59 Genres!! Can anything be done?

I like iTunes and all, but I don't understand why there are so many flippin' genres! It makes it nearly impossible to use the feature at all. Is there any way to change this or consolidate them into a little more general, but still similar genres?

Well, you don't have to use them all!! And you can type in your own.


What I did was create very broad Groups first. (i.e. Indie, Folk, Hardcore, Electronica)
Then I created intricate genre information (I pretty much used tags) so my genres are sometimes a few words long... then I used smart playlists to pick and choose an voila!

Man, I really struggled at first too. It's awfully hard to categorize music into genre nowadays... I found if I was being too broad I wasn't getting the results I needed. 5000+ songs spread across 3-4 genre types was hardly enough to get good results for me personally...

Conversely, when i was too specific... well... 100+ genres across all those songs gave me mixed results too.

So, with one broad group and then more streamlined "tags" (genres) I am now able to navigate through my music pretty well...

It works for me, but looking back on it from time to time I wonder if there was a better way.

The next hurdle is ratings... that was a tough battle too... once you get genre's and ratings taken care of you can really start to have fun with smart plists!

there are a lot more than just 5 genres of music that is why there are so many....while creating a smart playlist you can make one that includes 5 different genres or even more...just keep hitting that little '+' button to keep adding diffferent genres
-chris

I currently have 5 genres in my library- Metal, Rock, Punk, Grunge and World.

But, since my library is now going over the 5000 song mark, I am thinking of doing a total sort out, filling in all tags, getting album art for all songs and re-doing the genres such as Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal, Power Metal etc.

Thanks for the responses. I think I'll give the smart playlists idea a try.

I originally thought iTunes supplied the genre, but is it on the CD, or from the label? I still don't understand that. For example, A "Weird Al" CD I loaded into iTunes was put under "spoken word" And one was put under the genre "genre"!

How do you adjust the genres for the tracks/albums?

Thanks!

I believe the genre's are actually determined by the Gracenote database that itunes uses to collect cd information... www.gracenote.com


You can easily edit the genre (as well as a ton of other things from Beats Per Minute to Album Art) when you [command + i] (or right click and select get info) on the selected tracks you want to edit (you can do one at a time or select multiple tracks or select an artist name).

I'd say quickly select an artist and check out all the fields you can edit. To make it easier I use the browser. (you can bring up the browser with [command + b] or show browser in the view menu)

Sorry if this is hard to understand/poorly written... I am functioning with no sleep and on my way to the sack!

Yes the Gracenote CDDB gives all this info, or on newer discs, it is on the CD itself. When downloading a song from the Store, it comes with the file in formof ID3 Tags. Basically it's up to you to alter these Tags to your liking. Important.

Should I say it? THANKS BILL GATES!! The command +i and multiple selection worked like a charm! Now I just need to go through my 2,000 songs and get them sorted out. I think most of the odd genres came from songs I already had and imported in, but the Weird Al genre of "books/spoken word" did come from Gracenote, which is bad grouping.

No problem! I am glad it's working for you.

Now you'll start the descent into the twisted abyss of obsessive itunes tweaking and playlist creating! When I first started using itunes I found myself thinking it was sub par... but once I looked into it deeper and experimented I became quite comfortable with it. And the constant updates and changes have mostly been for the better.


Gracenote has flaws, but it usually gets the artist and album info correct still... I never once have used the suggested genres.

Remember: The information on Gracenote is supplied by users just like you.

When you've manually entered/adjusted the information for a CD you've ripped, select 'advanced> Submit CD Track names' to upload your tags to Gracenote.

People often have different ways of determining genres, so you'll likely not always agree with the genres Gracenote supplies.

ya i like to keep it simple i have 4

My only issue with ripped CD's I own is getting different genres for the same artist on different CD's. Some CDs gets tagged as "Rock", while other CD's get a "Metal" label, same artist, I don't get it.