Well, yeah, Frank's music moved across so many genres, you're best off just calling him "musician Frank Zappa". But I guess media types, the likes of Mike Douglas and whomever have to have something more specific to call what a given performer does who appears on their TV shows and newspaper articles and whatever, and a certain amount of Frank's music did fall in the category of "rock music" (what else would you call I Am The Slime, Valley Girl, or Cosmik Debris?). And that's certainly pretty much how both MGM and Warners marketed Frank, and you always say his records in the rock section at the record store.
I remember back in the 80's, I guess it was around the time that Jazz From Hell drew a lot of attention to Frank (probably because of the Grammy win), the USA Network featured him on an interview show that they had on at the time. I forget the name of the program, but I ended up recording on video, so I probably have it around here some place still (but it might be on Betamax, so I'll probably never see it again).
Anyway, among the people who ewre interviewed in this program was music professor Nicholas Slonimsky, who I believe was one of Frank's friends. Slonimsky described Frank's music as being "advanced jazz, there's a little bit of rock music in there, but it's closer to jazz", or words to that effect. I think it's Corey Haim (yes, the kid actor who was in The Goonies and I forget what else) who says Frank's genre is simply "Frank Zappa".
This reminds me of the time a friend of mine told me she was reorganizing her CD collection, and she asked me where I thought she should put her Residents records. I said, "They go in the Residents section", and she looked at me and said "That doesn't help much". But that's what it is, some people's music is so unique and/or diverse, there's not really a section you can slot them into neatly.
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