Hozier genre

[u/AdNo2939]

It's interesting how people seem to universally refer to Hozier as "folk" when he hasn't really made much folk music and most of his music is pop soul.

[u/_afflatus]

It's the songs like "it will come back" and "arsonist's lullabye" but he blends genres because it's jazz, soul, rock, gospel, r&b, country that influence him

[u/fivecroftersjams → u/_afflatus]

Genre is a construct made to be broken anyways

[u/Mysterious-Basil3245 → u/fivecroftersjams]

Totally agree it's a generalization

[u/DontDreamItsOver3 → u/_afflatus]

It Will Come Back is pretty straight Blues, isn’t it? I think In A Week and Shrike and Would That I are pretty Folky, but absolutely on your point about the blend of all those other genres.

I think the fact that he’s such a beautiful mush-mash of so many influences is why he’s asked so often what genre HE puts himself in. And with UU I don’t think he even tried to answer anymore, did he?

[u/_afflatus → u/DontDreamItsOver3]

So im thinking blues is american folk for the delta region, and rnb is short for rhythm and blues to highlight where it originates from: blues--but it sounds very different today due to the various variations and implementations of new sounds. So i consider It will come back to be folk cause it channels what i hear in delta blues/american folk.

UU sounded like he was lyrically focusing on Irish politics and social commentary and sonically playing around with what sound fit that message best

[u/DontDreamItsOver3 → u/_afflatus]

[Sorry, once I get really into the topic, my fingers don't stop typing, sorry for length! And I suck at TL/DR summaries, for obvious reasons LOL!]

Very interesting! Well first, the man himself (Hozier) says "Once the song is released, it's up to the listener to finish interpreting it/saying what it means", so that probably extends to how each listener hears it if they want to put it in a genre or category. Which is the long way of saying... there are probably no "wrong answers" to this question?

That said though, my issue with categorizing Delta Blues as "Folk" is that the artists themselves never ever use folk to describe their work, do they? Juke joints were not "folk joints", they were blues bars, tents and clubs. The artists and most inspired by them identify as Blues artists and the music as Blues.

But your post made me look up the definition of Folk Music, which I don't think I'd done in decades (or ever?) and it's:

"Folk music is a genre of traditional music originating anonymously among the common people of a culture and passed down orally from generation to generation. It typically focuses on community storytelling, utilizes acoustic instruments, and reflects the daily lives, struggles, and histories of the people who sing it."

Which, in that case, hell yeah is Blues also Folk! So that's my new learning for the day, or maybe new reminder. Blues fits that definition, as does Indigenous music from everywhere, ethnic music that tells stories of the culture or represents the culture, hardship stories told through music of the area it comes from... its' all Folk. How cool! Thanks for that reminder!

Then though I come back to how the label folk is generally applied these days, and I start backing away again from Blues as Folk, just because most people definitely interpret each in a general way, with a few specific artists as the archetypes for those genres, and they're very different artists.

At the end of the day, any label we each think is right is cool, and I'm glad you said this because it really made me re-think those definitions.

Also, I never went to the Newport Folk Festival for most of my life because I always thought "Yeah, I love folk music, but NO WAY do I want to hear 3 days of folk music??" But I did finally go and OMG is it the true definition of Folk, so many genres but all about storytelling and just amazing acts. Also very much a culture of collaborating and "sitting in" at NFF, it's incredible.

Last thing, I can understand your take on UU, and no wrong answers and all! But to me lyrically (and Hozier himself described it this way) and conceptually... it's a romantic "break up album". Period. Absolutely songs about Politics with a Big P (Eat Your Young, Butchered Tongue, Nobody's Soldier). And while everything is political (he's also said that about the world and his work), lyrically and the theme of the 9 Circles of Hell is about at least one (some of us believe it's definitely 2) romantic relationships and the break ups, though very different break ups (I, Carian, Francesca, All Things End, Abstract, Through Me vs. Unknown & Anything But & Too Sweet), but most of the songs (Warm Climate, Who We Are, De Selby's, almost all the songs except the Big P political ones) are relationships songs in their very lyrics. And he went through Hell, twice apparently, so I solidly stand on UU as a Break Up album :)

[u/DontDreamItsOver3]

I did just remember that his answer to the “What genre is your music?” Question for most of his 1st album interviews was “Doom-Folk” IIRC, which is so awesome LOL! But he also has always and still does cite Blues and Soul music and traditional Irish music as his biggest influences.

[u/chammomila → u/DontDreamItsOver3]

Doom-folk sounds so cool! I've also once seen his work classified as "Dark Chamber folk" and honestly make sense (paris Palomaband Kiki Rockwell are also included in the genre)

[u/khaleesi_spyro → u/chammomila]

Oh well this makes sense why I love all three of those artists lol

[u/United-Education-214 → u/DontDreamItsOver3]

Doom folk! I forgot that he said this. Perfect

[u/DontDreamItsOver3]

Universally? If you read reviews of each of his albums, folk comes up but so do many many other words. What makes you say he’s universally referred to as folk?

[u/Strezzi_Deprezzi → u/DontDreamItsOver3]

A lot of folk people gravitate towards him; he's often in similar categorizing genres as folk people (e.g., collabbing with Mumford & Sons, Noah Kahan, hosting people like Gigi Perez and Madeline Cunningham for his openers), also the general title of Forest Daddy and all of the earthy artistic undertones he embraces/gets associated with

[u/DontDreamItsOver3 → u/Strezzi_Deprezzi]

I think folk people gravitating to him makes sense. I don’t think most of his music sounds like what I think of when I think of folk (it’s a pretty small % to my ears), but that’s just how I hear his music. I also don’t see Gigi Perez or Madison Cunningham as folk at all. I probably see Allison Russell more as folk than I do Madison Cunningham. And I adore all 3 artists (I love Allison Russell the most, then Madison C. Gigi Perez’s music is newest to me.)

[u/chammomila]

I think most people consider him to be indie rock or folk pop. And while Most of his songs aren't folk, a lot of the more famous ones are folk-ish, like Shrike

[u/United-Education-214 → u/chammomila]

I guess the acoustic version of "Be" and also "In a Week" and "Real people do" are more folk too

[u/chammomila → u/United-Education-214]

They are! And Would That I is pretty folksy too.

[u/faeporridge]

I’d say he writes in different genres rather than be a specific “genre” artist himself

He seems to be multi genre which I think that’s why people love his work.

I Suppose he is inspired by a myriad of things And I guess nothing wrong with that. He definitely has folk songs. Folk being quite Irish in tradition. Ofc He’s been heavily inspired by blues and soul. As we know he was since childhood. With Some gospel in there which Ofc not only was a big part of blues and rock n roll - but also his experience singing in groups and choirs! I Love that he added this element into his backing vocals for the first two albums especially.

He also has a pop/rock genre as well. I’d say he went more down rock/pop with UU. With some R&B elements. With the producers he worked with. I especially loved his work Jennifer decilveo. And can defo hear elements of folk in those songs .

Think also people like his various writing styles, especially as a lyricist. Some folks like his political/protest songs. But I think he is more well known for his more poetic style. Especially likes of his love songs or songs based on human experience . The use of metaphor (sometimes literature inspired) or his writing devices where he uses a veil to distance from personal experience - so the audience can interpret for themselves. Or he will play as different Narrators.

kinda get a lot from this one artist! He can write and play in various style -and yet he seems to do it all so damn well!! - imo btw! - haha Which is really impressive.

People have opinions on his albums . I like that he experiments and changed it up. I respect that rather than to become stagnant.

[u/Katekitten92]

Genre is such a potentially helpful thing to find similar artists(or authors, for books,) but like most categories it breaks down when you try to apply it too firmly. Kind of like aesthetics, you can apply labels generally, but there so much overlap that no one can fully agree on a boundary; as you winnow to nail down more more specific definitions, you end up having to get so granular and niche that they become practically useless for finding new things in the category.