Classification in music continues to be complicated. Musical taxonomy is challenging as even the most disconnected and isolated genres manage to refer to each other. Look at Wikipedia to the various genres and you will find even more genres and sub-genres, with ironic mash-up names.
This not so normal topic was brought to our attention by PopMatters in their article, “Is Chillwave Necessary? An Interview with Paul Duncan of Warm Ghost.” Classifying artists under a new genre does more than explain the music you hear. When new genres spawn as the result of a distinct sound, that classification serves very much as a tribute to the artist or artist’s creative ability. However, genre classifications can actually reduce and damage artistic achievement depending on the comparisons.
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
