>There are lots of things where the concepts differ from person
>to person. That the concepts differ from person to person has
>nothing to do with those things relevancy or existance IMO...
>If a lot of people-including the artists themselves-believe
>that genre (=a form of classification) X exist and they all
>have different definitions, the very fact that some vague (and
>the vagueness is up for debate, it's really only for some
>fringe-acts where the definition becomes a problem) idea of
>what it constitute even exist is enough for me.

fair enough. it's really just semantical. i consider genres to have a "working definition" where to a certain extent people understand what each other mean, but it can fall apart depending on how far you attempt to take it.


>But if he/she said "it's not catchy enough", would that be OK?
>If the person is looking for catchiness (more abstract of a
>concept than genre IMO), that's a perfectly valid criticism
>that may be interesting to hear for other people looking for
>catchiness, regardless of how their definitions might vary.

i like to hear what people consider catchy (and not). catchiness, like genre, has common traits, and people have studied what makes a song catchy, but it's subjective, too. to me, catchiness is more "real" than genre because it's implicit that catchiness, like accessibility, does vary, whereas genre is presented as solid and uniform when it really isn't.


>Same for people looking for "real" Hip-Hop (and yes, I don't
>think the concept of "real" Hip-Hop is that vague; when people
>say that, I have an idea of what they mean and I suspect at
>least most people here on OKP do too, regardless of whether we
>agree about the definition or not)

80s, 90s, 00s, east, west, south, and a lot more variables can influence what is "real hip-hop" to a given person. it depends on your own identity and background. there is a lot of similarity/overlap, but i don't think it's completely cut and dry as a concept.


>Yes. However, if you consider how many people that stick to
>music in a few genres and even use the genre-classifications
>themselves to describe what they are listening to, I find the
>concept very real, regardless of its vagueness.

it's something that becomes "real" through use, but if you really break it down, it doesn't hold up all the time.


>does it really matter?

>So what?

exactly. why get hung up on genre, just get out of music whatever you get out of it.