Dirk van den Heuvel (dirkv@groovedis.com)
Thu, 20 Jan 2000 17:53:34 -0600
Steve said:
"I think you can sell just as much music by referencing it to existing music
people may already know. This approach seems to work for stores like Amazon
and CD Now."
That's a good point Steve except they are really selling the records I do.
Check our website and THEN look at CDNow or Amazon and you'll see the
problem. Without genres and sub-genres it would be next to impossible for me
to sell the records I get every week to the stores across the country that
stock new, cutting edge imports. I can't (for too many reasons to go into
here) make sound samples and lists of similar records for every new single
we get, yet the store buyer still needs to know what kind of record it is,
what section of his/her store to put it in, etc. Genres and sub-genres
facilitate that (along with commonly recognized labels and artists). And
what exactly is the difference/problem with describing a new record mixing
breakbeats and trance keyboards as "breaktrance" instead of saying "sounds
like Hybrid"?
Last point: without little catch all genre names,how many people who like
records from say PEOPLE Records would know to check out MAIN SQUEEZE or LAWS
OF MOTION??
Dirk van den Heuvel (dirkv@groovedis.com)
Groove Distribution
http://www.groovedis.com
Your Guide To The Underground
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Oldmeadow [mailto:soldmeadow@bigpond.com]
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2000 4:57 PM
To: acid-jazz@ucsd.edu
Subject: Re: More House not House questions?
----- Original Message -----
From: Dirk van den Heuvel <dirkv@groovedis.com>
To: Gordon <ghurd@yahoo-inc.com>; <acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Sent: 21/01/2000 08:28
Subject: RE: More House not House questions?
> Trust me more than the music press would go out of business without labels
> for different kinds of music. It's next to impossible to sell new bands
and
> labels WITHOUT labelling them. It is essential to selling, buying, and
> stocking of records. Musicians don't like labels describing their music
> ("we're unique--you can't label us!), but record labels, distributors, and
> stores rely on them. Sorry.
>
The question is how fine do these labels need to be? Dance music seems to
be obsessed with micro genres. Classifying things only works if the
categories are well understood by the people you intend communicating with.
Unfortunately over time even labels that were well understood lose meaning
through misuse. I have no idea what people mean now when they talk about
techno, electro or dub even though I am very familiar with the origins of
these genres.
I think you can sell just as much music by referencing it to existing music
people may already know. This approach seems to work for stores like Amazon
and CD Now.
Steve
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