Humpty Dumpty Semantics--First Tracks Song Tags

In "Through the Looking Glass" Alice has an interesting discussion with Humpty Dumpty on semantics.  It goes as follows:

'I don't know what you mean by "glory,"' Alice said.

Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. 'Of course you don't-- till I tell you. I meant "there's a nice knock-down argument for you!"'

'But "glory" doesn't mean "a nice knock-down argument,"' Alice objected.

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you CAN make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

I was thinking about entering a song in the First Tracks contest yesterday and discovered I'd missed the deadline.  I decided to listen to the blues entries.  It's pretty apparent that there are a lot of people who have no idea what blues sounds like.  OK, what really happened in most cases is that the entrants tagged their songs with as many genres as they could in hopes of maximizing their exposure. 

I got one response from an entrant.  It's not important who the entrant is, but the dialogue is amusing. 

************************************************************************
Nippy:  I think the blues tag was a mistake. I can hear blues influence in the guitar part but this is more what I'd think of as Americana. The vocal sounds very mannered. It's strong but it detracts from the lyrics because the phrasing isn't in tune with the meaning.

Entrant:  Thanks for commenting. I guess the "blues" I'm referring to is the Delta talking-style blues. I appreciate your constructive criticism .

Nippy:  Exactly. There is no such thing as "Delta talking-style blues." I've been listening to the blues since around 1960. I'm familiar with all styles since the dawn of blues recording in the 1920s. Country blues from before WWII often deviated from the 8, 12, 16 bar structures and the I, IV, V chord progression. E. g. Robert Petway's "Catfish Blues" or a bunch of John Lee Hooker songs use only one chord. The relationship of your song to any blues I've ever heard is tenuous at best. The guitar part is reminiscent of the the Delta frailing style as exemplified by Big Joe Williams or Ishmon Bracy.

The point is simple. Calling it blues doesn't make it blues. You could call it "sonata allegro" or "rhythm changes" too but it wouldn't make any more sense.
**************************************************************************

I thought that the hip hop song tagged as blues and classical was far fetched but it was obvious why it was tagged that way.  The entrant wanted the song to show up in every contest category.  In this case the person who posted the song thought that the blues tag was a good descriptive choice and tried to defend it by inventing a name for a style of music that doesn't exist. 

I find this troubling.  It's true that taxonomy has limited utility.  In the arts there are always things that defy categorization.  In this case the entrant chose to redefine a category of music by inventing a member of the category that doesn't exist and speaking of it as though it's been around for a long time.  It's not a matter of academic squabbling about the boundaries of a category.  It's a matter of Humpty Dumpty semantics.  Contrary to popular belief, words have generally accepted meanings for a reason.  If words don't have generally agreed meanings then communication becomes even more difficult than it already is. 

In the case of blues music there's a huge body of recordings dating back to the early 1920s that provides an operational definition for the form.  It's pretty clear to most people that B. B. King is a blues player and Celine Dion is not.  That's a good thing.  When you're looking for recordings by Celine Dion you know not to look in the blues section.  It's a helpful distinction.