What is "Genericana"?

Just kinda like it sounds - most any of the music that's marketed as "americana" and ends up being indistinguishable from one band to the next. No names (at least at this point ;) but it's just one of the many consequences of the genrification of music over the last few decades. Begun as a marketing tool so that bands and labels could answer the question, "what type of music do you play?", it ends up being a loosely-defined set of criteria not so much for describing music but for PRO-scribing it.

For example, in "americana", it has to have some roots in American country music, but shouldn't be too well-produced (or "slick" as it's often derisively described - Hank Williams or Merle Haggard are viable influences; Chet Atkins or Jim Reeves are not); should be guitar-based, often adding other 'country' instruments like mandolins or fiddles, and usually played by bands that try as hard as they can to look like they are tired, unbathed, or just annoyed!

It's kind of a country version of the worst bits of post-punk indie rock where the name of the game is attitude, not music at all. Music is just the lingua franca of much of our culture presently.

The worst part of it - and it's not limited at all to Genericana - is that it gives bands with limited talent, abilities or ideas a template to work within and, as long as they stick to the tropes that are sanctioned by the gatekeepers (No Depression comes to mind), they are considered 'real' or 'vital' or even worse, 'authentic'! So grab some flannel shirts, throw some songs together than have 3 rhythm guitars rambling between E minor and G chords with no real tune, add lots of attitude and maybe a fiddle 'lead', and viola! You've got a new americana song! If you're lucky, you'll get described as "road weary" or be lauded for your "whickey-soaked" stylings, and you're on your way to Genericana fame and fortune. Good for a least a month or two!

OK, I lied. The worst part is not what fits in the genre, it's what's left out because it doesn't embrace the aesthetic; maybe the band adds strings (God help them!) or a keyboard (how in-authentic!) to the mix, or plays with chords that are outside the 4-chord model used in most of the genre. In general, these bands will either be blasted by the gatekeepers, or usually just ignored because "We only review americana".

This same genrification has poisoned a lot of the club scene as well as recorded music; clubs often only book bands within one tiny genre - americana, celtic-rock, zydeco... whatever! It's been a self-feeding virus for several decades now and as a result, the listeners don't even know what they are missing.

Can't help but think that some of the classics of real americana - The Everly Brothers, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc - would never even be noticed today if they had to compete in a genrefied market. One thing that made music, especially American music, so game-changing during the country and r&r early years was a desire to change the sounds, come up with new elements, reach larger audiences by mixing genres. The last thing they wanted was to be more like all the others who were out there! Sure, a lot of labels were all for template-music, always trying to cash in on a trend, but the real artists behind the music were often more interested in trying new things. Not all of the experiments succeeded, but that's never the issue.

More on this later, but this was just by way of introduction and because it's a Sunday night and that means work tomorrow and that never puts me in the most benevolent of moods ;)