Your way in
Rock and roll 1954
Ground zero: twelve-bar blues sped up, piano hammered hard, lyrics about cars and girls. It made the electric guitar the defining instrument of the century.
- Heaviness
- 2
- Speed
- 6
- Melody
- 8
- Where from
- Memphis / Chicago, USA
- Tempo
- 140-180 bpm
- Song length
- 2-2.5 min
- Written about
- Cars, School, Dancing, Sex, barely disguised
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Rock and roll | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| No words at all When someone is singing, what should come out? | clean | 80% | ×3 |
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 2 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| Quick and driving What pace? | 6 out of 10 | 90% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1954 | 100% | ×1 |
| Being young and out late What should the words be about? | Cars, School, Dancing, Sex, barely disguised | 100% | ×1 |
| Short. Say it and stop. How long should a song be? | up to 2.5 min | 96% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 92% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 6 answers you gave, weighted vocals 3, heaviness 2, pace 2, era 1, about 1, length 1 out of 10. Rock and roll leads the next by 3 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1The one to put on first
Chuck Berry, Chuck 2017
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode. That opening riff is the DNA of the entire tree.
- 2Then
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is Rock and roll's own entry point. After it come Rock and roll's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
New wave 80%
Post-punk's commercial face: synthesizers, hooks and jerky rhythms. Punk without the rage, but with the same ideas.
4 steps from Rock and roll, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into New wave -
Glam metal 79%
Hard rock with hairspray, a radio chorus and a mandatory power ballad. It ruled MTV until 1991.
On the other branch of the tree entirely, and 4 steps from Rock and roll.
The way into Glam metal
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- No words at all put 33 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Black metal, Death metal, Grindcore. Worth 3 of 10.
- Light put 12 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Death metal, Brutal death metal, Sludge metal. Worth 2 of 10.
- The beginnings put 67 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Folk metal, Metalcore, Nu metal. Worth 1 of 10.
- Being young and out late put 115 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 10.
- Short. Say it and stop. put 18 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Doom metal, Progressive rock, Progressive metal. Worth 1 of 10.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.