Dave Seidel 🐻
c.reider 
genre is a social construct
unattributed 𓂃✍︎@c_reider I'm more convinced that it's a marketing construct.
@unattributed secondarily, i think. there is no profit incentive for increasingly obscure sub-genres of an already obscure genre, for example.
@c_reider So, I'd disagree from what I've seen over the years. For example, back when mp3.com was around the genre tags went crazy on the site, especially under the electronic music categories... Why? From what I figured out at the time was that there was apparently a lot of exposure benefit from being the "big fish in a small pond".
Since then, I've noticed that within the music industry genres seem to be born every time a label or group of labels want to make an artist appear to be different -- sell them to a new audience. This is happening with the regularity with which fashions are changing. So, I think the idea is that popular music is being marketed to younger audiences the same way that fashion is being marketed.
@unattributed they co-exist / co-operate. capitalism will always co-opt a social construct, easy to manipulate people with it.
primarily people want to group themselves with like-minded individuals and genre is increasingly a way to distinguish in-groups. the use of music in society being very closely tied to identity.