My final featured artist in the musical genome is the trickiest of the bunch.
The Rolling Stones don’t fit neatly into any of my categories. While they have tried their hand at the country genre a few times (with both good and bad results), I can’t see placing them in ‘Country Plus.’ They aren’t really a pop or folk band, tracing their origins more to the blues tradition. Neither do they fit in the ‘Piano’ or ‘Melancholy’ groups.
Every time I listen to Belle & Sebastian, I’m overcome by this feeling that I never need to listen to anything else.
It’s a quality of their music that doesn’t just strike a nerve but grabs hold of a nerve and strums it like an upright bass.
One guess which musical genome category The Smiths fall into. That’s right, boys and girls, we have another ‘Melancholy’ sighting!
I can also make a strong case for the ‘Pure Pop’ category. Those who are only passingly familiar with the band’s discography might associate them only with self-pitying mope rock and remain unaware of guitarist Johnny Marr’s peerless knack for shimmering pop hooks.
R.E.M. is best known as one of the forefathers of the alternative music genre, but in terms of sound I place them squarely in the folk rock tradition. Particularly on their early albums, you can trace Peter Buck’s guitar work straight back to The Byrds.
The band evolved into more of a rock sound — even grunge on 1994’s Monster and parts of subsequent albums — and also found success with the pop style (particularly on Green and Out of Time).
The final week of the genome project kicks off without any of the complexity of last Friday’s focus, Elvis Costello.
Miranda Lambert doesn’t blend genres and influences — she’s a country girl, through and through. ‘Country Plus,’ to use my designation, and she earns the ‘plus’ through the songwriting and performing chops that have lifted her to the top of the charts and onto countless critics’ best-of lists.
