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Annotated Bibliography

Are Music Genres Necessary?

Nikola Nesic
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
October 21st, 2015

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Annotated Bibliography
Rate Your Music. Rate Your Music, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Rate Your Musics genre page contains an extensive list of all the known genres used
within the music community. These genres are then described by their sound in order to
give the reader a better idea as to what the genre is all about. Some genres, such as
Baroque Pop, contain a short history lesson as to how the genre came about. They may
also include information pertaining to how the name for some of these genres came
about. When evaluating whether or not Rate Your Music can be seen as a valuable source,
one has to realize that Rate Your Music is similar to Wikipedia in the sense that everyone
can edit it. However, changes to something such as the genre list goes to the
administrators of the website for review and then a general consensus of the change is
then made to decide if the new information is to be applied or not. Most of the
information regarding the music community comes from musicians themselves and is
then spread around. Genre names such as Plunderphonics become coined through a
scholarly paper regarding music piracy and that is the type of information given. Other
genres, such as Vaporwave, have varying information as to where the genre originally
gained its roots, but every reliable music-based website describes the sound of the genre
perfectly. All in all, I would say that Rate Your Music is a reliable website, even if it is
community-driven, due to the amount of researching needed and used by website
administrators to see if the information relating from genres to music acts are correct.

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"Re: Are Musical Genres Important?" Web log comment. Audio Issues. Audio Issues, n.d. Web.
21 Oct. 2015.
This blog post shows an unnamed authors opinion regarding the usage of music genres
within todays music community and states their stance on the subject on if music genres
are important or not. The author does have the stance that music genres are important and
places their opinion regarding certain topics within the whole argument. For example, the
first sub-header used describes that bands are to have no say in what genre they are, as
doing so will make the music seem as if its fabricated to be a certain way on purpose,
rather than the music having an identity given to it by the musicians. The blog post also
mentions how if a band tries to focus on being a genre for too long, they become limited
in their creativity. This is because if a band categorized as Power Pop, they can have a
musical act such as Weezer as an influence, but a Pop Rock act such as Guess No Kiwami
Otome () couldnt be since theyre in an entirely different genre,
regardless of the similarities between the two. While the blog post does contain an
opinions from some man/woman/alien/animal that had enough time to form some
opinions on the subject, there are some valid arguments made for music genres. However,
just off the nature of it being a blog post from someone who doesnt have a scholarly
stance on the subject makes me believe that this will not be a reliable source. However,
there are pieces of information from here that I will keep in the back of my head.
McKay, Cory, and Ichiro Fujinaga. Musical Genre Classification: Is It worth Pursuing and How
Can It Be Improved? N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
This scholarly paper goes over the way that musical websites, music recommendation
machines, and music labels classify their genres and question as to whether or not it is

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worth using. The general consensus of the paper is that the classification of musical
genres is important as it helps out these websites that use genres names commonly
immensely. One of the biggest issues listed within this paper is that it becomes very easy
to misuse the name of these genres and end up placing a musical act that falls under the
umbrella of Rock as under the umbrella of Pop, for example. This is extremely common
nowadays with a lot of the Pop Rock and Indie Rock acts that have been coming out as of
late. Also, the paper makes a great point describing that if an artists work is classified as
a genre, then all of their works cannot be placed under the same genre, as that can cause
confusion easily. For example, Japanese musical act Boris started off their career as a
Drone, Noise, Stoner Metal, and Noise Metal act, but have experimented with other
genres over the years such as Noise Rock, Shoegaze, Electronic, Noise Pop, Post-Rock,
and many more. It would be impossible to classify Boris under one roof as they are a
versatile act. I find this paper to be reliable as it is a peer-reviewed work and contains
multiple sources that help expand upon the main idea being made within the paper.
HAJDU, DAVID. "Principia Electronica." New Republic 243.19 (2012): 24. Points of View
Reference Center. Web. 27 Oct. 2015.
Hajdus article in The New Republic showcases the idea that todays society is now
viewing Electronica, an umbrella term used to describe the multiple electronic genres
such as Techno, Drum and Bass, Plunderphonics, and so on, as todays Rock n Roll
due to the similar age groups the genres are popular with. If anything, this article also
serves as a way to give the reader an idea of the state of Electronica today, a history on
the roots of some genres that come from Electronica, and gives legitimate reasons as to
why one may dislike Electronica (as if Electronica just not being your style wasnt good

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enough). While the question for my EIP isnt based entirely off of Electronica, the ins and
outs of Electronica are a big reason as to why the question even comes up. Electronica is
known to have a large umbrella of sub-genres to follow its name. Electronica also has a
large internet culture following. Combine these elements with the relatively low difficulty
of creating these songs and you have people coming up with new genres every other
month. Some of these genres dont even have much difference in their nature, with Hajdu
even pointing out that BPM, Beats Per Minute for short, differences are one of the main
reasons for creating all of these different genres. Since the ease of making these genres
comes mainly from the idea that your snare drum sample sound from FL Studio hits at a
faster rate than in other songs creates a needless saturation of genres. There are clear
differences between Techno, House, and Drum n Bass, however dont try to explain the
differences between IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) and EDM (Electronic Dance Music),
seeing as there is none. After doing a quick search on David Hajdu, I have come to learn
that he is a rather well renowned journalist and music critic of twelve years, graduating
with a degree in journalism from New York University. Hajdu was also nominated for the
National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography/Autobiography for his work Positively
4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard
Farina. If these accolades and qualifications tell me anything, its that this guy has
something to say that I should take a second and listen to. With that, I deem Hajdus
article on Electronica as a reliable source of information. I plan on using this information
to provide some background on the saturation of music genres nowadays by focusing a
bit on Electronica.