<p id="E12" class="qowt-stl-Title">YouTube has taken the world by storm, there is no denying it. But YouTube is not just a bunch of funny videos of people falling over or babies laughing. There is a <a href="http://www.vocativ.com/320984/youtube-users-are-reinventing-the-way-we-classify-music/" target="_blank">whole world of music videos</a> on YouTube that has changed the way we hear and classify music.</p>
<p id="E18"><span id="E19">For a long time, we’ve had the same old genres of pop, hip hop, rock etc. Once in a while a new genre would pop up, but that wasn’t an everyday occurrence. But things have changed with the advent of YouTube into the world. Music videos still have tags of the traditional genres like R&amp;B, country and rock n’ roll.</span><span id="E21"> </span></p>
<span id="E21">But there </span><span id="E22">are</span><span id="E23"> new ways of classifying music now. These classifications are based on moods, habits, situations. The traditional methods of music classification––the type of music, and who the artist is––have taken a backseat, making room for a new approach. </span>
<p id="E24"><span id="E25">People now want music that </span><span id="E26">has </span><span id="E27">functional or practical purposes</span><span id="E28">. For example, they might want music for an office party</span><span id="E29">,</span><span id="E30"> </span><span id="E31">o</span><span id="E32">r music that puts their bab</span><span id="E33">y to sleep, or </span><span id="E34">music with waves in the background. The result is that these new classifications </span><span id="E35">have melted</span><span id="E36"> the barriers between styles. Now there are new categories that are not as clear-cut as the tra</span><span id="E37">ditional genres used to be. </span></p>
<p id="E40"><span id="E41">So why these new classifications?</span></p>
<p id="E42"><span id="E43">YouTube has videos from all over the planet, even from the smallest far flung areas of the world where internet is still a rare phenomenon.</span><span id="E45"> It is the go-to video platform. When you have music videos from literally everywhere, it’s not just the physical barriers that dissolve, it's also affecting how we view music categories. </span></p>
<span id="E48">People can easily download music from two vastly different corners of the world, and mix them up––making a new kind of music. T</span><span id="E50">here are also those who don’t adhere to the traditional genres. Everyone has their own playlist; </span><span id="E50">one for getting ready in the morning, one for jogging, one for sleeping, etc. When they upload these preferences to YouTube, word spreads. This influences other people to start looking at music in a diffe</span><span id="E51">rent manner, and they focus on its functional purposes. </span>
<p id="E52"><span id="E53">A study conducted by Massimo </span><span id="E55">Airoldi</span><span id="E57">, </span><span id="E59">Davide B</span><span id="E60">eraldo</span><span id="E62"> and Alessandro </span><span id="E64">Gandini, </span><span id="E67">appeared in the journal “Poetics,” called this phenomenon “crowd-generated music categories.” We live in a world that is constantly in motion. Why should music classifications be any different?</span></p>