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The Gracenote Media Database Needs a Genre Overhaul


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I realize the Gracenote Media Database that gives iTunes users CD info is a free service, and it does a good job overall at providing accurate information. But that's not going to stop me from complaining about it anyway. ;)

 

The genre listings provided by users often leave something to be desired. For example, while "Indie Rock" may be a unique business category and perhaps even a movement, is it really a genre? I mean, does indy grunge really sound different enough from major label grunge to merit a separate genre classification?

 

And whose idea was it to create the "Country and Folk" category for genre listings? It's not like it's a single style like rhythm and blues. Should Joni Mitchell, Dixie Chicks, and Tracy Chapman really be lumped together in this classification? It's especially bad to see Joni Mitchell's jazz influenced period categorized this way. :rolleyes:

 

And only the barely nascent teenagers who represent perhaps the biggest chunk of Gracenote Media Database users would mislabel punk and new wave releases from the '70s and '80s as "Alternative." Never mind that alternative is a vague and virtually useless genre name, it wasn't used for a specific style at all before the '90s.

 

*Whew!* Thanks for letting me get that off of my chest.

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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Good points. I usually replace genre and other information while creating tracks for my ipod. Since my audio recording collection is heavy on world music, I tend to change genres to nations, so I can find things more easily by sorting the whole collection by nation.

 

My main complaint with the "get track info" in iTunes is about what happens when two of more sets of data match your CD. At that point, you're given a dialog box to select one or the other, but you can't preview much of the data to see what's best.

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I realize the Gracenote Media Database that gives iTunes users CD info is a free service, and it does a good job overall at providing accurate information. But that's not going to stop me from complaining about it anyway.
;)

The genre listings provided by users often leave something to be desired. For example, while "Indie Rock" may be a unique business category and perhaps even a movement, is it really a genre? I mean, does indy grunge really sound different enough from major label grunge to merit a separate genre classification?


And whose idea was it to create the "Country and Folk" category for genre listings? It's not like it's a single style like rhythm and blues. Should Joni Mitchell, Dixie Chicks, and Tracy Chapman really be lumped together in this classification? It's especially bad to see Joni Mitchell's jazz influenced period categorized this way.
:rolleyes:

And only the barely nascent teenagers who represent perhaps the biggest chunk of Gracenote Media Database users would mislabel punk and new wave releases from the '70s and '80s as "Alternative." Never mind that alternative is a vague and virtually useless genre name, it wasn't used for a specific style at all before the '90s.


*Whew!* Thanks for letting me get that off of my chest.


Best,


Geoff

First Grace preamps and now this... Geoff, you're on a roll. :D

 

 

Genre descriptions, of course, are one of the minor but pervasive annoyances for us micro-independents (ie, those of us who manage our own careers, labels, distro, etc) -- which is why I made up my own genre for my music: mutant outsider roots pop.

 

 

One minor point, though, alternative was absolutely and without question in use (out here in Cali, anyhow) to describe non-mainstream rock in the 80s and maybe even in the 70s, although, of course, back then it really meant alternative -- and wasn't the highly regimented, cookie-cutter genre ghetto it became.

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Yes, I remember that as well.

 

I think we're making the same point. Those alternatives weren't one specific genre; they were a variety of genres that--taken as a group--provided an alternative to mainstream rock. That's one reason why the word "alternative" was such a poor term to use for a more specific genre in the nineties. That's why I chose the words, "it wasn't used for a specific style at all before the '90s." ;)

 

Best,

 

Geoff

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Ah! You did, didn't you? Dang. Well, I thought of it as more or less synonymous with post-punk -- but that was hardly a fixed genre, either, stretching, as it did from cow-punk to neo-dub.

 

Heck, I just wanted to get into the thread... :D

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Good points. My sense is that Gracenote ultimately blames categories on the Content Provider. The "Album version" probably dates back to the CDDB days of ripping and submitting titles. They would have acquired the names from CDs in their db long before they had to handle the additional listings of alternative versions from Record Label sources.

 

I miss those days when huge companies would dump 250+ million USD without any idea how they would make any money from it.

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