Why Categorizing your Song into the Correct Genre matters:

[senntenial]

Reason 1:

[Nine Volt]

...

[itroitnyah]

because if you don't people will bitch at you about it

[the4thImpulse]

because if you don't people will bitch at you about it

And even then someone will always disagree with what you classify your song as.

[senntenial]

The blank response I provided meant that it doesn't matter. People get so bent up over genres it seems, though perhaps it's just me.

[Freewave]

Well it doesn't matter except to give your audience an expectation if they want to listen to that music or not. Some people do OR don't like particular genres and they'll click on videos accordingly. By all means merge genres together or avoid making cliche music with genres in mind OR just be aware of characteristics when you're putting a track together or trying to think of what to name it. Really not a big deal.

[senntenial]

I think perhaps I was going off of those rabid UKF listeners whose ear's bleed at the sound of "skrillex" or "brostep". And I think we've all gotten comments from unhappy listeners, wondering why the hell our "dubstep" doesn't sound like dubstep, or even that one of our songs isn't ponified. I hate grouping things together, it's the root problem of everything ever.

You brought up another good point, which is these genres create an atmosphere of such limited originality. What comes to mind when we think of dubstep? 140 HalfTime BPM, strong bassline, very much atonal. It seems that often times the community (myself included) tends to be too scared to venture off from what a genre is described to be and instead creates the same ticky-tacky mush that isn't special at all.

I guess I'm not really getting much accomplished besides ranting, but genre-nazis annoy me to no end. Perhaps the listener feels that the song is better labeled as another genre, but that does not matter if the artist believes differently, in my opinion.

[Freewave]

Yeah Dubstep is in a really messy situation right now as most people will expect American Brostep growls and wubs and would be off-put by any original UK sounds (ie Dub and the 1/2 step from the name) or any ambient style. It's kind of a no-win as its got various meaning now. I'm definitely a genre fan but genre nazi's are indeed annoying if they can't get past original additions to a genre or departing in different ways. To me genres should be a multiple choice answer and not just a single box to click if you are doing it right. When in doubt ask a friend what they think of a track and add that into your consideration when naming it after the closest genre it fits. Or stick to your guns and f*ck the haters.

[colortwelve]

f*ck the haters

[Lavender_Harmony]

I don't label any of my music if I can help it. I'll give it a couple loose tags for what influenced it, but I'll just let the people in the YouTube comments waste their energy defining what it is.

[Thyrai]

You shouldn't let a genre restrict your music, but organization is pretty important when it comes to EDM. I can't imagine how much of a mess beatport would be if the songs weren't at least somewhat categorized

[Nine Volt]

Probably has been stated, but I think genre labeling matters because:
1. It helps people find your music based on the kind of music they like.
2. Organization, like Thyrai said.

I don't particularly like labeling my own songs, mostly because they usually draw inspiration from multiple genres.

[senntenial]

It'd be neat to develop a genre-less music hosting website, that categorizes songs based on tags of their mood and feeling rather than an archaic genre name, e.g. "warm", "sad", etc. I know sites like soundcloud can do this, but it's not really featured.

[Sai]

I do kind of like the idea of general adjective-based classification, but I wonder if that wouldn't bring about similar problems. I mean, it's still subjective and due to the wide range of potential descriptors you could use, it could even end up being more convoluted, depending on how you try and implement it.

I like using just general terms rather than getting too specific with various subgenres most of the time.

[Acsii]

The endless debate... this reminds me of a song someone posted that was technically heaps of genres... he listed it as his favourite genre at the start in the end it had 32 different genres labelled on it because people kept hearing their favourite genre in it so they thought it was that... interesting

[bartekko]

Categorizing to a genre for me only defines drums.

[Seven]

Maybe it's just me, but I'd actually like to know whether the song I'm about to listen to is jazz, house or perhaps orchestral.

Doesn't mean I don't mind music labeled Jazz/House/Orchestral. As long as it lives up to it.

[hottoast16]

This guy has some great insight and how genres do and don't matter. He also did an episode about bronies if you haven't already seen it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LiOIJ-M ... 1&index=23

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

I think the real issue here is that people think that genres are supposed to be these wide, open boundaries that can easily be mish-mashed and broken. In reality, genres are SUPPOSED to be very limiting barriers. It helps musicians write the music and listeners listen to the music. Imagine if you were trying to listen to dubstep but you end up listening to some weird 160 BPM experimental hardcore crap.

Genres are not defined by mood or tonality, as most people would think. Genres are defined by beat structure and BPM. SUBgenres are defined by tone. Chances are, if you're making a DnB track, it's not going to turn out as moombahton. Unless you're deliberately trying to break genre boundaries, labeling your track with the genre is incredibly important, and let the listeners correct you if you're wrong.

And yes I am a HUGE genre nazi.

[Sonarch]

I feel like the only things you would really want would be the wide, general genres that give you at least a little bit of an idea of what something will be like. You know, rock, metal, jazz, orchestral, dubstep, house, etc...
I don't really understand too much subdivision past that.

And as for the limiting aspect, I feel like wide genres help in deciding what general type of song you're going to have, but too much sub-classification does sort of limit what you have to work with.

I dunno. Just thoughts.

[Raddons]

woden toaster makes my favorite dubstep : )

[LoreRD]

I like genres for the fact that explaining your music/other's music becomes much easier if you can explain it via genre "tags". In that way, I guess categorizing "matters".

However, experimentation and crossing genres is one of the reasons music has developed the way it has. Standard metal crossed with orchestral composition and operatic vocals became symphonic metal, for example. A lot of times, making your music sound interesting is taking different elements from different genres and making them fit together nicely. It's not necessarily important if you just want to ride fads or make music similar to what's popular, like hair metal in the 80s, grunge in the 90s, and Step/House variants right now, being unique isn't as important.

IMO:
Mimicking what other people do via intentionally making the most stereotypical song in that genre in the hopes of gaining the same fans as those artists is pointless. If you don't have anything different to offer, you aren't all that interesting to listen to. This is my definition of a musician's "style". It can be something as minor as a recognizable singing voice, to frequently used instrumentation, signature instrument(s), or your particular way of composing.

It IS a good starting point to look at a stereotypical song in a specific genre, and analyze what makes you want to make something in that genre. Is the bass line? Or the background ambience that you only notice after 5 listens? Or is it the structure of the song?

When you sit down and write out those kinds of parts, you can just experiment a bit.

"Maybe I can write a funk-style bass line instead of this standard 8th notes rock bass line?"

"What would it sound like if I made the drums very prog-esque?"

"How about trying a different kind of drum beat for this house track?"

Being curious, working outside your comfort zone, and just in general challenging yourself is endlessly more rewarding than creating something, and only following the textbook definition of that genre. This is why I suggest listening to as many genres as possible. You'll be able to incorporate all kinds of references to different styles, and create something entirely new!

TL; DR:
Labeling your music with genres is helpful to those with whom you share your music, but don't get hung up on the limits of those genres. Experiment as much as you possibly can.

[Sonarch]

I actually love that idea, of experimenting with things. I want to get into making dubstep type stuff by making the simplest possible dubstep song, and then make alterations on it, such as making the beat more complex, switching up the sound design, etc.. and expanding off of that. Or something.

[Stu Beef]

I think genres are super important when we are looking at the historical or cultural aspects of certain styles of music. These days a lot can be done in isolation so, if you mix like 20 different genres into a single track, that probably says more about your personal influences rather than a wide trend. On the other hand, styles like jazz came from pretty special circumstances that effected large groups of people.

I don't really understand people who think that genres are limiting though; it's your choice if you want to strictly adhere to the standard conventions of a particular style. Even if you do make something that is a variant of or at least influenced by established styles, what's wrong with acknowledging that?

[LoreRD]

I think genres are super important when we are looking at the historical or cultural aspects of certain styles of music. These days a lot can be done in isolation so, if you mix like 20 different genres into a single track, that probably says more about your personal influences rather than a wide trend. On the other hand, styles like jazz came from pretty special circumstances that effected large groups of people.

I don't really understand people who think that genres are limiting though; it's your choice if you want to strictly adhere to the standard conventions of a particular style. Even if you do make something that is a variant of or at least influenced by established styles, what's wrong with acknowledging that?

Thing is, some genres ARE limited in their definition, for example, Grunge, Hair Metal, UK Hardcore (and any niche genres), which is why experimentation between genres is important in these cases to make your music stand out.

Then there are obvious genres that are really broad, like jazz, rap or rock, but at this point, you can't make a "pure" rock song. It will most likely be categorized into some kind of niche rock variant that already has a name.