The need to categorize
Jun 6th, 2005 by Ashley
How to categorize a band, a musician, or a piece of music has always been controversial. Take a common expression, “ten people would have eleven opinions.” When you really think of it, you’d understand why it’s difficult. I don’t think a music maker (whether it’s a person or a band) would sit down and say, “OK, I’m gonna make a punk song.” I believe a decent creator gives birth to his/her/their work based on his/her/their idea. Each one of them has his/her unique way of expression. Similarity is unavoiable and inevitably some people’s work might be under some people elses’ influence. Still, you can’t say that some’s work are exactly the same as somebody else’s. Even the same person, the same band, in different period of time, in different state of mind would create different style of music. It’s hard enough to categorize one person/one single band.
However, why do I still consider categorizing necessary when it seems irrelevant and futile? Categorizing makes things easier to see. We can’t deny that we sometimes all need to get a big piture of things, since it’s impossible to know it all. Thru the categorization, we’re able to find music of our taste more easily and have the common language to communicate with. But the thing is, we can’t take it too seriously, because among those eleven opinions, not any of them is totally right or wrong.