Global Knowledge Organization, “super-facets” and music: universal music classification in the digital age

Abstract

This paper discusses the concept of universality in classification, by examining universal classific ation within a single subject area (music). It examines the idea of a “ universal classification scheme” using music classification discourse, and analyses the concept of “super-facets” through three example sets of music facets . The paper finds three dime nsions of universality within special classification schemes : coverage, mechanism and consumption. Furthermore, the “super-facet” is found to be a key part of universality, although its conception of universality is different from the universal classification scheme.