Categorizing my music has always been hard. My influences come from film scores, alternative music, industrial, rap and all kinds of other places. And considering that I compose music for various purposes (my instrumental albums, my soundtracks, my comedy-rap projects which we usually don’t talk about here haha), that makes it even more difficult. Which is why it was so cool when the makers of Every Noise At Once, a new experimental website that shows every possible genre of music (and there are a lot of them) organized in a connected cloud, responded to my tweet asking, “I wonder what genre my music is?”
Their answer? Well it’s not just one genre. That’s not how the site works. However, the closest match in their opinion is what’s known as Epicore. Because of the way Every Noise At Once works, Epicore is just the start. From there, it branches out into a cloud of genres and artists that fit into those genres which you can see in the image below. You can also click on Epicore in this post to take you directly to the section of the site that they sent me, centered around Epicore and moving outward from there. Here are the genres listed and my thoughts on how they apply to me and my music:
- Epicore – I love the name. Certainly my music that gets really big fits this name. However when I tried to look up Epicore, I found that it was more of a metal based genre used for big, epic metal music. Which doesn’t really describe my music too well.
- Organic Ambient – Interesting description for my music. A lot of my music is ambient, that’s for sure. Organic? Not so much. Although with each album and each film score I work on, I try to get more and more organic sounding (less like it was made on a computer). Still, it definitely sounds cool when applied to my music haha.
- Mandible – This is an odd one since when searching for it I couldn’t even find an example on Google of the phrase “mandible genre” existing. However with that said, after listening to some of the artists Every Sound At Once has tagged as mandible music, I’d say it’s a pretty damn apt description. Although some of the examples get much more urban sounding than my music (there’s definitely a lot of samples and chopped up loops in some of the examples), overall it has a very similar vibe to my more mid-tempo music. Mandible… I like it.
- Video Game Music – Video Games were a HUGE part of my childhood, so there’s no doubt whatsoever that their music had a big influence on me. I don’t really do much work in Video Games as I prefer working in film (although I’m always open to the opportunity to work on more games in the future). But even so, a lot of my music definitely could fit in games and this is a totally appropriate genre.
- Dark Ambient – I loved seeing this one because I’ve actually called my music this before. Dark Ambient and/or Dark Electronica. It really describes what I do and I think it’s one of the most accurate on the list.
- Hauntology – Ooh wow do I love this one. You guys know I love my dark and haunting music. I don’t even know if that’s what Hauntology means but it sure sounds cool. After doing some Googling I found a lot of references to the band Boards of Canada which a lot of people told me I should listen to after hearing my music, so it must be somewhat similar. Either way I love it. Hauntology.
- Abstractro – Another cool name! I should make a song called “Abstractro.” This is making me realize how uncool I have become haha. I used to know all about new music and what’s happening in the world of music, especially back when I worked for Sony Music, but now there’s genres like Abstractro and Hauntology… Who can keep up? I have no idea but I will say that when listening to examples of the genres, this one included some of the best music I heard, so hey, it’s great company to keep.
- Anime Score – Interesting one here. I have never really watched Anime, but from my understanding it’s like a mix of Video Game Music and Film Soundtracks. Very Japanese. Very wild and cool with a mix of synth and orchestral stuff happening. I could be wrong but I think I’m right haha. Anyway, I’ll take it, although I think the orchestral stuff in an most Anime Score music gets much more complex and huge than I could ever hope to create.
- Scorecore – I love this one because it seems like such a perfect word to use in describing my music. I create film scores and I create music for just listening to on albums. Put them together you get scores and some kind of -core music… Why not Scorecore? This genre basically includes every big name Hollywood Film composer you can think of though, so I guess maybe that’s a common term to describe film score composers? I certainly never heard it before. I like it though!
- Soundtrack – Of course Soundtrack would be on the list as all of my music is, by design, supposed to sound like it could be on a soundtrack. Works for me. Works for you? Good.
And that’s the list. Of course the way this connected cloud works, you could click on say Abstractro and find other genres that connect to it and keep moving on and on from there. Every Noise At Once is a really cool website and I suggest you check it out. If nothing else, it will give you an appreciation for just how many different kinds of music are out there, and hopefully, turn you on to some new artists.
Just make sure you check out my FREE newly released Another Sky bonus album first haha. Did I mention it’s FREE?
OH and one more thing before I go… What do YOU think my genre of music is? I’d love to hear. It can be one on the above list or use your own description. Comment below or on Facebook to let me know!
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David Rosen is an award-winning music composer. He composes original music for films, commercials, jingles, video-games and all other kinds of media projects. He has a vast music library of original tracks available for licensing and is also available for custom compositions. Contact him on theABOUT page for pricing and availability for your next project.