My Own Genre of Music

When I was in high school, my two favorite styles of music were Country and Hip-Hop/Rap. I liked most of the music that came thru in those genres. However, both have gone down in quality. My two complaints:

Country music has become a contest of cliches. This makes for very shallow songs.

Rap music seems to be on one subject: Money…and how much rappers have of it. If you aren’t well versed in jewelry and automobiles, you can become very lost in their lyrics. It especially bothers me when new rappers talk about these things. To me it seems wishful thinking on their part because they were writing these “lyrics” even before their first album was released. I wonder how many artists wrote about lots of money and then had a bad selling record. Ironic.

So, considering the spotted saturation of popular genres, a while back I decided to create my own genre. This genre is “Smooth Groove”. I enjoy this because I decide who is in and who is out. James Taylor, John Mayer, Pharrell, and Norah Jones are in. Any country stars debuting after 1999 are out. Joshua Radin, Willie Nelson, Kalai and Teitur are in. Clay Aiken and most “American Idol” contestants are out. (Clay Aiken is very, very, very, very out.)

The best thing about having your genre is that you can accept certain songs from artists, but not others. For instance, Chicago is in when the group included Peter Cetera. When Peter Cetera left in mid-1985, so did the band’s placement in the Smooth Groove genre.

I have this genre because when I want good music from all different genres, I play from Smooth Groove. Feel free to adopt the Smooth Groove genre. Customize it to your liking. Let me know who makes it in.

Here are two gems to get your Smooth Groove collections started.

Sleeping In by The Postal Service
Dear Sir by Again and Again