Genre Mislabelling...

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In an idle moment of boredom the other day, I started leafing through an old copy of the NME (I know, I know...). Anyways, in the live section, they described Roots Manuva as "dub rockers", not only choosing a seemingly random genre for him, but also turning him into more than one person. Nearly rivals the time that bastion of musical knowledge, the Radio Times, labelled the Eels as "Britpop".

Any other equally mildly diverting ones to share?

― Judd Nelson, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A single by Broadcast was once reviewed in the hip-hop section of the Scottish dance mag M8.

― Mark Dixon, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Don't know if this fits but I was watching one of those true-life American cop shows ('Arrest & Trial', or 'Kangaroo Court' or something) and there was these toothless crankhead goths who apparently got themselves stoked up for a bit o'human sacrifice (Moloch, from down below: "WHY do I get sent all these convenience- store clerks")by listening to, of course, 'death metal'. Then they played some of this evil stuff (the part I was waiting for!) - and some shit that sounded like the Cramps fronted by Betty Boo! Not 'shit' I mean, but it wasn't death metal, more like the Gruesomes! And they didn't even put the soundtrack details on the credits.

― dave q, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I saw a Momus album in the House/Garage section of Virgin's dance dept on Friday! I think somebody had just left it there though (it was in the right place alphabetically tho).

Teena Marie as Heavy Metal, except that's genre clear-sightedness probably.

― Tom, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

More than once, in suburban record shops, I've seen Yo La Tengo filed in the Latin section.

― Marcel Post, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Found XTC's Dear God single in the gospel section.

― briania, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

According to some censorship goons, Jello Biafra (Lead singer for 70s punk band The Dead Kennedies) is a gangsta rapper.
― Lord Custos II, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Broadcast as hip-hop and Jello Biafra as gansta rap sound GREAT.

― Keiko, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I work in a record store and I see this happen ALL THE TIME. By my COWORKERS. Arrrgh! Most frequent: indie-rock CDs with candy-colored cover art gets put in the electronic section. Oh, and the store owner STILL INSISTS on putting the Beta Band in electronic, simply because they're on Astralwerks! IDIOT!!!

― M Matos, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've seen Bob Marley stocked under Jazz.

― J Blount, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Anything not filed under "world music" is mislabelled.

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Mogwai in the electronic section at my library and BOC (no, not the Cult) in the Rock section at Tower. Oh, and Music Has The Right To Children in the bargain bin at Amoeba's.

― Lee, Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I found the Other People Place CD in the rock section of my favorite local record shop. I mean, wowee - first, it's on Warp; second, the title is "Lifestyles of the Laptop Cafe"; and third, there's a picture of a fricking computer on the cover!

― Clarke B., Monday, 22 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mark s to thread!!

― mark s, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A TV listings magazine talking about a documentary on the cult of the DJ:

"Playing tunes by such house acts as Fatboy Slim and Snoop Doggy Dogg".

You couldn't make this shizzle up.

― Judd Nelson, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I recently came across an online music guide that referred to Sun Ra as a "blues singer."

― DeRayMi, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One of my bugaboos at the moment isn't a genre mislabelling but the good ol' "File Under..." syndrome, where people file certain bands under certain other bands' header cards as if they weren't discrete entities. Was just at a really cool store in Seattle and found Do Make Say Think filed under Godspeed You Black Emperor, and as far as I can tell any member overlap there is minimal, if it even exists on the albums in question. There's probably more of an excuse for it in this case (touring together, maybe a couple of them have played on the others' albums, on the same label) than some of the other boners I've seen from time to time.

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The McMusicmart at the local mall files all "black" music under "urban."

― briania, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Charlton Heston and C. Delores Tucker apparently thought that Body Count were a hip-hop outfit

― dave q, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I've seen Spiritualized in gospel too, what the hell? Tower Records always stocks anyone with a Latin name solely in the World Music section: Jennifer Lopez, Enrique Iglesias, regardless of whether or not their albums are foreign language or qualify as "world music". And for some reason they put Daft Punk under "trance", which struck me as just being willfully annoying about things.

― Ally, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Corporate record store I got fired from in SF had Frank Black & The Catholics under "Gospel" . . .

― Ess Kay, Tuesday, 23 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I found the Meters filed in the New Wave section in one record shop. It was appropriately priced for an "unknown new wave band", so I snapped it up.

― Braces Tower, Wednesday, 24 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eight years pass...

http://i975.photobucket.com/albums/ae232/daggerlee/IMG_01051.jpg

― dayo, Sunday, 9 January 2011 01:27 (fifteen years ago)

full marks

― Archers: Bold As Love (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 9 January 2011 01:54 (fifteen years ago)

Andrew Lloyd Bieber

― van smack, Sunday, 9 January 2011 03:02 (fifteen years ago)

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