Genre Genesis

My interest in the notion of 'polymusical' tastes began because the songs I was writing myself seemed not to fall into the same categories as each other, but recently I've been thinking about where all the categories came from in the first place. My theory is that over a period of time, the contributions of numerous lesser lights finally culminated in the creations of one artist or group who synthesized their styles into one clearly defined style that formed the jumping-off point for thousands to follow.

So, for example, in simplistic terms, every modern musical is the result of composers and librettists struggling to live up to the legacy of Gilbert & Sullivan, who perfected the comic opera form that had been around for centuries. In the same way, every metal band is a child or grandchild of Led Zeppelin, who, as the first distorted-electric blues band, drew on generations of blues players, but created a new genre by changing the instrumentation and exaggerating the vocal style.

R&B is more difficult, because not only are the roots lost in poor historical documentation, but there are so many sub-styles, each with their own parent. Nevertheless, when the recording industry came into existence, the records of Lead Belly, Henry Thomas and "Blind" Lemon Jefferson had the effect of popularizing the music of the black American south, laying the foundations that would lead to the Motown sound. It's easy to miss the fact that, although Motown put out songs by many artists, the sound was the result primarily of one group of session musicians (The Funk Brothers) who played on dozens of hits, many of which were written by one group of songwriters (Holland-Dozier-Holland) thus codifying the style. I would argue that these two groups of creators are largely responsible for how R&B music sounds today, although much latitude needs to be extended as it's a huge category.

One of the most interesting genres for this historical dissection is Country Music, which, in contrast with the Blues Music of poor black American southerners, was the folk music of poor white American southerners. Originally known as 'hillbilly music,' it married instrumentation from Ireland (fiddle), Germany (dulcimer), Italy (mandolin), Spain (guitar) and West Africa (banjo), and later added the steel guitar from Hawaii. Generations of Appalachian settlers from these origins combined their talents and developed hillbilly music, and it all came together when one man laid it down on wax and became the voice of the genre: Jimmie Rodgers, The Father of Country Music.

Watch as this woman smiles and nods while Jimmie casually dashes off a couple of verses about shooting up his ex and her new boyfriend.