Put it all together and it spells g-e-n-r-e

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"In 1907 the American music publisher Jerome H. Remick offered songs for sale under the following labels: ballad, cowboy song, novelty, Irish comic, coon song, Indian love song, waltz song, topical song, sentimental ballad, march song, and march ballad. In the same period E.M. Wickes, in his book Advice to Songwriters, distinguished between the ballad and the novelty song: the former included 'the Semi-high-class, March, Rustic, Irish, Descriptive, and Mother'; the latter 'Flirting, Juvenile, Philosophical, Comic, Irish, Production, Stage, Suggestive, and Ragtime.'" --Simon Frith, Performing Rites, p. 76.

My suggestion is that we classify all of contemporary music according to these categories. For instance, Eminem's "Kill You" clearly belongs in the category "Mother" ("Just bend over and take it like a slut; OK, Ma?"). His "Stan," however, might both be a "flirting" novelty and a march ballad, the latter because of its resemblance to Little Peggy March's "I Will Follow Him" ("'I Will Follow Him' is rumored to be the linguistic objectification of will taken from an Italian march and recorded by a girl appropriately named Little Peggy March," says Richard Meltzer in The Aesthetics of Rock), especially its use of the "I Will Follow Him" mountain-high valley-low motif. In this case, the river to the depths of which Stan's girlfriend unwillingly follows him is functionally equivalent to the valley of "I Will Follow Him." One could argue, of course, that "Stan" is only a semi-march, in that it has no mountain; but that would just be carping.

― Frank Kogan, Monday, 20 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is beautiful. I'm going to have to think over some responses here, but off the top of my head Radiohead's "Packt Like Sardines," to which I listen right now, is potentially a march ballad due to the beat combined with the melancholy air -- though arguably in the second set of descriptions it is more 'novelty' than 'ballad,' for it is, depending on your point of view, either Juvenile or Philosophical.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 20 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hrm. The first thing I noticed was that "Irish" appears in both categories.

All the good stuff: "Flirting, Juvenile, Philosophical, Comic, Suggestive," same as it ever was. So Frank, the answer to your question is: "yes, this is still how we classify music." Who (aside from middling-yuppies, same in 1907 as now I suppose) would want to be so hopelessly middle-brow as to enjoy: "the Semi-high-class, March, Rustic, Irish, Descriptive, and Mother." Feh.

― Jess, Monday, 20 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

D'oh...I completely misread that. But my answer still holds. ;]

In any event, almost all dance music would classify as "march," although it would also have to have an additional genre tacked on based on style. House for instance could be "march-philosophical" or "march-suggestive." Gabba/happy hardcore would be "march-comic" or "march-juvenile." Listening to an old skool techstep mix, however, it would obviously just be "march." ;]

― Jess, Monday, 20 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eight months pass...

REVIVE.

(despite the fact that i use the dreaded emoticons.)

― jess, Saturday, 27 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

LOVE the emoticons. The emoticons love you.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 27 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three years pass...

i'm still baffled by the inclusion of 'irish' in both categories.

and 'philosophical' under 'novelty'!

REVIVE

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 10 June 2005 09:35 (twenty years ago)

I just wanna see someone step up and start nominating modern-day coon songs.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 10 June 2005 09:46 (twenty years ago)

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy
Hit young Rocky in the eye Rocky didn't like that
He said I'm gonna get that boy
So one day he walked into town
Booked himself a room in the local saloon.

Rocky Raccoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Rocky had come equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival
His rival it seems had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy.
Her name was Magil and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy.
Now she and her man who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe down
Rocky burst in and grinning a grin
He said Danny boy this is a showdown
But Daniel was hot-he drew first and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner.

Now the doctor came in stinking of gin
And proceeded to lie on the table
He said Rocky you met your match
And Rocky said, Doc it's only a scratch
And I'll be better I'll be better doc as soon as I am able.

Now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 June 2005 09:57 (twenty years ago)

Though a serious chart threat, Swizz Beatz's productions sound like a guy road-testing his Casio presets at the Nuremberg Rally.
--Sasha Frere-Jones, 2000

Ruff Ryders' "Down Bottom," which, while possibly having too much counterrhythm to get the boots tappin' at Nuremberg, is nonetheless March ("Do we fuck 'em till they come?/Hell yeah we make 'em come"), and possibly Descriptive and Mother as well, hence in the ballad category; yet it's also Juvenile (in fact it features Juvenile), not to mention Flirting, Comic, and Suggestive, so it's dead-center in the novelty column, too. And then, if we look at the first categorization scheme ("ballad, cowboy song, novelty, Irish comic"), it certainly is a march, but is it a march song or a march ballad? Normally I'd have said song, except not only have we seen that March is a subcategory of ballad, but by 1907 standards there probably isn't enough true singing for this to qualify as a song. So the taxonomy is hopelessly tangled.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Friday, 10 June 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

oh, i was hoping someone would try that; the reason i found your thread to revive in the first place was that i was searching for juvenile threads.

― Josh (Josh), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:07 (twenty years ago)

Oh you won't find many juvenile threads around here....

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Friday, 10 June 2005 21:55 (twenty years ago)

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