____twoism

Hello Twoism,

I've recently been inputting a bunch of new music in my iTunes library and have been trying to get some structure going when labeling the genres. I come to the problem where it seems there are only 4 categories to define thousands of tracks; everything is either Electronic, Hip-Hop, Ambient and so on, there isn't much definition.

I'm curious to everyone here: How do you go about classifying all of your music? I want to have more conclusive sub genres that are accurate and efficient but I don't really know how to go about doing it. For example, how do you guys categorize BoC? I just have them labeled Electronic but most of their stuff could easily fall under IDM, Downtempo, Ambient, Minimal, Experimental, or Abstract aswell.

I don't. I always leave the genre tag blank.

mechanismj wrote:I don't. I always leave the genre tag blank.

Saw that coming...

Yeah. It had to, really.

I classify my music as class. Straight up class.

mechanismj wrote:I don't. I always leave the genre tag blank.

honestly, this. I usually have my library on shuffle, or I'll play an album anyway.

mechanismj wrote:I don't. I always leave the genre tag blank.

Pretty much this. Some songs are just too damn difficult to classify without resorting to "IDM"... and I refuse to do that.

Look, I get the whole "not wanting to be boxed into a genre" thing. In fact I felt the same way for a while, but I don't really think that way anymore.
Honesty I'd classify my music as electronic. I use electronic equipment and processes, therefore it's electronic.

I use the most basic tags possible. It helps organize things on the library list. Those tags are:

Electronic
Rock
Metal
Classical

I search by artists name, and I connect my ipod through winamp not itunes, I fucking hate itunes!!!!

with the band I'm in, i'm quick to name it psychedelic and experimental but just call it alternative rock to friends

I think I would classify the majority of my music by calling it 'psychedelic ambient'.

Everything I import to iTunes I'll put into playlists right away. To name a few: Personal Radio, Public Radio (more for when I have company) Jazzy, Chill, IDM, Downtempo / Jazzy, Dance, Sport, Guitarish, Piano-ish, etc etc. This way I don't have to permanently tag the files into one specific genre and I always have a playlist at hand that fits the mood.

Aesthetics wrote:Everything I import to iTunes I'll put into playlists right away. To name a few: Personal Radio, Public Radio (more for when I have company) Jazzy, Chill, IDM, Downtempo / Jazzy, Dance, Sport, Guitarish, Piano-ish, etc etc. This way I don't have to permanently tag the files into one specific genre and I always have a playlist at hand that fits the mood.

That's an interesting and efficient way of going about. I like it.

I am with Vexille, I like to use the most basic tags as I possibly can.

Making up a new genre is always fun.

We make up genres at home sometimes. Usually after checking they already exist!
Generally I sort by artist since 'sub genres' are so large...
If i don't want to get too specific or wanky, generally in conversation to "Electronica" which would encompass the likes of BoC, Hammock, Royksopp, The Flashbulb, Hybrid, Wisp, to Jon Hopkins, James Blake, Modern Institute, Moby, all the way to Jazzsteppa, Bluetech, Aphex Twin.

But I also use "Ambient". Generally that encompasses electronica groups or albums that don't use beats. That's basically the criteria. Lustmord, Brian Eno, Biosphere, Audio Gourmet, Mister Vapor, Ben Frost, those kinds of characters.

"Noise" = Merzbow :p

The rest are easy..
"Motion Picture Score" or "Soundtrack" and "Video Game Soundtrack"

I use playlists to sort things into specific genres and subgenres. Mainly for ambient and different metal genres. All the individual tracks will still be listed as metal or electronic though.

I use this...

- 60s
- 70s & 80s
- Abstract & Glitch
- Ambient
- Compilation & Mix
- Downtempo, Lounge & Exotica
- Dubstep & Drum'n'bass
- Electro
- Electronic
- Folk, Singer Songwriter & Country
- Hip Hop
- House
- Jazz & Classical
- Pop
- Post-Rock
- Punk & Metal
- Rock
- Shoegaze & Electronic Pop
- Soul & Blues
- Soundtrack
- Techno

Don't do it in iTunes or an external library.


I don't know what OS you have, but in Windows you can batch assign tags from the files themselves via right click or a custom .bat file (for a whole album).


A lot of the time I just use dbPoweramp for both my mp3's and flac, since Windows won't assign flac tags by itself.


Oh, and mostly I just use "Electronic". A broad term that I use for my own music as well, considering sub-genres can get annoying and with the variation albums tend to have, it doesn't all apply.

However I have some things tagged under "IDM", notably some BoC, Telefon Tel Aviv and FSOL.

The main genres in my iTunes library are:

-Rock
-Electronic
-Game
-Country Rock
-Indie
-Trip-Hop
-Rap