iTunes Genre Miscues

[Prog_Please]

I was importing some new CDs I just received in the mail today into iTunes and it kept classifying them as Pop! I couldn't believe it so I went back and checked to see how many "Pop" albums I had. This is what I found:

Codeon - "Source" : Pop
Black Sun Aeon - "Darkness Walks Besides Me" : Pop
Brainstorm - "Memorial Roots" : Pop

Liquid Tension Experiment : Alternative & Punk

Anyone else get these kind of weird genre tags when they import their CDs? I think its kinda funny actually. Definitely the Codeon album is the weirdest one I've seen so far.

 

[nomisofsiman]

I get it all the time. My favorite though was when I got a shipment. In it I had King's X and Slayer. Wanna guess which one had the metal tag and which one had the pop tag? Yep, Slayer got pop and King's X got metal.

 

[TychoCelchu]

The letter X is more metal than any letter in Slayer

 

[Prog_Please]

I think Pop is the default.

This would make sense given that both Codeon and Black Sun Aeon aren't very common (at least I don't think they are).

 

[Sir Exar Kun]

That's exactly why I always change up the genre tags when I import to custom ones I use, such as Power Metal, Prog Metal, Gothic Metal, etc. To hell with iTunes and their pre-formatted class system!

 

[nomisofsiman]

That's exactly why I always change up the genre tags when I import to custom ones I use, such as Power Metal, Prog Metal, Gothic Metal, etc. To hell with iTunes and their pre-formatted class system!

I was thinking of doing that a while back, but that just seems like too much damn work.

 

[Prog_Please]

I was thinking of doing that a while back, but that just seems like too much damn work.

Yeah, same. Plus, what happens when you have bands than span more than one subgenre. Post Progressive Doom Metal. Hmm lol.

 

[AngraRULES]

I don't bother changing the genre tag. So many people have so many different opinions on which genre to classify certain bands that makes it a little pointless imo.

 

[skyrefuge]

It's not an iTunes problem. When you import a CD, iTunes just queries a 3rd-party database (Gracenote, previously known as CDDB), so if that database has the wrong genre, iTunes or any other software that uses Gracenote will apply the wrong genre. For many years, the data in CDDB didn't come from any sort of Great-Genre-Definer in the sky, it was simply built up by users, just like Wikipedia. So it's no surprise that wrong or incomplete data is in the database, particularly for older or more obscure titles that no one would have corrected. These days I assume the data is provided directly by labels to Gracenote, but labels can certainly screw up and provide incomplete info as well.

First thing I do when adding music to iTunes is just clear out the genres, because even on those occasions when they aren't wrong, they just don't have any use for me.

If music can have an obvious genre name applied to it, there's a good chance it's boring and I ain't interested in listening to it!

Neil

 

[Prog_Please]

It's not an iTunes problem. When you import a CD, iTunes just queries a 3rd-party database (Gracenote, previously known as CDDB), so if that database has the wrong genre, iTunes or any other software that uses Gracenote will apply the wrong genre. For many years, the data in CDDB didn't come from any sort of Great-Genre-Definer in the sky, it was simply built up by users, just like Wikipedia. So it's no surprise that wrong or incomplete data is in the database, particularly for older or more obscure titles that no one would have corrected. These days I assume the data is provided directly by labels to Gracenote, but labels can certainly screw up and provide incomplete info as well.

Neil

Yeah, I knew this much. I figured some kids entered pop as the genre cuz they thought it'd be funny. It kinda is. But yeah, I always go back and check the genre, make sure its not listed as a compilation, and then add the artwork.

 

[Jasonic]

I never bothered even noticing.
I just checked and PENTAGRAM are categorized as "ALTERNATIVE AND PUNK"

 

[TychoCelchu]

I'm going to start entering metal bands as "disco" and "gangsta rap" and submitting it to Gracenote just to irritate you guys