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May 19, 2021 3:14 pm  #1


​Need help with Genre

I’m struggling with trying to categorize some mp4 music on my phone.  Some things are pretty easy such as polka.  Baby boomer, raised Catholic, I’ve got a lot of polka music.
 
Some things might seem easy at first like show tunes.  I don’t have much in this category but I do have a few.  Song From Moulin Rouge is one but it has to be the vocal version.  Another is the Carousel theme which is different from The Carousel Waltz.  Now, is it a show tune if it was in a movie or play?  Is Doris Day’s "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" from the Alfred Hitchcock film The Man Who Knew Too Much a show tune,  I would classify it as pop.
 
My favorite music trivia, how about “Leaning on a Lamp-post”? It was performed by George Formby in the 1937 film “Feather Your Nest”.  Herman's Hermits changed the title slightly to "Leaning on the Lamp Post".  It’s not a show tune.
 
Then consider all those songs from the beach movies.
 
I don’t know what defines bubblegum unless the cd label tells me so.  I know it seems to be happy and upbeat but there are a lot of songs with those attributes.
 
As I understand it “pop” stands for popular music which would include a lot.  I kinda consider it mostly ending in the mid to late ’50 but some artists continued it past the ’60s.  I place artists like Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Pat Boone, Doris Day, Kay Starr, etc. in the pop category.  How about Engelbert Humperdinck?  Is he pop?  What is ABBA?
 
Country and novelty seem to be pretty easy categories but I’ve got an entire disc “Kooky Kountry” that fit into both.  I put them is novelty.
 
Instrumental is pretty easy if there’s no vocal but then there’s songs like Cozy Cole’s “Topsy, Pt. 2”.
 
There’s Latin. which interestingly DOES NOT include any of those hymns I heard sung in Latin in Catholic church and they ain’t gospel either
 
There’s a thread, “Was This The Greatest Year For Rock Music?” but I don’t think anybody knows what rock music is.  I have a disc, “Collectables Presents - The History Of Rock - Vol. 4”.  The track listing is;
 
1 - The Worst That Could Happen - Brooklyn Bridge
2 - Mule Skinner Blues - The Fendermen
3 - Make It Easy on Yourself - Jerry Butler
4 - Just to Be with You - The Passions
5 - C'mon and Swim - Bobby Freeman
6 - Backfield in Motion - Mel & Tim
7 - Midnight Train to Georgia  - Gladys Knight & the Pips
8 - The Birds and the Bees - Jewel Akens
9 - Lonely Teenager - Dion
10 - Green Tambourine  - The Lemon Pipers
11 - Paper Tiger - Sue Thompson
12 - Party Lights  - Claudine Clark
13 - In the Still of the Night - The Five Satins
14 - Playboy - Gene & Debbe
 
I wouldn’t call any of that rock music.  Here is a link to the listing of the entire series
https://www.allmusic.com/album/history-of-rock-vol-1-10-mw0000019350
 
R&R and R&B seem to have a lot of overlap.
 
I haven’t dealt with swing, I just putting it under the classification of big band which I have a lot.  I already had some but inherited another about 150 discs when my mother died including The Complete Glenn Miller and His Orchestra (1938-1942) 13 Disc  [Box].  Some songs by artists like Frank Sinatra and Doris Day fall into the big band group too.
 
I didn’t get into disco much so I don’t have that to deal with, but I am confused.  I thought disco was a shortened form of the word discotheque of which I saw many of in the 60s but the disco era didn’t happen until the 70s.  Then again, the 60s didn’t happen until the 70s.
 
I don’t seem to have any idea what reggae is.  I found a listing “Top 10 Best Reggae Songs Of All Time”.  Second on the list is “I Can See Clearly Now – Johnny Nash”.  I would have thought of Harry Belafonte.
 
It must be difficult for most people to categorize music.  When I rip cds and let the information be filled in from the data bases, I get way too many songs with genre as easy listening, vocal, and other.  Easy listening is really a category?  I can understand an easy listening radio station but not as a song genre.

 

May 20, 2021 6:41 am  #2


Re: ​Need help with Genre

Some deal with this by recording only tunes that we really enjoy and ignoring the other few hundred thousand titles out there.     But to each their own.

 

May 20, 2021 6:53 am  #3


Re: ​Need help with Genre

"it doesn't matter what they call you, just be called."  --dizzy gillespie

my motto. but if you wanna put a pawprint on a song these days, there certainly do seem more than plenty of options to choose from. i suspect many artists now may find themselves in niches they had no knowledge of, nor intention of association with. perhaps 'whatever works' might be a genre yet to be fully appreciated or explored..

 

Last edited by gopher (May 20, 2021 7:02 am)

 

May 20, 2021 7:07 am  #4


Re: ​Need help with Genre

I've sometimes gone to Wikipedia if I've wondered how I should describe an artist or a song, for instance in a forum like this one. It shows genres for artists, and for songs if they're significant enough to have their own entry. 

 

May 20, 2021 8:01 am  #5


Re: ​Need help with Genre

gopher wrote:

"it doesn't matter what they call you, just be called."  --dizzy gillespie

my motto. but if you wanna put a pawprint on a song these days, there certainly do seem more than plenty of options to choose from. i suspect many artists now may find themselves in niches they had no knowledge of, nor intention of association with. perhaps 'whatever works' might be a genre yet to be fully appreciated or explored..

 

On ITunes they have a genre category called "Unclassifiable". Since my IPod shuffle is capable of queuing up Peter Tosh, Kraftwerk, Willie Nelson and the 1910 Fruitgum Co. in succession, that works fine for me.
 

 

May 20, 2021 8:22 am  #6


Re: ​Need help with Genre

I guess I should have explained.  This is not just an exercise to fill in a blank space.  Before covid, I used to go to monthly luncheons with some people I worked with back in the mid ‘60s.  There was also a monthly poker game with a different group I worked with in the early ’80s.  I would often play music from my phone and I would select a genre of interest to the particular group.  The problem was the genre was to wide and I wound up hitting skip too often.  I was hoping to be able to better group the music to avoid the problem.
 
Playlists didn’t work because we may be in the mood for a different type of music in different months, sometimes country, sometimes R&R, sometimes R&B.

     Thread Starter
 

May 20, 2021 9:06 am  #7


Re: ​Need help with Genre

Taz wrote:

      Playlists didn’t work because we may be in the mood for a different type of music in different months, sometimes country, sometimes R&R, sometimes R&B.

True friends would provide lists of favorites in advance of your next get-together.     Alternately, anyone who complains is required to pay for the next round of drinks
 

 

May 20, 2021 9:33 am  #8


Re: ​Need help with Genre

G. wrote:

True friends would provide lists of favorites in advance of your next get-together.
 

Yeah, you’re probably right about not being true friends only having been friends for 37 to 55 years depending on the group.  One I became friends with in jr. high 60 years ago.  Still I ain’t willing to make a new playlist each month so maybe I’m not the true friend.
 
 

G. wrote:

Alternately, anyone who complains is required to pay for the next round of drinks
 

Nobody complains except about the cards they get at the poker game, it’s at somebody’s house and BYOB.

The luncheon was at an all you can eat buffet but no alcohol available.
 

     Thread Starter
 

May 20, 2021 9:55 am  #9


Re: ​Need help with Genre

Jr. High friend from sixty (60) years ago would be + - 74 years of age, today (born 1947-ish).    When that individual was fourteen (14) the year was approximately 1961/62.   1959 - 63 (pre Beatles) was an excellent period with tons of material out there, from which to choose.  In fact, a motion picture was made that successfully promoted itself with "where were you in '62?". 

Where were you in '62, Taz?       

 

May 20, 2021 11:01 am  #10


Re: ​Need help with Genre

Recommending "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Stones for the lunch group and Kenny Rogers "The Gambler" for the poker players.     Always glad to help.

G.

 

May 20, 2021 7:10 pm  #11


Re: ​Need help with Genre

G. wrote:

Recommending "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Stones for the lunch group

 
More than 24,000 songs (some duplicates) in my collection and none by the Stones.
 
Rock Island Line would be more appropriate, that’s where we worked together in the roundhouse.
 
I’ve got it by Leadbelly  Lonnie Donegan and Johnny Cash
 
 
 

G. wrote:

and Kenny Rogers "The Gambler" for the poker players.     Always glad to help.

Ha ha I get it.

Probably One Piece At A Time - Johnny Cash, we worked for a conveyor company mostly did automotive.
 
On the railroad I was an electrician, for the conveyor company I was an engineer, go figure.
 

Last edited by Taz (May 20, 2021 7:26 pm)

     Thread Starter
 

May 21, 2021 7:53 am  #12


Re: ​Need help with Genre

confusion about what comprises "oldies music" in the context of this discussion board may be at play here 

 

May 21, 2021 9:27 am  #13


Re: ​Need help with Genre

G. wrote:

confusion about what comprises "oldies music" in the context of this discussion board may be at play here 

I was about to post almost exactly that in answer to the post you deleted about my collection without any Stones.
 
You wrote;

G. wrote:

When I entered my year of birth (don't ask) it played tunes from when I was thirty (30) years old.       Tunes that define my generation are from when I was 14 - 18 yrs old       

in the “Online Music Challenge Shows Generational Divide” discussion.
 
Your math earlier in this thread was correct.  I turned 18 and graduated high school in 1965.
 
On the old board, I think Ron defined oldies, for the purposes of that board, as ending in ’69.
 
For me, oldies ends a little earlier.  I was in the military from 1967 to 1971 so that undoubtedly had an influence on me with the direction youth went in those years.  I did not identify with the hippy and drug culture.  Protest and psychedelic music disgusted be so badly that I tuned my car radio to an elevator music station shortly after I got out of the service and there it remained for 10 years until I switched to country music in the early ’80s.
 
The Stones had a couple minor and one top 10 hit in ’64.  They reached #1 in ’65 but that was at the end of my range.  Furthermore, I blame the Stones for the direction music went with the screaming rather than singing, the wild outfits and the busting guitars.  I think the only song the Stone did I liked was “Ruby Tuesday” and even with that I have to suffer through almost 40 second of the song to get to the part I like.
 
SO, turning your earlier question back to you, Where were you in '62?

 

     Thread Starter
 

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