Last year I read Elijah Wald's How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll, and there's some information in Chapter 7 that's stuck in my mind, though I haven't re-read it. Wald mentioned that records were originally cataloged in stores according to label, and then serial number. The first aesthetic categorizations were based around instrumentation, records featuring violins vs pianos vs banjo etc. But one of the first stylistic categorizations for music were "race records," music recorded by black artists separated out for white consumers interested in the material.
I don't believe that the purpose or effect of using genre as a means to categorize music has changed one bit since the invention of "race music," but I'm interested to hear if anyone disagrees.
I don't believe that the purpose or effect of using genre as a means to categorize music has changed one bit since the invention of "race music," but I'm interested to hear if anyone disagrees.