Last week in Music Makes Me I had talked about the surprise of the sheer number of different genres that music was classified into. After giving it some more thought this week, I thought that it would be interesting over the next few weeks to explore some of the genres that I didn’t know existed or that I thought you would find interesting. As you may recall, last week I talked about some odd ones like Witch House and Cute Metal. This week I am going to dive right into one that made me laugh when I read it.
I am willing to bet that pretty much everyone except for maybe some tribes in the jungles of the Amazon have heard of Disney. The company was founded in 1923 and has made its name in the entertainment of people young and old. I am sure like any big company, there are other business ventures the company is involved in as well. Most of us know about the theme parks like Disneyland and Disneyworld. And there are also the TV shows and movies that Disney has produced over the years. As I’ve discussed many times in the past, I get a lot of my inspiration for music from the soundtracks of TV and movies. And as any person that has watched a Disney show, a lot of their music is pretty memorable, even if you may not be a fan.
Up until 1949 Disney had to outsource its music production to other companies. Then after 25 years they formed the Disney Music Group. And as you may have already guessed, along with their music company, the Disney genre of music was birthed. It may have not coincided with the music company, but it did happen at some point. The Disney genre though is not a subgenre of another major genre, but has it’s own subgenres of music.
Two of the subgenres I discovered were Disney Theme Park music and Disney Soundtracks. Who would have guessed that there was a genre of music for theme parks, but taking a step back to think, I guess it makes sense. How else would you classify the music of the “It’s a Small World” ride? I have read some other breakdowns of Disney music that I’ll let you discover on your own. It does make me wonder if other large entertainment type companies have their own personal genre of music. Or now that Disney owns the Marvel and Star Wars franchises if these are also now classified as “Disney Subgenres”. Or do these franchises’ music, like some of Disney’s other music, cross into other genres?
Pretty much everyone from every age are familiar with some of the Disney TV shows. If you were a Disney fan from years ago, perhaps you may have been a Mickey Mouse Club viewer when Annette Funicello got her start into acting. Or perhaps you watched later shows like Hannah Montana where Miley Cyrus kicked off her musical career. The music from the Disney TV programs have their own subgenre of Disney. But some of this music also crossed over into more mainstream genres of music. For example 20 songs from the Hannah Montana show appeared in the Billboard Hot 100 in the genres of pop and country rock.
I hoped you enjoyed this little trip on the “It’s a Small World” ride around the world of genres. I know the more I explore the world of music classification the more I start thinking about questions that minds like the Dali Lama or Yoda (to keep in the Disney theme) must be confronted with on a routine basis. Is there a genre for elevator music? Or do toys have their own genre with Jack in the Boxes being their own subgenre? Food for thought… Until next week, if you’re a music lover, you can hear, see or learn about something new every day on my Facebook group, Spotify playlist or YouTube playlist. And as always, feel free to reach out and let me know about your favorite new musical discovery.