Karaoke Forums

Has anyone ever attempted to sort your books by genre? I am *thinking* about undertaking this task and wanted to see if anyone can provide any shortcuts.

I think I am going to sort into the following categories:

Country
Pop/Rock
R&B/Rap
Oldies

As far as the process for doing this that I have in mind, I think I need to export my songlist from KJ Pro into Excel, create a new column for GENRE, and just start going in line by line and categorizing them. I have about 6500 non-duped songs, so this may take a while. Thoughts/Sugguestions??

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C Mc
KJ, FL

Man, I hope you get some help here because I need to know too.

I can see making the changes in a database, and having it available online. The thought of printing them and putting those different listings for people to see seems a bit much. But having them available on a laptop? Sure!

Just my personal opinion. I say if your crowd is sophisticated and savvy enough to appreciate it, go for it. As for me, I think perhaps your going through more trouble than it's really worth. Now I'm presuming that you're just wanting to add the genre category to your regular list and not break your books down by genre? I say just keep it simple so the average Joe can find his/her way through the books. But hey if you try it and it works, let us know, I'd be interested in knowing what kind of feedback you get.

James
Maninblack

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I serve no man and am loyal to only one God.

Being critical of a person's success in any respect speaks volumes about the lack of your own.

Love as though you've never been hurt, Dance as though no one's watching, Sing as though God Himself were listening.

I at one time had them done by genre, pain in the butt & it confused more people than it was worth.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

plus it would be a nightmare to continue to update.

Agree with the rest.  I can see where this would be a must if you were a DJ.  But not a KJ.

Something you might want to consider regardless of which kj program you use: (I use MTU's Hoster.)  I use Microsoft's Spreadsheet on my laptop.  Hoster has a search engine, but I also like my spreadsheet. I have it tabbed by Artist, Title, next to each of these of course is the Disc ID# and Mfg. (even though I only have in my system 1 version of each song.)  Also have a tab of the songs I am capable of singing.  It's easier for me to keep up with.

AND,  I have also started putting out to the side, the year the song came out and how high it made the charts.  I have found many like the "trivia" aspect.

Kelly

The Hoster program also can sort by genre as well, you still need to go through each song but you can sort by rock, country, pop, duet, etc.....

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You could make a book with many catagoies.  

I like the idea of books by genre for theme nights. I am trying to catalogue our home collection but it is not priority. I like the trivia idea, too! I am trying to note the key for songs if the splash screen lists it; I have been caught more than once with an unknown version of a song that is in a different key.

I also have a male/female/duet column in my Excel spreadsheet. Sharon mentioned a show that had duets listed either in a separate book or else at the top of the list, and separating them out into a mini-book (perhaps leaving them in the "big" book, too) is a darned good idea, I think.

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[glow=darkorchid]Musica delenit bestiam feram[/glow]

I was just thinking... what about things that fit into more than one genre... where do you put those? Some fit into both rap and rock for example.. how would you decide where to put stuff like that? I find it easier having one book to look through myself... although I DO love Gigi's duets idea.... I can never  think of duets at karaoke, otherwise I might try them more.

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Te audire no possum. Musa sapientum fixa est in aure. (I can't hear you. I have a banana in my ear.)

Genre can be too complicated; some song you may have to put them into two listing. for example most songs by Scorpion will be in both Rock and Oldies. There are many many songs that need to be put in more than one categories.
I prefer listing by theme; very similar to SS but a shorter version

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I can neither confirm nor deny ever having or knowing anything about nothing.... mrscott

I have been using a duet listing right in where it would fall alphabetically by artist.   The only draw back is the first artist of the duet is alpha, but the song isn't.   So they are still a little hard to look up by song, unless you have an alpha song title book.   Even listing the duets confuses some people.   They never look for them listed that way, so they are always coming up and asking if I have so & so duet, because they couldn't find it.

To list the duets like I do you, I use KJPro.    KJpro doesn't list songs as duets.   I had to go in and add the word duet in front of every one.    But that is the nice thing about it, you could add anything to the line that you want, as the above mentioned ideas.

It costs enough to print out songbooks now without adding "Genre" if they can't find a song to sing by artist or song title then they are pretty much hopeless.  LMAO

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ROBDOG *WOOF WOOF*

I really don't think there are TOO many songs that truely fit into multiple genres the way 99.9% of people interpret them...

Scorpions would be in my Rock category all the way. Oldies would be reserved for anything you would hear on oldies radio. Pretty much Beatles era and prior.

Rap/Rock like Limp Bizkit and Korn would be undoubtably rock.

Artists like Faith Hill who are considered "crossover" artists between pop and country would be undoubably country.

Basically, there are no artists I can think of that are not firmly associated with one of these categories (no one would go looking for Wind of Change in Oldies before they looked in Rock!!).

Though 80s new wave may be a valuable category for the sake of theme nights!!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

But then what you might consider something should be in a certain genre may actually be wrong & lost in the book somewhere.

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Right now I'm trying to put a valid genre in the tags on about 10k mp3's. Would like to  have year also but would be satisfied with proper decade....

The best softwares I have tried is Music brainz which has the most tools and options but limited data base. What I am using is Tag&Rename which uses the Amazon or the free dbb database.

Currently use Roxbox for DJ and KJ and still wating for the mp3 search engine to use the id3 tags. Then more search options will be availible (genre year etc) and playlists cn be made for theme parties and such...

My contention is when I get the DJ database streamlined and accurate then I can use it for comparison to do the same with the kj database.  It wont even be necessary to tag the karaoke mp3's, just go by artist title....Then the search engine KJ or DJ can be utilized on both. Then the song search stations can be used for genre etc..  I can also see the day when partial lyrics can be entered to bring up a forgotten song.  

 Might not be practical but thinking of ways to "print out" individual search results such as by artist.  Also a KJ should be able to printout song lists for regulars...

It would then be possible to print out song lists either DJ or KJ for different events by about any category possible...Not actually making books but "temp" type lists.....Also a data base on web could be used by potential customers to printout custom lists for their party wedding etc.....

The only genres in our books are Show Tunes, Christmas, Irish, Gospel, Children's and T.V. Themes.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

I may have just become too old to participate in this forum anymore.  I never thought I would live to see the day when songs from the early days of rock & roll, songs which defined the genre in the first place are now considered oldies and not rock.

And Lisa, I would so disappointed in you if it weren't for the fact that you are young and can't be held responsible for what you said.  But Darlin' there never was and never will be a time when you can label a rap song as rock and get away with it. At least not as long as me and my contemporaries are around.  As someone who was around when rock & roll was born and who has been playing it every since, it breaks my poor hear to hear talk like what's going on in this thread.  :)

And maybe the unkindest cut of all is that TopherM wants to lump R&B and Rap into the same category.  I know it has escaped the those young punks that run the recording business these days but R&B stands for Rhythm and Blues.  This would include Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Wilson Pickett, Percy Sledge, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King and a whole slew of others from the old days plus The Blues Brothers and The Commitments from more recent times.

R&B doesn't stand for what is being passed off as R&B these days.  I don't know what one would call it but the names already been taken.  Find another one.  Be original.  It's not that I object to the music.  I object to the label.  Maybe when R&B is dead they can have it.  But I think that's gonna be a very long time.

Okay, rant's over.  Talk amongst yourselves.  Smoke 'em if you got 'em.  Just consider this the mussings (messings?) of a walking, talking anachronism.

Larry

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"Life is too short for diet soda and lite beer"

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.....

You are confusing GENRE with STYLE...musical STYLES actually have technical classifications and definitions while GENRES do not...

I'm not in the business of classifying music the way they SHOULD ideallistically be classified, I'm in the business of using MODERN, generally used and accepted classifications.

OLDIES is not a musical STYLE, it is a genre classification generally used to classify OLDER music. If they play it on your local "feel good oldies" station, IT IS OLDIES whether it is rock, pop, R&B, or whatever. Like it or not (I heard Poison on my local oldies station the other day and didn't like it very much myself).

As for the point you directly attacked me on, modern R&B is CERTAINLY the direct decendent of older R&B, including motown. Don't be ignorant. If you just want to argue this point based on some warm and fuzzy memories of motown that you just don't get from modern R&B, then fine, but to say they are not in the same family tree is stupid.

In fact, find someone 25 years older than you, and they'll say that old R&B should really be called gospel, old rock music should really be called "white R&B," etc., etc., etc.. Hell, when I was growing up, REM and The Smiths were alternative and now modern rock and alternative are interchangable phrases because the "alternative" to pop music replaced pop music as the mainstream music!!

IN FACT, I took a few music theory classes in college, and if you talk to an actual music professor, they will tell you that musical genres are not technically defined by its musical components, but are ALWAYS defined in terms of their social and cultural significance. By this definition, tell me that modern R&B music doesn't serve the same social and cultural role that it did in the 50s and 60s, for the most part. They are the same genre.....

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C Mc
KJ, FL