I 100% ignore genres. If I have a complete album of something then I have a playlist for that album, but all the random stuff is just that. I do have two playlists set up for mood, “Boogie Nights” for upbeat music, and “Booty Call” for slower, mellow stuff, but that’s it. Usually I just put iTunes on shuffle and let it run.
The genre tag is useless for me. I even gave up filling in my own custom genre. The problem is that so much music (in my collection anyway) crosses genres. I’m waiting for a “Keyword” feature to be added to the ID4 tag so that I can apply all pertinent genre and style tags.
I use the comment field rather extensively, too, and I build playlists based on mood. For example, when I’m working on something that requires heavy focus, I don’t want lyrics distracting me, so I have a list that pulls out only instrumentals (using the comment field), and picks a bit among the genres (no Christmas). I also have an “upbeat” keyword in the comments so that I can build a list that includes upbeat songs from multiple genres.
I have wide musical tastes, but I’m not always in the mood for every kind of music: hence dozens of playlists. Today, I’m running a “current favorites” list that has a mix of Celtic rock, classical, acoustic guitar, classic rock, and bluegrass. I’m a strange animal.
Mine are
Christmas
Classical
Comedy/Weird
Country/Folk/Bluegrass
Jazz/Swing/Standards
Jimmy Buffett
Live/Acoustic/Acapella
Pop by Decade
Rock
R&B/Funk/Blues
World
A whole genre for Jimmy Buffet? I love it!
“Indie” has kind of become the new “alternative”
Well you can’t get much less descriptive of the actual music than “indie.”
Shoebox - Worn Heel, Grind, My Obsession, other mainstream shoebox stuff
Alternative shoebox - Tag Nog, Bash, early Grind
Indie shoebox - The Spangles, Pacers, Topic
Indie alternative new shoebox - Jan Tomaceski, Stokoe’s Sunderland, The Opal Mints, etc.
Alternative Indie shoebox - DVLA, post-“Eater” Tag Nog, The Clegg Commission
I must be too old to know what any of that stuff is.
I find Beastie Boys, Beck and Gorillaz largely unclassifyable (but strangely similar in their blending of hip hop, alt rock and electronica) so they get called “Alternative Rock”