Sometimes I write pieces that cover multiple topics, in this case both a technical analysis of digital asset taxonomies and classifications in a multi-faceted sense, and a musical analysis of the multi-faceted genres present in a single song. Whoops, two songs. (One track.)
And it all started with a single question.
Why does my Google Lyria-generated “biometric product marketing expert” song include a reference to “digital taxonomy”?
Because the source picture used to generate the song is not exclusively biometric in nature.
If you look in the lower right corner of the picture you can see a reference to digital asset taxonomy, a reference to a Bredemarket client that specializes in Adobe Experience Manager implementations.
Which brings us to Spotify.
Building the perfect Spotify playlists
Every month without fail I build at least one Spotify playlist for my listening pleasure. Normally these are a mixture of different decades and genres, all thrown together.
Saturday (February 21) I thought I’d be more thematic and create multiple playlists sorted by genre. So far I’ve created four:
- Dance, including the Andrea True Connection and Britney Spears.
- Electronic, including Kraftwerk and Röyksopp.
- Folk, including the Brothers Four and R.E.M.
- Punk, including Public Image Ltd. and Hole.
I tried to stay away from traditional categories such as country and disco, and didn’t try to distinguish between punk and hardcore, or genre and NEO-genre.
And I recognize that artists can span multiple genres. Some Devo songs are in my electronic playlist, others are in my punk playlist, and when I get to “Disco Dancer” it won’t go in either.
Which brings us to Elton John.
Building the imperfect digital asset taxonomy
Elton John’s career has spanned multiple genres. The bespectacled piano player has covered simple love songs, energetic power trios (17-11-70), bombastic orchestral episodes, crocodile rock, an island girl, and everything else. And that’s just in his first decade, before he became Disney soundtrack guy.
However, in most cases Elton, Bernie Taupin, and his other collaborators would stick with a particular genre for an entire song. Because that’s what good product marketers do: stick to a single message. Bad product marketers like me tend toward multiple message overload…I seem to have strayed from my point. *** EDIT THIS LATER
But perhaps you noticed the music I incorporated here.
How do you taxonomize THIS digital asset?
1973 in music
Before I describe the problem, let me set the scene.
- “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” was the second of two albums that Elton John released in 1973. It was a sprawling double album.
- Elton’s predecessor album, “Don’t Shoot Me I’m The Only Piano Player,” was a number one album with a number one single, the aforementioned “Crocodile Rock.” The album also included the popular song “Daniel” and a character piece (in the Randy Newman tradition) “Texan Love Song.” (Lyricist Bernie Taupin often courted controversy.)
- But much was going on outside the pop star world that Elton John seemingly occupied. Progressive music was reaching its peak. While Elton’s first 1973 album rhapsodized on elderberry wine and backed away from the Paul Buckmaster arrangements, 1973 saw releases from Emerson Lake and Palmer, Genesis, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, and Yes. Oh, and an album by Pink Floyd entitled “Dark Side Of The Moon.” When I asked Google Gemini about 1973 progressive albums, it replied in part, “If you enjoy odd time signatures and 20-minute compositions, 1973 is your playground.”
- However, music is governed by Newton’s Third Law of Motion, and some definitely anti-progressive works were just starting to appear. The New York Dolls released an album, and underground recordings were circulating of a band called The Modern Lovers.
- A significant portion of American teenagers didn’t care about any of this. For them, the ONLY album of importance was Led Zeppelin’s “Houses of the Holy.”
Side one of four, track one, songs one and two
Which brings us to “Funeral For A Friend”/“Love Lies Bleeding.” Technically a two-song medley, but distributed (both physically and electronically) as a single asset.
Elton had tons of fans who were all too happy to rush out, slap $9.98 on the counter to buy “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” upon its release, and plunk side one of the first record on their turntables.
Time to listen
I suspect that the “WTF” acronym was invented in November 1973.
Because the listeners weren’t hearing “the only piano player.”
And they weren’t hearing a Paul Buckmaster-conducted orchestra.
They were hearing an ARP 2500 synthesizer programmed and performed by David Hentschel.
You couldn’t hear a recognizable piano until the 1:40 mark of the song. Slowly you hear Dee, Nigel, and Davey, and the song slowly (but not completely) transitions away from the Hall of the Progressive Masterpiece in the Court of the Multi-Coloured Bespectacled Lunatic on the Top of the Charts. (And no, “lunatic” is not too strong here, since this song falls between Elton John’s known suicide attempts in 1968 and 1975.)
Then, after the band (augmented by Hentschel) brings “Funeral for a Friend” to an energetic conclusion, the piano player transitions to the second song at the 5:22 mark. And Elton, who has been silent all this time, finally sings.
And time to reflect
Let’s review, shall we?
- Although the tone is dark with themes of breakup and demise, portions of this sound like a typical Elton John pop song.
- But before that it begins with sounds that made American teenagers wondered if they had picked up a Yes album by mistake.
- And while few portions of the songs are minimal like Mr. Richman, or include towering solos like Mr. Page, parts would have fit well into a New York studio performance three years earlier. And Elton at his best could outdress the Dolls.
That was fun. Now comes the challenge.
How do you classify THIS?
I’ve already implicitly noted that music classification is a tricky affair.
Take “MacArthur Park,” a song recorded by everyone from Richard Harris to Waylon Jennings to Donna Summer. There are over 200 versions of the song spanning multiple genres. And composer Jimmy Webb is challenging to classify.
Now look at Elton’s song and my four playlists.
The track isn’t folk, dance, or punk.
But is it electronic? Portions are decidedly NOT.
Multi-faceted
You could cheat and place it in two (or more) classifications. Heather Hedden addresses faceted classification:
“The idea of faceted classification as a superior alternative to traditional hierarchical classification, whereby an item (such as book or article) can be classified in multiple different ways instead of in just a single classification class/category, is not new. The first such faceted classification was developed and published by mathematician/librarian S.R. Ranganathan in 1933, as an alternative to the Dewey Decimal System for classifying books, called Colon Classification (since the colon punctuation was originally used to separate the multiple facets).”
A taxonomy, however, is different—ideally:
“[F]aceted taxonomies should…ideally be mutually exclusive, in contrast to the principle of faceted classification…”
My solution
Returning to my Spotify playlist problem:
- I could simply place the song in multiple playlists: for example, an electronic playlist and some type of guitar/rock/whatever playlist.
- Or I could create a single hyphenated playlist, such as an electronic-guitar playlist. (Many Depeche Mode songs, beginning with “Route 66,” would be ideal here.)
For now I followed neither option, but added “Funeral for a Friend”/“Love Lies Bleeding” into my existing electronic playlist (because it starts electronically) and nowhere else.
Although I could change my mind later.
And there are other songs on the album…
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