Sorting music by texture
You've heard of sorting music by genre. You've heard of sorting it by artist. Maybe even album cover colour. Have you ever sorted it by texture?
Now, I go about this in a weird way. I don't have any form of synesthesia, so you'll have to only take my word for it when I say there are textures in music that don't relate at all to the sound used in the songs itself.
JUST let it be known that I HAVE NO IDEA what part of the song makes it THAT texture it's like a feeling. it can never just be the instruments themselves, voice, layering, arrangement, even just audible grain affects where I place someone.
1. Graphic
My favourite texture. I think the music under this category sound strikingly digital but still, very, grounded in the earth. it sounds organically digital in a way.
I named it 'graphic' because it reminded me of comics and paper. Like, printed comics. You can see all the imperfect marks and lines--but it's still very, undoubtably, shockingly, on smooth magazine-ish paper. I just got my copy of 'Hellblazer: Original Sins' and it's exactly that. It can also be watercolour paper--textured, roughly smooth paper--just in any way it's organic matter digitally printed.
Under graphic I have the following artists
- Rollercoaster
- Mei Ehara
- Some of Toby Fox's music
- Meaningful Stone
- Minuano
- HUS
- Mei Semones
- Cocteau Twins
- Nujabes
- Jack Stauber
- Yuzame Radio
- jizue
- tricot
- Floral
All this to say it sounds SUPER base instrument-y like with Analog (I'll get to that one) just more electronically pushed into being digitally aligned
2. Analog
Very similar to how I see Graphic music. They're really, really similar actually now that I think about it but there's a tiny, tiny distinction I can't explain. It's like, if you but this on a number line and the lower the number the more organic it sounds, if Digital is at 1 then Analog would be at -1 and Graphic would be at 0. It's just a little lesser digital.
do you understand why I said I go about this weird now?
soo, the texture of the music. To me all the music under this texture feel super, like, fake Pokemon cards. You can always tell apart real pokemon cards from fakes--fakes have that grain. they always have that grain! Analog is a very old-books-from-a-library-nobody's-opened-in-decades-foxgloved-type-ahh-pages texture. Not vibe--- books wouldn't be a correct vibe,, since there's too many different vibes here (which is a completely different thing mind you. texture, genre, vibe, and everything else make music)
Under Analog I have the following artists
- MFDOOM
- A Tribe called Quest
- Beabadoobe
- Micheal Jackson
- Anri
- Laufey
- BABYMETAL
- Dødssanger
- Rory in early 20's
- NOCTURNAL BLOODLUST
- Aurat
- Talking Heads
- Digable Planets
- Liana Flores
- Lana Del Rey
- Masayoshi Takanaka
- John Roseboro
- Anna Bates
Obviously, some are inbetweeners. They float between being more organic or digital than they're placed; I blame myself and the incredible range of artists. Just know that this texture is a transition texture.
3. Digital
This is painfully obvious, it's electronic. smooth. digital
Under Digital I have the following artists
- strxberrymilk
- Grimes
- 6arelyhuman
- Marshmallow
- AZALI
- Metaroom
- VERTIGOAWAY
- Kaizo Slumber
- Lumi Athena
- specifcally the more house-leaning Azelia Banks songs
- Graham Kartna
- Ice Spice
- spellcasting
- Kikuo
- NewJeans
- Perfume
- ZUTOMAYO
- Alan Walker
- OMORI
4. Organic
The literal opposite of Digital. This texture is very, like, cloth-y. It feels like canvas cloth. Not particularly rugged, but very touchy-feely. sensory experience is crazy. Also, this Texture is very base instrument-y (as in nothing really much added using computers) so expect like.. traditional music
Under Organic I have the following artists
- Stan Getz
- Andrew Hale
- Preservation Hall Jazz Band
- Corb Lund
- The Brothers Comatose
- Spires & Boden
- Bellowhead
- Blaze Foley
- Brown Bird
- The Two Man Gentlemen Band
- Faustus
- The Dreadnoughts
I also wanna say some of Laufey's current work fit here since she went a more jazzy-orchestra route since her start with "Street by Street" WHICH is a fantastic song btw!!
I think that Lamp can fit in every one of these textures. They're the band.
thanks for listening to my ramblings on music texture! before you go, keep in mind I litchrally have 0 knowledge in music besides just.. surface level stuff. I'm merely a listener who badly plays bass. OH and I'm probably gonna talk about this again sometime,,
See ya later, aligator