I am a Fan of a very specific type of music: Northern Soul.
(Actually, I am enough of a fan that I had to buy a second 'NS only' ipod, because my constant-loop NS playlists were making my husband insane.)
People have massive arguments about what Northern is, but I'm going to try for a definition (I hate to think what another fan would think of this, but anyhow:)
-Northern Soul is 1960s American soul music that was not popular in America, but was popular in the North of England. Hence the name.
-Northern tracks are universally 'rare'. No well-known mainstream hit qualifies as Northern Soul.
-Northern Soul is soul music you can dance to.
Having found & explored the surface of Northern, I now face a problem: FINDING MORE.
The education geek in has recognised this as a problem with DISCOVERABILTY. While I haven't solved the problem, the elements that make it a problem are really interesting.
The part that makes it interesting for me is that metadata (standard and user-generated) doesn't actually help. It pains me to say it, but it's true.
The problems are as follows:
1. The dominant music technology of the time was the 'single'. Consequently, NS has always been identified on a track-by-track basis. Example: Marvin Gaye's 'it takes two' is NS (not a favouriteof mine, but still), Marvin Gaye's 'sexual healing' is not. By implication, NS tracks cannot be assessed on the basis of artist.
2. And on that topic, track name isn't a definitive guide either - 'Stop (in the name of love)' by the Supremes is not NS, but 'Stop (in the name of love)' by the Flirtations - i.e. the much more enthusiastic original version - is. A more dramatic example: the 80s hit 'Tainted love' by Soft Cell was first recorded in 1964 by Gloria Jones. Guess what? It's an NS track (and much, much better in the original). So, NS tracks cannot be assessed on the basis of song title.
3. NS is, consequently, assessed on a completely subjective basis. Comments on Mary Fox's amazingly cool radio show are frequently filled people saying 'THAT'S NOT NORTHERN SOUL!!' There is no objective approach to what constitutes NS.
4. A lot of NS still exists as singles. Rare singles. As in, not on itunes, but actually sitting in a box in someone's living room. The most famous (& imho best) NS track ever had - by rumour - only three original copies & is now the most expensive single ever sold. Thank gravy you can get it online. The body of content exists in a range of media, some of which are physical media.
5. NS uses a specific sub-genre terminology (i.e. a controlled vocabulary) that is not reflected in itunes etc. - search for 'floaters' or 'stompers' and you'll get nothing back. Social terminology has not translated into search terminology.
6. Many NS fans (and they are a passionate bunch) found NS in the 60s, and never - I mean never - looked back. NS is bizarre that way - it's a trend that just refused to die, and is still refusing 40 years later. Amazing. I love these people, so dedicated. But those folk already have their NS community, and for the most part, it's in the real world. Point being, the most valuable source of knowledge I can tap is not available in the social networks I access, i.e. online. (Having said that, the Mary Fox listeners are on the message boards all the time - big props to them.)
And now, the big one:
7. Recommendation engines don't work. They don't work because the content scope is too specific and the algorithms just can't keep up. In pretty much any distribution environment (itunes, last fm etc) the recommendations will tend towards the middle ground. You find an NS track you like, and the recommendation engines will steer you into conventional territory - the Everly Brothers, the Supremes, pretty much anything from Motown records. They just can't manage the granularity.
It's easy to understand. I like the Everly Brothers. I also love 'Hold On' by the Radiants. Now let's imagine another NS fan, Suzy. She likes the Everly Brothers. She also loves 'Try a little harder' by the Fi-dels. Jason likes the Everly Brothers, and loves 'Too late' by Larry Williams and James Watson, and 'Sweet darlin'' by Jimmy Soul Clarke. All three of us have downloaded both the things we like and the things we love.
You see the common demoniator, yes? That's what the recommendation engine will steer us to.
Hence the problem with the track-by-track assessment of the genre, and the lack of 'artist' as a unifying metadata mechanism for discovery. The underlying algorithms are far too complex for me, but experience shows that in this domain, they aren't up to scratch... so far.
For now, I'm going to stick with listening to a lot of differnt internet radio shows and writing down the tracks I like on a piece of paper + hoping I can download them, which I usually can't. That'll have to do.
(And if you like soul, please hunt down the tracks above - they're fabulous.)
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