I like change. I don't see any potential damage that would happen with genre classifications, but I do wonder if the goals you wish to achieve will be accomplished by the change. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you make your decision.

-The majority of posts and reviews still appear to be coming from a relatively small core group of diehard, forum-loving JPF members. Many of them (us) tend to navigate via the What's Going On box, or the New Posts link. Although many of us may prefer only a particular genre, there is no guarantee that splitting the forums into genres will deter such navigators away from out-of-genre forums anyway, so chances are they may end up wherever the link leads, and they may still critique the genre rather than the song.

-Lyric board 3 taught us that people like to post where the traffic is. Even though you might expect most people to naturally choose the first one first, they didn't...they mainly went to #3. Why? Because that's where the crowd was. It makes me wonder which is more appealing to most writers: MORE reviews or BETTER reviews? Although the proposed change appears to be designed to deliver BETTER (more genre-appropriate) reviews, I have a hunch that what most people really crave is MORE reviews. At least that's what our natural posting behavior seems to indicate. So people may still post--or review--wherever the action is.

-Is there anyone worse than the writer at identifying a song's genre? I doubt it. grin

http://www.soundclick.com/MarkKaufman