I'm No Genre Nazi but these guys are the least black metal doom band ever

The use of ‘genre’ as an idea in the production and consumption of music has clear benefits for the industry as a whole. The clear categorisation of music and musicians allows for the orderly business of marketing, selling, promoting, writing, reviewing and publishing; channelling information into traditional and emerging platforms, shops and magazines. However, the use of ‘genre’ within the realm of musical production has always posed challenges to musicians who fear career-long genre pigeonholing and restriction. Fans too, in a post subcultural world, are increasingly reluctant to restrict themselves through this kind of traditional labelling.

This paper explores the progression, revivals, revisions and endless sub-genre splintering and arguments of musical development within ‘genre’ by utilising - borrowing from Koven’s exploration of the Italian ‘Giallo’ movies (2006) - the term ‘filone’; an Italian geographical term meaning ‘the main current in a river’ or in geological terms - the vein in a rock. When applied in a more literary sense, filone can be rather poetically be used to analyse types of music. Used in a positive sense, ’Seguire il filone’ can suggest music ‘to follow the tradition of’ without accompanying generic labelling - or as Hoffman (1994), extended in the geographical usage, suggests a ‘streamlet’. This more fluid approach to genre development and change can be used to explore discussions of development of genre. From Heavy Metal to Doom, to Traditional Doom, Epic Doom, Funeral Doom, Death, Stoner, Sludge, Drone or Black Doom - how do the different terms operate for fans, artists, media and labels?