Fifth: Pop, Rock, Electronic and Other

All of the different genres have different things that establish them as that genre. right?
for example, rock music usually has guitars. and pop music usually adheres to the idea that it is mass marketed, radio friendly and easy to listen to.
however, how do we establish what makes a genre a genre? what are the technological factors that make them that genre?
which is a very hard question to answer.
Pop music is a shortened version of Popular, and popular is anything that is in the charts and is liked by the general public. Whats popular now is not what will be popular in ten years time.
Rock music has a huge spectrum, and can straddle into pop as the only defining factor is that it has a guitar in it.
Electronic is anything that has been created on something electronic, i.e not an instrument.
and other? well. that's everything else that isn't rock, pop or electronic.
still with me?
What are the technological defining factors?
well, realistically, there isn't. it is getting harder and harder to actually define something as many bands are striving to make themselves different therefore they are either making up their own obscure genre, or they are simply taking the best bits from a few genre's and throwing them together, ignoring the idea that they may not sound very good.

however for this exercise lets pigeonhole everything and simplify it all.
you wouldn't expect a rap drum pattern on a rock record, and you wouldn't like the idea of a huge, vocal driven, wall of sound type thing on a electronic record, right?

but this does happen! you do get really huge vocals on rock records, and you do get rap drum loops on them. i have used rap and rock drums on my own songs, which i class as Contemporary classical, but if you were going with my definitions then it would be electronic, which it isn't i can assure you.

so to answer my question in full: there isn't a way to categorize and pigeonhole a genre and tie it down and try to figure out what are the defining technological factors for a genre or band, it does not happen like that because all genre's have sub genre's and those sub genres have sub genres and then all of those genres cross over into other genres and their sub genres and their sub genres sub genres.
it isnt impossible, but realistically you will run your mind into circles and you will be there all day doing it.

my best advice?
go with the flow, if you want it on your song, then put it there. it doesn't matter if you have borrowed the technique from pop music or rap music, someone, somewhere will connect with what your doing, and if it doesn't fit into a genre then make one up!
its fashionable, darling.

Nat.