What Have You Been Listening To?

[Grungie]

Well shojo is just a manga target demographic, so it's more "random" than say a music genre (or genre in general), and the demographic is entirely based on what the magazine labels itself as. Which is entirely different from a genre where their actual attributes determine what they closely resemble.

I think they're kind of a weird in between genre, because they have elements of one genre, and one of another without being entirely either. Kind of like how many bands in that era that came out of the alternative scene didn't really fit a specific category. Some songs of theirs will be hella proggy, while others are just straight up alt-metal, then there's the goofy ones that are a mix of both. Compare Undertow to Lateralus.

Also regarding Tool's technical aspects, it's more technical in the rhythm aspect rather than the overall harmonic aspect. It's like how math rock is known for their complex time signatures, so you get ones that are blindingly obvious like most TTNG songs where there's crazy ass chord and rhythm changes, whereas you have other math rock bands like Slint and American Football where they're similar to Tool in which the chord changes are very simple, but the theory behind the rhythm is more technical. So while the guitar changes chords slowly or very minimally, it's still playing in alternating rhythms of 5/4 and 7/4 and the bassist is playing a counterpoint in 4/4 time.

Also they have thematic lyrics like how other prog bands are and can have lengthy passages, so that's why they're considered prog.