NMA Genre (Genre fluid?)

[huwcamden]

Genre is an  all important narrative for most artists as it enables them to be pigeonholed for maximum commercial gain! NMA are well known for crossing multiple genres and defieing precise definition..which is a good thing I would say so just for fun really I'm wondering what your venn diagram would say over all these long years for NMA.
I'm saying:
30% post punk
30% folk rock
15% Goth rock
15% Heavy metal
5% Rap
5% Prog rock
....I have a feeling the only replies will be from 2 people but that's cool...your opinions as musical historians and men of impeccable musical taste don't go unnoticed here!

[Master Ray]

Any halfway decent band doesn't give a fook about tying themselves to any particular genre.  NMA have dipped in and out of any style of sound if it was to the benefit of a song in question... and all for the better.  I mean, can you imagine if they'd decided that the Vengeance / No Rest For The Wicked era was what they were sticking with and were still replicating those early tunes in the 21st Century?  How utterly shite would those albums be (although, I suspect, that there would be a certain level of the fanbase who would love such a thing...)   

Sometimes it doesn't work.  Let me refer you to my very fave Metal band ever, Paradise Lost.  Love this band... they started out as full on doomy sludgy rock with Cookie Monster vocals, started doing more melodic (but still very heavy) stuff, then had a couple of pretty successful albums with Icon and Draconian Times, cleaner vocals, catchy choruses but still fine and heavy musicianship. People forget that they were once tipped to be massive on the Metal scene, like playing arenas and stuff...

... and then they decided that they'd bring on the electronic side of things, make an album called One Second that was somewhat keyboard-y and then a follow up that sounded exactly like Depeche Mode.  Don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of DM, I was all over that album... but it killed them for a while, commercially and critically a huge failure!  They made a succession of records that gradually brought back the heaviness (including last years Ascension which is one of their finest albums ever) but they're no denying that changing their style stuck a stick in their spokes.

Should bands amend or flat out change their style?  I would say so... if they've got the nerve.   

(oh, and it's not just two people... Shush pops in here occasionally...  )

[Henning]

Perhaps a bit unusual but classical music - especially the more recent 20th century one - is is perhaps another 1 or 2 %. I remember talking a lot about Arvo Pärt and other composers with Justin when we tackled the strings on the song "Winter". He's quite a wide range of musical interests.

[Mara]

Yeah, I totally agree. Some of his and the bands arrangements remind me of J.S. Bach 

[Guillaume]

I'm saying:
15% Goth rock

5% Prog rock

What exactly is "Goth Rock"? Musicians who play dressed in black and wear makeup? I've sometimes read that NMA was a Goth Rock band, but I confess I don't really know what style of music that is. I also remember reading in the 80s and 90s in French music magazines (and perhaps elsewhere?) that NMA was a "Heroic Rock" band, in the vein of other 80s "Heroic Rock" bands like U2, Big Country, The Alarm, and Simple Minds.
The cliché writings that sometimes appeared in french music magazines in the 80s and 90s was that NMA were heirs (or even copycats!) of U2 and The Clash. And I dare say that NMA would be considered a "Prog Rock" band if they had only released BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF!

Should bands amend or flat out change their style?  I would say so... if they've got the nerve.   

You only have to read the 2013 thread about BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF to remember how divisive the album was among the fan base, with many criticizing the relative lack of guitars and Rock sounds! Like NAVIGATING BY THE STARS which some NMA fans never listened to because it wasn't anthem-filled Rock! I'd say there were two major shifts in sound in NMA's discography: THUNDER AND CONSOLATION and then BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF It reminds me of another band I adore, Thin Lizzy, who were criticized by their metal fans and experienced a commercial failure in 1981 when they "dared" to include synthesizers and varied, superb songs like "Mexican Blood," "Fats," and "It's Getting Dangerous" on their magnificent album RENEGADE. Purist fans of artists can be extremely conservative; change scares them.