Sansa Clip 'Genre' - some tips please...

After ripping my entire CD library over the last few months I now want to unclude Genre details as it is supported by my new wonderful Clip 1Gb.

I have seen the list of Genres in Mp3tag and other such softwares and am getting a bit stuck as to how to catagorise and apply the correct genre to my music.

I am confused by the difference between Rock and Alternative Rock, I am confused about the difference between Punk and Post Punk - and too be honest cannot find any deffinitive resource on the internet to explain the various Genres.

So far I have been looking on Wikipedia at artists to get an idea of which Genre I should use but for example - 1 link detailed Nirvana as ‘blues’, whilst I set the Genre to ‘Grunge’.

Does anyone have any tips please or links they could Private Message to me as I really want to start using the Sansa Clip Genre tool but first need to correctly class my music - and so far I am stuck!

Cheers folks!

pinkfloydian

(Genre: Psychedelic rock)

:wink:

@pinkfloydian wrote:

After ripping my entire CD library over the last few months I now want to unclude Genre details as it is supported by my new wonderful Clip 1Gb.

 

I have seen the list of Genres in Mp3tag and other such softwares and am getting a bit stuck as to how to catagorise and apply the correct genre to my music.

 

I am confused by the difference between Rock and Alternative Rock, I am confused about the difference between Punk and Post Punk - and too be honest cannot find any deffinitive resource on the internet to explain the various Genres.

 

 

So far I have been looking on Wikipedia at artists to get an idea of which Genre I should use but for example - 1 link detailed Nirvana as ‘blues’, whilst I set the Genre to ‘Grunge’.

 

Does anyone have any tips please or links they could Private Message to me as I really want to start using the Sansa Clip Genre tool but first need to correctly class my music - and so far I am stuck!

 

Cheers folks!

pinkfloydian

(Genre: Psychedelic rock)

:wink:

Alt- Rock is different From Regular rock in that its not Classic Rock. Your Name Sake Pink Floyd is Classic Rock IMO, compare them to the Godfathers of Alt-Rock R.E.M. there is your difference. Alt-Rock was distinguished in its early days by where it could be heard, which was college radio.  These 2 are hard to differntiate. Punk and Post punk are IMO easier. Punk is music based on Noise. Or where The ability to play your instrument with any level of musicianship or the Ability to sing were not important, it was more about making sounds and having a good time. For this genre Look up the Sex Pistols, and Iggy and the Stooges. Then Came the Ramones who were more musical but just a punk in attitude. Bands like Ramones, and The New York Dolls, bridge the gap to From Punk to post punk. Post Punk Started with The Clash, Punk rock songs you could play and sing a long to. Some Examples of Post Punk are The Clash, and Green Day.

Nirvana is a tough one to figure. Mainly because Grunge was the Fusion of Hard Rock, Alt-Rock and Blues. My Nirvana is in its own Genre called Nirvana. Songs like Smells Like Teen Spirit (Did you know that the song is Named after a Girls Deoderant?) are definitly more rock than blues but If you look at Cobains Last Recordings (Storytellers on VH1) the grunge is stripped back to the blues. The Easiest thing to do is if you have a question is to visit the artists website, or their labels site, as they generally cassify the artist by the genre that the artist want to be classified by. 

A lot of this can come down to personal choice too. I could make a case for Pink Floyd to be either Psychedelic Rock or Progressive Rock, just like Yes. MediaMonkey says that my Floyd is mostly prog rock, with a litlle psych rock, and it says Yes is just plain Rock. So I think if you’re organizing your personal collection, and you want to assign the genres accordingly, then just choose what you think they are. There are so many sub-categories that you could drive yourself nuts nailing it down cold for everything.:wink:

Conversion Box’s definition of punk is great! Probably explains why I could never get into it…tha horrible singing and guitar playing always drove me nuts. :stuck_out_tongue:

My opinions on Punk are a little Different, I love all Iggy and the Stooges, but only one song by The Pistols, God Save the Queen. The Ramones Are amazing… every note they ever recorded is gold, the same is true for the new york dolls, or any of the punk bands from NYC and CBGB at the time. The Clash’s Joe Strummer is one of My Idols. I cant stand anything Green Day has Done Since Nimrod.

I did have a thought about Alt Rock…  PinkFloydian, where are you located? If you are in the UK Alt-Rock is completely Different than here in the US. In the US bands like Oasis, Blur, Stone Roses, and The Smiths are widely considered “Brit Pop” but in the UK or to major music nerds like myself they are considered Indie Rock which falls under the guise of Alt-Rock

Excellnt reply there conversionbox, thanks.

Yeah, the acoustic unplugged Nirvana moves towards the blues sound but Nevermind seems Grunge to me but not in the same way as Pearl Jam who I beleive are Seatle Grunge. 

As Marvin says though - it can drive you made deciding what catagory to put an artist into and it does not come down to just the artist - it really needs to be done on an individual album basis as for example, The Manic Street Preachers early work with Richie could be classed as Post Punk, whilst there recent stuff could be classed as ‘Rock’ even though they can still come uinder the title of ‘britpop’

I understand Conv what you say about Floyd but I would class groups like Queen and The Beatles (greatest band ever) as Classic Rock and would agree with Marvin that Floyd are more Psychedelic Rock or Progressive Rock.  The Wall however could be classed as Rock Opera or Concept Rock - but this is were the custom Genres come into play as I just made them up even though they are fitting.

there is a TON of stuff to learn as there are lots of new types of Genre popping up all over the place.  Now we have ‘Emo’ , ‘Art Rock’ and many more.

It would be great to have a book on music Genre or a detailed website as I think it is really intersting and since I am a guy who likes to do things properly, I would like to get my tags right.

Heres another example of an artist I like.  Neil Young can mainly be classed as Folk Rock.  But he made an album with Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam called Mirrorball which should certainly be classed as Grunge.  Even the album After The goldrush could be different genre as that really is an album of Ballads.

I am struggling with all this and if I dont find a good reading resource for genres soon might just give up as it is very VERY difficult to get right but again, can be purely your own opinion.

Its a good idea to visit the artists website but there are many occasions this may not be suitable as for example, I love the early work of Ultravox when John Foxx was at the helm before the pop period of Midge Ure.  Now they sound very punk in my opinion and even though they have more than a splattering of Violin throughout their work they use alot of keyboards so could maybe classed as New Wave.

I see what you mean about Oasis, Blur (etc) well they come under britpop like bands like Pulp and Suede (etc) but britpop is a very wide genre and you could even call the Beatles britpop even thought their music styles went from Skiffle to Pop to Psycadelia.  I would call Oasis and others Indie.

Appreciate the replies folks and it was great to read.

Gonna continue my search and to be honest might just give up on the Genre thing unless I find an idiots guide to it all.

pinkfloydian

Message Edited by pinkfloydian on 02-13-2009 08:30 PM

On my Fuze, with all automatic tagging, it says I have 19 different genre’s, plus one that is unknown. I don’t worry about genre too much, but given this discussion , I thought it might be relevant to share.

I keep Nirvana in its own Genre, called Nirvana, I do the same with Floyd, The Beatles, and The Stones. Queen is Classic Rock on my Fuze and I dont use Genres on the Clip. I dont consider Pearl Jam Grunge, but Rather Blues-Rock They dont have enough hard rock in their stable. I only have one song from Neil Young’s solo records (4 Dead in Ohio[Im from Ohio]) all the rest is Crosby Stills Nash and Young, which is folk IMO. 

As a rule of thumb (at least at the radio Stations I have worked with) EMO, and Art Rock, fall under Alt-Rock.

Wow UltraVox… I have not found a fan of theirs in A long time… I love their early stuff. 

I have been in the music industry for 8 years now, and I can tell you there is no definitive resource that defines Genres. There are some documentarys Called The History of Rock and Roll, and Seven ages of Rock. The History of Rock and Roll is 12 parts (I think) and is a pretty basic overview of the Different parts of Rock Music and covers parts of the Gifferent Genres. Seven Ages is the best overall Rock Documentary I have ever seen. It is 7 hours, and actually every part is a different Genre, and goes into detail on each Genre.

Hey Marvin, I had a good few ‘unknown’ genres - just been sorting through and fixing them.  lol

Conv…

Yeah, I think that since the Beatles are the best band ever in the world and beyond - then I will probably give them their own Genre too.  lol

Early Ultravox (pre Ure) was a one of a kind band and had some AMAZING songs.  I love them and managed to get hold of an incredible sounding bootleg of them Live that is truly treasure in my MP3 archive.

I will have a look for that Rock ‘n’ Roll docu that you mentioned.  Sounds like a lot to take in but since I love my music will seek it out.

Right - all Genres for MP3s and FLAC now complete - pending a change of mind.  lol

pinkfloydian

Check out Seven Ages First if you can Find it. Its way better. In that it is Genre based. So If you Like Metal you can watch that part, Punk you can watch that. The thing about The History of Rock ‘N’ Roll is that episodes are more based on topic, one of my favorites focuses on Guitar Gods, so Its alot about Pete Townsend and Hendrix and the like and is less specific. I bought both on DVD a while back, and I love to break them out on a Rainy Saturday or Sunday and just chill on the couch and watch them.