Classifying your music sucks...

Discussion:

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Krusty

2005-02-16 05:13:41 UTC

Okay, so I took the huge leap and decided to put ALL of my music into
iTunes. I've got four or five computers in various locations thruout the
house and each one is running a copy of iTunes, but the main server in the
house has yet to have its collection catalogged and it's the largest of all.
Recently, I got one of those little AirTunes wireless dealies, and that was
all I needed, I was sold. Any computer in the house streaming its MP3s to my
stereo? Wirelessly? and all I have to do is just sit at any computer in the
house and "send" it to the Airtunes? Shit, I'm sold. Sign me up!

But iTunes relies heavily on classifying music into Genres and this is where
I run into all kinds of issues. For instance. Okay, where does "Cream" go?
Classic Rock? 60s? Rock? Okay...should 60s even BE a genre of music? If 60s
is a genre of music, what goes in there? Motown? Or does Motown go in its
own genre? (I think so, I've got about a hundred motown albums, and those
should definitely be in their own genre in my opinion). Okay, do the Mamas
and the Papas go in there? 60s? Or Rock? I don't think they're particularly
"rockin" but they played on the same stage as Hendrix, so they're somehow
related. And what about Blues? What's the cutoff? Muddy Waters is definitely
blues, but what about Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys? Blues? Or almost
Bluegrass? But not quite bluegrass...so where do they go? And I get all
KINDS of confused when it comes to Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Hank Williams
Sr., Flatt & Scruggs, etc. That's Bluegrass too...but it all reminds ME of
the Grand Ol Opry, and that just screams country.

And don't even get me started on Jazz. Charlie Parker...jazz? Of course,
right? But then you have Glenn Miller...jazz? Or Big Band/Swing? And If
you're going to create a genre for swing, does Big Bad VooDoo Daddy go
there? Or Brian Setzer's album?

It's even harder with stuff like 80s music. Are the Clash punk? Is Pennywise
punk? Are they the same punk? Do you throw the Sex Pistols in there? What
about Public Image Limited? What's "New Wave" and what's just...well..."80s"
music? Flock of Seagulls. One hit wonders, but which genre? 80s? New Wave?
Devo is definitely New Wave...right?

List your bands...then list their genres. Name as many of each as you can
think of. Right now, in iTunes, I have the following (with samples in
parenthesis):
50s (Buddy Holly), 60s (Crosby, Still, Nash & Young), 70s (Abba), 80s (Adam
Ant), Alternative (Beck), Audio Book/Spoken (Al Franken), Bluegrass (Bill
Monroe), Blues (Buddy Guy), Classic Rock (The Allman Brothers), Comedy (Dave
Attell), Dance (Fatboy Slim), Funk (Bootsy Collins), Hip-Hop/Rap (50 cent),
Jazz (Charlie Parker), Lite Rock (Billy Joel), Motown (Diana Ross & The
Supremes), New Age (Dan Gibson), New Rock (Adema), Pop (Britney), Punk
(Pennywise, Clash), Reggae (perhaps the EASIEST of all, Marley, Tosh, etc),
RnB (Bobby Brown), Rock (Aerosmith), Soundtrack (Kill Bill), Swing/Big Band
(Glenn Miller), Vocal/Singers (Deano)

I've been able to pretty much classify everything that way.

Oh, and could you just go by how they show up at amazon.com or someplace
like that? Does that even work?

Jack Foley, Esq.

2005-02-16 05:23:15 UTC