120GB Zune

When it came time to purchase an MP3 player, I invested quite some time in researching which was the best player for me.  These were my requirements (in order of importance):

1. Large Capacity

2. Fast Desktop Software (one that will respond quickly even with a large collection.

The only two players I really took into concideration were the iPod 160GB Classic and the 80GB 2nd Generation Zune.  I ended up picking the Zune.   Even though, both players were similar in pricing, I ended up with the lower capacity Zune 80GB.  What really convinced me was Zune’s desktop software more than the player itself.  The desktop software is very fast with my current collection size (at about 70GB, I have way more than that, but i only import to the Zune player my tagged files).  It is also easier to import songs into the Zune software than the iTunes.  You merely place the file into the Zune folder and the software will automatically import it.

My current dilemma is that I am about 6GB shy of filling up my 80GB Zune.  I prefer to have *all* my files with me all the time.  Therefore, I will have to upgrade to a higher capacity player.  Just in time, I hear news that Zunes will come in 120GB in the near future.  Not a really big jump from 80GB, but at least it shows that they’re working towards higher capacity players.  I probably won’t invest in a new player for just 40GB – so I still have the problem in excluding some tunes from being synchronized with my player.  I will just have to wait to at least a 160GB Zune player before I concider replacing my 80GB one.

The Digital Music Lexicon

Over at Out Digital Music blog, they have started a series of blog entries to define the most commonly used terms revolving around digital music.  Yesterday’s term was “AAC” and today’s term was “Bitrate“, for example.  I highly recommend to anybody starting to collect digital music to follow this blog to get acquainted with the Digital Music lexicon.

Not one genre for Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.

I was randomly listening to my music collection when the next song in the queue came up to be: Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.  I currently have this song under my “Rock” genre.  I don’t know what I was thinking when I assigned “Rock” for this song.  Anyways, my first reaction was to move it from rock to …. – then, i froze.  What genre is this song, really ? It has a dance groove, but the vocals are heavy on R&B, hmm…

After a quick google search, I found an article that decomposes this song and mentions its genre:

“Crazy” is not really gospel, that “Ha ha ha, bless your soul” line notwithstanding. Nor is it disco (despite the undeniable groove), or hip-hop (despite the presence of a rapper and a DJ), or a pure pop song (despite the monumentally catchy chorus). In fact, “Crazy” seems to float outside genre altogether, which helps explain its wide appeal—most every musical constituency feels comfortable claiming it. “Crazy” has landed on the pop, R&B/hip-hop, adult contemporary, and modern-rock charts. No other hit in recent memory has crashed as many radio formats.

heh.  I knew I wasn’t alone.  There are very few songs that are released nowadays that have a great appeal to audiences from multiple genres.  Popular music is more than 50 years old and many music variations have been tried.  It takes songs like “Crazy” to prove that there is still room for uniqueness in the music industry.  It’s no surprise this song made a huge impact in 2006  (#7 top song of the year).

As to my personal dilemma in assigning a genre to “Crazy”, well I just left it at Rock, for the moment.  As I have mentioned before, I don’t place much emphasis/time in genre associations in my digital music collection – I just pick whatever makes sense at that moment.

3 Minute Documentary about Ugandan Hip-Hop

Wikipedia has a run-down on all the different styles of African Hip-Hop.

Electronic Music Genre Tree

Over at techno.org, you can find a well-constructed Electronic music genre tree.  The authors claim to “entertain before it informs”, which is how we should really treat any music genre tree.  As I have mentioned in the past, music genres are one of the most subjective topics, therefore all music genre trees should be taken with a grain of salt.  The tutorial found in this site is a good explanation on electronic music, in general.  Have fun there.