Genres / Sub-genres

I've been under the weather the last couple days, but during that time I kept thinking about the subject for this post: genres and sub-genres of music.

Many people pretty much limit themselves to certain genres or sub-genres of music.  When the do this, they are missing out on a lot of good music.  You probably know several people that do this.  They might listen to only country or pop or one of the many types of metal.  By doing this, they deprive themselves of the music that are under the other the other classifications of music.  If  you look at some of your favorite songs from the past, you will probably find that some of them had hits on some of the other charts than what you limit your listening category.  Look up some of your favorite artists on Allmusiccom and click on the Awards tab.  There you'll see the different charts that the albums and songs have been on.  You'll see that some have been on two or more charts such as Country singles, The Billboard Hot 100 or R&B singles.

When I was growing up in Northern Iowa in the 70's, we didn't have radio stations limited to all of these sub-genres like you find now.  We had a station that played easy listening, big band and news, one for country, a top 40 station and a FM station that played top 40 plus more.  These stations did not break the music down to sub-genres.  I didn't know about the different sub-genre's until I went into the Air Force in the 80's.  I did not limit myself to one sub-genre right away, but waited to around the early 90's and then it wasn't only one genre or sub-genre that had my listening attention.

We now have all this music that comes in digital format and is all expected to be classified under one genre or sub-genre.  Even when you digitize some of your music that you have in physical media, the software used for digitizing it asks for a genre or sub-genre.

I have decided to say enough and am no longer enter a genre or sub-genre on any of my music that I digitize for myself.  These classifications can vary from person to person for the category they be classified.  I like about all types of music and feel that I should not need to classify my music under certain categories in order to please somebody else.

Using genres or sub-genres is like stereotyping music.  You should approach music with an open mind, not to stereotype it and listen to just certain types.  When you limit yourself to certain types of music is about the same as stereotyping people.  I have friends from around all races, so why should I limit my music to one type or genre/sub-genre?

I think I've said enough on this topic for now.  Let me know about your view or feelings of this in the comments below.