Music these days is divided into genres. Top-selling recordings are measured by how they do compared to others in their class, so there's a top ten pop list, a top ten country, a top ten classical. Even the iPod lets you sort your music library by genre.
But often tunes cross over from one area to another. Last week's Music Room touched on that famous crossover classical piece, Pachelbel's Canon in D. Not only did it become movie soundtrack music, it wormed its way into pop hits, and even electric guitar solos.
Do you ever get inspiration from a tune and move it into an entirely new music type? Cross on over to discuss how a piece can change its genre label.
Classical music isn't the only type that crosses into the pop world. Rock and Jazz have often cross-fertilized each other, as any fan of Steely Dan could observe. Some country is barely distinguishable from pop, which is why Weird Al Yankovic's cover of Billy Ray Cyrus' Achy Breaky Heart begs us not to play that Achy-Breaky song.
At the same time as last week's Music Room, there was a thread on songs people hate. And murrayewv posted this absolutely horrid video. You must see it to believe it: Paul Anka claiming to be singing Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit. This doesn't sound anything like grunge rock. It sounds like Paul Anka, Mr. sappy pop, playing big band. It does not work. The cameraman keeps focusing on one trombonist, probably to stop busting a gut.
I've "classicallized" many a pop piece when doodling at the piano. I've turned Mozart tunes into 12-bar. An ad for music software had a demo in it showing how to turn a pop piece into something with a Latin beat. And the piece my son and his band did for his class play last week was a crossover too: Hombre Secreto, by The Plugz, is a Spanish-punk version of Secret Agent Man, a 60s rock classic that was also a TV-theme. (It's on the Repo Man soundtrack if you want to hear it.)
So, what have you heard? What have you done? What would you love to borrow from another musical category? And can you find as egregious an example of genre-busting as Paul Anka borrowing from grunge?
This is a community music diary. All topics on music, musicians, and music-making are welcome.
Previous Music Room Diaries
#5 - 4/14/07 Inane Song Structures (Pachelbel)
#4 - 4/07/07 Ear Playing vs Sight Reading
#3 - 3/31/07 Perfect and Relative Pitch
#2 - 3/25/07 Music Lessons
#1 - 3/18/07 Jokes & Stories