Music Genres

opera

a classical style dramatic work in one or more acts, set to music for singers and instrumentalists.

musical

A popular theater play with singing and dancing

orchestral music

Music written for a large ensemble, with multiple players on the string parts, performed in larger concert halls.

choral music

music for a group of singers who sing together, often in a church or school or community group

soundtrack

The music from a movie or a musical, or video game, or cartoon.

blues

Evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants. Usually laid-back, about life, and includes certain instruments to create a bittersweet, personal kind of sound.

country music

Originally referred to as hillbilly music, this genre evolved out of Irish and Scottish folk music, Mississippi blues, and Christian gospel music. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms, folk lyrics, and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments such as banjos, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitars, and fiddles as well as harmonicas.

folk

Music by and of the common people, a down-to-earth style focusing on universal truths, often with traditional instruments and a simple melody.

rock

Often musically crude, but conveyed great passion and energy. Most use simple chord progressions, pounding drums, and short, repetitive lyrics.

hip-hop

a style of popular music of US black and Hispanic origin, featuring rap with an electronic backing. It combines spoken street dialect with cuts (or samples) from older records and is influenced by social politics, boasting, and comic lyrics carried forward from blues, R&B, soul, and rock and roll. Consists of four main elements: rapping (also known as emceeing), disk jockeying, breakdancing and graffiti.

jazz

a style of music characterized by the use of improvisation, A mix of folk, blues, ragtime. Trombone, trumpet, saxophone, piano, double bass, guitar and drums are the primary instruments used

mariachi

Originally from Mexico, has at least two violins, two trumpets, one guitar, one vihuela, and one guitarrón

reggae

African-Caribbean style of music developed on the island of Jamaica. Rhythm style characterized by regular chops on the backbeat, played by a rhythm guitarist

world music

Non-western music, heavily influenced by culture and tradition

Instrumental rock

Rock music, where there is no singing

Classic rock

Developed from the album-oriented rock format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format features music ranging generally from the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, primarily focusing on commercially successful hard rock. (ex. Beatles or Rolling Stones)

Folk Fusion

Fusion of genres such as folk rock, folktronica from various cultures.

Soft rock

rock music with a less persistent beat and more emphasis on lyrics and melody than hard rock has so it sounds softer

hard rock

Highly amplified rock music with a heavy beat.

Christian

A form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals

Punk rock

a loud, fast-moving, and aggressive form of rock music, popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Alternative

music characterized as unconventional or outside the mainstream. Usually a combination of rock and pop, sometimes hip-hop or other genres.

Grunge

music characterized by a raucous guitar sound and lazy vocal delivery.

Indie

means Individual. music produced by artists independently from commercial record labels

electronic

music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments and circuitry-based music technology

Bluegrass

a kind of country music influenced by jazz and blues and characterized by virtuosic playing of banjos, washboards, and guitars and close-harmony vocals.

gospel

popularized form of impassioned rhythmic spiritual music rooted in the solo and responsive church singing of rural blacks in the American South, central to the development of rhythm and blues and of soul music.

Country pop

a subgenre of country music and pop music that was developed by members of the country genre out of a desire to reach a larger, mainstream audience.

classical

An age marked by great achievements by composers like Mozart, Beethoven, etc. Sounds intricate and structured, usually played by classical acoustic instruments or ensembles, but can include certain styles of vocal/choral as well.

pop

generally modern music from the US or UK, describes all music that is popular and includes many diverse styles.

reggae

A style of music that developed in Jamaica in the 1960s and is rooted in African, Caribbean, and American music, often dealing with social problems and religion and/or positive vibes.

March

A song with a steady even beat, in a rhythm of 2. Duple meter. Usually played by a concert or marching style band.

R&B

rhythm and blues: urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a heavy, insistent beat. It combines elements of rhythm and blues, pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music

world music

traditional music from the developing world

ballet

a theatrical representation of a story performed to music by ballet dancers

film music

music used in a movie

Heavy Metal

Rock that developed a thick, massive sound, characterized by highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, emphatic beats, and overall loudness

Latin American/Latino

Music characterized by use of Spanish language in the song, usually guitar and other small percussive instruments that add to the "Latin groove."

singer-songwriter

somebody who writes and sings his/her own songs

acoustic

Music produced without electronics, especially amplifiers

instrumental

Music without words

a cappella

without instrumental accompaniment

Funk

Centered on the creation of a strong rhythmic momentum or groove, with the electric bass and bass drum often playing on all four main beats of the measure. Including guitar, keyboards, and horns. Funk brought the focus on dancing back into the pop mainstream.

house music

An early techno style based originally in Chicago; it was a low-budget continuation of disco.

disco music

mid 70s, night spots, clubs and lofts. Disc jockeys at the disco clubs, disco music affected technology

Motown

is the term that refers to the style of music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the late 1960's. The Sound was a mixture of several popular musical styles and can be considered a form of soul music.

Soul Music

African American musical style rooted in R&B and gospel that became popular during the 1960s.

Renaissance Music

1450-1600. Music written in this time period, mostly sacred music written for choirs in the church. Some secular music written for dancing, and for instruments like recorder, drum, lute, keyboard.

Electronic Dance Music (EDM)

broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for parties of different kinds. It is generally produced for playback by disc jockeys who create seamless selections of tracks, called a mix by segueing from one recording to another.

Dubstep

genre of electronic dance music that originated in South London in the late 1990s. It is generally characterized by sparse, syncopated rhythmic patterns with massive wobbly basslines that contain prominent sub-bass frequencies and epic gigantic "bass drops"

Rock and Roll

music that grew out of rhythm and blues and that became popular in the 1950s with Elvis Presley's music