I find it really hard to classify music by genre when I'm only allowed to select one genre. Is it hiphop or R&B. Is it metal or hard rock? It would work so much better if one could select each of the genres a song is suited for. Then, you could select the rock genre and get all kinds of rock. Has someone found a way around this annoyance in iTunes, or is there another media player for the Mac that might handle this better?
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iTunes genre annoyance - any advice
- Thread starter daveydeee
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Sure, there are ways around it. Use another field on the Get Info screen, like Grouping. This will allow you to put multiple words in it, such as multiple genres. Then use Smart Playlist to select them, e.g. "Match All: Grouping contains 'DesiredGenre'."
I understand your frustration. You think choosing between Hip Hop and R&B is tough? Try electronic music, my fave. Is it rave, techno, or trance? Is it progressive trance, melodic trance, goa trance, psytrance, hardtrance...? I don't pay that much attention to genre labels anymore, as artists are actively avoiding being pigeonholed into one particular style nowadays. They don't want to be forever known as "that screamo band" or "that alt-disco band" or "that angsty songstress".
I understand your frustration. You think choosing between Hip Hop and R&B is tough? Try electronic music, my fave. Is it rave, techno, or trance? Is it progressive trance, melodic trance, goa trance, psytrance, hardtrance...? I don't pay that much attention to genre labels anymore, as artists are actively avoiding being pigeonholed into one particular style nowadays. They don't want to be forever known as "that screamo band" or "that alt-disco band" or "that angsty songstress".
I chose a different approach to dealing with all the genres, sub-genres, sub-sub-genres, etc. I choose genres that are meaningful to me. I don't care if someone else calls an album "Indie Rock" or "GarageBasement PurpleFunk Electro NanoFusion TechnoNewWave JazzCountry". Those labels are useless to me when trying to choose what to listen to, so I change them to something useful. I've narrowed mine down to 49 genres. It makes it much simpler.
You can have any genre you like in iTunes.
Just type it into the Genre in the GET INFO window.
This was my first thought, too, but then I realized that the OP's problem is that a song might fit multiple genres. For instance, let's take Taylor Swift. She's classified as country, but could easily be pop. Within country, she could be "countrypolitan." Within pop, she'd be "teen pop." She could even be "singer/songwriter," since she writes her own material and there are acoustic versions of several songs. I get what the OP's problem is.
For the record, I will say that it's far worse to classify classical music. Currently, there is only one default ("Classical"). There are, of course, several styles that would be more helpful. Is it baroque? Romantic? Symbolist? Avant-garde? For that matter, is it French baroque or Russian baroque? Lumping all compositions written prior to the last century as "Classical" is not very helpful.
Think Different!
Don't let your music be defined by society's assumptions! You can use the "Genre" field any way you want to group your music any way you want -- the defaults are simply suggestions. So get creative! Music that reminds you of a certain ex-girlfriend? Give the genre her name. Music that makes you think back to a certain year of high school, or a certain type of car, or pet? Label it accordingly. How about music that's great to make out to? Or great to drive fast to? Or great to wake up to? So rather than get all stressed-out over what society defines as "Techno" vs "Electronic", make your music your own and label it in a way that is meaningful to you!
Don't let your music be defined by society's assumptions! You can use the "Genre" field any way you want to group your music any way you want -- the defaults are simply suggestions. So get creative! Music that reminds you of a certain ex-girlfriend? Give the genre her name. Music that makes you think back to a certain year of high school, or a certain type of car, or pet? Label it accordingly. How about music that's great to make out to? Or great to drive fast to? Or great to wake up to? So rather than get all stressed-out over what society defines as "Techno" vs "Electronic", make your music your own and label it in a way that is meaningful to you!
I ran into the same situation and ended up building my own subcategory system. Example:
Classical | Concerto
Classical | Symphony
Jazz | Big Band
Rock | Indie Rock
Rock | New Wave Revival
Rock | Progressive Rock
And so on. That way, you're able to group - and search - by "Rock |" as a genre, or dig deeper to find "Big Band" as a genre style.
Classical | Concerto
Classical | Symphony
Jazz | Big Band
Rock | Indie Rock
Rock | New Wave Revival
Rock | Progressive Rock
And so on. That way, you're able to group - and search - by "Rock |" as a genre, or dig deeper to find "Big Band" as a genre style.
Don't let your music be defined by society's assumptions! You can use the "Genre" field any way you want to group your music any way you want -- the defaults are simply suggestions. So get creative! Music that reminds you of a certain ex-girlfriend? Give the genre her name. Music that makes you think back to a certain year of high school, or a certain type of car, or pet? Label it accordingly. How about music that's great to make out to? Or great to drive fast to? Or great to wake up to? So rather than get all stressed-out over what society defines as "Techno" vs "Electronic", make your music your own and label it in a way that is meaningful to you!
Normally, I'm among the first to champion individuality, but there is a valid use for the Genre field. I would use the Grouping field for the kinds of suggestions you've made. I may not agree with every assigned Genre label, but they serve a helpful purpose (especially with Smart Playlists).
Brilliant! This weekend, while my wife is at work, I suspect I'll tinker with implementing this for myself.
This is really the best way. I thought about doing something similar, but since my itunes library is 95% metal, it would kind of be pointless to have "Metal |" in the genre for almost every song
For metal, I just go ahead and classify it by subgenre. For all other types of music, I classify it by the high level genre (Rock, Alternative, etc).
Me, too . . .
This is what I've done as well - seems to work OK for now, and I use only
35 genres for 9500 songs. I settled on this mainly 'cuz I got tired of
scrolling on a older iPod when I was traveling a lot. Now, my fingers can do
the walking on my Touch. ;^)
I've always been curious to know if there is a place where the iTunes genres
are defined. That is, what does "alternative" or "pop" or "R&B" mean (in a
general sense)? I know there probably are as many definitions as there are
readers of this group. ;^) "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." ;^)
How about a list of artists in a particular genre? Again, doesn't need to be
exhaustive, but merely "representative". Maybe we oughta write a book. ;^)
Thanks . . .
This is what I've done as well - seems to work OK for now, and I use only
35 genres for 9500 songs. I settled on this mainly 'cuz I got tired of
scrolling on a older iPod when I was traveling a lot. Now, my fingers can do
the walking on my Touch. ;^)
I've always been curious to know if there is a place where the iTunes genres
are defined. That is, what does "alternative" or "pop" or "R&B" mean (in a
general sense)? I know there probably are as many definitions as there are
readers of this group. ;^) "One man's ceiling is another man's floor." ;^)
How about a list of artists in a particular genre? Again, doesn't need to be
exhaustive, but merely "representative". Maybe we oughta write a book. ;^)
Thanks . . .