Genius.com: annotation extravaganza

Patrick Wood, Writer

If one loves analyzing things, then Genius.com will be great for him/her.Genius.com is a website that allows one to annotate lyrics to music, literature, news articles and even the internet itself. It is also a perfect place for those who do not understand a certain line to a song or book and wants to get an answer. All in all, the site has many positives and negatives, but there are more overall positives.

One positive on the site is its variety in the selection of media for annotation. The site allows anyone to type in any song or book title in the search bar, which then gives a variety of options. A great thing about the variety is that it is not restricted by a certain type of music or book. Although Genius.com started with only annotating rap music, Genius was able to branch off to all tastes for visitors. Selections can vary from rap music to country music with even music options for German, French and Polish songs. All of these options add for a wider spread for visitors to annotate different music.

Another positive about the site is that it provides a layout for each song or book selected. On the song or book page, one can first view the right side information that Genius has provided. This information can include information on awards that a certain song has obtained.  Yet, annotating is what the site is known for, and there is no question why. If one has an account, he can easily annotate lyrics by highlighting the lyrics on the page which will bring up a tab on the side. The tab has a little bar where one with an account can annotate what the lyrics say. After the annotation is attached, one can easily click on the lyric with a new highlight for it, and the annotation will pop up.

The annotation brings another option for other accounts who can reply to the prior annotation. So people can give their own annotations if they differ. The site even gives a user the option to annotate web articles and the internet itself.  This site is for those who really want to understand what cryptic information means within the web or in lyrics. However, it does come with a few problems.

Genius has its problems when one delves into the site. First, the page for the lyrics, has a small video player in the right corner with the option to play the song on it. This sounds like a great thing for visitors, but only when the video player works. On some of the videos, the video did not play but the loading bar was full, so why did the video not work? Through multiple attempts to try and reload the page and the video, these attempts did still not make it work. Thankfully, Genius did have a solution by having a link to the website where the video is from. One more problem that occurred was from the actual lyrics on the pages. As the song’s lyrics are written out by the account who uploaded the song, there can be mistakes in what the lyrics are. So lyrics can be misinterpreted by different people, and it helps that the music is on the                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          page so users can review the song and make sure the lyrics are correct. Although these negatives can be annoying when  on the site, they only come up once in awhile.

Genius.com provides both postives and negative aspects of annotating, but overall, it is a site for those curious about what cryptic lyrics mean. If the user can get over the small lyrical mistakes made by other users and videos not working sometimes, one can find the haven for people love to annotate.