How to classify iTunes New Wave, 80's, Syntpop?

[elektrikblu]

Hey everybody! Not to sound daft but I struggle with this all the time. Using "smart playlists" in iTunes is really helpful but not all my music is classified by genre consistently to make it easy to find the stuff that is truly New Wave or 80's. How do you make the distinction between Lene Lovich as New Wave, 80's, Post Punk, etc. I know that music comes in pre-labeled but for me, I think this decade has lines drawn in specific easier categories. What are your thoughts. I could use some objective insights at this point. Thanks!

elektrikblu
"Don't look at the carpet/ I drew something awful on it/ See."

[Surly]

Good question. I've yet to tackle that myself, although I did create one called "12" mixes" to help sort out my stuff. But I'm very detail-oriented when it comes to year of release in iTunes.

"Words like conviction can turn into a sentence"

[elektrikblu]

Good thinking! I guess for me it's the distinction between bands that were 80s bands like U2, REM, because it was a decade sound thing and then there's NEW WAVE bands like Thomas Dolby, Thompson Twins, Missing Persons with that particular sumpin-sumpin. So when I make a SmartList in iTunes, I put all those categories in the search and of course that is like 60 percent of my collection. So, hmm…

elektrikblu
"Don't look at the carpet/ I drew something awful on it/ See."

[roc51]

I basically divide them up into the following:

New Wave
Post-Punk
Electronic
Indie
Punk
Proto-Punk
Art Rock

Art Rock gets me the Bowie, Roxy stuff; Proto-Punk the Big Star, Velvets, etc; Electronic gets me Kraftwerk, Can, etc and so-on. This allows me to get the best listening experience of all the genres to include major influences.

This pretty much allows me to get everything I want in a smart playlist setting parameters by year, etc.