Genre Wars Are Pointless

R.N. Shades on Genre Wars

R.N. Shades argues that music “genre wars” are pointless. Liking one style doesn’t mean rejecting another, and fans don’t own genres or get to decide who may enjoy them.

He uses glam metal and thrash metal as his first example: he likes both and sees no reason fans can’t headbang to both. He also rejects the idea that one side is flawless while the other is terrible. He calls UK glam band Wrathchild forgettable and says he isn’t much of a Venom fan, but stresses that both glam and thrash have good and bad artists.

The same goes for glam and grunge. Shades likes glam but also enjoys several grunge-adjacent bands, including Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, The Melvins, Mudhoney, and L7—even though Nirvana and Pearl Jam aren’t for him.

His longest example is rap versus rock. Shades criticizes people who dismiss all rap based on a few popular artists, pointing to Wu-Tang Clan, A Tribe Called Quest, Nas, Tech N9ne, and Immortal Technique as artists and groups worth exploring. Rock and metal have their share of weak artists too, he says, and music doesn’t need guitars to be good.

His advice is to learn about a genre before condemning it and to stop shaming people for enjoying more than one style. No genre is perfect; pretending otherwise is just bias.

Personality Featured

R.N. Shades, the narrator.