sloppy but interesting and innovative.  Or it can just be new and wierd.  What's the point in counting?

[Thrillho]

I think you just wasted a whole load of your time.

And why the fuck is folk/country/folk-rock naturally = shit? What the fuck is that?

[GamerMunkie]

Yeah, and why does depressing music have to rate low.

Gymnopodie #1 is one of the best guitar pieces I have ever heard, and yet on your scale it rates pretty damn low...

[KharBevNor]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it's meant to mean that things with low scores are bad, it's just creating extremes. Also, I don't think you're meant to add scores together.

Like Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath would be something like:

Style: 18
Mood: 2
Originality: 7
Popularity: 7

Whilst Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over the Sea might be:

Style: 3
Mood: 6
Originality: 5
Popularity: 3

However, both are good.

Right?

[Scandanavian War Machine]

trying too hard!


ABORT! ABORT!

[Lines]

wow. that scale makes me sad. i give it a -5 on style, -2 on mood, -10 on originality (everyone bashes coldplay, sheesh), and so far a 0 on popularity, because no one seems to like it.

[Valrus]

Khar liked it enough to use it for two albums.

I think it's a waste of time, but no more than most anything else in this forum. Also I like numbers and classification because I'm a huge dork.

[negative creep]

what i'd like to know is how "musically correct" this guy thinks his own band is...

[pat101]

this is dumb

[Kai]

what i'd like to know is how "musically correct" this guy thinks his own band is...

well, it's silkworm, so the answer is "really correct".

[Brian Majestic]

How does one define originality in music, exactly?

[BeoPuppy]

If you don't recognise it, it's original.

[lbarbs]

Wo! Misunderstanding here. low numbers is not bad. My prefered style of music would be (6,3,5,5). Anything above ten on the style scale scares the hell out of me.

The scale is not about good/bad at all. Folk, arguably is the best style of music.

It is about being able to describe music in a very simple way. no faffing about with things like "It fusses Band A with Band B, but also sounds like Band-I've-never-heard-of".

[jcknbl]

So basically you REALLY love Elliott Smith's lighter material.

[Lines]

thanks for the clarification! that makes it better.

though personally i don't think music is an easy thing to describe, so i'd prefer compare/contrast with other music, just so if i'm describing it to someone, they might understand that vs. a scale they don't know about.

[Garcin]

Wo! Misunderstanding here. low numbers is not bad. My prefered style of music would be (6,3,5,5). Anything above ten on the style scale scares the hell out of me.

The scale is not about good/bad at all. Folk, arguably is the best style of music.

It is about being able to describe music in a very simple way. no faffing about with things like "It fusses Band A with Band B, but also sounds like Band-I've-never-heard-of".

I think you might be confusing "style" with "volume".  Joanna Newsom and Okkervil River are both often called "neo-folk", and yet I find them at least as "stylish" as, say, Blood Brothers.

If you were to, say, hear Ratatat for the first time, would you describe them to a friend as "stylish, moody, original, but unpopular"?  I hope not.  You might say, however: "It's post-rock duo with a guitarist, a bassist, and an occasional keyboardist that goes for hypnotic repeated riffs over a sample-heavy pregenerated soundscape.  Their songs tend to shift tempo around midway and shift back to conclude fast and louder.  They sound a bit like Explosions in the Sky, simpler and less bleak."

See what I did there?  No numbers!

[The Hammered]

tim midgett, formerly of silkworm, has a theory called 'musical correctness' which he explains at some length here.

reminds me kind of this.

It doesn't really remind me of this, but looking at that, what a load of crap.

[Garcin]

Just a like any other music scale: a complicated way to reinforce your prejudices.

[KharBevNor]

Again, I don't think style thing is supposed to imply bands have more or less style, but just to show opposites.

It's a nifty idea, but kinda impractical.

Also:

Joanna Newsom and Okkervil River are both often called "neo-folk"

Umn, no. They're 'New Wierd America' or whatever the press is calling it this week.

Neo-folk is a post-industrial/experimental and mostly dark take on folk that had its roots laid in the 70's by The Wicker Man soundtrack, Nico, Changes and a few others, and now describes bands generally claiming some sort of descent from the holy triptych of Death in June, Sol Invictus and Current 93 such as Of The Wand and the Moon, Gae Bolg, Sieben, Forseti, Darkwood, In Gowan Ring, The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath a Cloud, etc. etc. These bands are bought together by a shared sense of imagery rooted in occultism, medieval themes and the shadow of the second world war.

[Coonstar]

Joanna Newsom and Okkervil River are both often called "neo-folk"

Would freak-folk be the appropriate term?

[Garcin]

I've also seen neo-psychadelic, avant-folk, and worst of all, lofi.  I think neo-psychadelic and lofi are inaccurate and avant-folk is pretentious.  New wierd American is a Britishism that gives me the screamin' heebie jeebies.  I know neo-folk happens to be appropriated, Khar, but that's what this stuff technically is "new" "folk".  Maybe we should just call it "New Folk".

Also, Okkervil River has a ton of range; half the time they're sounding alt-country or just plain indie rock.  I think the best way to describe music is to say "It sounds like x" and if they don't know what "x" is, send them the album and make them listen.  Don't tell the RIAA I said that.

[Johnny C]

Freak-folk is the term which I think describes it best. Because really, freaks. Makin' folk.

Anyways. I don't really see a problem with this thing - it's kind of esoteric and totally unnecessary. What would be interesting would be to score different bands and see if you like bands with similar scores or if they're all over the place.

[KharBevNor]

I know neo-folk happens to be appropriated, Khar, but that's what this stuff technically is "new" "folk".  Maybe we should just call it "New Folk".

Yeah, but people have been making 'new' folk of some sort since the 70's. Think up new names and don't be a lazybones!

[nuisance]

tim midgett, formerly of silkworm, has a theory called 'musical correctness' which he explains at some length here.

reminds me kind of this.

That's damn funny.  Love the complete arbitrariness of it all and the closing comment that the theory only works when it's Tim Midgett himself coming up with the numbers.  

Pretty decent way to illustrate the futility of attempting to quantify music this way.

[lbarbs]

Blah

I think you might be confusing "style" with "volume".  Joanna Newsom and Okkervil River are both often called "neo-folk", and yet I find them at least as "stylish" as, say, Blood Brothers.

blah

See what I did there?  No numbers!

I like numbers! I dislike words. Thus, I may  have used the wrong words for each scale.

This is just how i describe music without words.

[Wayfaring Stranger]

It's okay on paper, but it's still a subjective scale.  People are going to have pretty wildly different opinions on what's original, what's popular, what's depressing, what genre it is, and why it matters.