Music Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

Industry, artists, formats, methods, instruments, genres, etc. You can also see entries assigned to this category.

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virtual orchestra machine n. In picketing and press releases, it refers to products like Notion and Sinfonia as “virtual orchestra machines”: a kind of alien in the pit. [English Entertainment Music Technology] [full cite] (Mar. 25, 2007)

Wagnolater n. They are a rare breed, those rabid fans of Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, and right now, they are angry.…While some Ringheads or Ringnuts, as they are called, took the change in stride, others were not shy about expressing their frustration with the Met’s decision.…Ringheads, also known as Wagnolaters, often travel the world to hear the cycle, reserving special devotion for Bayreuth, Germany, where Wagner’s own theater stands. [English Music Slang] [full cite] (Apr. 10, 2008)

wallpaper n. ClearChannel just want’s you to keep the radio on for as long as possible. McDonaldsization makes each station attempt to sound the same always. Thus the stations adopt music that sounds the same as what listeners already are hearing. The buzzword is “wallpaper.” [English Media Music Jargon] [full cite] (May. 10, 2004)

wanr v. A busload of French media of all kinds were flown in along with the 13 DJs and bands, and were busy photographing, videoing, recording and interviewing the more outgoing of the local revellers as they danced, screamed, disrobed (shirts from male bodies and nothing more; this was not a “Show us your tits” Woodstock) and, in the local parlance, wanr-ed (rhymes with “bar’: “Wah-er") until they could wanr no more. [English China Music] [full cite] (Jul. 2, 2005)

wizard rock n. The DeGeorge brothers sparked a following of their own, coining a new musical genre—"wizard rock”—now encompassing more than 150 bands around the world. [English Music] [full cite] (Feb. 22, 2007)

woodpecker n. I worked in the music business in the late “90s, and it would always rankle me to hear industry wonks refer to albums as “product” or “units.” I never used those words; I worked for a record label, not a unit factory. But to the salespeople or radio promoters who would sit in presentation meetings and reflexively nod their heads to music being played while actually paying no attention (earning the pejorative term, “woodpeckers"), nomenclature wasn’t an issue—they might as well have been selling shoes. [English Music] [full cite] (Sep. 15, 2005)

woodshedding n. Mr. Rollins, who has long been lionized, partly for his intense, solitary practicing—or woodshedding, in jazz argot—would often work in the cottage past nightfall. [English Music Slang] [full cite] (Oct. 24, 2006)

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