If you’ve ever been asked “what kind of music do you like?” you probably realise just how complex and specific the modern landscape of music has become.
With that in mind, the team at Musicmap have just unveiled “the ultimately genealogy” of popular music, with the intent of bringing some comprehension to the daunting cacophony of genres that have sprung to life since 1870.
Users can zoom in and highlight key genres to learn more about their origins, find out how they have inspired other soundscapes, and if they use Spotify, can instantly listen to a playlist of relevant tracks.
It’s taken seven years to produce version 1.0 of the system, which deconstructs a total of 234 influential genres. It sounds like a lot, but some sources, such as Every Noise At Once, claim that the total number of genres in existence total 1000+.
Beyond the educational and entertainment aspects of Musicmap lay intriguing business opportunities.
The system has the potential to lay the groundwork for algorithm-based architecture to assist electronic music delivery (EMD) services like iTunes, Spotify and Soundcloud to better target suggested music to listeners.
Of course, it’s not as simple as slapping a label on a song and assuming fans of the genre will be interested in it.
“Implementation of this should be used with extreme caution as genre categorisation of artists and albums is a gross oversimplification of the truth, and a diminishing of artistic expression. Musicmap is meant for exploring and discovering hard-to-find music by providing basic cornerstones (genres) as orientation points in an otherwise vast and incomprehensible musical universe. One must look at the collection of all popular music as a vast ocean in which drowning is easily possible without the rescue of a safety net: a music genre that provides a way of orientation. Where am I in the world of music and where do I want to go?”
In that regards, Musicmap is a fantastic starting point for those who are eager to explore the world of music in an objective, streamlined manner. It’s only going to get better too, as the creators plan for the website to become a platform for a a dialogue that will see the service expand and evolve.
You can check out Musicmap for yourself here.
Note that the website is not optimised for mobile phones.