I've always thought rock music was rock music but can somebody please break it down for me.

Tell me the major differences between retro rock, classic rock, soft rock and just regular rock?

And a lot of alternative and metal music sounds like rock to me... if you hear a random song are you able to properly categorize it?

Massive differences, listen to the below tracks they are all very very different yet are all classified as some kind of rock.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ode3GaJtcg0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19IqwU3itFk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKdd6wDRAqg

I can categorize most metal now... but its taken me a couple years to learn the genres. (Im a slow learner)
Im not sure about rock music tho, i dont listen to any.
If you wanna know about metal i can tell ya.

Too many types, where would you start. There is no formula, if your good, you transcend genres.

Basically, from soft to hard, is how intense or loud it is... but bands kind of do everything, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix are all classic rock, but the play hard rock, psychedelic rock, acoustic, blues rock.