classifications

[Matt Davignon <mdavig@sfsu.edu>]

I think there are two major problems with classifying all music.
1) There gets to be so many kinds of music that it's impossible for
anybody to know for sure what they all are. For example, It took me
about 7 years to figure out the difference between all of the 30 or so
classifications of techno. There are also misleading ones like "jungle"
and "alternative". Not to mention double-meaning ones like "ambient".

2) The biggest problem with this is that most major label music is
released to specifically fit snugly into a set genre. Can you tell your
country bands apart? How about alt-rock groups? The contributions that
they make are so similar that they're almost worthless. This inhibits
the amount of variety we get on the radio. If there weren't pre-existing
classifications for music, each new band would be encouraged to find
their own musical territory, rather than re-churn stuff that we've
already heard tons of times.

Sorry if I offended country or alt-rock fans. There is good country and
alt-rock---it's just not on the radio or mtv.

matt davignon