How often is it that you find an artist or a band that sticks to only one genre of music? It's hard to find even an album or EP that only limits itself to one genre, but a quick Google search will classify an artist or band under one, maybe two genres. We all know that each band has "that one heavy song" or "that one slow song" on each of their albums. The truth is, we categorize music based off of the majority of what each artist releases, and when said artist releases something that doesn't fit their style, they usually get backlash for it.
Take UK band Bring Me The Horizon for example. They released "Drown" in October of 2014.
One of the comments on this video is, "What the hell is this? What happened to the hardcore breakdowns and brutal BMTH mosh pits of 2010?"
Clearly, someone is missing a certain style of music, but does it actually make sense to ask a question like this YouTube user did?
It's a legitimate question. However, it's also common knowledge. What happened to Bring Me The Horizon? They released a song that didn't please the euphoric stimuli of some people's brains, that's all. They stepped away from their heavy roots for that one song and, well, people were disappointed.
The song ended up being on their new album, which they teased/announced a few months later. However, nobody was prepared for the entire metal-to-pop transition. In fact, when "Drown" was released, no one had any clue that BMTH's classified genre had officially changed. Some people liked it, but a lot of people hated it.
They officially released "Happy Song" as the first promotional single off their new album "That's The Spirit" a little over a year ago. The song (along with the album) is a lot lighter than what the majority of their old music sounds like. A lot of people were disappointed in this "rock" band. YouTube user "Vampire Kiss" commented on the video saying, "I used to think you were sick but turns out you're just a bunch of hipsters."
Umm, ouch?
Not really. I don't think there's any law or rule that says a band or artist can't venture out from their typical music genre and create something new, different, and adventurous. A musician isn't restricted to one type of music for their entire career. In fact, if you pull up any album from any band, you'll notice a pretty clear pattern. This pattern is pretty apparent in a lot of rock bands. The albums usually have one or two slow songs, one or two extremely heavy songs, and the rest of the songs are what fit their "style." You'll also notice that the heavier songs and the typical songs are their most popular ones.
No one really listens to the slow songs because it isn't "them," right?
But it is them. The musicians released the slow songs themselves, just like they released the heavy songs themselves. It's the same voice, same person, same everything.
Think about it. The same people, instruments, and voices that created "Count Your Blessings" and "Sempiternal" are the same people, instruments, and voices that created "That's The Spirit."
The same band released two very different types of music, but does that mean that one type of music that they create is wrong and the other is right?
