# 'iTunes Genre Assignment' **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 4, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047 "2004-09-04T00:16:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/1 "2004-09-04T00:16:02Z")
Note before you proceed: This thread is **NOT** about a sex change. If you use iTunes, you’ve probably encountered the _genre field_. This thread is about the best way of filling this space for each track in your collection. As such, I invite you to comment on the genre names I use. My collection contains all kinds of popular music (not a lot of classical), and is particularly heavy on alternative/guitar-based music. I am British, so if you haven’t heard of some of the bands I mention that’s probably why. The bands are a sample of examples of each genre in the library. Anyway, here goes: **Alt Country:** Lamb Chop, Dashboard Saints **Alternative:** (basically stuff that is kinda alt-ish and didn’t fit in any of my other categories, e.g. The Shins) **Alternative Dance:** Chemical Brothers, The Prodigy, Lemon Jelly **Alternative Pop:** The Aislers Set, Beautiful South, Rilo Kiley **Alternative Rock:** Ash, Ozma, Terrorvision **Ambient:** Air, Moby, Royskopp **Avantgarde:** (later) Radiohead, The High Fidelity **Baggy:** (Mostly Manchester-scene early 90s music) Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, The Charlatans **Ballad:** Beverly Craven, Celine Dion, Dina Carroll **Britpop:** (British guitar pop, mid-90s) Menswear, {early-mid} Blur, Shed Seven **Cheese:** Los Lobos, Ottowan, Survivor **Classic Pop:** Bluebells, {early} Cher, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel **Comedy:** Divine Comedy, Fat Les, Afroman **Comedy Punk:** (usually just odd tracks) e.g. Bloodhound Gang **Comedy Rock:** (see above) e.g. Tenacious D **Dance:** (as opposed to Nineties Dance or Eighties Dance, i.e. recent) Alice DeeJay, Fragma, Jurgen Vries **Dance Covers:** e.g. You See The Trouble With Me - Black Legend **Disco:** Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang, Shalamar **Drum & Bass:** Just Goldie at present **Eighties Alternative:** Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Marc Almond **Eighties Dance:** Debarge, Inner City, KC & The Sunshine Band **Eighties Electropop:** Duran Duran, Erasure, New Order **Eighties Pop:** Frankie Goes To Hollywood, {early} Madonna, Wham! **Eighties Power Pop:** Belinda Carlisle, Robert Palmer **Eighties Rap:** Grandmaster Flash, Rock Steady Crew, Rob ‘n’ Raz **Eighties Rock:** KISS, Whitesnake **Electro:** Fischerspooner, Ladytron, Scissor Sisters **Emo:** Taking Back Sunday, Thursday **Ethereal:** Bjork, Cocteau Twins, Portishead **Europop:** Eiffel 65, Las Ketchup, Vengaboys **Female Singer/Songwriter:** Alanis Morissette, Kirsty MacColl, Thea Gilmore **Folk Rock:** Billy Bragg, The Levellers, The Proclaimers **Funk:** Jamiroquai, Prince, Tom Browne **Funk Rock:** Bran Van 3000, Modest Mouse **Garage Rock:** The Hives, The Kills, The Strokes, White Stripes **Glam:** Slade, T-Rex, Wizzard **Glam Rock:** (note the distinction here) Electric Six, King Adora, Placebo **Goth Rock:** Do Me Bad Things, Shakespear’s Sister **Grunge:** Nirvana, The Pixies, Daisy Chainsaw **Guitar Pop:** Busted, Natalie Imbruglia, {Misundaztood-era} Pink, Wheatus **Hard Rock:** Deftones, Ill Nino, Rammstein **Hip Hop:** 50 Cent, Wu-Tang Clan, Xzibit **Indie:** The Delgados, Elliott Smith, The National **Indie Pop:** (difficult to distinguish from Alternative Rock) Bellatrix, Helen Love, Kenickie, Supergrass **Indie Rock:** Kinesis, The Libertines, Nada Surf **Jazz:** Etta James, Jamie Cullum, Miles Davis **Latino:** Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Shaft **Light Dance:** {post-1995} Everything But The Girl, Jakatta, Moloko **Light Pop:** Gabrielle, Louise, {later} Simply Red **Line Dance:** The Mavericks, Rednex, The Wonders **Mashups:** e.g. Thank ABBA For The Music **Metal:** Iron Maiden, Metallica, Black Sabbath **Misery Rock:** Coldplay, {mid 90s} Radiohead, The Verve **Modern Rock:** Cooper Temple Clause, Interpol, My Vitriol **Motown:** The Drifters, Percy Sledge, Sly & The Family Stone **New Age:** Enigma, Enya, Sacred Spirit **New Wave:** Blondie, Nick Lowe, Siouxsie & The Banshees **Nineties…** (there are ‘Nineties’ versions of several other genres, for good 90s smart-playlists) **Nu Metal:** Linkin Park, Puddle Of Mudd, The Rasmus **Party Rock:** Andrew WK, The Darkness, The Wildhearts **Political Folk:** David Rovics **Pop:** Anastacia, Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, S Club 7 **Pop Punk:** Blink 182, Bowling 4 Soup, OPM **Power Ballad:** Bonnie Tyler, Lisa Loeb, Richard Marx **Power Pop:** No Doubt, Roxette, Wilson Phillips **Punk:** The Buzzcocks, Eddie & The Hot Rods, New York Dolls, Sex Pistols **Punk Covers:** e.g. Take On Me - Reel Big Fish **Punk Pop:** (note different to Pop Punk) Green Day, {later} Jimmy Eat World, OK Go **Punk Rock:** Discount, Dropkick Murphys, Tilt **Quirk Rock:** (invented specifically for Mr Bungle) **R’n’B:** Black Eyed Peas, Destiny’s Child, Usher **Rap:** Eminem, Nelly, The Streets **Rave Dance:** (odd genre name as “Dance” was needed for these songs to be included in smart-playlists) Nakatomi, The Shamen, SL2 **Reggae:** Aswad, Bitty McLean, Sean Paul **Remixes:** e.g. Sun Is Shining - Bob Marley vs Funkstar DeLuxe **Rock:** Aerosmith, Meatloaf, Thin Lizzy **Rock Covers:** e.g. Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm **Rock/Rap:** e.g. Walk This Way **Seventies:** Four Seasons, The Move, Mott The Hoople **Show Tunes:** e.g. Fame, New York New York - Frank Sinatra **Sixties:** The Byrds, Melanie, The Small Faces **Ska:** Madness, The Specials **Ska Punk:** Less Than Jake, Mighty Mighty Bosstones **Soft Rock:** Heart, Del Amitri, Mike & The Mechanics, Sheryl Crow **Soundtrack:** e.g. Flash - Queen vs Vanguard **Spoken Word:** Mostly audiobook tracks, plus Message From Ms Matronic - Scissor Sistors **Stadium Rock:** U2, Simple Minds, {Mid-90s} Manic Street Preachers **Trance:** PPK, Santos, Binary Finary **TV Themes:** e.g. Grange Hill Theme **UK Garage:** Artful Dodger, DJ Luck & MC Neat, So Solid Crew **US Rock:** Everclear, Fastball, Tom Petty **World:** Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Nitin Sawhney, {later} Paul Simon ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Doubt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Peter\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Doubt)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/2 "2004-09-04T00:49:31Z")
If it works for you . . . Way too many for me though, about as close as I’ve got to micro-genre is Texas Blues Rock for Stevie Ray Vaughn. Most of the time if a special search tag is needed I’ll put it in the comments field. For example a search on ‘pixies’ will pull up Breeders songs too because of the way I tagged those songs. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/3 "2004-09-04T00:58:28Z")
I don’t know if I could manage without most of them. Some that were too small did get phased out, such as ‘House’, ‘Jungle’ and ‘Eighties Dance Covers(!)’, and perhaps two or three more might be lost. Something definitely needs to be done about ‘Indie Pop’, ‘Indie Rock’ and ‘Alternative Rock’. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/4 "2004-09-04T02:10:25Z")
Wow. I would find using that many categories pretty useless as they are so specific. I find it difficult just to make to make a simple call such as whether Blink-182 should be under the category of “Alternative Rock” or “Punk Rock”. If iTunes allowed for music to be in multiple genres, or if there were a hierarchy of genres then I could see it being more useful and manageable. Personally, I would just create playlists. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/5 "2004-09-04T02:46:33Z")
So how do you decide what genres to put things under? I mean, of all the bands I could come up with as an example of Emo, I sure wouldn’t pick **Thursday** … (heh neither would [these](http://www.coheedandcambria.com/board/archive/index.php/t-9894) people.) Off the top of your head or do you use a program or website as an aide? For the most part I don’t like sub-genre labels, because people are definitely hearing something different than I do based on them. I think **At The Drive-in** sounds a lot like **Rush** ’s most popular singles and since **The Used** , **Coheed And Cambria** and **Saves The Day** sound a like ATDi to varying degrees… yeah, I don’t bet I could convince people that they’re all the same genre. I tend to relate things mostly by how people singing sound, literally, not lyrical content, so there’s that. But \*\* Future Leaders Of The World\*\*'s “Let me out” _does_ sound like an exact mix of Nirvana and Silverchair, and I don’t think I could unlearn associations like that in order to grasp the subgenres. My associations make me happier anyway, so I think I won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/6 "2004-09-04T05:24:35Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > So how do you decide what genres to put things under? I mean, of all the bands I could come up with as an example of Emo, I sure wouldn’t pick **Thursday** … (heh neither would [these](http://www.coheedandcambria.com/board/archive/index.php/t-9894) people.) The one post I agree with on that thread: I am also sick of fourfa. After all, we’re not still speaking Chaucer’s English: words change. Which is why I try not to refer to genres a lot. If I had a playlist, I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t want to think of bands as “being” a certain genre but putting them in a genre would tend to make me think of them that way. But if i didnt categorize, i wouldnt be able to find anything…sigh ---
**Author:** ![Israfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/87869e/32.png) [@Israfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Israfel)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/7 "2004-09-04T05:34:54Z")
If it were me, I’d be much more generic- using categories like “rock” and “electronica” rather than trying to specify sub-genres. But anyway…as far as the list goes, what’s so avant garde about Radiohead? They’re experimental for a pop band (“pop” being used in its most general sense), but “avant garde” seems to imply that they’re on the frontier of modern music. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/8 "2004-09-04T10:17:55Z")
Emo: I haven’t got much of this genre at the minute, and it consists of only 3 tracks. One of the Thursday ones is called _‘This Sadness Alone’_ and this was a big push in the emo direction when it came to giving it a genre. As for “Thursday is to emo what Good Charlotte is to punk”, well, I’m _ **not** _ making another genre, ‘emo pop’ for them like Good Charlotte are in ‘punk pop’! Offhand, if I had tracks by those bands, At The Drive In would go in ‘Modern Rock’, The Used in ‘Hard Rock’ and S.T.D and Coheed&Cambria in ‘Emo’. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/9 "2004-09-04T10:21:20Z")
**isfael:** What would you use ‘avantgarde’ for if not tracks like ‘Paranoid Android’ and those on the ‘Kid A’ album. Not all Radiohead tracks are in there, only ones that are particularly inaccessible. Some bands are spread across several genres in my library. Radiohead are a good example. with tracks in ‘Alternative Rock’ e.g. Planet Telex, ‘Misery Rock’ e.g. ‘No Surprises’, and ‘avantgarde’ e.g. the aforementioned. ---
**Author:** ![Israfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/87869e/32.png) [@Israfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Israfel)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/10 "2004-09-04T13:02:12Z")
> [@bluecanary](#): > > **isfael:** What would you use ‘avantgarde’ for if not tracks like ‘Paranoid Android’ and those on the ‘Kid A’ album. Well, I suppose it’s debatable, but I figure that artists like [Lachenmann](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00005JSJF/qid=/sr=/ref=cm_lm_asin/002-9260643-4672054?v=glance) and [Ferneyhough](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000000OB/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_1/002-9260643-4672054) are a bit closer to what might be called the avant garde. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2004, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/11 "2004-09-04T14:33:11Z")
elf: I’ve never heard ATDi, but since you say it sounds like Rush, then it’s probably in the same genre as _Coheed and Cambria_ 🙂 re: emo-pop. If I had to make a genre for that, I’d put stuff like Jimmy Eat World, Flickerstick, and Dashboard in there. Which is weird, because they all conform to different criteria of emo, so they end up sounding nothing like each other. Which is why it’s so tough to subcategorize that much. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/12 "2004-09-05T01:51:20Z")
You’ve got (early 21st century) hard rock and nu metal backwards from what most people would agree on. And Rammstein is an industrial metal band anyway. But hey, as long as it works for you, then stick with it. (Although I cringe a little bit at seeing Metallica and Iron Maiden in the same category…) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/13 "2004-09-05T01:55:03Z")
I understand the sentiment, but I gave up on any serious attempts at classification long ago for my own playlists. These are my categories: Classic Rock Metal Modern Rock Oldies Orchestral Other Crap Popular ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/14 "2004-09-05T03:00:02Z")
My only goal with Genre is that songs within a given one shouldn’t clash on a playlist. ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/15 "2004-09-05T11:24:26Z")
Ah. At the beginning I had an ‘Industrial’ category, but there wasn’t much in my collection to put there other than Rammstein! You would put _Linkin Park_ in ‘Hard Rock’ rather than ‘Nu Metal’? ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/16 "2004-09-05T14:06:21Z")
I like using genres, but I try to limit it more than you. One thing I often do is assign multiple genres to songs that fit (so I’ve got the odd song listed as: Canadian, Classical, Christmas or something similar) so they land up in smart playlists. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2004, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/17 "2004-09-05T15:26:58Z")
> [@bluecanary](#): > > You would put _Linkin Park_ in ‘Hard Rock’ rather than ‘Nu Metal’? Now that I think about it, Linkin Park probably could count as nu metal, although I’d be more inclined to call them rap metal. Compare them to the big names in rap metal (Biohazard, Faith No More, Limp Bizkit) and the big names in nu metal (Korn, the Deftones, Disturbed), and they sound a lot more like the first than the second. ---
**Author:** ![Arch\_Trout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9f8e36/32.png) [@Arch\_Trout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arch_Trout)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2004, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/18 "2004-09-06T21:39:52Z")
Supergrass in Indie Rock? Madness I say. They’re signed to Parlophone Why not put them in Britpop? ---
**Author:** ![bluecanary](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bluecanary/32/3614_2.png) [@bluecanary](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bluecanary)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/19 "2004-09-18T19:34:13Z")
Some of the earlier stuff is in Britpop. It depends mroeon the sound of the track than the record label IMO. ---
**Author:** ![Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e56c9b/32.png) [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2004, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047/20 "2004-09-18T19:58:48Z")
Well, your post certainly reminds me how long it is since I was in any way shape or form up to date on the music scene… But shedding some light on classification in general, there’s some research that shows the mind best manages things in groups of 7+/- 2. Assuming you are very attuned to music genres, which you seem to be, that would speak to a maximum of 9 categories. If that really won’t do it for you, have up to perhaps seven subcategories within the 9 main categories. Dance seems like a good category to me, since when you are playing music at a dance party, for example, you really want all the songs to be danceable. If you have too much dance music to keep it in one category, group it together as Dance 70s, Dance 80s, Dance 90s, Dance New. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itunes-genre-assignment/263047.md?page=2)