History Main / DeadHorseGenre

!!Hippie music(Not including PsychedelicRock)

NuMetal is an umbrella term coined in the mid-1990s to refer to music that blends heavy metal elements with other styles, typically {{Industrial}} and AlternativeMetal. NuMetal is hated by many metalheads, who stereotype it as commercial and musically simple. In fact, there are many that argue NuMetal isn't even a subgenre of metal, but rather a fusion genre that happens to have noticeable elements of metal in it. although some music critics argue that it is an experimental and diverse genre.

A sub-type of heavy metal from the 1980s, bands like Music/{{Poison}}, Music/BonJovi, and Music/MotleyCrue inspire a lot of hate, even from people who love other kinds of heavy metal. Amateur critics dismiss it as nothing but make-up, big hair, fancy costumes, and videos, with no room for actual music in there. (Wilson & Alroy, the first big amateur music reviewers on the web, refuse to review hair metal albums for any reason.) Among professional critics, hair metal had the misfortune of being too tied to the 1980s rock "establishment," especially MTV. 1990s [[{{Grunge}} Grunge music]] was a rebellion against hair metal, like UsefulNotes/{{Punk}} was a rebellion against [[ProgressiveRock Prog Rock]], so when grunge became the critical darling of MTV, there was soon no place for hair metal among the pros.

Arena rock is notable for being a Dead Horse Genre that also has a band that is usually loved or liked even by the people who hate the genre: Queen, who were a lot more willing to experiment and do odd things than most Arena Rock bands.

A sub-type of heavy metal from the 1980s, bands like Poison, BonJovi, and MotleyCrue inspire a lot of hate, even from people who love other kinds of heavy metal. Amateur critics dismiss it as nothing but make-up, big hair, fancy costumes, and videos, with no room for actual music in there. (Wilson & Alroy, the first big amateur music reviewers on the web, refuse to review hair metal albums for any reason.) Among professional critics, hair metal had the misfortune of being too tied to the 1980s rock "establishment," especially MTV. 1990s [[{{Grunge}} Grunge music]] was a rebellion against hair metal, like UsefulNotes/{{Punk}} was a rebellion against [[ProgressiveRock Prog Rock]], so when grunge became the critical darling of MTV, there was soon no place for hair metal among the pros.

Rock critics don't usually like (or know much about) music that isn't rock, but they're wary of attacking genres that they know they don't understand. So they leave Classical, Blues, Jazz, and "World" alone. But Broadway show tunes don't have the mystique that makes those other genres so scary. If it was sung in a theater, rock critics dismiss it as sappy, soulless stuff for lame fifty-something white people in 1955. One of the stock funny anecdotes among music critics is that MarvinGaye, the master of suave Motown love ballads with soul, originally wanted to sing showtunes.

Incidentally, musical theater fans have their own Dead Horse Genres: [[Main/JukeboxMusical Jukebox Musicals]], European pop operas such as the output of AndrewLloydWebber, Disney musicals, etc. The hate for those is similar to the hate others have for Manufactured Bands (see below).

Albums by the likes of FleetwoodMac or {{Eagles}} -- which seem to consist of the same song repeated for seven tracks or more -- send a shiver down the spine of every amateur critic. After all, it's produced by [[TheManIsStickingItToTheMan The Man]], who is the root of all evil (but not [[RootOfAllEvil that one]]); and it probably got played due to payola anyway. The fact that lots of people love it is only proof that it's bad -- what do the proles know, anyway? Also currently applies to bands such as {{Nickelback}} which have the "sold 10 million albums but I don't know anyone who owns one" type of fanbase.

Probably more of a target for amateur critics than professionals, this genre is also the one that most non-critics who start getting interested in music will hate the most. From Fabian and TheMonkees to *Music/{{NSYNC}} and BritneySpears, performers who serve as faces for a faceless team of composers are viewed as outright traitors to music. They are the monster, the roots of the evil corporate machine that suppresses true music. They perform catchy but empty pop designed to hypnotize teenagers into becoming shopping-obsessed zombies. They... well, you know the drill. The average critic cares a lot about sincerity, so singers who only sing (instead of writing their own material) are unacceptable (depending on how long ago the artist came to prominence -- no one's criticising Music/NatKingCole or Music/FrankSinatra for not writing their own tunes...) Professional critics have to (publicly) give 'equal time' to modern manufactured bands for obvious reasons, but are free to trash selected out-of-date whipping boys (like the Monkees) with gusto. And don't even mention the words "Milli Vanilli" around them.

The older bands suffer the same fate as hair metal -- manufactured bands prospered most between Elvis getting drafted and the Beatles arriving, so they are seen as the horror which the Beatles saved music from. Speaking of "older", note that in recent years manufactured bands and their intended demographic are getting ''younger''- Miley Cyrus, TheJonasBrothers and ''Series/TheNakedBrothersBand'' are presumably marketed to kids whose parents think they're [[NewMediaAreEvil too young to go on the Internet]]. Interestingly, manufactured bands targeted toward girls get far, far, ''far'' more criticism than those targeted toward boys even if their music is of the ''exact same quality''. Manufactured bands targeted at girls almost always acquire the PeripheryHatedom of their generation.

In Britain, much of the ire for manufactured bands is specifically directed at contestants from ''TheXFactor'' or ''Series/BritainsGotTalent'' who actually started musical careers. While some manage to acquire mainstream acceptance, many are derided for appealing to the LowestCommonDenominator and existing solely to "steal" the Christmas Number One single spot with a cover version to validate the existence of the programme (with the back cover of several ''Pop Stars: The Rivals'' VHS tapes actually implying the the Christmas number one was the prize for winning the programme). The backlash against this seems to have culminated with the successful 2009 Facebook campaign to put "[[RageAgainstTheMachine Killing In the Name]]" at the top of the Christmas singles chart. Generally, the ire isn't ''really'' directed at [[ScapegoatCreator the singer themselves]] - evidenced by the success of Leona Lewis and the praise for [=JLS=] attempting to be original with their material - but at the system which got them into the position (and [[MeanBrit Simon Cowell]]).

As noted above, many critics generally don't hate manufactured artists as much as one would think. BritneySpears? ''Oops!... I Did It Again'', ''Britney'', ''In The Zone'', ''Circus'' and ''Blackout'' have all averaged around three stars or more in reviews. TheMonkees have also been somewhat VindicatedByHistory lately. Music/JustinBieber and TheJonasBrothers also don't receive, for the most part, overly negative reviews on their albums. Indifference moreso than dislike is probably the most common critical reaction.

Viewpoints about the SexPistols vary: they started as a band manufactured by Malcolm [=McLaren=], but with the addition of John Lydon his influence over them was heavily diminished. Subsequently they initiated the first wave of British punk, with bands like the Clash and the Buzzcocks citing them as the direct reason they formed. After Lydon left, [=McLaren=] tried to keep the band going, resulting in disasters such as ''The Great Rock and Roll Swindle''.

Also, starting in TheNewTens there is a small boy band resurgence in the Britain (Like OneDirection and TheWanted; although the former would eventually blow up internationally) but girl groups are still out of the question as groups like Girlicous and PussycatDolls fell by the wayside.

In Asia, there appears to be somewhat less resistance in accepting Boy Bands/Girl Bands; groups like Big Bang and the HelloProject still sell in Korea and Japan. It likely helps that they're generally willing to mock themselves relentlessly. Furthermore, J-Pop singers often have other people write and/or compose their songs (YokoKanno partnering with Creator/MaayaSakamoto on numerous albums, for example). It's not really a negative, nor is it decried as "manufactured" (at least not over and above what American critics think of the dancy, peppy J-pop genre as it is).

After floating around in the outer reaches of the record industry for decades, the success of African-American musical genres like jazz, blues, soul and funk in the 1960s finally brought it to the forefront by the beginning of the 1970s. However, many objected to the glitzy, [[FlamboyantGay camped-out]] commercialism, claiming it "sucked all of the soul" out of the music. Disco came under a backlash from two sides - white rock fans despised the genre due to its [[WolverinePublicity ubiquity]] and perceived threat to RockAndRoll's dominance, while black {{Funk}} fans trashed the genre as soulless, vapid and stupid, angry over how it pushed their heroes (JamesBrown, GeorgeClinton et al.) and hard-edged funk out of the charts. When the hammer fell on the genre, it fell ''hard'', and [[DeaderThanDisco practically no one will now admit]] to having come within a billion miles of it at its height. "X was into disco in the 70s" jokes are practically a staple of the SitCom genre. It tried to resurrect itself in disguise as 80's High-Energy, but could not reclaim its once-lofty position.

Lounge Music has always earned the loathing of critics even in heyday of the mid-1960s and early 1970s, being typified as the musical equivalent of Valium. 'Easy Listening' derivatives of Jazz especially earn the enmity of rock critics -- even those unfamiliar with jazz in general -- because it is seen as a neutered form of a real genre. Popular acts such as Barry Manilow in the 1970s and Kenny G. in the 1990s are especially reviled for being both banal and successful -- Manilow especially for admitting to doing the most soulless of music before turning to pop: commercial {{jingle}}s. New Age/Worldbeat music, like Yanni or Enigma's output, is usually lumped into this category.

In Europe, everything and everyone that has anything to do with the EurovisionSongContest is reviled by critics. This includes such acts as {{ABBA}}.

Some say Neo-Soul is dead. Considering in the early 2000s it was getting A LOT of mainstream buzz (Mostly because of Alicia Keys). With singers like Maxwell, D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Music/JillScott, Angie Stone, Lina, India.Arie, Music Soulchild Et Cetera. But by the mid 2000s interest faded away.

In the words of P!nk (whose first album was R&B) ''"Nobody wants to hear a love song that you don't mean"''. Not just the genre itself but arguably the love and romance of Contemporary R&B is dead. Replaced by songs dealing with trashy soap opera, Jerry Springer topics. With more vocal gymnastics and some vague, treacly high-pitched sound in the background. The fusion of modern R&B to hip-hop tends to dilute both these Genres. Interestingly enough Contemporary R&B pushed soul music off the charts.

For about two years between the start of 1996 and the end of 1997, third wave ska was pretty big in America, propelled into the charts by multi-platinum albums like ''[[NoDoubt Tragic Kingdom]]'' and ''Music/{{Sublime}}''. However, after it's brief time in the limgelight third wave ska basically disappeared, and many bands (including NoDoubt and TheAquabats) changed their sound.

NuMetal is an umbrella term coined in the mid-1990s to refer to music that blends heavy metal elements with other styles, typically {{Industrial}} and AlternativeMetal. NuMetal is hated by many metalheads, who stereotype it as commercial and musically simple. In fact, there are many that argue NuMetal isn't even a subgenre of metal, although some music critics argue that it is an experimental and diverse genre.

The older bands suffer the same fate as hair metal -- manufactured bands prospered most between Elvis getting drafted and the Beatles arriving, so they are seen as the horror which the Beatles saved music from. Speaking of "older", note that in recent years manufactured bands and their intended demographic are getting ''younger''- Miley Cyrus, TheJonasBrothers and ''TheNakedBrothersBand'' are presumably marketed to kids whose parents think they're [[NewMediaAreEvil too young to go on the Internet]]. Interestingly, manufactured bands targeted toward girls get far, far, ''far'' more criticism than those targeted toward boys even if their music is of the ''exact same quality''. Manufactured bands targeted at girls almost always acquire the PeripheryHatedom of their generation.

Probably more of a target for amateur critics than professionals, this genre is also the one that most non-critics who start getting interested in music will hate the most. From Fabian and TheMonkees to *Music/{{NSYNC}} and BritneySpears, performers who serve as faces for a faceless team of composers are viewed as outright traitors to music. They are the monster, the roots of the evil corporate machine that suppresses true music. They perform catchy but empty pop designed to hypnotize teenagers into becoming shopping-obsessed zombies. They... well, you know the drill. The average critic cares a lot about sincerity, so singers who only sing (instead of writing their own material) are unacceptable (depending on how long ago the artist came to prominence -- no one's criticising Nat King Cole or FrankSinatra for not writing their own tunes...) Professional critics have to (publicly) give 'equal time' to modern manufactured bands for obvious reasons, but are free to trash selected out-of-date whipping boys (like the Monkees) with gusto. And don't even mention the words "Milli Vanilli" around them.

Also, starting in TheNewTens there is a small boy band resurgence in the Britain (Like OneDirection and TheWanted) but girl groups are still out of the question as groups like Girlicous and PussycatDolls fell by the wayside.

An odd case is jam band, which people mostly just ignore except to hate on Music/{{Phish}} and the Music/GratefulDead, or rather [[FanHater the fans who spend too much time following them]].

Music performed by hippies as a primary component of the counterculture movement(think the gentle guitar and ukelele songs of UsefulNotes/CharlesManson) is largely considered tepid, boring and hypocritical. Largely, the type of folk music done by hippies has long been seen as dated and "lame" even for the time, even by people who enjoy 60s music.

In Asia, there appears to be somewhat less resistance in accepting Boy Bands/Girl Bands; groups like Big Bang and the HelloProject still sell in Korea and Japan. It likely helps that they're generally willing to mock themselves relentlessly. Furthermore, J-Pop singers often have other people write and/or compose their songs (YokoKanno partnering with MaayaSakamoto on numerous albums, for example). It's not really a negative, nor is it decried as "manufactured" (at least not over and above what American critics think of the dancy, peppy J-pop genre as it is).

Probably more of a target for amateur critics than professionals, this genre is also the one that most non-critics who start getting interested in music will hate the most. From Fabian and TheMonkees to NSync and BritneySpears, performers who serve as faces for a faceless team of composers are viewed as outright traitors to music. They are the monster, the roots of the evil corporate machine that suppresses true music. They perform catchy but empty pop designed to hypnotize teenagers into becoming shopping-obsessed zombies. They... well, you know the drill. The average critic cares a lot about sincerity, so singers who only sing (instead of writing their own material) are unacceptable (depending on how long ago the artist came to prominence -- no one's criticising Nat King Cole or FrankSinatra for not writing their own tunes...) Professional critics have to (publicly) give 'equal time' to modern manufactured bands for obvious reasons, but are free to trash selected out-of-date whipping boys (like the Monkees) with gusto. And don't even mention the words "Milli Vanilli" around them.

Finally, outright parody bands such as [[SpinalTap Spın̈al Tap]] may get a bye on the basis that they were really attacking the sort of band they pretend to be.

Finally, outright parody bands such as SpinalTap may get a bye on the basis that they were really attacking the sort of band they pretend to be.

!!Disco

* The genre has seen a slow but noticeable revival in recent years, with many electronic musicians, [=DJs=] and remix musicians experimenting with it once again, partly due to a renewed popularity in many circles (mainly due to MemeticMutation, {{Speedy Techno Remix}}es and {{JapanesePopMusic}}). Its renewed influence can be seen in various forms of hard Techno and Trance music, with Happy Hardcore (and to a lesser extent, Hard Trance) being heavily influenced by it.

* The genre has seen a slow but noticeable revival in recent years, with many electronic musicians, [=DJs=] and remix musicians experimenting with it once again, partly due to a renewed popularity in many circles (mainly due to MemeticMutation, {{SpeedyTechnoRemix}}es and {{JapanesePopMusic}}). Its renewed influence can be seen in various forms of hard Techno and Trance music, with Happy Hardcore (and to a lesser extent, Hard Trance) being heavily influenced by it.

* The genre has seen a slow but noticeable revival in recent years, with many electronic musicians, [=DJs=] and remix musicians experimenting with it once again, partly due to a renewed popularity in many circles (mainly due to "[[MemeticMutation Eurobeat Brony]]", [[SpeedyTechnoRemix Speedy Techno Remixes and [[JapanesePopMusic J-pop]]). Its renewed influence can be seen in various forms of hard Techno and Trance music, with Happy Hardcore (and to a lesser extent, Hard Trance) being called a SpiritualSuccessor.

Music performed by hippies as a primary component of the counterculture movement(think the gentle guitar and ukelele songs of CharlesManson) is largely considered tepid, boring and hypocritical. Largely, the type of folk music done by hippies has long been seen as dated and "lame" even for the time, even by people who enjoy 60s music.
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Most rappers who get on their soap box are considered preachy, pretentious and irrelevant now. In general there's a backlash towards rap music like this (including the aforementioned Gangsta Rap, and alt rap) from the mainstream rap fans. Likely because of the resentment from the fans of those particular genres that's usually aimed at pure mainstream rap fans. So in essence its a backlash against the CriticalBacklash....If that makes any sense. So a lot of mainstream rap fans, and mainstream rap outlets (including BET, and apparently MTV) dismiss them as irrelevant. Basically any hip-hop that isn't club-oriented, trendy, safe, and radio-friendly is considered "played out" or not cool to like. Or it could all just be a defense mechanism for mainstream fans to justify their taste in current pure mainstream hip-hop.

!!{{Deathcore}}

A fusion of {{Metalcore}} and DeathMetal, deathcore has become the SpiritualSuccessor to NuMetal for similar reasons. It has become hated largely due to the "scene" kids and wigger meatheads associated with the fanbase, bands' usage of MySpace to gain popularity, overall lack of technicality and excessive usage of breakdowns, poorly-written, highly misogynistic lyrics, and [[BringMeTheHorizon Oli Sykes]]. Also like NuMetal, many metal fans argue that it is not a subgenre of metal and is instead more closely related to modern HardcorePunk (such as Hatebreed). While the genre still has fans and some popularity, it has seen a decline recently, as evidenced by many of the most popular bands changing their sound or abandoning the genre altogether.

So why kick a genre until it's a dead horse? Because critics regard what they do as SeriousBusiness. They're trying to calculate the canon of Great Works here, and there's no room for anything less. They seem to think that [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans if enough people consume good works]], people will start giving out flowers and candy and overthrow TheMan and cure cancer, but if they consume bad works, people will have their souls crushed and vote to establish fascism. Some music critics with strong political beliefs go further -- some are still angry that the decline of music in the late 60s prevented the revolution that was so, so close at hand! (They seem to forget, or never even realized, that so many of these works were brought to us - and perhaps never would have been - without [[TheManIsStickingItToTheMan corporate entities]].)

Many think the genre died in the late 90's (Dr. Dre himself thinks so as well). But this is somewhat contested because some think it's still the popular hip hop genre. The problem with this is that a lot of hip hop that didn't fall into the indie, pop, or alternative banner was automatically placed under the gangsta rap umbrella term...unfairly or not. Usually by cynical alt/indie rap fans. Also the grittier type 1 variants are dead, while a glossier LighterAndSofter version exists in it's place.

!!{{Nu-Metal}}

Nu-Metal is an umbrella term coined in the mid-1990s to refer to music that blends heavy metal elements with other styles, typically {{Industrial}} and AlternativeMetal. Nu-metal is hated by many metalheads, who stereotype it as commercial and musically simple. In fact, there are many that argue nu-metal isn't even a subgenre of metal, although some music critics argue that it is an experimental and diverse genre.

Back in the 70's most animes had their own catchy theme songs. However during the 80's it was slowly phased out for J-pop or J-Rock tracks which are easy to license and seem more normal for listening. Good luck finding a theme song for anything past kids shows nowadays. Even Franchise/KamenRider is a bit more unconventional with its newer openings and end theme songs than say SuperSentai. This was heavily lampshaded in ''LightNovel/{{Kampfer}}'' as Kaede speaks of anime openings being normal compared to say cartoon opening