Title: An Alternate Route

In my opinion, The Clash and Jack Johnson play different types of music. I enjoy each of them but see no reason for my iTunes to classify both in the genre “rock.”

Imagine some poor fellow, new to the world of music, assuming The Clash, Jack Johnson, Elton John, Aerosmith, CCR, Natalie Imbruglia, Fall Out Boy, Madonna (though only a few of her albums make the “rock” cut), Santana and Elvis Presley all play the same or similar types of music. And why wouldn’t he assume such a thing, with only the iTunes labeling system to go by? Or imagine a woman with no previous experience with English literature assuming, because she enjoyed a Hemingway novel, that she will like Faulkner too. They’re both “Great American novelists”; they wrote during the same time period and are grouped together in the classics section of the bookstore. Now, she could very well enjoy the works of both writers, but assuming such a thing based on very few shared characteristics is not a safe bet.

The problem with categorization, whether it involves music, literature, movies or people, is that, while useful to a certain degree, labels are never able to encompass the whole of something. When we’re describing musicians, under normal circumstances, this is unimportant. Most people will not be heartbroken if I describe Amos Lee as “folksy rock” as opposed to “jazz.” That phrase doesn’t fully describe his music or him as a musician, but it is good enough for shorthand. I have more important things to do than sit around analyzing every musician I listen to and writing out nuanced descriptions of their musical styles, and so do you. (Unless you’re a music major, in which case, carry on, by all means).

Problems arise when I succumb, as I so often do, to the temptation to use that same shorthand, so convenient in discussing less important topics, to categorize the people with whom I interact: engineer, sorority girl, stoner, business major, basketball player, Florida fan. I feel fairly certain we all do this to some extent: me, you and our friends but also the “adults” in our lives: our parents, politicians, pastors and professors. We all know, deep down, that people are complex networks of experiences, feelings and opinions; that saying someone is in such-and-such fraternity, a Muslim or Christian, Democrat or Republican, doesn’t begin to explain who they are. But I’m lazy, and it takes less energy to use the shortcut and write off a person as a redneck than it does to invest time and energy to learn about their personality.

This tendency towards convenience and expediency in relationships doesn’t make you or me a bad person: It makes us human. Just because categorization is a normal tendency for us, however, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t resist the urge to fall into it. When we refuse to see past our preconceptions, whether about music or people, we miss out on a chance to make our lives a bit richer, and life’s far too short to miss out on anything.

I avoided all sorts of country music for a long time because I’m not a big fan of Taylor Swift-esque “country.” Over the past year, however, a friend introduced me to Johnny Cash, who my iTunes gleefully considers “country.” Now, though I still don’t care for most “pop country,” “American IV: The Man Comes Around” is one of my favorite albums. (Listen to Cash’s cover of “I Hung My Head.”) Why should anyone miss out on Cash because of the manner in which he is categorized?

So when my iTunes describes something as “rock,” I tend to take that description with a tablespoon of salt. (My blood pressure is now quite high.) I’m trying not to assume that I’ll automatically like (or dislike) a book in the classics section of Borders. Most importantly, though this may sound trite, I’m trying to resist using the inadequate labels to which I too often resort when describing individuals. I still end up doing it, and you probably will too, but, if I try, I can catch myself now and then, and I have had several interesting conversations with people I might earlier have passed by.

And now (since today’s column was really just an excuse for me to talk about musicians I like), I have to admit that, in rare instances, one-word labels can be dead-on: on my computer, iTunes categorizes Three 6 Mafia as “Gangsta.”

— Leigh Dickey is a junior in global studies. She can be reached at [email protected].