Further Genre Nonsense

A little while back I rambled on a bit here about how silly genre classifications can be. I've had a couple of different conversations on the subject since then, and... well, my mind hasn't been changed at all. Actually, I've found some new evidence in SUPPORT of my view.

Although your mileage may vary on how credible you find evidence from iTunes.

I've never really used iTunes before about two months ago, and so I've been trying to take advantage of this opportunity by using the very limited amount of money I budget towards music purchases (which seriously boils down to about one song per pay check) to maximize the variety of music I have available to me. So I've been trying to buy music from a lot of different genres, as I really do like music from just about all classifications (well, except country, but even there I can find some artists whose existence makes me happy, even if their music doesn't).

Ad what I've found is that the music genre system - at least as set up by iTunes - is ridiculous. I mean, I have a lot of songs from the "alternative" genre, but what does that even mean? Are Oingo Boingo really in the same category as They Might Be Giants? And, if so, does AWOLNATION belong in that category with them?

And then I wound up with a Gotye song in the same genre as Émilie Simon's "Flowers." Now, I can see that those two songs belong together, but how does iTunes classify them? "Electronic"? Really?

Then, of course, there's the "Christian and Gospel" section of my music library, which is just made up of Robert Gardner's Lamb of God oratorio. Now, sure, it's a Christian production, but musically it seems to me that it fits more in with classical-style music like the Messiah than... this.

But where things REALLY fall apart is in the rock genre. It seems like NO ONE knows what's supposed to go on there. See, they've put Sweet's "Little Willy"

...in same category as Incubus and "Dig"

...where it sits next to "Come On Eileen"

...and... Avenged Sevenfold?

Seriously? Do ANY of those songs really belong in the same category as each other?

Admittedly, if they were really to record all of the complexities of the music genre system, we'd probably use up all the memory available on our little devices with pretty useless information. I mean, how is one to tell the difference between "adult contemporary heavy metal muzak" and "post neo-classical New Age pop rock"? Honestly, the world may not be ready for the answer.