Music, like humanity, simply keeps evolving day by day. Today, there are
innumerable types of music, all delineated into their respective genres
and sub-genres: post-rock, free jazz, avant garde, progressive
technical deathcore, pornogrind, and even some as ridiculous sounding as
Viking metal.

One does not have to look far around the various music
sites that populate the Internet to see that this incessant genre
tagging gets on the nerves of many a music listener, a reaction that is
perfectly understandable. However, are these insanely specific genres
not useful? Do they not help prospective listeners select other music
that may interest them based on the genres that they already listen to?

Perhaps not; perhaps these genres are simply the result of humanity’s
irresistible urge to label and categorize everything they come into
contact with.  But this writer believes that genres, however overly specific
they may become, are some of the most useful tools that listeners have
to determine what new bands might appeal to them. 

Sites
like Pandora and Last.FM use genres as part of their programming to
select similar music for the listener, and having bare bones separations
such as rock, metal, pop, and jazz are not adequate enough.

Take for
example two very disparate artists in rap: Kanye West and Waka Flocka
Flame, and it is easy to see how a listener who likes one may not
necessarily like the other, as well as the fact that they are inherently
very different in lyrical content, rhyming style, and beats.

As a
result of these differences, it is obvious that further subgenre dividers must
be established to help differentiate the two artists. This isn’t true
only for rap, however; indeed it applies to all music. It is possible
that some subgenres simply go a step too far, but it could be argued
that specificity is never really a problem, rather more of an annoyance.
Whatever the case, it is worth considering the question.