Music Genre Systems
Comparison of Music Genre Systems
All Music Guide
All Music Guide Official Website
Explore in Skosmos Taxonomy Managment Tool
SQARQL query in knowledge graph
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Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 1143
Number of terms: 1180 (includes repeated terms at different levels or under different parents)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 3
Information about included terms
Variant terms: No
Broader terms: Yes
Narrower terms: Yes
Related terms: No
Equivalent terms (in other systems): No
Descriptions: Yes
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: No, though it’s in some descriptions and embedded within some genre terms and categories
Inception dates: No
Sources of term: No
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Yes, exemplary artists, albums and/or songs for many genres
Popularity: No
Genre system classification
Is it a list, thesaurus, taxonomy or ontology? Is it an Aristotelian or Prototype Classification? What is the intended use of this system? Does it attempt to be exhaustive or is it intended to only cover a specific use case or domain? What is it’s primary organizing principle (geographic, audience-based, etc).
Reverse engineering the system rules
What are the rules of this system?
Can a term have multiple parent terms? What are the parent terms for House and Techno for instance? Dance, Electronic and Popular?
Are terms meant to be mostly distinct from one another? Or is overlap an encouraged/accepted part of the system?
Are certain types of genre term excluded?
-Location/Place based (think of both regions, countries, cities, but also place types like desert, swamp, urban or pub rock, juke joint blues
-Time based (dates, seasons, or point in genre life cycle (i.e. proto, early, classic, revival, modern, neo)
-Electronic/Acoustic variants
-Instrumental variants (piano blues, harmonica blues)
-Artist form variations (crooner…)
-Music form variations (12 bar blues)
-Fusion genres
-Demographic/Identity-based terms
-Attitude/Scene-Norm/Purpose-based modifiers like “indie”, “alternative”, “protest”
-Adjective modifiers like “heavy”, “psychedelic”, “deep”
-Origin of term (systems often exclude terms seen as stricly from the label, marketing terms, or terms seen as primarily functioning as a radio format description more so than a genre per se)
-Currency (does the system only include terms that are in active use today?)
Strictly Genre terms vs. Genre Groupings interspersed within list of Genre terms?
Think of genre groupings like “Roots Music”, it’s got overlap with marketing terms, but more than anything functions as a tool for inscribing a subset of artists from a subset of genres with additional cultural capital… Or “Electronic”, it’s too broad to really function as a meaningful genre term, so it’s presence in these systems is usually just a way to group actual genres like house, techno, drum & bass, trance (and often to put them in lineage with music concrete, minimalism, etc…)
Notable exclusions or inclusions
…
Art-Folk-Popular
How does this genre system uphold or eschew the art-folk-popular trichotomy? Look at examples that help extrapolate the approach of the designers of this system. Does the system recognizes Art/Folk as broader terms for a music genre/form only if that distinction is observed in the locale that the music originates from? Or is that hierarchy imposed regardless of local norms?
Popular vs. Pop
Does the system differentiate between popular music and pop music?
Blending of Rock/Pop
Some systems blur the line between rock and pop, where in effect these two end up forming an “unnamed middle” that everything else is defined in relation to, does this system do that?
Who is centered in this genre system?
Look for “world music”, or an equivalent term that functions as an “othering” of non-western musics?
Handling of my personal focus genres
Look in depth at my U.S.-popular-music-centric focus genres, how many sub terms exist under each of these? What parent terms are each of these arranged beneath?
Spirituals
Gospel
Ragtime
Blues
Jazz
Country
Rhythm & Blues
Rock ‘n’ Roll
Soul
Rock
Funk
Disco
Rap and Hip Hop
Electronic
-House
-Techno
…
MusicMap
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 337
Number of terms: 476 (includes repeated terms at different levels or under different parents)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 5
Information about included terms
Variant terms: Sort of, some of the genres or genre groupings appear to “Lounge / Exotica / Space Age Pop” for instance
Broader terms: Yes
Narrower terms: Yes
Related terms: Yes, see “cluster” column
Equivalent terms (in other systems): No
Descriptions: Yes
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: No, though it’s in some descriptions and embedded within some genre terms and categories
Inception dates: Yes
Sources of term: No
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Yes, links to playlists (artists + recordings) for each genre
Popularity: No
Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World
12 Volume Bloomsbury Encyclopedia Set
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 950
Number of terms: 954 (includes repeated terms at different levels or under different parents)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 3
Information about included terms
Variant terms: No
Broader terms: Each term is grouped beneath a world region
Narrower terms: No
Related terms: No
Equivalent terms (in other systems): No
Descriptions: Probably, but not in my sheet here
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: Probably, but my sheet only displays the region, but I believe the encyclopedia entries go into much more detail
Inception dates: No
Sources of term: No
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Yes, but no in my sheet here
Popularity: No
Garland Encyclopedia of World Music
10 Volume Alexander Street Press Encyclopedia Set
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 2928
Number of terms: 3560 (filtered out of broader 10,000+ glossary of terms that include instruments, music theory concepts, etc)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 2
Information about included terms
Variant terms: No
Broader terms: Each term is grouped beneath a specific encyclopedia volume mostly based on world region
Narrower terms: No
Related terms: No
Equivalent terms (in other systems): No
Descriptions: Yes
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: Probably, but my sheet only displays the region, but I believe the encyclopedia entries go into much more detail
Inception dates: No
Sources of term: No
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Probably, but no in my sheet here
Popularity: No
Every Noise at Once
Spotify’s Every Noise at Once
Info below is combined from three separate views into this data:
List
Genres by Country
We Built This City On
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 4253
Number of terms: 4253 (includes repeated terms at different levels or under different parents)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 0
Information about included terms
Variant terms: No
Broader terms: No
Narrower terms: No
Related terms: No
Equivalent terms (in other systems): No
Descriptions: No
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: Yes, I’ve pulled in region, country and city where they have it
Inception dates: No
Sources of term: No
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Links to algorithmicly generated playlists with currently popular artists/recordings
Popularity: Yes
Classical Music Classification (Genre/Forms) (Class Class)
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 281
Number of terms:
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms):
Information about included terms
Variant terms: Yes
Broader terms: Yes
Narrower terms: Yes
Related terms: Yes
Equivalent terms (in other systems): Yes
Descriptions: Yes
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: Yes, for some
Inception dates: Yes, for some
Sources of term: No
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Yes, for some
Popularity: No
Classical Music Classification (Styles/Schools) (Class Class)
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 55
Number of terms:
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms):
Information about included terms
Variant terms:
Broader terms:
Narrower terms:
Related terms:
Equivalent terms (in other systems):
Descriptions:
Scope notes:
Places of origin:
Inception dates:
Sources of term:
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings:
Popularity:
WikiData
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 2025
Number of terms: 2624 (includes repeated terms at different levels or under different parents)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 8
Information about included terms
Variant terms: Yes, for some
Broader terms: Yes, for some
Narrower terms: Yes, for some
Related terms: No
Equivalent terms (in other systems): Yes, for some
Descriptions: Could be pulled in from Wikipedia
Scope notes: No
Places of origin: Yes, for some
Inception dates: Yes, for some
Sources of term: Yes, for some
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: Yes, for some
Popularity: No
Library of Congress Genre/Form Thesaurus (LCGFT)
Analysis and Litmus Tests
Numbers of distinct terms: 708
Number of terms: 1045 (includes repeated terms at different levels or under different parents)
Levels of hierarchy (depth of terms): 7
Information about included terms
Variant terms: Yes
Broader terms: Yes
Narrower terms: Yes
Related terms: No
Equivalent terms (in other systems): Yes
Descriptions: No
Scope notes: Yes, for some
Places of origin: No
Inception dates: No
Sources of term: Yes
Examplary/canon artists, works or recordings: No
Popularity: No
LCGFT with Links to Other Genre Systems and Proposed Additions
Proposed additions in green. LCGFT with added info from each of the genre systems above where a direct link could be identified.