History SignatureStyle / Music

* Music/NineInchNails albums are usually {{concept album}}s. His music kept the exact same introspective subject matter (love, death, meaning etc) from the late 1980s to the early 2000s and reuses/d words like 'skin', 'broken', 'hole', 'bleeding', 'head', 'feels', 'falling/loss' [[http://www.ninwiki.com/Recurring_lyrics etc]]. He both whispers and shouts a lot, often in the same song.

* Music/NickCave, throughout the songs he's written, the novel (''Literature/AndTheAssSawTheAngel'') and the film screenplay (''Film/TheProposition'') has shown an enormous interest in four things: flowers, stomach-churning violence, discussion of literature -- often in very unlikely places, and semi-heretical yet extremely pious examinations of religion.

* If you're listening to country and it's ''extremely'' brickwalled and tinny sounding, it was probably produced by Frank Liddell and/or Mike Wrucke. Expect a very heavy electric guitar that is turned UpToEleven then compressed beyond recognition. Music/MirandaLambert, David Nail, and the Eli Young Band are the main acts who suffer, although sometimes some genuinely good production slips through on their songs.

* Music/CattleDecapitation, while quite prone to NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly, has a pretty clear formula. It's a mixture of frantic, rapid-fire HarshVocals that frequently indulge in MotorMouth and can go from anywhere to a low gurgle to a pseudo-clean nasally screech while mostly sticking to a mid-range bellow, guitarwork that is a mixture of standard brutal tech riffing, slam parts, and discordant, screechy lead riffs and solos that make frequent use of dissonant arpeggios and effects pedals, deep, rumbling bass that often shifts between following the guitar and contrasting it, and blast-heavy drumming that makes VERY heavy use of gravity blasts and highly technical ostinatos and vamps. The lyrics, meanwhile, are almost exclusively about either misanthropy and human wickedness or gore, frequently combining both. A subtle black comedic element is also very common, and irony is extensively used to drive the points home.

* Music/FloridaGeorgiaLine is the TropeCodifier of "bro-country", and thus use hip-hop beats with a loud mix of guitars and a country instrument (e.g., banjo) that feels completely obligatory, along with constant themes about partying, hot girls, and drinking.

* For most of her career, Jo Dee Messina was defined by strong female empowerment/kiss-off/motivation songs with tight, slick production and her brassy alto voice.

* Music/NickCave, throughout the songs he's written, the novel (''And The Ass Saw The Angel'') and the film screenplay (''Film/TheProposition'') has shown an enormous interest in four things: flowers, stomach-churning violence, discussion of literature -- often in very unlikely places, and semi-heretical yet extremely pious examinations of religion.

* If you see someone onstage playing a left-handed Hofner violin bass in something resembling a classic Beatlesuit, he is either Music/PaulMcCartney or someone trying to impersonate him as [[Music/TheBeatles a Beatle.]] If he is playing anything written after ''Music/{{Revolver|Beatles Album}}}'' or if there are no other Beatles impersonators, it's the real thing.

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* If you see someone onstage playing a left-handed Hofner violin bass in something resembling a classic Beatlesuit, he is either Music/PaulMcCartney or someone trying to impersonate him as [[Music/TheBeatles a Beatle.]] If he is playing anything written after ''Music/{{Revolver}}'' or if there are no other Beatles impersonators, it's the real thing.

* Similarly, virtually every Music/{{Manowar}} song is about at least one of the following: warriors and warfare, how awesome heavy metal is, and Norse mythology.

* Music/NineInchNails albums are usually concept albums. His music kept the exact same introspective subject matter (love, death, meaning etc) from the late 1980s to the early 2000s and reuses/d words like 'skin', 'broken', 'hole', 'bleeding', 'head', 'feels', 'falling/loss' [[http://www.ninwiki.com/Recurring_lyrics etc]]. He both whispers and shouts a lot, often in the same song.

* Jim Steinman, almost every song has three distinct movements, is at least 7 minutes long, features a choir of angels at some point, and sounds like Music/MeatLoaf is singing it, even if it's actually Bonnie Tyler, Celine Dion, or Air Supply.

* Are you listening to an {{instrumental|s}} {{electronic|Music}} rock song, does it have HipHop-style drum beats, is it heavily bass focused, does it have lush synthesizers, and does it feature minimal, yet highly strung guitar? If you answered yes to all of these, you are listening to a Ratatat song.

* Music/RichardWagner's music is famous for brass ensemble writing, though, contrary to CommonKnowledge, more of this is quiet than loud; the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw_SwaedUU0 Valhalla theme]] from ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung'' is a paradigmatic example. (Its scoring features the quartet of horn-like instruments specially invented for the work that have come to be known as "Wagner tubas.") Wagner's later operas (which he preferred to call music dramas) have long through-composed acts with a high density of {{Leitmotif}}s; the half-diminished seventh, popularly known as the ''[[Theatre/TristanUndIsolde Tristan]]'' chord, is actually prominently featured in several of them.

* Music/GeorgeJones: His 1950s music was marked by solid honky tonk and rockabilly, but by the 1960s, it had taken on a more countrypolitan/Nashville Sound feel, a style that he would retain throughout the mid 1970s before returning to a more honky-tonk sound mixed with modern contemporary country sounds. Lyrically, his songs -- some of the most critically acclaimed of the genre -- have ranged the gamut, but generally take either a fun, tongue-in-cheek approach ("The Race Is On," "Her Name Is ...," "The One I Loved Back Then") or heartbreak and alcohol-fueled depression with a decidedly self-destructive bent ("The Grand Tour," "He Stopped Loving Her Today"), with touches of reflection ("Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes") mixed in.
* Hugh Padgham's best-known production technique is his "gated reverb" drum sound as heard on Music/PhilCollins' "In The Air Tonight"

* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart has a habit where a number of pieces he writes have sections that end with a prominent trill at the big cadence. This was popular during the Rococo period.

* Producer Rick Rubin's signature style is the minimal instrumentation, very few effects and overall feeling very stripped down.
** [[LoudnessWar Truly ridiculous brickwalling]].

* Amongst composers, Music/FrankZappa is known for his highly peculiar style. On guitar, he favored a Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown or Johnny "Guitar" Watson-inspired complex, left hand fingering, with lots of interaction with the drummer. As a composer, he loved to glue together separate elements and styles in an unpredictable collage of music. As a song writer, he is typified by industrial-strength sarcasm and a dislike of feminism. And he had a big nose and Johnny Otis's imperial mustache (recurring elements on album art).

* Drummer Bill Bruford of Music/{{Yes}} and Music/KingCrimson is well known for drumming in a jazzy, yet very precise European style, and for his popping snare drum sound, achieved by hitting near he rim of the drum. He is also known for rarely drumming in a straight 4/4 beat, and for messing around with odd time signatures. His work with Simmons electronic drums in TheEighties is also distinctive.
** Music/KingCrimson itself, in TheEighties, deliberately steered clear of using hi-hats or cymbals, so Bruford used long, high-pitched cylindrical drums known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octoban octobans]] in place of cymbals. This (along with bassist Tony Levin's use of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapman_stick Chapman Stick]]) contributed to the otherworldly rhythmic sound Crimson had in that decade.

* Music/BillAnderson is known for his slick 60's country-pop where most of his lyrics are spoken in a soft, hushed voice instead of sung, thus earning him the nickname "Whisperin' Bill".

* Music/{{Nickelback}} has one, which causes a lot of SnarkBait on the internet. The most prominent features are muddy, leaden riffs and Chad Kroeger's distinctive [[{{yarling}} guttural, snarling voice]].

* Does the song feature a mix of violins, minor-key electric guitars, and very long build-ups? If it also has field recordings and SpokenWordInMusic, it's probably Music/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor's earlier work. If it's more distorted and doesn't feature the recordings, it's their later work.

* Music/StockAitkenWaterman's production style: heavily synthesized, drum-heavy, very loud dancepop. If it sounds remotely like the {{Rickroll}}, it was probably them.

** Particularly true for the piano. He loves putting the piano in battle themes (see: "Decisive Battle" from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyX FFX]], "Saber's Edge" from [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII FFXIII]]) - to [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome epic]] effect.

* Masashi Hamauzu, composer for such games as the ''[[Franchise/SaGaRPG SaGa]]'' series and ''VideoGame/DirgeOfCerberus'', tends to use lots of strings and as one reviewer puts it, "crunchy" piano chords. And expect lots of [[RuleOfCool stylish]] violin solos. The result is a very elegant and uplifting sound.

* Songwriter Casey Beathard tends to write ''everything'' [[ThreeChordsAndTheTruth in D major with an almost ridiculously limited melody]]. He also went from writing a lot of songs about drinking (e.g. "Ten Rounds with Jose Cuervo" and "Drinkin' Bone" by Tracy Byrd, "The World Needs a Drink" by Terri Clark) to writing about being a father (e.g. "Ready, Set, Don't Go" by Billy Ray Cyrus, "Cleaning This Gun" and "He's Mine" by Rodney Atkins, "All I Ask For Anymore" and "Just Fishin'" by Music/TraceAdkins, "I See Me" by Travis Tritt).

* Composer Philip Glass writes repetitive minimalistic music that is easy to identify as his. But, when asked what style of music he makes, he'll tell you that it' not a minimalism, but a "[[InsistentTerminology process music]]". See his sometime collaborators, Kronos Quartet, for another example.