Your way in
Rockabilly 1954
Rock and roll filtered through white country music: slapped upright bass, Sun Studio echo and a vocal hiccup. It gets rediscovered every couple of decades.
- Heaviness
- 2
- Speed
- 7
- Melody
- 8
- Where from
- American South
- Tempo
- 150-190 bpm
- Song length
- 2-2.5 min
- Written about
- Cars and girls, Restlessness, Rural poverty, obliquely, Superstition
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Rockabilly | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singing When someone is singing, what should come out? | clean | 100% | ×3 |
| Light How much weight do you want behind it? | 2 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| As fast as anyone can play What pace? | 7 out of 10 | 70% | ×2 |
| The beginnings Does it matter when it was made? | 1954 | 100% | ×1 |
| Somewhere else entirely What should the words be about? | Cars and girls, Restlessness, Rural poverty, obliquely, Superstition | 0% | ×1 |
| Normal How long should a song be? | up to 2.5 min | 83% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 82% | ||
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. Rockabilly ties with the next, and won on being the broader of the two. 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
- 1Start one step outside
Chuck Berry, Chuck 2017
Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode. That opening riff is the DNA of the entire tree.
- 2The one to put on first
Carl Perkins, Carl Perkins 1985
Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes, the original rather than the Elvis version.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Rock and roll, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Rockabilly'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
-
Hard rock 82%
Louder volume, thicker riffs, vocals pushed to the edge. Heavy metal splits off from it, but hard rock stays closer to the blues and to the chorus.
4 steps from Rockabilly, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Hard rock -
Celtic rock 81%
Traditional Irish and Scottish tunes set on drums and electric guitar. The direct ancestor of folk metal.
4 steps from Rockabilly, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Celtic rock
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
- Singing put 54 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Black metal, Death metal, Post-hardcore. 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.
- As fast as anyone can play put 4 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Doom metal, Drone metal, Funeral doom. 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.
- Somewhere else entirely put 106 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Punk rock, Hardcore punk, Alternative rock. Worth 1 of 10.
- Normal put 13 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Progressive rock, Krautrock, Acid rock. 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.