Label Glossary

.....Transcribing my handwritten notes on Christmas music into blog form my be a fun hobby, but without labels it would just be turning a paper mess into an electronic mess. For my other blogs I've attempted to minimize the number of labels/tags so that the full list of labels isn't too intimidating to browse. For this blog, part of ascertaining which recording of a song is the original involves citing the date of recording and/or release. Therefore there'll be a label for each year. (Although, thinking practically, pre-WWI could be one category and the 20's and 30's could be grouped as five-year blocks. That would turn 100 labels into about 65.)

.....For readers (or myself) searching for a particular style of music, we'll have to ignore for a moment that in commercial circles at least all Christmas music is marketed as a distinct style of music all its own. Also, performers known for a given style in their own music will often approach holiday music differently. Given that it's only on sale for about 10% of the year, they may have chosen to record holiday music as a change of pace or even as a personal or professional challenge, a test of their craft. Still, by limiting myself to original 20th century compositions I can (in most cases) affiliate a given song with the closest approximate popular form. This is just the sort of thing I normally try to avoid when organizing my own records or CD's. It's easier to find things, especially in a large collection, if you simply refuse to parse everything into increasingly specific subcategories. Alphabetize; spell out numbers so that you don't have to remember whether you put numbers before or after letters. There are two kinds of music: classical and popular. Alphabetize popular by artist and classical by composer; organize each artist and composer by date. Organize anthologies by label and cast/soundtrack albums by title, then shelve both outside of the main body (or bodies). Done.

.....The reason my choice of organizational systems is so simplified (if not exactly Spartan) is because I used to work in a music chain store, many years ago when they were such things. Ask anyone old enough to have some experience in music chain retail and they'll confirm it: the more you love music, the more you will grow to hate the chains. And not just the one you have the misfortune of working for; you'll notice things in the competitors that would have previously struck you as brainless but innocent that will begin to take on sinister dimensions in light of what you have learned. I understand that there are entire websites devoted to unloading about such things, so I'll limit myself here to a few things I noticed relevant to labels and music categories. There were separate categories for rock and R&B in the chain where I worked. Generally, the determinations made sense: Led Zeppelin in rock, the Temptations in R&B. Yet, there were some that puzzled me. Jimi Hendrix, for instance, was in R&B. That's not really so crazy, since some of his posthumous releases were much bluesier than his standard albums. But then I noticed Hall & Oates were in rock, although they often charted as R&B. And the more I thought about it, Pink Floyd were much more consistently blues inflected than Hendrix was, yet they were shelved in rock while Living Colour were in R&B. Although it was never stated company policy, a close inspection made their reasoning obvious. "Rock" meant white to them, and "R&B" meant black. It was that simple and that ugly. There were a number of other questionable judgements but that one had a higher skin-crawl factor than the others and while I can't foresee myself making that particular lapse in common sense it made me wary of that thin line between subjectivity and prejudice. I decided that the human factor was something best indulged when listening to music and that we should defer to library science when filing it.

.....All of which makes it feel very strange now to introduce musical categories to a blog I'm writing. The only saving grace I can think of is that these are meant for individual songs and therefore avoids the odious practice of pretending that albums never blend musical styles. Here are the terms I anticipate needing to use:

• Avant-garde - Because I am restricting myself to the 20th Century there will be few instances of commissioned classical compositions of holiday music, as would have been more common during Handel's lifetime. If any come up I will lump them in here along with the neo-classical and (intentionally) atonal on top of anything experimental or exceptionally innovative, so much so that it doesn't meet the other categories.
• Children's - This category is less about style than about marketing.
• Humor - I had originally considered using the broader term 'novelty' until I realized that would describe everything in a Christmas music blog. Like Children's and Stage & Screen this would likely be combined with a more specific description of the music.
• Jazz/Swing - Depending on artists or arrangements, this may occasionally be used in combination with R&B-Blues .
• Punk/New Wave - The fact of this category will probably prompt some ruminations on deconstruction. There have also been those who contend that 'New Wave' doesn't exist except as a marketing term. It may ultimately prove more useful in identifying time periods than musical qualities.
• R&B-Blues - (see Jazz/Swing) Some selections may overlap with the various Roots designations.
• R&B-Motown - Oh, yes, the volume of Christmas music from the Motown family of labels (which includes the 'Motown' label proper as well as Gordy, Jobete, Tamla, etc.,etc....) more than justifies it's own sub-category.
• R&B-Other Soul - Musically not terribly different from Motown but often less polished. Sometimes that's an improvement, sometimes not. Think Atlantic, Atco, Stax/Volt, Buddha, etc.
• Rock-UK - Not really a style distinct from the US but a concession to nostalgia for readers and myself. Also, there's a mountain of material from the seventies.
• Rock-US - (see Rock-UK)
• Roots-Country - Covers both Nashville and Bakersfield as well as any 'alt-Country'/No Depression artists who aren't actually rock.
• Roots-Folk - Both the real stuff and the barbershop-type arrangements from the early sixties.
• Roots-Gospel - It might be tricky distinguishing the Christmas songs about Jesus from the other 364 days of songs about Jesus. Technically, "GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN" is lyrically a Christmas song. Musically it doesn't exactly remind me of pine and peppermint, but that's what this blog is intended to detail.
• Spoken Word - Stories, speeches, radio dramas and some interesting public service announcements. Trust me, they'll keep things more interesting than their descriptions imply.
• Stage & Screen - Cast albums and soundtracks, which may incorporate any or none of the above categories.

.....Of course, this doesn't preclude categories being added later.