I post daily on FB with links to various music from my collection and commented on this morning's post that I didn't understand the genre classifications that seem to have sprung up in recent years to describe what to me is all "heavy metal". It then occurred to me to pop "metal genre list" into google and see what popped out. Here is a list of seventy two from the page for the topic on wikipedia. Seventy two separate and (presumably) distinct sub-classifications of heavy metal and for the most part they are as utterly meaningless to me as "toenail understudy" or "vaudeville watermelon" would be. For your edification I will present the list now.

Alternative metal, Funk metal, Nu metal, Rap metal, Avant-garde metal, Black metal, National Socialist black metal, Red and Anarchist black metal, Blackened heavy metal, Symphonic black metal, Blackened screamo, Viking metal, War metal, Blackgaze, Post-black metal, Christian metal, Unblack metal, Crust punk, Blackened crust, Death metal, Blackened death metal, Death 'n' roll, Melodic death metal, Technical death metal, Symphonic death metal, Doom metal, Death/doom, Drone metal, Funeral doom, Sludge metal, Stoner metal, Extreme metal, Folk metal, Celtic metal, Pirate metal, Pagan metal, Glam metal, Gothic metal, Grindcore, Deathgrind, Goregrind, Pornogrind, Electrogrind, Grunge, Industrial metal, Industrial death metal, Industrial black metal, Kawaii metal, Latin metal, Metalcore, Melodic metalcore, Deathcore, Mathcore, Electronicore, Nu metalcore, Progressive metalcore, Neoclassical metal, Neue Deutsche Härte, Post-metal, Power metal, Progressive metal, Djent, Space metal, Progressive metalcore, Speed metal, Symphonic metal, Thrash metal, Crossover thrash, Groove metal, Teutonic thrash metal, Traditional heavy metal, New wave of traditional heavy metal
Who comes up with this thoroughly nonsensical stuff. More to the point - why?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

I did forget to mention that even with so many to choose from Wikipedia - when you look at any individual band - always combines them into things like “Teutonic thrash with elements of grindcore and sludge” meaning that in combination there are tens of thousands of these idiotic sub classifications - probably at least one for every band in the history of metal.

Wow - I sure had no idea.

I do not frequent FB so I enjoy your copying them here.