Gabriel Rich writes about Black Rock: A Forgotten Legacy?
To some extent Gabriel and the artists he mentions are right about pigeonholing music or respectively not pigeonholing it. In the end there’s only good and bad music whether you label it soul, jazz, house, broken beats, garage, pop, rock, urban, world music or whatever. But on the other hand putting a label on one’s music helps me as listener to decide if I want to listen to a record in the first place. As you may have noticed I like nearly anything from soul, funk, jazz to deep house. That’s not to say that I don’t like an album that explores more musical genres than one and mixes genres to present an own blend of music. You certainly will find me listening to a soul-jazz-funk album that also uses some rock influences but you hardly will find me listening to a pure rock album. Maybe because I’m usually not very fond of endless electric guitar solos or maybe because I listen to music consciously for over twenty years and I have cultivated my preferences over the years. Just like you develop your preferences for the food you eat. Being a music junkie I would rate music almost as important as food for me.
In the overcrowded marketplace of the music world it would be a little too simple to speak about music only, even if you label it “good music” and “bad music”. I’m sure no artist want to be filed under “bad music” then.
We certainly don’t need numerous subgenres but like it or not, there is a difference between a heavy metal and a soul record. So in my opinion it makes sense to say record A is a jazz records while record B is a rock record and if it’s just for marketing purposes. For example you find also music labeled on this site, just look at the categories on the left. Though often enough you may find a record filed under soul and jazz.
We certainly don’t need the adjective Black in Black Rock, because the colour doesn’t matter. It’s the talent of the musicians and the quality of their music that’s important.
Just let your ears and heart decide what kind of music you like and don’t let multimillion dollars advertising campaigns fool you.