Rock, Pop, or Folk: What Genre Do You Think These 3 Classic Songs Are?

Some of the best songs in the history of popular music are truly undefinable, and that is what, in part, makes them so phenomenally iconic. These classic songs that can’t be pigeon-holed into one genre suspend the listener’s belief and lead them to ask questions about music they might have never asked themselves before. In other words, some songs just break one’s interpretation of music altogether.

More often than not, songs can be clearly categorized into one, two, or at times three genres. However, there are a handful of songs out there that genuinely don’t fit any mold. Consequently, their true genre is yet to be robustly defined. Here are three classic songs that we think defy categorization.

“A Day In The Life” by The Beatles

Really, the only musical categorization one can slap on one of The Beatles‘ most classic songs, “A Day In The Life”, is that it is a ballad, but that’s not necessarily a genre. So, what is this song? Is it a pop song? Well, to an extent, however, it also hosts sonic themes from classical music, folk, psychedelic, and maybe even a bit of opera.

Given the ambiguous nature of this song, it seems appropriate merely to call it music. Is that an elementary interpretation? Sure, but explicitly calling it anything else not only diminishes the work accomplished but also might just be wrong and unfitting. If you beg to differ, so be it, but this one has left us and many others stumped.

“Scenes from an Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel

Billy Joel‘s music is always hard to pin down. Ultimately, the two driving genres behind the majority of his music are rock and jazz. However, Joel also undeniably has a pop appeal matched with the musical progressiveness of the times. Needless to say, he’s got his hands in multiple different jars, and that is certainly the case for “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”.

Jazz and rock are the umbrella genres of this Billy Joel classic. Though if you listen to the song intently, you can hear notes of pop, classical, Dixieland jazz, and the German genre, volksmusik. It’s a melting pot of sounds and influences. So, you tell us, what genre is this song?

“Sign O’ The Times” by Prince

Prince pushed the envelope time after time, and one song that demands to be misunderstood and mislabeled is “Sign O’ The Times”. Now, it is undoubtedly a 1980s song, but to call it just that would be unfair. Funk, blues, rock, synth-pop, electronic, and R&B are all the genres seemingly present on this track.

If one were ambitious enough to do so, they could probably find three other subgenres in Prince’s single. Though, what is the point? As it would seemingly bring no more clarification to the exploratory and experimental sounds present in Prince’s piece.

Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns