Windows Media Player, or whoever supplies the autofill info for when you rip a CD, seems to have come up with some new ways to slice-and-dice music genres and some pretty idiosyncratic choices.
Up until now, I have usually left the information as suggested, but, if I do change it, I usually only use “Rock”, “Pop” or “Alternative”. This probably tells you more about my lack of concern for the too-exact categorisation of ripped CDs than the scope of what I choose to call my musical taste…. but not much more.
However, the other day I was offered “Singer/Songwriter” (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’s Shaved Fish); “Contemporary Pop” (Richard Hawley’s Coles Corner); “Classic Rock” (This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End In Tears) and … best and most weirdly of all … “Retrospective Pop” for discs 1 and 2 of The Rolling Stones’ Singles – The London Years and “Indie/Alternative” for disc 3.
I called the whole lot of them “Rock” and had done with it, but am still wondering quite what “Retrospective Pop” actually is: something you didn’t think was “pop” at the time, but now you come to look back at it…? Any better ideas?
I think it just means ‘old’, as in “play some…”
I think the most surprising thing there is that anyone uses MS media player to rip CDs! Back when I started ripping in earnest about 15 years ago, it was awful (I don’t think it even did MP3s back then) and I’ve never used it since.
I use it too. Nothing awful about it at all (even if I do miss the “recently added” feature from the latest versions of it).
It must have changed then. They lost me 15 years ago.
It seems OK to me for ripping, although to be honest I use it just because it is there. I have Media Monkey, but I think I would need to upgrade to use it for ripping.
I don’t like WMP for listening back. The soundseems muddy. If I am on my PC, I use Groove Music, which is better.
In WMP, it gets that album info from a 3rd party provider, which by default is ‘AMG’ (All Music Guide). I think AMG get their data from user submissions (maybe sent back by WMP users), hence the wild variety of spelling, all caps and deranged classifications. They’re at https://www.allmusic.com/ and according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AllMusic AMG appears to be owned by TiVo.
You can see where something in your library came from if you enable the Data Provider column in WMP (go to an album’s details, right click on the column headings and go to Choose Columns, then enable the Data Provider column by checking the box). Looks like mine come from AMG.
I find it gets rubbish much less than 1% of the time, but it was usually things like the Word’s giveaway compilations, and my guess was there is an id code on a CD which might have been set wrong for the compilations, or really obscure stuff that was a problem. Very rarely (once or twice) I got nothing at all, and it was because something was incredibly new and wasn’t in the database – not a problem I have faced in a very long time.
Seems like the data at AMG comes from the people who submitted the content (https://www.allmusic.com/faq), so you might be able to blame the record company or PR/marketing company rather than the public.
If you use the WMP Find Album Info option it will look elsewhere and find other variations to the data. I’ve struggled with the value of that though.
Am I the only person who strips the genre tags from their rips? They’re either wrong or ridiculous.
What style of music is “Porn Groove”, anyway? If you only listen to “Illbient” (whatever that is) then you need to broaden your musical horizons.
I’m with Duke Ellington: music is either good or bad, and I don’t bother ripping the bad stuff.
No, you’re not. One of the compulsory actions for me.
I like the idea of “Porn Groove”, in the musical sense, of course. Cheesy melodies on synth a la John Suttleworth, perhaps.
I came up with “Topshop Pop” as a possible new category when I was writing the OP. You know, the kind of thing you hear on a Saturday afternoon while holding on to the shopping bags and waiting for your nearest and dearest to finish in the changing room.
Porno groove is better than that:
Thanks @minibreakfast
I will investigate.
“Washing Up Music”
From experience, there are a number of artists that make the chore of Washing Up much more bearable – mostly high tempo, guitar driven stuff (AC/DC being a prime exponent)
Others just elongate the process (have you ever tried washing up to Pink Floyd? Piper At The Gates Of Dawn is do-able, but anything post-Ummagumma (apart from The Wall) is a challenge
I’ve often wondered. What is Americana?
Americ-an’ a bit more, I think.
Country and western after a long bus journey, needing both a bath and a shave.