It's All About 'Style'

[Oggy]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

Hi guys,

Which GENRE and STYLE would you place the 1960/70s band 'Blood, Sweat & Tears' in, please?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood,_Sweat_%26_Tears

For now, I put them under:

Genre = Progressive-Rock

Style = Jazz-Rock

I don't feel this is quite correct though?

Psychedelic-Rock and Pop-Rock are also possibilities?

Many thanks,

Paul

Hi Paul,

If I hadn't done away with my Genre Jazz Rock, (see the Brand X, post a few back, and I didn't use the hyphen), I would have used that.

If you want to search by Genre, use the Genre that most logically comes first to you.

I personally see it more Jazz Rock than Progressive Rock, but, that is totally irrelevant. To be useful, it's how you see it, otherwise, paraphrasing 10cc, it's tags for tags sake.

Style I've always left as the occasionally, "tagtastic", default entry!

Choices!!

Oggy

[Jailhouse]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

I would put B,S&T in my Pop/Rock genre. But then, with few exceptions, I put all Pop or Rock there. So I'm probably not much help.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

Hi guys,

Which GENRE and STYLE would you place the 1960/70s band 'Blood, Sweat & Tears' in, please?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood,_Sweat_%26_Tears

For now, I put them under:

Genre = Progressive-Rock

Style = Jazz-Rock

I don't feel this is quite correct though?

Psychedelic-Rock and Pop-Rock are also possibilities?

Many thanks,

Paul

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

No, a tag won't add a folder; your Genre folders come from your naming script.

The only reason that Genre, is more important than Style, to me, is because most players can search by Genre. Very handy for parties, Genre Party, Genre Disco, Genre Rave etc. and the festive season, Genre Christmas. I've taken the KISS, approach, very literally!!

One person's Classical, is anothers, Chamber, Opera, Piano Concerto, String Quartet, Symphonic etc. It really does come down to the size and make up, of a collection, and how easy you want to make finding, specific Genres / Styles.

Thanks Oggy,

I am pleased about the Folder! It's perfect as it is.

A Genre for 'Party'! lol But surely even this must vary depending on who is coming round?!

I agree, Genre is of greater importance of the two.

I can see how in 'Classical' that you may end up with ('Styles'): Baroque, String Quartet, Romantic, 20thC ...

Yes, not all players support the 'Style' tag.

Cheers,

Paul

[Oggy]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

Thanks Oggy,

Thats very interesting.

Yes, BrandX was with early Phil Collins. I would definitely say 'Jazz Rock'. There was a similar band in the North East called 'Back Door'. I think it was Sax, Bass and Drums? Though some might argue that they were all experimenters of early-FUSION.

Yes, I suppose the bigger your CD collection the likely hood of more and more 'Styles' rises. I am planning to try and stick with five or so 'Genres'; and the same total for 'Styles' - if possible.

Would you happen to notice, please, if when you add a 'Style' tag dBpa then creates a new FOLDER (ie. like it has a folder for each 'Genre')? I hope not because it will then mean folders-within-folders ... (a path I want to try and avoid this time round!).

Paul

Hi Paul,

No, a tag won't add a folder; your Genre folders come from your naming script.

The only reason that Genre, is more important than Style, to me, is because most players can search by Genre. Very handy for parties, Genre Party, Genre Disco, Genre Rave etc. and the festive season, Genre Christmas. I've taken the KISS, approach, very literally!!

One person's Classical, is anothers, Chamber, Opera, Piano Concerto, String Quartet, Symphonic etc. It really does come down to the size and make up, of a collection, and how easy you want to make finding, specific Genres / Styles.

Choices!

Oggy

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

Thanks Oggy,

Thats very interesting.

Yes, BrandX was with early Phil Collins. I would definitely say 'Jazz Rock'. There was a similar band in the North East called 'Back Door'. I think it was Sax, Bass and Drums? Though some might argue that they were all experimenters of early-FUSION.

Yes, I suppose the bigger your CD collection the likely hood of more and more 'Styles' rises. I am planning to try and stick with five or so 'Genres'; and the same total for 'Styles' - if possible.

Would you happen to notice, please, if when you add a 'Style' tag dBpa then creates a new FOLDER (ie. like it has a folder for each 'Genre')? I hope not because it will then mean folders-within-folders ... (a path I want to try and avoid this time round!).

Paul

[Oggy]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

At the end of the day, in running a search for a particular 'Style', I am looking for results of complete albums, and not individual tracks.

Hi Paul,

Out of interest, I went searching for the "Style" tags, of an album you may be familiar with.

The album is, Brand X, Unorthodox Behaviour, which I originally tagged as, Genre Jazz Rock

When I was trying to reduce (!!) the number of genres, down to 42, Jazz Rock became the more generic Jazz. Ska, Lovers Rock etc became Reggae, and Latin, along with Celtic and other world music became, World. Even though the original genre, was more accurate, searching by Genre, still works for me. If I had a larger number of albums of the specific genres, I would use a more specific Genre, but can't see the point for two or three artists, and ending up with 50+ genres. A colleague had 140+

I believe that the balance and size of a music library, is what affects the choice of certain tags, particularly, Genre (and Style). Searching by Genre, is beneficial for me, when I'm having "senior moments", or I want, a 50s, 60s, 70s, 80's, 90s, compilation, quickly.

The "Style" tag for Brand X, was the third level down, of a certain view, on my app, and though not named, Style, showed, Fusion / Jazz-Rock / Art Rock.

Royal Blood, which I tagged, Genre Rock, showed as Alternative Rock.

Not sure that any of this helps you, but before you mentioned, Style, even though I knew I had kept the providers, Style, entry, I had never looked for it, post rip! Talking to a couple of work colleagues, they didn't know that they had ripped, Style, and loads of other tags.......

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

You should only have to do your tagging once, whatever it is you want to tag, with only minor tweaks afterward.

That said, I agree on the "add only what's necessary" bit. The hard part, at least early on, is deciding just what is necessary.

JH,

Once everything is ripped (which I can't see being this side of Xmas! - despite my hard efforts), I will then go over what I have and sub-categorise the 'Genres' with a 'Style' - if needed.

There are so many terms for different Jazz musics that I don't even know what they all mean! So a bit of research is needed on my part. I can't really see me using more than (say) five different 'Styles' for Jazz music. And as I said, for some of them I won't even include such a tag.

Cheers,

Paul

[Jailhouse]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

JH, If I start tagging a 'Style' per track, then the job of ripping is never going to get completed! In this instance, I think it's a case of adding only what (info.) is necessary. Paul

You should only have to do your tagging once, whatever it is you want to tag, with only minor tweaks afterward.

That said, I agree on the "add only what's necessary" bit. The hard part, at least early on, is deciding just what is necessary.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

As always, the best method is that which works best for you. It looks like you have your solution for this one.

JH, If I start tagging a 'Style' per track, then the job of ripping is never going to get completed! In this instance, I think it's a case of adding only what (info.) is necessary. Paul

[Jailhouse]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

At the end of the day, in running a search for a particular 'Style', I am looking for results of complete albums, and not individual tracks.

As always, the best method is that which works best for you. It looks like you have your solution for this one.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

If I were to use Style as a way to differentiate the various flavors of a genre, I would tag each file individually as necessary. "Various" tells me nothing.

But as I mentioned before, I don't use Style at all--in fact, I removed the tag from all of my files and configured CD Ripper not to include it. Genre is as granular as I need to get.

JH,

I think what I would do is to tag only the albums where all tracks were of the same 'Style'. So, for Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew", tag the entire double-CD under the 'Style' of JAZZ-ROCK (or similar). And for Miles albums which mix both acoustic and electric jazz use no 'Style' tag whatsoever.

At the end of the day, in running a search for a particular 'Style', I am looking for results of complete albums, and not individual tracks.

Thanks,

Paul

[Jailhouse]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

But would you go to the extent of tagging a 'Style' for each individual track of an album, should they all be different? Or would you create a single overall tag of (say) 'VARIOUS' for the entire album (as per Miles Davis's "Circle In The Round" CD)? Or, would you simply not include a 'Style' tag, period, for such recordings?

If I were to use Style as a way to differentiate the various flavors of a genre, I would tag each file individually as necessary. "Various" tells me nothing.

But as I mentioned before, I don't use Style at all--in fact, I removed the tag from all of my files and configured CD Ripper not to include it. Genre is as granular as I need to get.

[monsterjazzlick]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

I really think this comes down to the breakdown of your collection. As I've said previously, I use all tags except Rating, but as Jailhouse mentioned, a lot of the providers', Style descriptions are "interesting"!

I do use Genre, and have 42 different genres, clearly the ultimate answer! Most of the providers chosen Genre, are also not how I would consider an artist. Genre and Style are only any real use to the user, if they reflect how the user views them.

Confession time! I've never looked at what the default, Style, is. I've never checked Style, after having ripped a CD, and probably never will.

However, if you find it useful, and defining individual tracks useful, then you have the option to do it. Stick with your convictions, because you are the one who needs to be delighted, with your library.

Hi Oggy,

'Rating' is something which does not interest me. And up to now, I have been deleting all of the pre-configured 'Styles'.

I am only using the jazz 'Genre' at the moment because I am ripping this section of my CD library first. 42 genres is a hell of a lot, I have to say! But obviously you must have a very wide collection.

I won't be adding the 'Style' tag until I have finished ripping. Then I will have a much clearer view. But as I say, I can instantly see the benefit of having a Latin 'Style' added to certain Jazz CDs.

Paul

[Oggy]

Re: It's All About 'Style'

Hi folks,

Having ripped over 40GB of my CD collection to FLAC, today I started on a different genre (Flora Purim & Airto).

Although they definitely fall under the genre of JAZZ, I am considering tagging them with the STYLE of 'Latin'. I was not ever going to use the latter tag but today I began to think that it may be worthwhile. I originally started out with the minimum amount of meta-data as possible but gradually - as I have become more converse with dBpa - I seem to be adding more information as I go along.

So for Jazz, you could include the 'styles': bebop, swing, latin, fusion, funk, and so on.

But do many people utilise the 'style' tag, please? I mean, would it be worthwhile stopping where I am and going back over each (100+!) CD and adding this is (I assume using the 'Edit Tag ID')? Or would you just stick to (as I planned): Jazz, Classical, Pop and Rock?

Many thanks,

Paul

I really think this comes down to the breakdown of your collection. As I've said previously, I use all tags except Rating, but as Jailhouse mentioned, a lot of the providers', Style descriptions are "interesting"!

I do use Genre, and have 42 different genres, clearly the ultimate answer! Most of the providers chosen Genre, are also not how I would consider an artist. Genre and Style are only any real use to the user, if they reflect how the user views them.

Confession time! I've never looked at what the default, Style, is. I've never checked Style, after having ripped a CD, and probably never will.

However, if you find it useful, and defining individual tracks useful, then you have the option to do it. Stick with your convictions, because you are the one who needs to be delighted, with your library.

Personally, I'm still deciding which one of the 42 genres, to place, the BBC box set of the radio play for, The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.........