The Mainbrace

I have quite a large music collection. And I am quite anal about keeping it organized. I use various tools and utilities to manage the file names, directory structure, and id3 tags in order to keep a lid on the chaos. I try to convert all the files to vfat-safe file names and try to keep the tags in UTF-8 encoding to make them more accessible across various platforms and applications. Why? One because I hate a disorganized catalog, and two because I have this collection cataloged in at least two applications.

Here is the problem. I am sitting at work and have an inexplicable desire to listen to 80’s pop music. I load up my music web site (streaming from the server in my basement) and type POP in the genre field. I get a playlist with both Madonna and Riahnna! As much as I like “Shut up and Drive” I really wanted all 80’s! I suppose that I could somehow search for POP with album dates from 1979-1989…but I cant with the apps that I use. So….I listen to all songs with the tagged genre of POP. Maybe it isn’t that bad, it is kind of like a “best of the 80s, 90s, and today” radio station! Not what I wanted, but good enough I suppose.

Worse yet is the Classic Rock genre. What the heck is classic rock? I know Zepplin, Stones, Dead, and all that are obvious. But what about Melloncamp or Seger? Not the same. Is Classic Rock defineing an era in music? if so then what do I tag the others that are similar in style but from a later date? Wait…does classic rock have a style? Is the Greatful Dead the same style as Deep Purple? I dont think so…so what do I do?

Did I mention that I am a bit of a purist also? I dont like “subgenres” very much. Either a song is “Punk” or it is not. I dont like post-core, neopunk, hardcore, or whatever…I just want punk! Same goes for “Metal” … no metalcore, deathmetal, blackmetal, whitemetal, numetal. The answer has to be out there somewhere. It has to transcend the traditional genre paradigm. A Tagging system of “tags” vice “genres” where I can tag “metal, driving, numetal, angry” all on one song. That would be perfect. Too bad the OCD side of me forces me to only use “official” ID3 fields.