I don't know how things work exactly with discogs.
Grunt (artist) (Electronic, Rock, Non-Music)... Rock? Why?
but when you go to some releases, you can get:
Genre: Electronic
Style: Industrial, Power Electronics, Noise
Hands To (artist) (Electronic, Jazz, Reggae, Non-Music, Rock)..... Jazz? Reggae? Rock?? What?!
Similar thing is common with just about any noise artists. You put name into search, and it is listed under "electronic, hip hop, rock".
But if you ask me, I think the HNW thing in context of discogs is like splitting hairs. Next thing is, should band be listed under "power electronics", or does it rather fit to "heavy electronics", or maybe industrial is such incorrect category, that it NEEDS to be "death-industrial" or people won't get what it is. Perhaps ambient is such a life loving term, it needs to be "black ambient" so term really describes what band is about?
Next thing what happens in listing, is that HNW is used as nothing but a sales tag:
In 2010, I got numerous promos and promo e-mails from bands who wanted to submit cdr's or mp3 links and always their description was in lines of "I'm doing this harsh noise/HNW/power electronics project...". When I reply that I don't really look out for wall noise to be released on my label, everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY, has replied back, that "oh, this is not just HWN, it's also other things". So? I'm little confused. If HNW is the tag you can apply since you sometimes have some moments of "wall" somewhere, then, doesn't it qualify just about all the noise and a lot of other music too?
Then, if even creators don't know what they should call their stuff, think about all the listings what will happen. All the guys who sell the stuff, who don't even listen to it. Mailorders and shops that list their inventory to discogs, and I would assume, just about everything would be listed:
GRUNT: "Non-Music, Power Electronics, HNW, industrial."
Would it be accurate? Maybe, but what was the benefit of change? One knowns guaranteed, that "HNW" is applied to pretty much every noise release style, would it belong there or not.
When you start to think how many sub categories is needed for this type of listing, one checks out what genres are already under electronic music. Illbient?!? WTF?! Scorn is listed as example of this style. But when you check out Scorn releases, description is used perhaps once in one release, among long line of other styles a'la "industrial", "abstract", "dub". So what is Illbient and is it necessary, if even band listed to represent style, are predominantly something else?
Asking HNW to be besides "noise", seems like there would be need to be categories of "dynamic noise", "cut-up noise"... etc. Perhaps in HNW, there are currently more "pure" bands, who would exclusively file under this genre, but in bigger picture, it seems unnecessary to me. I see even with good intentions, it creates more confusion that it solves problems in this context.
I'm much more surprised that there isn't style for "electro-acoustic", but it doesn't hurt much to file under musique concrete or whatever. I'm sure there is someone cursing right now the missing acousmatic music tag. "Fuck electro-acoustic and musique concrete, I want acousmatic music style as category or I don't fit it!!"
