Rant: Hughesy's Music Classifications

HughesyBeachWThere are a thousand one variations on the old there are two types of people - those who do something or other, and those who don’t routine.

Mine involves people who like to sort things into categories and classifications and those who don’t.

Me? 

I’m a classifier. I like to be able to sort things and figure out where a particular item fits into the larger picture. I’ve already had a couple of goes at sorting out the broad range of music on offer at the moment into categories, but, having completed one very large writing project I’m ready to have another go at it.

Trying to sort music into categories based on sound or style is, however, a lot like trying to herd cats. That’s why I tend to sort music according to the way consumers approach it.

And once you’ve done that, arguably, you can examine the way consumers interact with the categories. It’s all generalisation, of course, but as I went around the morning walk this morning, I was reasonably happy that I can file most stuff I hear into one of these categories.

And the categories?

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B© Ian Hughes 2012