Do you ever find yourself confused by the terminology used to describe music these days? Do you listen to any fraction of the incredible music that is put out each and every day and wonder how you can describe it to your cool and hip friends? Do you still complain about dubstep? Fear not, friend: this article is for you. We’ll be going over some basic categories that music can be sorted into that transcend genre: bangers, slappers, and jams, plus a few other useful categories you might want to explore.
Let’s start with bangers. Explained by Tom Haverford of "Parks and Recreation" in a truly timeless scene, bangers are very easy to distinguish because, as the name implies, they bang. Bangers are songs with fast-paced, pronounced drumbeats, and the easiest way to determine if a song is a banger or not is if it compels you to dance in time — hands in the air, jumping in time, and/or head banging (who knew?). That’s not so hard, right? Another crucial feature of a banger is the absence of acoustic instruments, as stipulated by Tom Haverford, which narrows the category further to exclude the vast majority of music pre-80s. EDM, 80s Synth Pop, and dance music are full of bangers. Bangers are typically on the more aggressive end of the musical spectrum in terms of sound and heart rate elevation, falling behind thrashers but before slappers, which brings us to our next category.
Our next big category is slappers. Like bangers, slappers compel the listener to dance, but the slapper includes one or more acoustic instruments and can have a more moderately paced beat. In terms of dancing, slappers invite more lateral movement (such as an energetic step-touch, shoulder shuffling, or classics like the Twist or the Sprinkler) than bangers. Another common, but not crucial, attribute of many slappers are songs that are conducive to clapping or snapping along (or, you know, slapping). Slaps come in all genres and moods, and since there are no immovable parameters that define what a slapper must entail (unlike bangers), some songs might fall into the category of “slapper” while also qualifying for another category — it’s very subjective.
Our final category (for this article, at least) is jams. Jams are a little tricky, because a specific song can be one particular person’s jam, but that song itself might not be A Jam. Slower and less demanding than bangers or slappers, jams are the sorts of songs that you find yourself tapping your foot to or singing along under your breath. They’re songs that you put on while you’re driving or having people over because they’re enjoyable but allow you to focus on other things. A jam is pretty much the same thing as a groove, but a groove’s real driving force is its rhythm section.
While not the only measures by which we can analyze our music (we didn’t even cover thrashers, bops, bumps, or boogies), slaps, jams, and bangers are the broadest categories that encompass most music to some degree. Remember, this is an imperfect and subjective science, so trust your instincts, and happy listening!
