Why aren't genres capitalised?

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What reasoning is behind leaving music genres all lower case, but when describing art terms such as Art Deco or Renaissance they all have leading capitals?

The only non-elitist reason I can imangine is the simple case of art terms describing times rather than styles, but this still seems odd to me.

Is there a more sinister factor at work? Or am I reading too much into semantics?

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:06 (twenty-three years ago)

genres aren't Real Movements.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:08 (twenty-three years ago)

and also they suck.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:09 (twenty-three years ago)

In general I don't think they should be, to be honest. As a writer who likes to make up genres at the drop of a hat, it could all get way beyond silly. But taake a look at The Wire - they capitalise certain genres and not others - like HipHop is capped whereas UK garage is not... this I find well odd, like some genres deserve caps and others don't...

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:11 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm with Chewy. Bring on the Jazz! The Rock! Even the Bluegrass! Fuck it, let's capitalize every letter! And mandate a huge point size! And exclaimation points!

JAZZ!
ROCK!
BLUEGRASS!

Or not.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:13 (twenty-three years ago)

microhouse and microsound shouldn't be capped though, coz they're all about not being big!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:15 (twenty-three years ago)

why is anything capitalised?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:17 (twenty-three years ago)

TS: French Impressionism vs. Queercore

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 28 April 2003 20:17 (twenty-three years ago)

HipHop is capitalised only because Krs-One insists on it.

Pop is always capitalised, no?

― Nik (Nik), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

the wire capitalizes genres sometimes ("Prog", "Metal") and it looks very goofy and wrong.

― dan (dan), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:21 (twenty-three years ago)

microhouse

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Monday, 28 April 2003 20:32 (twenty-three years ago)

What is The Wire's reasoning for this? Anyone know, coz it aint consistent and it annoys the living out of me! Is it some canonical thing or just the editor's foible, coz if that's the case then i reckon i'd be a lower-case stelfox!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Monday, 28 April 2003 21:02 (twenty-three years ago)

i've always capitalised GENRES

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 28 April 2003 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

MICROHOUSE!!! ROX

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 00:25 (twenty-three years ago)

"MINIMALISM" looks rubbish

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 08:29 (twenty-three years ago)

capitalization = deification = lack of responsbiilty to interrogate/ in the wire's case i guess as inverted defensive proof that 'creativity' is inherent and a genre can be anything you want it to be

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 09:04 (twenty-three years ago)

if it is pissing you off i think it is working!

― Chip Morningstar (bob), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 09:05 (twenty-three years ago)

when i wz wire ed i never knew whether to capitalise or not bcz there were a coupla contribs who got all high and mighty abt what capitalisation was a must and i needed em too much to risk pissing em off by saying em nay

at the mag i work at currently we do "Modernism" but "post-modernism": there is actually a rationale, but short of printing it on the contents page i think i'd cite arbitrary caprice to justify

english is creeping back towards 18th-century over-capitalisation anyway: one gallery sent us a press release explaining how the "The" in their name had always to be capitalised (fuck you [unnamed gallery] you don't own the fucking language!)

(also there had to be TWO spaces not one between the other two words of their name!!)

(!!!)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 09:25 (twenty-three years ago)

Arrrgggghh yes... agree and empathise totally. Bands who take this line should also be hit with hammers.

There is no reason at all to capitalise nouns. THEY'RE TRYING TO TURN US ALL GERMAN.

― DJ Mencap (DJ Mencap), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 09:41 (twenty-three years ago)

totally sympathise mark, i work as a sub-editor by day (partly why i refuse to re-read my posts - i get sick of doing it to other people's writing all day and ilm/email are my only available fora for personal typographical errors: cf "snindiness", which worked out quite well, as it happened!). people's caprices about what they choose to be worthy of capitalisation and what they don't drives me absolutely up the pole. there's very little rationale behind it and it's abitrary in the extreme, in most cases. when in doubt, i generally consult the OED and if it aint capped in there, bollocks!
big-up the lower-case massive, death to the blockcapheads!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 10:07 (twenty-three years ago)

why is anything capitalised?
-- mark s (mar...), April 28th, 2003.

I thought maybe your Shift key was busted.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 10:31 (twenty-three years ago)

by the way "the" and two other words in a gallery name... think i've sussed this one already... is one of the words a colour?

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 10:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Capitalisation is a meta-narrative, hence po-mo's don't do it! Rar!

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 10:42 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't do it cos i can't be bothered

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 10:49 (twenty-three years ago)

dave actually i can't remember!! (it wz abt two years ago)

all i remember is their stupid request

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 11:30 (twenty-three years ago)

most spectacularly, i once had a certain organisation say that the dot above the first "i" in their name had to be removed in all instances of its use... needless to say, i told them as said dot had been in use in the English version of the Latin alphabet since around about the 15th century, not to mention the fact that we would have to redesign all our fonts specifically for them, that i'd rather just leave them out of the publication altogether - they soon backed down!

― Dave Stelfox (Dave Stelfox), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 11:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I did a piece for the Wire last year, and the draft they sent back for various small revisions included the term Metal, capped. It just sorta struck me as funny. It still does.

We follow AP style for the most part where I work, and no genre names are capped. Not sure why really. That's one of the reasons you follow a stylebook, though . . . so someone else can make all those petty decisions for you. New Wave is capped, but only in reference to the French cinema movement.

And then there's the issue of whether or not to capitalize Black, which is perhaps best left for another time . . .

― Lee G (Lee G), Tuesday, 29 April 2003 12:34 (twenty-three years ago)

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