I was looking at the StylePicker window and noticed the ZZJAZZ style is in the Country group and Country genre, anyone else noticed this?
Hi Jim,
A while back, I think the spreadsheet that was used to enter these data was mis-aligned because there were quite a few instances of styles mismatching descriptions.I suspect that this is related to that.
I'll reference this thread in a note in the pre-release testing area of the new builds so that PG Music Support are kept in the loop and can fix it.
Regards,
Noel
With today's music, it's sometimes difficult to categorize styles, although I agree zzjazz isn't really a country style.
Rock for example, started out as a melding of blues and country, and many older rock songs from Elvis to CCR and beyond lean very far into country territory.
And in the 1970s and beyond, funk (or what was called funk in the 70s) created a sharing of rock and jazz styles.
And modern Nashville music is nothing like traditional country, but more like hard rock with a country accent. And we even have country rap.
So how do you categorize a style? Do you remain strict and deprive the end user from finding just the right style for his/her song? Do you get loose in interpretation and risk overwhelming the end user with a menu of choices that are so large it's difficult to make a decision? Or do you aim for something in-between.
I know I aim for that in-between spot and it seems like PG Music does the same (although I can't speak for them).
Plus back when we had few styles, both PG Music and myself chose to link styles with songs because they were the best fit at the time. Now that we have thousands of styles to choose from, some of our early choices no longer work.
Categorizing styles and even genres of music in today's world is difficult. But while it makes choosing a genre in Band-in-a-Box difficult, I think it's a good thing to hear the cross pollination in various genres of music.
Insights and incites by Notes
The music scene constantly shifts, particularly the division between country and rock.
Charlie Daniel's music (Devil Went Down To Georgia) was considered rock or Southern rock during the seventies. Now he is in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Country Music Television (CMT) listed the Eagles as country music's most influential group of the 20th century.
So how do you categorize a style?
I categorize it as one that sometimes I like or one that sometimes I don't like: it depends entirely on the song. The genres divide lines are so grey now that it is virtually impossible to categorize any song today. That is a good thing--sometimes---IMHO. YMMV