The Adjectives of Rock: A Handy Guide for the Aspiring Critic

As anyone who's read their fair share of rock criticism knows, there are specific words that get used on a suspiciously regular basis to describe music , many of which don't get much use outside of the world of rock criticism. After years of noticing, and about two weeks of compiling these words from various reviews and from memory, I present this alphabetical list to you, the aspiring rock critic, free of charge. Feel free to add any missing adjectives to this list as it’s being made.

Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Part 7: Four Years of Adjectives aka THE END

81. Pastoral
82. Plaintive
83. Poignant
84. Pounding
85. Precious
86. Quirky
87. Rapid-Fire
88. Raucous
89. Raw
90. Rebellious
91. Refined
92. Reflective
93. Relentless
94. Restrained
95. Reverent
96. Ringing
97. Rolicking
98. Rousing
99. Rowdy
100. Searching
101. Screaming
102. Sentimental
103. Skittery
104. Sleazy
105. Slicing
106. Slippery
107. Soaring
108. Soothing
109. Spacey
110. Sprawling
111. Snappy
112. Stripped-Down
113. Sugary
114. Swaggering
115. Tense
116. Theatrical
117. Thundering
118. Tight
119. Trippy
120. Uncompromising
121. Upbeat
122. Urgent
123. Volatile
124. Warbling
125. Weary
126. Whining
127. Winding
128. Wintry
129. Wistfull
130. Woozy
131. Wry
132. Yearning

133. Zippy

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Part 6: Jay to the Oh!

61. Jagged
62. Jangly
63. Killer
64. Laid-Back
65. Layered
66. Lethargic
67. Lilting
68. Literate
69. Lush
70. Manic
71. Mannered
72. Massive
73. Meandring
74. Mellow
75. Menacing
76. Murky
77. Muscular
78. Nihilistic
79. Nocturnal
80. Ominious

Saturday, September 8, 2012

Part 5 (making up for lost time)


31. Droning
32. Druggy
33. Earnest
34. Earthy
35. Eerie
36. Elaborate
37. Elastic
38. Elegant
39. Epic
40. Exuberant
41. Fierce
42. Fiery
43. Fractured
44. Fragile
45. Fuzzy
46. Gentle
47. Ghostly
48. Gloomy
49. Glowing
50. Gritty
51. Grooving
52. Harsh
53. Hazy
54. Indulgent
55. Insistent
56. Insular
57. Intimate
58. Introspective
59. Inviting
60. Irreverant

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Part 4

21. Chunky
22. Confrontational
23. Creeping
24. Crunchy
25. Decadent
26. Delicate
27. Derivative
28. Difficult
29. Dissonant
30. Dreamy

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Part 3 (Now with double the adjectives!)

11. Bouncy
12. Bleak
13. Boisterous
14. Breezy
15. Brooding
16. Cacophanous
17. Catchy
18. Cathartic
19. Cerebral
20. Charming

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Part 2

6. Angular
7. Anxious
8. Atonal
9. Autumnal
10. Bittersweet

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Part 1

1. Abrasive
2. Acerbic
3. Aggressive

4. Alien
5. Amiable