Genre Geneology

Deakon · Post by **Deakon** » Thu May 18, 2006 8:03 am

Here's a tree I've been working on by doing a little research online. I'm trying to keep things 3 branches or less. (I can see how this whole genre thing could get very unwieldy!) Any suggestions or comments would be GREATLY appreciated as some genres I am completely unfamiliar with. Also if you can see something I've obviously left out, please let me know. Thanks!

Code: Select all

Bluegrass
      Contemporary
      Progressive
      Traditional
      
Blues
      Gospel
      Chicago
      Classic Female 
      Country
            Acoustic
            Classic Female
            Dirty
            Early American
            East Coast
            Folk
            Gospel
            Piano
            Pre-war
            Work Songs
      Delta
      Dirty
      Harmonica
      Jazz
      Louisiana
      Modern Electric
            British
            Contemporary
            Juke Joint
            Uptown Soul
            Urban
      Texas

Classical
      Baroque
      Contemporary
      Medieval
      Renaissance
      Romantic

Country
      Alternative
            Americana
      Contemporary
            Neo-Traditional
      Honky Tonk
            Bakersfield Sound
            Truck Driving
      Pop
            Urban Cowboy
      Progressive
            Folk
            Outlaw
      Traditional
            Close Harmony
            Boogie
            Gospel
            Instrumental
            Old-Timey
            Rodeo
            Square Dance
      Western Swing

Dance
      Acid House
      Acid Jazz
      Club
      Disco
      Euro-Dance
      House
      Rave
      Techno

Electronica
      Acid Techno
      Ambient
            Breakbeat
            Dark
            Dub
            House
            Techno
      Downbeat
      Drum and Bass
      Dub
      Electro
      Euro-Dance
      Freestyle
      Funky Breaks
      Gabber
      Happy Hardcore
      Hi-Nrg
      IDM
      Illbeint
      Neo-Electro
      Newbeat
      Progressive House
      Speed Garage
      Techno
            Detroit
            Drum and Bass
            Garage
            Hardcore
      Trance
      Tribal-House
      Trip-Hop

Folk
      Pop
      Rock

Gospel
      Black Spiritual
      Christian

Hip-Hop
      Acid Jazz
      Bass
      G-Funk
      Go-Go
      House
      Quiet Storm
      Rap
            Alternative
            East-Coast
            Gangsta
            Hardcore
            Jazz
            Old School
            Southern
            West-Coast
      Urban

Jazz
      Big Band
            Swing
            Vocal
      Bop
            Vocalese
      Cool
            Mood Music
            West-Coast
      Dixieland
      Fusion
            Contemporary
            Crossover
            Smooth
      Hard Bop
            Modal Music
      New Orleans
            Classic
      Ragtime
      Soul
      Swing
      World Fusion
            Afro-Cuban
            Brazilian
            Latin
            New York Salsa

New Age
      Ambient
      Chamber Jazz
      Contemporary Instrumental
      Electronic
      Ethnic Fusion
      Meditation
      Neo-Classical
      Solo Instrumental

Pop
      Adult Alternative
      Adult Contemporary
      Boy Band
      Brill Building
      Brit-Pop
      British Invasion
      Bubblegum
      Comedy
      Euro-Pop
      Foreign Language
      French
      Girl Group
      Instrumental Rock
      International
      Italian
      Latin Rock
      Merseybeat
      Mod
      Psychedelic
      Skiffle
      Teen Idol 

Rhythm & Blues
      Beach
      Disco
      Doo Wop
      Funk
      Motown
      Soul
            Blue-Eyed
            Deep
            Northern
            Philly
            Retro
            Southern
      Swamp Pop

Rock
      Alternative
            Cocktail
            Cowpunk
            Emo
            Funk Metal
            Garage
            Grunge
            Indie
            Lo-Fi
            Madchester
            Neo-Psychedelia
            New Zealand
            Paisley Underground
            Post-Punk
            Psychobilly
            Riot Grrl
            Shoegaze
            Ska
            Space
      American Traditional
      British Traditional
      Christian
      Classic
      Euro-Rock
      Experimental
            Art
            Fractal Music
            Futurism
            Jazz
            Kraut
            Neo-Prog
            Noise
            Progressive
      Gothic
            Ethereal
      Hard Rock
            Acid
            Arena
            Blues
            Boogie
            Glam
            Southern
      Heavy Metal
            Black
            British
            Death
            Doom
            Grindcore
            Hair
            Hardcore
            Nu-Metal
            Power
            Progressive
            Speed
            Thrash
      Industrial
            Dance
            Darkwave
            EBM
            Metal
      Progressive
      Punk
            Hardcore
            New Romantic
            New Wave
            No Wave
            Oi
            Proto-Punk
            Straight-Edge
	
      Rock and Roll
            Rockabilly
      Ska
      Soft 

Soundtracks
      Games
      Movies
      Television

Vocal
      A Capella
      Choral

World

Post by **Lowlander** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:14 am

I miss a lot of stuff in this already long list. This probably will be the same for people from other regions as well.

Most importantly I miss reggae and polka.

In the latin music I miss reggaeton, salsa, merengue, bolero, samba, cumbia, norteña, banda, etc.

Teknojnky · Post by **Teknojnky** » Thu May 18, 2006 9:49 am

Nice list.

Nebbin · Post by **Nebbin** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:28 am

The list is nicely done, although the whole genre thing is giving me such a headache that I've decided on using only a few simple genre "buckets". This categorising into numerous pidgeon holes is not for the weak of heart. One of my local CD retailers has a display of their top 50 recommended cd's ... and include each album with a "genre" tag that requires at least 3 to 4 words to describe it. (Personally I think it's become a big joke to them

)

Heck, you can almost put every cd into it's own genre - or even each track on each cd into a unique genre as every song is slightly different. Where does one stop?

lol, in fact I've basically given up on deriving a coherent, meaningful genre-tree altogether

Hopefully you guys can put me out of my misery and come up out of the mess with something pleasantly useful

Teknojnky · Post by **Teknojnky** » Thu May 18, 2006 10:41 am

Yea, with so many genre's and sub genre's, it's really gets beyond useful into the overkill mode.

I haven't yet got all mine sorted out yet, but I've been trying to keep them down to 10 or less of the main categories.

Rock
Metal
Country
Rap
R&B
Techno
Pop
Classical
Comedy
Misc

Misc being most everything else that does not fit in the other categories listed. I don't have much/any jazz, blues, bluegrass, but I can see adding them if I had a bunch.

To me, there is no worthwhile distinction necessary between many of the sub-genre's and the main genre..

What would useful to me, is being able to assign multiples of the main genre's... for example... Prince (or the artist formerly known as Prince)... is he Pop? R&B? Dance? Rock? probly all of the above, in his various tracks. Do I really want to segregrate artists material because one track is 'Pop' while another is 'R&B' ? I don't, but no doubt others may feel differently.

Deakon · Post by **Deakon** » Thu May 18, 2006 3:55 pm

Lowlander wrote:I miss a lot of stuff in this already long list. This probably will be the same for people from other regions as well.

Most importantly I miss reggae and polka.

In the latin music I miss reggaeton, salsa, merengue, bolero, samba, cumbia, norteña, banda, etc.

Like I said... I am unfamiliar with many genres. I'd like to include any suggestions that anyone has while keeping the tree to 2 sub-genres per genre. With that being said... If you'd be so kind as to let me know where I should include these genres in the tree, I'll happily update it. (I'm pondering where to put Gypsie Guitar Music... Maybe "World?")

I also re-formatted the list a little. I originally started working on it in Word which threw some tabs in. It looks a little better now.

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:10 pm

I also tried genre lists like this in the past, even with proper genre descriptions.
I stopped because of one reason: There Is No Genre List.

Every single site (Amazon, AMG, ..., Wiki) has another genre list and other explanations for genres. Even contradictory sometimes.
This is why I think main genres, subgenres (styles), ... should be able to be chosen by the user itself.
Just like I would classify Euro-Rock as Rock, while you say it's Pop.

Sorry if this is not an answer many of you want to hear, but I had this major disappointment a already a long time ago. I think there's no way around it.
Most artists don't even know their own genre, you know... that's *not* a joke. OK, then know they're playing rock, but don't ask them what kind of rock!

BTW: Genres are evolving every day. The genres "Techno", "House", "Trance","Pop", ... have very different "meanings" than they had say 5 to 10 years ago.

Cheers
Steegy

Deakon · Post by **Deakon** » Thu May 18, 2006 4:19 pm

Steegy wrote:I also tried genre lists like this in the past, even with proper genre descriptions.
I stopped because of one reason: There Is No Genre List.

I agree with your statement... But I'm of the belief that there are enough audiophiles here that we could hammer out a definitive genre list. It would never be 100% accurate but getting close would be worth the effort don't you think?

Oh... And you're right about the Euro-Rock. I've been doing a lot of cut & paste. Things get lost.

Fixed that and also moved Brit-Pop to Pop.

Post by **Lowlander** » Thu May 18, 2006 5:04 pm

Well I don't know where to put them either. I just thought I should mention it. The latin genre's are often added under world, but then most genre list are from the american point of view.

Here is an example that might be of use: http://www.audiogalaxy.com/list/glossar ... e0808dd219

Deakon · Post by **Deakon** » Sat May 20, 2006 3:29 am

Teknojnky wrote:Yea, with so many genre's and sub genre's, it's really gets beyond useful into the overkill mode.

I haven't yet got all mine sorted out yet, but I've been trying to keep them down to 10 or less of the main categories.

That's what I'm trying to accomplish... I'm only putting together this tree in hopes that I can get help in organizing the sub-genres under the correct "root" genres. Then I can tag everything in my collection that falls under Country as Country instead of all the other crap.

But not being familiar with all genres of music, I could use help.

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Sat May 20, 2006 4:21 am

Some useful links with huge genre lists:

http://www.mp3.com/rock-pop/genre/13/all-styles.html
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&&sql=73:20
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_genre (See bottom for links to specific genres, and their subgenres/styles. This resource is *huge*!)
http://www.answerbag.com/c_view.php/214
http://www.worldmusiccentral.org/static ... php/genres
http://dir.yahoo.com/Entertainment/Music/Genres

I certainly would try to use subgenres/styles too, if MediaMonkey would support them.

Cheers
Steegy

jomarche · Post by **jomarche** » Mon May 29, 2006 8:43 pm

Where do I go in the MM file to modify the genere list? I started poking around but it did not hit me in the face. Any help?

Steegy · Post by **Steegy** » Mon May 29, 2006 8:55 pm

MediaMonkey has a genres table in the MediaMonkey.mdb database file.
That genre table consists of a "fixed" list portion of built-in genres, and a "variable" list portion of genres that have been added through MediaMonkey.

The "variable" portion can be changed within MediaMonkey itself (add new genres, change/remove existing variable genres). To edit the "fixed" portion, you'll have to edit the database file (normally My Documents\My Music\MediaMonkey\MediaMonkey.mdb). These can't be changed from within MediaMonkey itself and will normally always be present and stay the same.

Cheers
Steegy

rovingcowboy · Post by **rovingcowboy** » Mon May 29, 2006 11:23 pm

well i chimed in a little bit on that poll i set up. but here is the ones i use

bigband
blues
bluegrass
christmas
classical
comedy
country
disco
easylistening
folk
gospel
humor
instrumental
jazz
kids
movie themes
pop
ragtime
rock
symphony
showtunes
sound effects
sound tracks
tvthemes
vocal (as in news storys)

if the song for me fits in one of those or a sub catogory i place it in which ever one it needs. as long as it matches the above is fine with me.

Post by **Lowlander** » Tue May 30, 2006 9:11 am

Don't edit the fixed genre's. These are standard ID3 genres and won't be compatible with other software if edited (Just the ID# is saved not the name).

You can edit the user genre's part, but here you also need to be careful.

Inside MediaMonkey you will just need to type a custom genre in the genre field and the new genre will be created automatically. You can create as many custom genres as you wish.

Genre Geneology

Genre Geneology

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