A new objective classification of metal music sub-genres
What is it about?
Metal music has evolved into dozens of subgenres and there is much debate among the metal community about their classification. How many subgenres do actually exist ? What are their relationships ? Here, we consider that a musical genre is mostly defined by its style (technically, what kind of music is played ?) and by its "themes" (what is this all about ?). We tried to quantify these two aspects among the subgenres that appeared the most consensually recognized in the existing literature. Thanks to data analysis tools commonly used in bioinformatics (feature extraction, dimensionality reduction, phylogenetic tree) and a large online metal music database, we've built a classification of metal subgenres highlighting their degree of kinship.
Why is it important?
The problem when you have only subjective and discordant classifications is a general lack of reproducibility between the different studies since they do not necessarily talk of the same things. Therefore, it is important to provide a consensual and objective framework to ensure that studies connect with one another. Metal music studies is an ever-growing field and this need of objectivity and reproducibility becomes all the more necessary. Highlighting the kinship between subgenres is also valuable to get a better understanding of the history of metal music as it shows the interaction and mutual influences between subgenres.