include artist's styles in Advanced Search
Since some (especially older) albums are missing metadata for styles, please include the artist's styles when filtering in Advanced Search.
4 replies
The query is to bring back albums that have these Styles associated.
Inserting artist-level styles to albums may fill some holes but also might inject some incorrect information without those styles being actually selected for that specific album.
Zac, the problem is that Advanced Search's style filter can't find albums that weren't tagged with ANY style. Of course, the perfect solution would be to manually fill-in those "holes" on the album-level. Since that solution is impossible, my idea is an imperfect remedy for searching imperfect data.
With my idea, you're right that Advanced Search may incorrectly return results that were recorded in a style atypical from the artist's typical styles. But how rare are these albums, especially if they weren't tagged with any styles?
The issue would be that if we have someone that has been involved in many different styles over their career, their undefined albums (with no styles) would appear in every search for a style they may have been tagged with.
A textbook example would be Miles Davis who was influential in multiple (widely-ranging) styles:
If we pushed all of those individual styles forward to an album like Changes: The 1955 Sessions, any Advanced Search requests for Jazz-Funk, Jazz-Rock, or Fusion would bring back this 1955 album (which would be incorrect).
I understand the direction you are driving and what your method would hope to accomplish (more coverage, some of it correct, some of it incorrect), but in our opinion, having a filter that says "Give me things that are Jazz-Funk" should only bring back albums that have been flagged explicitly with that style.
Ok Zac, I understand your rationale too. How about allowing users to tag styles on albums then?
With Allmusic cutting back on reviewing new releases, more of them aren't being tagged with any style. Since I filter for specific styles (too many results in a genre), the results can't possibly include an example because it's missing styles. How about allowing users to tag styles on albums? Thanks.
Zac
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This is, of course, a solid idea.
We have enabled this functionality at the song level, but it hasn't been adopted at the same level we had hoped.
https://allmedianetwork.helprace.com/i10-improved-song-pages-on-allmusic
The data system that ingests the user-based styles is isolated from the editorially assigned styles so it wouldn't be a turnkey solution but I still see value in letting users contribute more information in areas that are being less covered.
Zac, I combine multiple styles in Advanced Search because I find music that cross-pollinate styles to be more interesting. When I select both bluegrass and Latin folk, a single result is returned. The result omits an artist whose styles match my criteria because that artist's album was tagged only with a genre. With Allmusic reviewing fewer new releases, more unreviewed releases are lucky if they're tagged with a genre.