Your way in
Desert rock 1991
The hypnotic, jam-based side of stoner rock, with lots of space between the notes and a warm bass tone.
- Heaviness
- 5
- Speed
- 4
- Melody
- 7
- Where from
- California, USA
- Tempo
- 90-130 bpm
- Song length
- 4-8 min
- Written about
- The desert itself, Heat and space, Drugs, Very little narrative
- Vocals
- Sung
Why this one
| You said | Desert rock | Match | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| There, but not the point How much weight do you want behind it? | 5 out of 10 | 100% | ×2 |
| The nineties Does it matter when it was made? | 1991 | 100% | ×1 |
| Something to hold on to Do you want a tune you could hum afterwards? | 7 out of 10 | 90% | ×1 |
| Weighted mean | 98% | ||
Ranked over all 150 genres in the encyclopedia, on the 3 answers you gave, weighted heaviness 2, era 1, melody 1 out of 4. Desert rock leads the next by 4 points. Where two genres score the same the broader one wins, because a genre with subgenres under it is somewhere to carry on from and a leaf is a full stop.
Five records, in this order
- 1Start one step outside
Kyuss, Blues for the Red Sun 1992
Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun. That guitar tone has been copied for thirty years.
- 2The one to put on first
Kyuss, Welcome to Sky Valley 1994
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley. It plays as one block rather than as tracks.
- 3Then
- 4Then
- 5Then
The first is the entry point for Stoner rock, one step outside, so the second record has something to be heard against. After it come Desert rock's essential records in the order the encyclopedia lists them. Every one of these has a page here with links out to somewhere it can be played.
If that is not it
-
Youth crew / straight edge 94%
Hardcore with a code: no alcohol, no drugs, gang vocals and breakdowns. The ethics of the scene became the subject of the songs.
7 steps from Desert rock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Youth crew / straight edge -
Post-grunge 93%
The grunge formula cleaned up for radio: same dynamics, less dirt, vastly more airplay.
7 steps from Desert rock, meeting it only at Rock.
The way into Post-grunge
Not simply the second and third of the ranking: those are almost always near neighbours of the first, which is three names for one suggestion. An alternate has to sit at least 4 steps through the tree from the headline and from the other alternate, which is the same floor the "sounds like this, but isn't" panel uses.
What your answers ruled out
- The nineties put 23 genres at the bottom of that one question, among them Blues rock, Progressive rock, Rock and roll. Worth 1 of 4.
Counted as genres scoring 20% or less on that answer alone. A recommendation that only shows what it chose is hiding half of what it did.