Is it good for a band to play multiple genres?

[SomeGUYonGAG]

I'm bored enough to ask this hypothetical question

So my brother and I both play guitar and my brother wants to start a band in the future, and I always tell him to ask me after a couple years of playing guitar (both of us) and see what I feel like.
He's a HUGE Ghost fan and wants the band to wear masks and stay anonymous (like Slipknot)

As I said he's into Ghost, he's also into Slipknot, Disturbed, Metallica and shit like that. His playing style is like this

I like those bands too (especially Metallica) but I'm really into bands like Queen, Meatloaf, Gloryhammer, Toto, Misfits, KISS, Blue Swede, and my playing style is like this

He wants me to play lead guitar since I'm better and have been playing a bit longer and he wants to play rhythm and vocals (even though we can switch depending on the song)

I'm not really into the fast crazy metal shredding solos, I'm more into the slow, sweet melodic solos
I also wouldn't wants all our songs to be about "death and destruction" either, I'd like some of our songs to be softer and/or carry some actual real world meaning to them.

Can awe make incorporate both of our styles?

YES, it's good for a band to play multiple genres

NO, pick a genre and stick with it

[Electric_Dreams]

My favourite band is Dexys Midnight Runners...

- Album 1: Searching for the Young Soul Rebels - Northern Soul with a brass section, dressed like New York dockers

- Album 2: Too-Rye-Ay - Folk and a bit of soul, reduced brass section with violins and a banjo, dressed like a gang made up of hicks, gypsies and pirates (actual pirates, not stereo-typical pirates)

- Album 3: Don't Stand Me Down - Bit more of a pop-soul, "blue-eyed soul", dressed like Ivy Leaguers

Kevin went solo, did a couple cover albums, and then..

- Album 4: One Day I'm Going to Soar - bit more blue-eyed soul, bit of jazz, their look kinda' beatnik, kinda' prohibition-era bootleggers

- Album 5: Let the Record Show: Dexys Do Irish and Country soul - It's in the name, their look stayed the same this time.. pretty much.

I can't think of much any other bands that did it so blatantly, with such a significant, powerful identity in each incarnation. It's really like a different band each of their first three albums.

[MrTuxedo]

Genre as a whole, I would say yeah. Like, if you choose your genre as metal, that includes a lot of metal subgenres like thrash metal, death metal etc etc.

But, if you have chosen to be a metal band, don't drop that and go pop rock or something like that.

On the other hand, if you're rock band, moving to metal is okay, as many rock fans tend to like metal as well. As well as pop bands, they can add a bit of rock to that, not bad.

[Moonchild714]

There's no hard core rules. You're styles and genres aren't different that it can't work. I like all the bamds you mentioned with both styles, grant it I have an Eclectic Musical taste, I listen to everything it depends on my mood. Anyhow, it's not like you're into Pop Music and he's into Metal that would be hard to pull off (Concerts would be quite interesting though), you're both into Metal/Hard 🎸

[Moonchild714]

Thank you for MHO.

[Anonymous]

Yeah. It shows their creativity and that they can make amazing music in all different kinds of genres. It's cool with bands who never change too though and manage to somehow always keep the same sound. Of course some bands really can't pull off different genres... If they try something else it just sounds bland so it varies a lot from band to band how diverse they really are.

[RemoErdosain]

It's great when bands combine a bunch of genres, and make something new and beautiful. A lot of great songs came out of that. That being said, I think you shouldn't look down on your brother's music, especially if you're going to make a band together. Metallica and Slipknot are not all about death and destruction

[najekim]

Then you may want to give Progressive Rock a listen. Within one song you can encounter numerous temple changes, key changes, beat changes. Bands like Spock's Beard and Porcupine Tree are good examples. Rush and Led Zepplin are perfect examples of multiple genres. Others like Gomez and The Dandy Warhols are also good for mixing things up.

[Bananaman177]

Death Angel and Rush come to mind as bands that have a different style every album.

[Liam_Hayden]

Cover band, yes. You'll get more gigs. Original band, probably best to choose one.

[MeatPuppet]

Plenty of bands play and mix multiple multiple genres of music in their compositions. I think it's a good thing.

[honestyisalliwant]

Why force yourself into one specific genre when you could just play whatever you like?

[drake1414]

No. Unless you're genius like Phish, stick to your "niche"

[Jackpot77]

If they are good at it why not?

[Anonymous]

I like bands that are diverse.

[MountAverage]

Some bands can pull it off, others not so much.