(no subject)
Jan. 2nd, 2006 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizillaSo I'm sitting here trying to sort out the music in my MP3 library and it's very difficult. What's rock? What's classic rock? What's folk? What's folk-rock? What is americana? What's celtic? If an alternative group makes the top 40, does it stop being alternative and become mandatory?
I'm thinking classic rock is anything that got heavy rotation on top 40 radio and was originally released on vinyl. Folk-rock is anything with a simple acoustic sound, that ever got top 40 airplay. Americana is country music for blue state people who still like to hear banjos and mandolins and people singing about trucks. Celtic is folk music with penny whistles added in.
Where do I put Canadian bands with weird names? What IS Moxy Fruvous anyway?
Where do you put a compilation album like "25 Years of Stony Plain"? Or the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction? Should movie soundtracks and original cast recordings be filed in the same place? Some soundtracks are more like compilation CDs and others are more like cast recordings, should I split them that way?
Does it make sense to put Bruce Springsteen in the same category as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers? Do the Wailin' Jennies really sound that much like Woody Guthrie? If Eric Clapton is unplugged, isn't that more folky than something overproduced like Nanci Griffith's _Late Night Grande Hotel_?
Can an artist have songs in multiple categories, or, once they're consigned to a genre, do all their songs have to go there? Do entire albums go to the same genre or should I try to split them up?
Why do we have these genres anyway? I'm tempted to throw them all away. Either that or let the artists self-identify whenever possible. All these labels are so fraught; both artist and audience identity are so tightly bound to this type of categorization. It seems non-consensual for me to just label artists without finding out what they like to be called.
I'm thinking classic rock is anything that got heavy rotation on top 40 radio and was originally released on vinyl. Folk-rock is anything with a simple acoustic sound, that ever got top 40 airplay. Americana is country music for blue state people who still like to hear banjos and mandolins and people singing about trucks. Celtic is folk music with penny whistles added in.
Where do I put Canadian bands with weird names? What IS Moxy Fruvous anyway?
Where do you put a compilation album like "25 Years of Stony Plain"? Or the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction? Should movie soundtracks and original cast recordings be filed in the same place? Some soundtracks are more like compilation CDs and others are more like cast recordings, should I split them that way?
Does it make sense to put Bruce Springsteen in the same category as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers? Do the Wailin' Jennies really sound that much like Woody Guthrie? If Eric Clapton is unplugged, isn't that more folky than something overproduced like Nanci Griffith's _Late Night Grande Hotel_?
Can an artist have songs in multiple categories, or, once they're consigned to a genre, do all their songs have to go there? Do entire albums go to the same genre or should I try to split them up?
Why do we have these genres anyway? I'm tempted to throw them all away. Either that or let the artists self-identify whenever possible. All these labels are so fraught; both artist and audience identity are so tightly bound to this type of categorization. It seems non-consensual for me to just label artists without finding out what they like to be called.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 07:13 am (UTC)My friend
Frankly, I tend towards The Most Simplistic and Across The Board method of categorizing, because I don't want 80 different genres of mp3s. I'll be damned if I'm going to separate alternative from rock. However, it is definitely true that the act of figuring out whether Aretha Franklin is soul or r&b can be completely confounded by her gospel material.
My biggest problem is actually with compilations, not so much in their categories, but in multiple artists. The way my old mp3 desktop software sorted things was by "directory opened > filename", and my newer software (itunes) sorts in many different configurations, but alphabetically in all of them, which just sucks.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 09:35 am (UTC)Rock that's not pop.
What's classic rock?
Anything rock that was made in the 60s-70s.
What's folk?
Anything hippie that's not classic rock.
What's folk-rock?
Anything hippie rock that's not classic rock.
What is americana?
Anything 50s and juke-box-y.
What's celtic?
Anything from Celt-land!
If an alternative group makes the top 40, does it stop being alternative and become mandatory?
Mwah-hah-hah... or just plain 'pop'.
Where do I put Canadian bands with weird names? What IS Moxy Fruvous anyway?
Well, under Canadian, silly!! :D
Does it make sense to put Bruce Springsteen in the same category as the Red Hot Chilli Peppers?
*shock* No!! Springsteen is pop! RHCP is funk!
Can an artist have songs in multiple categories, or, once they're consigned to a genre, do all their songs have to go there?
The latter, just to enable easy retrieval!
It seems non-consensual for me to just label artists without finding out what they like to be called.
I completely agree, except if the band in question is Spinal Tap.
As you can see, I have put a great deal of thought to this!! :D
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 09:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 02:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 02:52 pm (UTC)I suppose he might be crackle, though.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 05:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 06:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 06:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 05:55 pm (UTC)I was also amused to find I have a category called "gothic" which was entirely filled with Sisters of Mercy stuff.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 06:06 pm (UTC)I always have a hard time splitting music into goth and 80s. :P
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 02:23 pm (UTC)Classical and instrumental (with short spoken word and christmas sections)
and "everything else" alphabetically by artist.
We give up. On the other hand, our mp3s are organized and sometimes it makes me crazy and I want to redo them the same way. Yotha Yindi got in with folk, whereas I think it probably fits better in "Worldbeat" Do I put Bobby McFerrin and Yo Yo Ma's album "Hush" under children's? Etc.
Good luck! Our music database that Ed wrote lets us have many categories for an album or track (thankfully!) so eventually hopefully it won't matter - once we really get it running smoothly. (it works great but we haven't gotten all the artists and albums and tracks categorized etc yet).
One nice thing about Ed's database for us anyway is that we can also give things categories like "nautical" or "space" or "love" or "breaking up" or ... you get the idea. This is great when you are gleaning for new songs to add to your rep for the NEFFA "songs of space and sea" set or something. :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 02:43 pm (UTC)I tend to do my iTunes/iPod playlists based more on artist than anything else, so the genre tends to be irrelevant. I do find it amusing that the Roots Rock Radio podcast and the CNN Marketplace podcast both end up in the same genre.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 07:37 pm (UTC)Try AMG all music guide
Date: 2006-01-02 03:48 pm (UTC)http://www.allmusic.com/
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 04:30 pm (UTC)Back when I used to rent movies a lot, I was always annoyed that video rental stores would shelve movies by genre. Mostly because oddball movies would seem to get shelved almost at random.
I went looking for "My Own Private Idaho" once. I eventually had to ask at the counter where it was. It was in "Action." I couldn't decide if whoever had categorized it was utterly clueless or had a subversive sense of humor.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 04:47 pm (UTC)Should an author be classified as one, and all their works put in that genre? Or should it be done on a per work basis? How does one handle an anthology of stories by one author? A collection of stories by several authors?
Classification is never easy, especially in areas with no clear boundaries and people who slip between. Do you need to categorize?
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 06:19 pm (UTC)I think I need a category for songs I always fast forward through. Then I can leave them in their rightful place on their respective albums, so if I am listening to the complete album it won't have a gaping hole there, and so if someone else is listening and they want to hear that song they can. But then I could also choose "folk" as a genre and put it on shuffle, secure in the knowledge I will never have to hear anyone sing _From A Distance_. I suppose I should come up with a neutral sounding name for this category, since if someone else likes that particular song I don't want to be dissing their taste in music.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 08:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:00 pm (UTC)I played with iTunes some over Christmas, and the genre stuff is pretty limiting. But, you can pretty easily build playlists, and then just select those to play, download, whatever. (Indeed, iTunes pretty much forces you to create a playlist to burn a CD--though that works well, since the playlist tells you how many Mb it is.)
BTW, with my move to MP3s I looked around for a system like yours for directly downloading stuff to my car. They don't make them anymore. Too bad--it is a really gnifty technology. I think it was just ahead of its time. Apple will probably revive it in a few years, calling it the iCar or something.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 07:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-02 09:29 pm (UTC)Right now I'm trying to clean up my mp3 collection in iTunes -add track numbers, etc. set to rational generes and it's just a huge headache. Too bad you can't have multiple generes in the mp3 field.
At least iTunes has a star rating so you can created mixes by selecting random songs of at least x ranking. Other mp3 players aren't that smart, hence people playing with generes.
I agree
Really, right now if I want a mix I just tune in RadioParadise (http://radioparadise.com/)...
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 02:58 am (UTC)I know enough about your taste to know (since I share a lot of it) that many of the artists we listen to don't fall into consistent categories, and often switch genres album to album anyway. It's pointless.
All my music falls under the genre of "stuff I listen to."
no subject
Date: 2006-01-03 09:55 pm (UTC)This is *your* collection: set it up to please yourself.
Where a genre label seems real and intuitive AND USEFUL to you, then use it. Otherwise, build your own categories that serve how you plan to use your MP3 library.
If Canadian bands with funny names seems sensible, so be it. Arrogant Worms, Moxy Fruvous... you know who they are.
But if groupings of music such as "soothing," "workout," "music and the art of motorcycle maintenance," or "tunes to debug to" are functional, then go for it. And if you have the space to do so, put copies of files in more than one spot if appropriate (assuming the software doesn't allow you to reference files in another category).
The analogous situation in my house is the organization of cds, and the only reason we subdivide anything is because I'm trained to think in categories, and knowing where something is most likely to be helps find it. The largest category is a generalized "artist in alpha order." The other categories exist primarily a) because Mark listens to the Jazz but I mostly don't, b) because all those "Various artists" cds need to be distinguished somehow, and c) soundtracks are conceptually different from artist-driven cds.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-05 05:59 am (UTC)My collection is filed alphabetically by artist. I thought your collection at least in your truck was the same? I liked scrolling through it. It's not an ideal solution but at least it's easy and consistent.
I have dreams of digitizing my collection as you have, and then being able to issue commands like "5 hours of mellow party music" or "3 hours of instrumentals for studying". But I doubt any outside-assigned categories would help.
AFAICT the whole category thing was invented by stores that wanted to force us to browse through things that they hoped we'd buy. Possibly it increases their average sales but for any individual I know it's very frustrating. Now modern search tools, Amazon with their recommendation widget, card catalogs online, have rendered the idea obsolete. So it'll persist for another fifty years or so.
no subject
Date: 2006-01-07 04:04 am (UTC)After you take something out of the store, you can apply whatever labels you like.
There are artistic traditions as well, but for you, the purpose of categorization would be to help you quickly find the tunes you want. Any methodology you apply should serve that end.