How to tell how much of a Music Geek you are

Original Post Date: January 17, 2008

So, I've been importing all of my CDs onto my computer in preparation for my inheritance of Neal's iPod in April. I've discovered that I'm having a bit of a problem classifying stuff into genre. And it's because I am SUCH a music (and theatre) geek. Here are some examples:

Classical is a term that is used as an all-encompassing term for convenience purposes and for people who don't know the other musical eras. The Classical period in music really only ran from about 1750 (after the death of Bach) until the early to mid 1800s. A good reference point for the transition from Classical into the Romantic Era is Beethoven. His writing career spanned both Eras. Bach was Baroque, Mozart was Classical, Chopin was Romantic. So, as I'm putting my CDs into genres, I'm using Classical for all those eras, even into 20th Century. However, I have PDQ Bach. That is NOT Classical. That's modern, but it's instrumental. I can't bring myself to put his music in Classical, because it's not Classical. So, I started the genre "Instrumental". Also in that genre I put a recording of the music of Frank Tichelli, John William's American Journey CD (for the 2002 Olympics), and James Galway's "Unbreak my Heart" CD. However, James Galway's CPE Bach Flute Concertos and Lowell Liebermann's Piccolo and Flute Concertos went into Classical. They are Baroque and 20th Century, but I'm going to allow the generalized "Classical" genre to fly in this case.

Another problem I had was with the "Choral" genre I began. I put all of my Mormon Tabernacle Choir CDs in there, along with some John Rutter and Robert Shaw. No problem, right? Wrong. I have a PDQ Bach CD of the Lieberslieder Polkas. I don't want to be listening to "Choral" on random and go from listening to "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" into "Song to Celia" or something equally as silly. So I moved MoTab into their own genre "Mo Tab". Problem solved? We'll see.

I have a potential problem that I haven't come up with a good solution for yet. All of my Cast Recordings are in the genre "Broadway." Except, I have some London Cast recordings and the like. They aren't Broadway, even though the shows were on Broadway at some point. Do I change the genre to "Cast Recordings" or "Showtunes"? I haven't decided yet. Oh, and what about the movie soundtracks that are from Musical Movies? They are in "Soundtracks", but if I make the "Showtunes" genre, should they move there? The other part of the problem is that I've got some CDs of Broadway stars' solo albums. They are singing showtunes...should I put them in the Broadway category, even though they aren't cast recordings? I have them in "Vocal". That's too broad of a genre, in my opinion. I've got Josh Groban in there. And I have some CDs of Arts songs and stuff yet to be imported. They don't fit in with the other "Vocal" albums I have now, but I don't to put them in "Classical." I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. I'm still trying to decide where to put Ryan Shupe and Rubber Band. They aren't country, they aren't bluegrass, they aren't pop, they aren't rock. They're a cool mixture of everything. Didn't they call their style Funkadelic NewGrass? I think so. So right now, they are in the genre "Music." Kirby Heyborne is in there, too, though I guess I could put him in "Vocal". I don't know.

This is why you should never be a music major. It causes you to think WAY too much about stuff like this.