Whose Genre Is It, Anyway?

One thing I love about music nowadays is how the genres are starting to blur together more and more as time goes on. Pop, rock, country, blues, soul, jazz, R&B and hip-hop have always overlapped a little bit, but it seems to be happening more now than ever before. It's probably a symbiotic thing: as artists become more experimental and all-encompassing with the music they create, we listeners begin to appreciate a wider variety of genres ... and those of us listeners who also make our own music push the creative envelope even further as a result, broadening the palates of the next generation of listeners.

There have always been artists who've had crossover success, from Elvis Presley (famous not just in the rock world, but had a big country following and was even known for gospel singing), to the historic collaboration between Aerosmith and Run-DMC ("Walk This Way", the first successful rock-rap hybrid song), which probably led in part to the whole "nu-metal" genre. Now we have the hip-hop/R&B/pop mashup Gnarls Barkley, and many other artists who simply don't fit neatly into one particular genre of music.

I've become wary of most genre labels in recent years, because it's impossible to do any artist justice by calling them "pop" or "rock" or anything in particular ... which brings me to the two artists I'm highlighting in this post. I won't even attempt to classify these albums in any particular genre, because it can't be done ... which means they'd probably appeal to a fairly large percentage of listeners. That's probably another reason that "genre-benders", as I call them, are increasing in number: a wider target audience means a greater chance for success ... not that either of these artists was consciously using that strategy.

Bent Fabric -- Bent Fabricius-Bjerre is a Danish pianist in his eighties, who scored a big hit decades ago with a charming piano-powered tune called "Alley Cat" (you'd recognize it if you heard it). Now, he's gotten some help turbo-charging his music for a new generation on the fantastic, and appropriately-titled, album "Jukebox". There are a few instrumental piano-based tracks here, but also plenty of actual songs, featuring several different guest vocalists. Whether you're looking for jazz, hip-hop, soul, pop, or all of the above, you'll find it here.

Lazyboy -- You know those "miscellaneous factoids" and "amusing sayings" emails that are perpetually floating around the internet? Well, imagine the better of those being recited over laid-back "chill-out" beats and instrumentals, and you have a general idea of what Lazyboy sounds like on their album "Lazyboy TV". The most popular single from this album is different from all the rest: the sharp-witted comedy of Greg Giraldo narrating a social-commentary track called "Underwear Goes Inside The Pants". There are also some "feel-good" numbers like "Inhale Positivity" and "It's All About Love..." (the titles speak for themselves), as well as Lazyboy's take on the classic poem "Desiderata", which fits right in. Predictable? Maybe ... but for some reason I really, really like this album.