Define the Genre - Music Game

So this is a little game I've always enjoyed playing.  Let's just say, for the sake of argument that an alien being were to approach you and ask you to pick a song to define a genre of music.  They've never listened to any example of this particular genre.  So here is the game.  Pick a genre (one per post, and you can repeat a genre someone else has used if you disagree) and then tell us what one song you think best exemplifies that genre of music.  Feel free to thrown in a youtube link, or to explain your selection.

My Genre: Alternative Rock
My Song: Disarm - The Smashing Pumpkins
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtLoJlQD6E

Reason: I can still remember standing in my friend Kristina's kitchen and hearing this song for the first time.  It was like nothing I had ever heard before.   I think it is often times easy to take for granted the music we hear on a daily basis, and the first time that I heard this song I truly felt like I was hearing something new.

Genre: Art rock
My song: Shine On You Crazy Diamond - Pink Floyd
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_gmXtxScYs and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pWOGPNQZRY
(Sorry, the song is 26 minutes long- that's onlt the first half in both videos.)

Reason: Back in June, I picked up Dark Side of the Moon at the library. I decided since it was a famous album, I'd listen to it. Once I turned that on, I was like- Holy shit. This is wonderful. The next one I picked up was Wish You Were Here- and then I heard Shine On. This song is indeed a work of art.

Genre: Swedish Pop
My Song: Fine - The Cardigans
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDg2XqQ1O5g

Reason: This is every thing that fluffy pop should aspire to be. It's catchy, Nina Persson's voice is gorgeous, and it's up tempo. It changed the way I looked at the band. The album this single is from, Life, is just a wonder from beginning to end.

Quote:
Genre: Swedish Pop
My Song: My Favourite Game - The Cardigans
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=styYbRWQYP8
Reason: Got to disagree with you a bit LK, that's a good song, but no where close to their best effort.  That would be "My Favourite Game" a song I have been in love with since I first plopped Gran Turismo 2 into my playstation.

I love "My Favourite Game", but to me, that's them transitioning to something a little more edgy than Swedish Pop. I'd consider that song more like rock electronica.

This thread is pretty awesome. But Disarm as defining alt rock? I dunno. I'm not saying it isn't alt rock but its very out of the norm and orchestral for DEFINING alt rock. I'd go with like any other song on that album over Disarm for this purpose, although Disarm is one of my favorites.

EDIT: My biggest issue with it defining alt rock is that if its not entirely acoustic its close.

This is hard for me to do, but I'lll bite and try to add some spice to it.

Krautrock
Song: Neu! - Hallogallo
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbAWBElA6dA
This is pretty much the song I think about whenever someone brings up Krautrock. Driving, metronomic rhythm, psychedelic influences, and spare instrumentation. Granted, I could've picked CAN or Kraftwerk, but both of those overlap too much with general avant-garde and electronic music, respectively, for me to consider them as definitive krautrock. Neu! is the raw stuff of the German scene in the 70's.

Death Metal
Song: Death - Spirit Crusher
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woML9M5UBSc
I decided to go with the band that actually founded the death metal subgenre as it is known today, the Florida Death Metal band, Death. Yeah, a band whose name is actually "Death" would really need to live up to being called "Death Metal," and this song is an example of everything DM came to be known for. Screaming/growled vocals, double bass pedal blastbeats, tempos faster than thrash metal, and the obligatory shred solos. Death is everything a death metal fan could want, and show that Florida is the most evil place on Earth. Fuck Scandinavia.

Sludge Metal
Song: Melvins - Hung Bunny/Roman Bird Dog
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPqnLJLOEZo
Yeah, "sludge metal" is a bullshit subgenre with no real guidelines, but I felt like putting this in here because it's awesome. Watch it and go download/buy LYSOL, the greatest metal album of all time (next to Painkiller).

Canterbury
Song: Kevin Ayers - Why Are We Sleeping?
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKZHIT_W9F4
Ah yes, I'm going to put in one of my favorite songs/performances that falls well within the actually nonexistant musical category of "Canterbury." Canterbury in itself is a catch-all term to try and desperately organize a number of bands that spawned from a fertile music scene in and around the Canterbury, UK area in the late 60's to early 70's. It all began with the Daevid Allen Trio in the late 60's, which featured future Soft Machine (the first band to truly define the Canterbury sound) members Daevid Allen, Robert Wyatt, and the hero of this video, Kevin Ayers. After the Trio disbanded in '66, Daevid Allen, Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers hooked up with a hipster organist named Mike Ratledge and formed the legendary Soft Machine. Soft Machine laid the groundwork for the sound that came to be called "Canterbury;" strong jazz influences, a strong sense of humor and whimsy, heavy organ/guitar distortion, and generally being ripped as shit whenever you hit the stage.

After Soft Machine, many bands came to occupy the same category, including bands such as Matching Mole, Henry Cow, Kevin Ayers And The Whole Wide World, Khan, Egg, National Health, Caravan, Gong, and many others. I'm linking this video mostly because Why Are We Sleeping became somewhat of an anthem of the whole scene, having first been written by Kevin Ayers and performed by Soft Machine during his time with them between '67 and '68. After he left, he kept playing the song live, playing it differently each time. This song also features Steve Hillage (the longhair with the crazy solo), an all-around amazing guitarist and one of my musical heroes. Steve Hillage was featured in more bands o the Canterbury scene than anyone else, including several of the above mentioned. Watch him rip it up in this video, and go check out some of the bands I outlined. You won't be disappointed.

Some music isn't meant to be defined, but awesomethread nonetheless my friend.

Genre-New Wave
Artist-The Talking heads
Life during a wartime
I still remember listening to this song in my dad's car all the time when I was a kid. Now that I'm older and more knowledgeable about music, I realize what the talking heads really did. They rocked the world of music in a way no one else did until that time, with their mix of punk and weird electronic sounds, they were the New Wave.

Genre:  Alt-Country
Song:  Company in my Back - Wilco
Link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILwHBgOuWQM
Reason:  Wilco was the band that basically defined what Alt-Country was for me.  I picked this track because I think it is a nice middle ground for the band's sound over the years.

Heavy metal
Song : Run to the hills - Iron Maiden
Link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ToNJHgp-w
Reason : Although it might seem cliche, to me, this song is the birth of heavy metal. The drum beats, the guitar licks, the powerful vocals just defines the meaning and principles of metal.