Have you ever tried to hand-tag your music in Windows Media Player or some other music application and been bowled over by the choices of genre to which you may assign your track? I mean, sure, I can appreciate that there different styles of, say, polka music, but when you see the number and the odd titles you wonder how someone could even make the distinction.
Just as an example, Wikipedia lists these twelve types of Trance music: Acid trance, Classic trance, Dream trance, Euro-trance, Epic trance, Hardstyle, Nu-NRG, Progressive trance, Tech trance, Uplifiting trance, Vocal trance. Oh, and of course, anythings that references scripture would simply be called “Christian Trance.” Just kidding. Didn’t see that one.
That is sort of a point, though. Which element is the thing that names the music? Sometimes one aspect overrides everything. And any name that has “pop” in it would really seem to get into a gray area. I mean, wouldn’t the sea chanty be pop music if it were heard in dozens of commercials and news program bumper music?
Well, I guess the point is that tags/genres have a place. It helps us locate tracks or albums wherever many are stored. People have a need to group things even though artists often say they despise being labelled. See for me, seeing these lists is pure stimulus. It creates a thirst for knowledge. For example, right now I have a strong desire to sample twelve kinds of trance music and see if I can understand the very minimum of variation in instrumentation, rhythm, tonal quality, lyrical content, or chord structure that would make a full-tilt Nu-NRG piece bust out of its genre totally and suddenly fall into the realm of plain old vanilla Tech Trance.
Stay tuned . . .
