A new genre?

More music coming shortly but here’s my own little editorial: There is an entirely new genre of music that’s emerging.

It’s invisible at the moment because the people who do it are spread across a bunch of different subgenres of R&B, indie rock, electronic, and art pop. It’s not a direct combination of multiple genres, but rather a complete re-integration of them. Something completely new but with recognizable bits of lots of other things. If people hear it without knowing about all the various influences that are getting poured into it, it seems like a joke. But it’s not only serious, it’s making something completely new that demands a new genre tag to shape the conversation around it.

These thoughts came from writing up King Krule’s THE OOZ, because King Krule personifies this adventurous new thing to me. DJ Koze, Mount Kimbie, Mura Masa, Yves Tumor, and even Blood Orange and DJ Python, to an extent, seem to be part of it to me. I feel like Tyler The Creator probably belongs in this space as well.

So maybe I’ll end up being right, or maybe that’s just the weird way my brain works.

update: I’m calling it metamodernism

update 2: I really like the Bandsplaining channel on Youtube. He has the work ethic of an academic mixed with the nerdy energy of a guy who’s got strong opinions on the re-edits of the original Star Wars movies. I came across a really great iceberg-style video that looks at what I’m talking about here but with a more plugged-in ear to pop charts and the internet than I’ll probably ever have.