This is a genre hierarchy list that can be added to MusicBee as a replacement for (or as addition to) the genre hierarchy that is by default included in MusicBee.
(note: the minimum MusicBee version required for this is 3.4)
This 'enhanced' version contains all genres, and all variations on their names (aka's) as present in the genre databases of MusicBrainz, Discogs, RateYourMusic (Sonemic), and a few from Wikidata.
It currently contains some 2100+ 2500+ 2700+ genres and 250+ 470+ aka's.
(MusicBee's current default genre list has less than half of that)
If you make use of this list and MusicBee's auto-tagging function, or if you use other tagging software such as Picard or mp3tag, all retrieved genres will be matched and categorised in appropriate groups.
By enabling and using MusicBee's 'Tag hierarchy explorer' you can then conveniently navigate through them.
There are three basic differences between the default one that comes with MusicBee and this enhanced version:
1.
MusicBee's default genre hierarchy list is flat and basic.
Which makes it easy to navigate and quickly see all music in a selected main category without the need to consider deeper navigation or having subdivisions that could be considered to be too subjective or biassed.
It will look like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/59SYufT.png)
This enhanced version has 2nd level subdivisions for most main genres, and a 3rd for some. It can look like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/DYeKUqF.png)
2.
This enhanced version contains a lot more genres, and gets updated both with new genres from MusicBrainz, Discogs and RYM/Sonemic, and with other genres and possibly new categories that I consider useful and sensible myself.
Suggestions on those are welcome, I will add them if I agree with them.
(I already added some additional Metal genres and the Metalcore category after good suggestions from smann)
3.
This version also reads and makes use of the 'subgenre' tag.
(If you are using it by means of having created a custom tag for it)
download Enhanced genre hierarchy list (https://rebrand.ly/MB_Enhanced_genre_hierarchy)
howto:
- extract the downloaded rar file.
- put the Enhanced genre hierarchy.txt file in the folder: MusicBee> AppData> TagHierarchyTemplates
(note: this folder will have been created by MusicBee only after you have enabled the Tag Hierarchy Explorer panel at least once)
- (re)start MusicBee
- click the header of the Tag Hierarchy Browser panel to select the Enhanced genre hierarchy.
- - -
Update:
The list now includes 'subgenre tagger' functionality for if you use a custom tag for 'subgenre' in addition to the 'genre' tag.
See the next post for further explanation on that.
- - -
Optional addition: Genre grouping text file
In the download link you will also find a text file named 'Genre category grouping'.
It is updated to contain all the genres that are used in the enhanced genre hierarchy file, and can be added to MusicBee so that MusicBee's Genre Categories matches these 'Enhanced Genres'.
howto:
Open the .txt file in a text editor.
In MusicBee navigate to Preferences > Tags (2) > Group genres > Categorise
Copy the contents of the text file into the genre categorisation editor panel.
Save and close.
(https://i.imgur.com/TNiSF2A.png)
(for this to work well, be sure your MB installation is patched to at least version 3.4.7770)
For classical music aficionados with a black belt, using Picard and it's Classical Extras plugin
Besides for getting genre tags, you can also setup Classical Extras to write a tag for the period in which the piece was composed.
The Enhanced Genre Hierarchy is capable of making use of that too. The result can be like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/rYxTEm8.png)
To align the periods that the browser will read and the plugin will write, you will need to setup the 'Genre etc. > Periods' panel of the CE plugin like this:
(https://i.imgur.com/PPIyGHh.png)
Period › Medieval, 1150,1402; Period › Renaissance, 1398, 1602; Period › Baroque, 1598,1752; Period › Classical, 1748,1820; Period › Early Romantic, 1800,1849; Period › Late Romantic, 1850,1912; Period › Modern, 1908,1975; Period › Contemporary, 1950,2525
How to do that is beyond the scope of this thread.
- - -
update:
If you are curious to see this enhanced genre hierarchy table fully populated in MusicBee yourself, I have created a set of (empty) flac files that together contain all genres that exist in my enhanced genre table. (close to 2500 of them at this moment)
See post #28 (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35266.msg207242#msg207242) for more details.
- - -
Note:
This topic is about the 'Enhanced Genre Hierarchy list' I created to be optionally used in MusicBee's Tag Hierarchy Explorer panel.
If you have questions or issues with MusicBee's Tag Hierarchy Explorer itself, please go here:
https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=32556.0
note:
This is neither a new post nor a new addition. This was introduced and posted a while back.
But regrettably the original post and the resulting thread was completely deleted recently, due to a forum mishap related to spam removal.
This post and the two following are an effort to re-create the original posts and preserve the replies and input from other forum members.
I myself am doing that with use of the script I described in this: 'How to retrieve good quality genre tags using Picard' (https://getmusicbee.com/forum/index.php?topic=35975.msg196795#msg196795) topic.
If you also use that script (script #1), all you have to do is add this line:
$setmulti(genre,%genre%; %period%)
(it will add the 'period' name to the other genres)
Note that you will need to use Picard's Classical Extras plugin for this to work.