antiGUY gives his top 5 list of music stuff. Could be songs, people, a stupid trend... nothing is sacred to antiGUY

This Months Top 5

Top 5 Misused Music Labels

What's in a label? I know people like to throw a label on everything. This is metal, this is hard rock, this is punk and this is crap� oops I meant rap. But what happens when in the span of a few years a label is used to describe two totally different forms of music? Or a label is misleading? A Cheap Trick fan hears about this killer new power-pop group and is dismayed when he pops the Sum 41 CD into his CD player. Or some poor misguided soul who loves Poison and is told about this killer new metal band, Slipknot? What would happen if a music store clerk told a punk fan to buy the latest Blink-182 CD, much violence would ensue? You can see the dilemma. So this month I thought it would be interesting to look at five of the most misused genre labels. I realize that music does evolve and changes with time but I think the following with be instructive in showing this process going awry.

Top 5 Misused Music Labels

5.) Hair Band � It seems this label is used to classify any band that had long hair and made music in the 80's.

4. )Alternative Rock � When grunge (another misused label) hit big, people began to call forms of harder edged rock Alternative. Well the fact is that this music became mainstream so it couldn't be alternative any longer! What's it an alternative to? Itself?

3.) Pop � The word pop has been used through the years to discribe everything from The Beatles to Cheap Trick to the Backstreet Boys. True, pop is short for popular music but these days is synonymous with over processed focused grouped dance and bubblegum music.

2.) Pop Punk � This label is often used to described pop bands that use simplistic chord structures. While there are a few bands that could be labeled Pop Punk like All most of the bands that are called Pop-Punk these days are really just power-pop groups� Blink 182

and the number one Misused Music Label is

Boy Band � I get the boy part, but the band label is a misnomer. A band that doesn't play instruments is a group, in the case of what are called boy bands, they are boy singing groups. Hanson is a boy band = 3 boys in a band.