Artists are constantly put into boxes based on what genre their music falls into. In many cases, what’s R&B for one person could be something completely different for another. As musicians become more innovative, genres become more constrictive. Artists have proven that their sounds can change, and they have never faulted in creating new, fresh music. Yet the industry continues to lump them into one singular category creating what is commonly called genre stereotyping.

I didn’t really think about this much until I heard a recent story about FKA Twigs, an artist I put in the future R&B genre in a past blog post. I didn’t realize how wrong I was. In an interview with The Guardian, alternative R&B came up, and this is what Twigs had to say:

“It’s just because I’m mixed race. When I first released music and no one knew what I looked like, I would read comments like: ‘I’ve never heard anything like this before, it’s not in a genre.’ And then my picture came out six months later, now she’s an R&B singer. I share certain sonic threads with classical music; my song ‘Preface’ is like a hymn. So let’s talk about that. If I was white and blonde and said I went to church all the time, you’d be talking about the ‘choral aspect’. But you’re not talking about that because I’m a mixed-race girl from south London.”

After listening to her music for sometime now, and after reading the interview, I completely agree. Her songs “Preface,” “Closer” and “How’s That” incorporate classical and choral, as well as many other styles on top of that.

While Twigs has often described her music as classical, later in the interview she noted how her sound is punk-like, despite her electronic classification on iTunes. There are absolutely no boundaries on how to describe her music; it is indescribable. She is the only person who can decide what her music is.

The genre stereotyping that is happening to FKA Twigs brought a lot of similar cases to my attention. Take Lorde for example. I don’t even think the industry knows what category to put her in; I don’t even know what category to put her in myself. She is constantly called a pop artist, but at the most recent Billboard Music Awards, she won Top Rock Song for “Royals,” which made for a very humorous acceptance.

Then there is the alternative genre—aka the place where artists are put when people are too lazy to give them an actual genre. It’s a genre where Florence + The Machine and Gorillaz are both grouped, and those two couldn’t be further apart. Lo-Fang, an artist also classified as alternative, is similar to Twigs by adding classical aspects to his music. His song “Silver” has what sounds like a classical organ requiem over chaotic screeches of noise.

It’s almost 2015, and I truly feel it’s time to give up on genre labels.In FKA Twigs’ case, she says it’s a race issue, which I can totally agree with, and this probably happens a lot more than we think. Music has become a melting pot without any clear lines. Take Taylor Swift for example, the somewhat country princess has now turned into the pop star of the year. It’s the artist’s job to decide what his or her sound is and no one else’s.

http://open.spotify.com/user/dutastyjams/playlist/4EqYZwcIjuQwL8ASk2bMeu