Music genres question

Cianos

Hey,
I'm setting up a music related website. Part of what's needed is for bands to select what genres best describe their style. Each band can choose up to 4 genres to describe what their sound is like. So I'm wondering, whats the minimum amount of genres I need to make available for them to choose from. I expect all different types of bands/groups/DJs to be involved btw.

Any help appreciated

cornbb

Thats a toughie. There's no definitive list, and even if your list was 10,000 genres long you probably wouldn't satisfy everyone.

I'd recommend maybe 50-200 genres, that should allow you to have a basic description of all types of music without getting anally specific.

Actually take a look at the way www.emusic.com breaks down their genres - 12 overall genres, each broken into a number of styles. Might be a better idea than having a big long exhaustive list.

Blisterman

And include a few catch all genres, like Alternative, Electronic or Experimental.

Sinfonia

Alternative & Indie
Classical
Dance & Electronic & DJing
Experimental
Hip-Hop
Jazz & Blues
Punk
Rock & Metal
Soul & R 'n' B & Funk
Traditional

Bren_M.Records

Blisterman wrote: »

And include a few catch all genres, like Alternative, Electronic or Experimental.

Ye, I reckon thats the route Id take, about a dozen catch all genres that cover pretty much everything should be fine.
Never really understood the need for all these hundreds of subgenres to be honest.

If bands dont like the fact theres a limited number of genres to choose from and claim the genre titles available dont allow them to accurately represent what they'r about musically.....................then basically their heads are up their collective arses and you should just tell them to sod off!
Though I dont know if this approach would work when your trying to actually build up a music website!

cornbb

Bren_M.Records wrote: »

Ye, I reckon thats the route Id take, about a dozen catch all genres that cover pretty much everything should be fine.
Never really understood the need for all these hundreds of subgenres to be honest.

I reckon a few catch all genres would be fine to start up with but if/when your site gets large, with hundreds or thousands of bands, it would be good to use a more detailed tagging system to allow people to be more specific about what they want.

Karl Hungus

Why not let people define their own genre tags?

Cianos

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Why not let people define their own genre tags?

They will have to be pre-defined as people will have to tag with them, and search by them. So if people are using their own definitions, they won't be included in the searches etc.

I am going with 42 genres I think...which I'm breaking down into a primary 21 and secondary 21. Here's what I've got;

Primary 21;
Accoustic
Alternative
Blues
Club
Dance
Drum and bass
Electro
Experimental
Hardcore
Hip-Hop
House
Indie
Jazz
Metal
Minimal
New Wave
Pop
Punk
Rap
Rock
Techno

Secondary 21;
Disco
Other
Blues
Progressive
Folk
Soul
Country
R&B
Hard rock
Emo
Grunge
Reggae
Ambient
Psychedelic
Death Metal
World
Industrial
Gothic
Latin
Funk
Classical

Any input much appreciated!