The Genre List.
When you throw a CD into your computer to rip the music the helpful data providers assign a genre. Well, I for one don't accept their narrow definitions of what each music is. Instead I've created my own narrow definitions of what my music is. Here's the list
Classical
Electronica/Ambient
Jazz/Blues
Lounge/Novelty/Misc
Minneapolis
New Wave
PFunk
Rock (Classic)
Rock (Current)
Rock (Garrage)
Soul (Classic)
Soul (Neo & Hip Hop)
Soundtrack
World/Africa Influenced
World/Americas
World/Eurasia
Electronica/Ambient
Jazz/Blues
Lounge/Novelty/Misc
Minneapolis
New Wave
PFunk
Rock (Classic)
Rock (Current)
Rock (Garrage)
Soul (Classic)
Soul (Neo & Hip Hop)
Soundtrack
World/Africa Influenced
World/Americas
World/Eurasia
With any taxonomic system there are ambiguities and overlaps and difficult decisions to be made as far as what belongs where, but for the curious here are a few examples of each and the reasons behind them.
Classical: Pretty much what you'd expect, I'm a big fan of Kronos Quartet, so much of that genre is made up of their recordings (otherwise I don't listen to much). Film Scores too naturally (especially Bernard Herrmann)
Electronica/Ambient: A broad category that also implies Dance music as well (most CDs pop up Electronica & Dance, I just don't like that nomenclature). Examples are as diverse as Cocteau Twins to Roni Size to Malcolm McClaren to Kylie Minogue.
Jazz/Blues: I combine the two since if I'm on a 'let there be random' mood, Jazz and Blues compliment each other, plus both are American idioms born of the Delta. Big heavy hitters include Jaco Pastorious (greatest Bassist ever), miles and miles of Miles Davis (of course), Muddy Waters, and Fats Waller.
Lounge/Novelty/Misc: This is a catchall category. Can include spoken word over music like the William Burroughs CD (which is pretty fantastic) to Esquivel to Richard Pryor comedy albums (a must have) to Golden Throats CDs (you haven't lived until you've heard Phyllis Diller sing Satisfaction)
Minneapolis: This is Prince and all the bands under his thrall and influence. Includes Prince, Wendy & Lisa, The Time and Sheila E. (there would be others (Ingrid Chavez, Vanity, Apollonia, Taja Seville) but I don't have their CDs). What, you thought this would be a whole genre for the Replacements?
New Wave: This basically includes everything recorded in the 80s (and some late 70s) that was from England or influenced by what was going on there. Includes Eurythmics, Thomas Dolby, Culture Club, Bow Wow Wow, Adam Ant, Aztec Camera, Bauhaus, etc. etc. etc.. Some acts are harder to define from that period, there are bands later that slip in anyway (Republica for stylistic reasons) and of the period that I exclude (Guns & Roses, Janes Addiction, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Elvis Costello) for a variety of reasons. New Wave is a very broad category, but the only way to define it is that you know it when you hear it.
PFunk: This is a pretty obvious category. Any artist involved with the original Parliament and Funkadelic are included here whether with the band or doing solo work. So lots of George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell. Bill Laswell even manages to slide in here with his Axiom Funk double CD which is pure PFunk (and a great album).
Rock (Classic): I break up Rock into three categories which causes a few taxonomic problems but to add more categories just gets unruly. Classic is basically anything from the 60s & 70s (and some 80s) that I don't consider to be Garage music. (I don't have any Rock from the 50s in my collection, that stuff doesn't move me).
Rock (Current): Basically everything not soulful, not electronica/dance/ambient, not New Wave-y and not World ends up in Rock (Current). From Nirvana to The White Stripes to King Crimson (who are the only artists I put in multiple categories, their recent albums are sufficiently different from their 70s work that they fit both current and classic depending on the disc).
Rock (Garage): This is mostly the two Nuggets compilations with Love thrown in. This music is sufficiently different from the other Rock (Classic) in my collection that it deserves separate classification. Plus it makes the random play of that genre more consistent from a mood and stylistic standpoint.
Soul (Classic): Basically this includes 60s & 70s soul with a big emphasis on Stevie Wonder, Motown and Aretha, good, good stuff this.
Soul (Neo & Hip Hop): Most of the current Soul acts I prefer harken back to the classics of the 60s & 70s so calling them Neo-Classic soul fits. Obviously the big difference being that Hip Hop also influences these bands so acts like Outkast, Meshell NdegeOcello, D'Angelo, Sade, Lauryn Hill, Alicia Keys, Brand New Heavies and others offer a fresh take on some old grooves. If it doesn't have some resemblance to 60s & 70s soul, it's not in my music collection (I'm talking to you Mariah Carey, you'd be good if you didn't suck so much).
Soundtrack: Another catchall category, Soundtrack is just what it says, Soundtrack albums. Velvet Goldmine, Pret-A-Porter, Pulp Fiction (of course), Dazed & Confused, Trainspotting, and Magnolia are the heavy hitters here. The scores to films are included in Classical, but the songs from films go here.
World/Africa Influenced: Why the odd name? This category includes both African music like Fela Kuti, Papa Wemba and Sunny Ade, but also Reggae from Burning Spear, Bob Marley and Peter Tosh (among others). The back and forth influence between these music forms is obvious and Reggae though formed in the Americas doesn't really match the other music I included in that category.
World/Americas: Basically all music from North and South America not sung in English. From Cafe Tacuba to Julieta Venegas to Los Amigos Invisibles to Caetano Veloso, if it's in Spanish or Portugeuse, it's here.
World/Eurasia: This is a broad category, too. From Khaled (who though North African, reflects a Middle Eastern influence), to Ofra Haza to Sheila Chandra to Sajit Ray, it's in here somewhere.
So that's it, 16 categories for my too numerous CDs. I won't know the final breakdown of how many hours are divided into each bunch until I'm done ripping my CDs and that's a painstaking process that I am loathe to do, so maybe I'll update one day with a breakdown of amount per category, maybe not.
Now, I've shown you mine, will you show me yours?
6 comments:
I love music but am not nearly as involved with it as you. I was under the impression that "Classical" was a specific era of music. I think of "classical" now to mean "orchestral" or "symphonic" whether it was baroque or modern or post-modern or whatever other time periods orchestral/symphonic music falls into.
I'm up to my eyeballs in household taxonomy, but mine is not nearly as interesting as yours. Mine is baby, toddler, pre-school, husband, pre-marriage, junk, etc.
Ruth Anne:
My father would be SO proud of you! I think I was out of my parents' house before I used the word "classical" generically. That was definitely a no-no, for us kids, growing up.
Interestingly, my parents would use that word generically, when speaking with non-musicians. I think that they were so strict with us because they were trying to imbue a sense of discrimination and distinction, which, in my case at least, did take.
That said, life is just too short for me to bother much, anymore, and who needs any more blank stares than strictly necessary, anyway? When I'm around people who are capital "M" musicians, I will go the extra mile, howevever, just to keep from going completely rusty.
Ruth Anne, thanks for the comment, so you are saying you 'love' music, but aren't 'in love' with music in that way. (oh, the classic feminine brush off)
In a parallel universe I was probably a DJ or Music Rep. for the past 15 years, but in this universe I'm just a dedicated fan of many styles.
You are absolutley right to see some mushiness in what I term as 'classical', it's short-hand for the many other terms you mentioned.
All taxonomy systems are subject to difficulties and inaccuracies, just ask Linnaeus.
(and ditto to you RIA, I'm being sloppy where I'm less interested and more specific where my greatest interests lie, if that wasn't clear already)
Clarification - are you referring to playlists or do you actually change the CD's genre? I just accept the offered genres which then gives useless groups like: Electronic, Electronic/Dance, Eurodance, European Pop. Plus eight different classifications of "General..." and hiphop/rap versus rap. Overall, looks like about 30 of them; like I said, useless.
I like your system, it's fairly clean and avoids the subsection>subsection>subsection nonsense.
I'd like to clean mine up, but this would be too much work and really go against how I play music. In my short career as a college radio station DJ, I'd play Gershwin followed by Public Enemy followed by a Civil defense record found at a garage sale....When asked, I would say I played "good music."
I usually listen on random and if I feel the need for something specialized, I'll whip together a playlist. Of which I have very few. Most are for CD creations. The playlist I use most is the library minus xmas tunes minus books.
I use WMP10 for most of my listening and before ripping I change the genre (and in the past I actually changed the name order to last name, first name, but that really slows things down (especially on compilations) so now I reluctantly accept alphabetization by first name).
You can change the genres after the fact easily, just drag a whole genre and drop it into another genre and WMP will give you a confirmation box and then go ahead and change the whole thing for you (I occaisonally miss changing an album's genre upon ripping)
I notice that the different data providers aren't particularly systematic and stuff like that drives me crazy (but not in a completly OCD way, honest).
I can accept some sloppiness, but they take things too far, plus since I have dozens of hours of Prince and PFunk they really do deserve their own categories separate from the other Soul acts (and I've never liked the term R&B, always preferred Soul, can't explain why).
I'm not sure if that clarifies or muddies, but there's your answer Bill.
Thanks. I use iTunes, but same concept.
Soul is Stax, which led to funk which led to hip hop.
R&B is Motown which led to disco which led to American Idol.
Prince is soul, Lionel Ritchie is R&B. Soul wins.
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