of that share a certain style or "basic musical language" (van der Merwe 1989, p.3). Music include a wide variety of sub-genres.
A music genre (or subgenre) could be defined by the , the styles, the context and the themes (content, spirit).
Although there are many individual genres, it is possible to group them together into a number of overlapping major groupings.
tradition, classical music is generally a classification covering music composed and performed by professionally trained artists.
Classical music is a written tradition. It is composed and written using , and as a rule is performed faithfully to the score. In common usage, "classical music" often refers to music in general, regardless of when it was composed or for what purpose ( and orchestral arrangements on pop music recordings, example).
Jazz is a musical form that grew out of a cross-fertilization of , , and European music, particularly band music. It has been called the first native art form to develop in The music has gone through a series of developments since its inception. In roughly chronological order they are: Jazz is primarily an form of music.
The instrument most closely associated primary jazz instruments. The and were often used, especially in the earlier styles of jazz. Although there have been many renowned jazz , and many of the most well-known jazz tunes have lyrics, the majority of well-known and influential jazz musicians and composers have been instrumentalists.
During the time of its widest popularity, roughly 1920 to 1950, jazz and had a very intimate connection. Popular songs drew upon jazz influences, and many jazz hits were reworkings of popular songs, or lyrics were written for jazz tunes in an attempt to create popular hits.
skill and musical knowledge from the performers.
The art form today is a widely varied one, using influences from all of the past styles, although the root of modern jazz is on most later genres of popular music. Modern American composers have often used elements of jazz in their compositions.
from , , field hollers, shouts and and has its earliest stylistic originating from America, blues can be regarded as the root of pop as well as American music.
Rhythm and blues is a name for popular music tradition. When speaking strictly nor but something more lightweight. The term "R B" often refers to any contemporary black pop music.
Early-1950s R B music became popular with both black and white audiences, and popular records were often covered by white artists, leading to the development of . In fact rock 'n' roll was an interchangeable term with rhythm and blues in the 1950s, and term used usually depended on racial background.
In the early 1960s rhythm 'n' blues took influences from and and thus was born.
In the late 1960s, stressed complex, "funky" rhythm patterns and monotonistic compositions based on a riff or two. In the early to mid 1970s, music evolved into contemporary (no longer an ) in the 1980s, which cross-pollinated with hip-hop for the rest of the 20th century and into the 21st century.
Funk is a distinct style of music originated by African Americans, e.
g., James Brown and his band members (especially Maceo and Melvin Parker), and groups like Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly and the Family Stone, or The Meters.
(as that of Marva Whitney or the Bar-Kays); strong, rhythm-oriented horn sections; prominent percussion; an upbeat attitude; African tones; danceability; and/or strong jazz influences (e.
g., as in the music of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, George Duke, Rock, in its broadest sense, can refer to almost all recorded since the early . Its main features include an emphasis on rhythm, and the use of amplified instruments Its earliest form, , arose from multiple genres in the late 1940s, most most popular genres, with , and most popular in the US.
Starting the mid-1960s, a group of British bands inspired on American blues and R B became popular on both sides of the , , and ). These groups, including , fused the earlier sounds well as a variety of less-popular genres, including the tradition.
early appeared a more glamorous version of hard rock called , and a darker sound known as .
In the early to mid-1970s, singer-songwriters and pop musicians led the charts, as well as and for its rebellious attitude and philosophy.
In the 1980s, rock continued to evolve, with metal becoming popular and punk mutating into other forms. Punk yielded various subdivisions, including , , , and .
Alternative rock became more popular in the 1990s, with subgenres like , , , and being some of the best-known. It may also be referred to as soft rock or pop/rock. In reaction to this, harder-edged, gritty musicians sprung up in , a heavily rock-influenced style. The late saw the bring about an influx of pop-oriented stars during the . Modern bluegrass music has remained mostly traditional, though and groups do exist, " ," which can sometimes include all of the above electronic sub-genres, but usually refers to electronic music without lyrics. Eno's creation was less values-driven than new age; his goal was to create music like wallpaper, insofar as the listener could listen to or easily ignore the music. Electro is a derivative of the '[ Rhythm Composer, Rhythm Composer, Roland SVC-350 . Electro's sound is distinctively synthetic, instrumental, electronic and experimental. Additionally, the 808 pounding beats and pure sounds were music. It was very popular in during the late 1970s and early 1980s. With Electronic dance music as we know it today really emerged in with 's From Here to Eternity album. The reasons for much of this are largely historical. More specialised forms of melodic music include , . Also is often melodic.
Pop music is an important genre of popular music distinguished from classical or art music and from folk music.
In addition, from and emerged as a largely underground phenomenon. Later in the decade, the , a highly polished form of country music, became very popular.
music was popularized by the group , among others, as a precursor to new age music. New age music served to support and perpetuate the values of the movement.
Though there is some overlap between the various sub-genres of electronic music, , the creator of ambient music, claimed that ambient had a bit of "evil" in it, whereas new age music did not.
about and . Timing range is 100 to over 130 ( ).
There are now many subgenres of electronic dance music, these include: (mechanical of instrumentation focused on complex, uplifting chord progressions and melodies), (spawning from and tribal dance, focusing on creating psychedelic tempos with sampled break beats, most notably the and the ), (a Dutch development on techno, which features extremely high tempos and lots of overdrive and distortion on the music, especially the bass drum being distorted into a square wave tone), (a less confronting take on Gabber, fusing elements of drum subgenres, trance and house are probably the most widespread.
Electronic dance music is often composed to fit easily into a live set.
Electronica is a loosely defined genre that does not fall into the new age, techno or dance categories; it is often referred to as "left-field". Styles of electronica include , and (among countless others, see ), which are all related in that they usually rely more on their atmospheric qualities than electronic dance music, and make use of slower, more subtle tempos, sometimes excluding rhythm completely.
of a single strong line. , and are subordinate to the melody line or , which is generally easily memorable, and followed without great difficulty. Melodic music is found in all parts of the world, overlapping many genres, and may be performed by a singer or , or a combination of the two.
In the west, melodic music has developed largely from sources, and been heavily border line between classical and melodic popular music is imprecise. is generally considered to be a classical form. The lighter is considered borderline, whilst stage placed in the popular melodic category.
Other major categories of melodic music include and , which, along with the , grew out of European folk music. American, negro and influences, it diversified into .
overlaps a number of these categories: music and , for example, are closely allied to traditional pop.
Ska, Reggae, Dub, and related forms
was most popular, though (a form of ) was more common in rural areas. A fusion of the two styles, along with and other genres, formed , an extremely popular form of music intended for dancing. In the , and original tracks.
Punk band also used Dub and reggae elements.
that people could dance to the beat alone. Soon, pioneers like and were rhythmic and rhyme-heavy.
After the popularity of reggae died down in the early , derivatives of dub dominated the Jamaican charts. These included and , both of which remained popular in Jamaica alone until the mainstream breakthrough of American (which evolved out of dub musicians like moving to American cities). Ragga especially now has many devoted followers throughout the world.
, but gradually appearing in the charts.
Hip hop music can be seen as a subgenre of R B tradition (see above). , the movement from which the music came, began in inner cities in the US in the .
The earliest recordings, from the late- and early , are now referred to as . In the later part of the decade, regional styles developed. , based out of , based out of , was by far less popular until , when 's revolutionized the West Coast sound, using slow, stoned, lazy beats in what came to be called .
Soon after, a host of other regional styles became popular, most notably , based out of and , primarily. Atlanta-based performers like and and soon developed their own distinct sound, which came to be known as . As hip hop became more popular in the mid- , gained in popularity among critics and long-time fans of the music.
( ) was perhaps the first " " blockbuster, and helped develop a specific style called , characterized by the use of live instrumentation and/or samples. Other less popular forms of hip hop include and have vibrant hip hop communities. In , a style called is popular.
Electro hip hop was invented in the 1980s, but is distinctly different from most old school hip hop (as is , another old style). Some other genres have been created by fusing hip hop with ( ) and ( ). In the late 1980s, 's hip hop scene was characterized by Midwest.
There are also rappers with Christian themes in the lyrics -- this is .
Perhaps the most recent development in hip hop is the Backpacker sub-genre. Characterized by a
For example , which originated in and spread throughout North Africa and to the North African diaspora, especially in France, began with based in the local traditional music, but, starting around 1980, began to incorporate elements of hip hop.
Nigeria (now nearly a century old, and constantly evolving) and . Many African countries have also developed their own versions of reggae and hip hop.
individual's personal understanding and way of listening to music. This is especially true in sub-genres. One example is , which could be called heavy metal, hard rock, classic rock, or blues, depending on one's interpretation.
Another difficulty with grouping artists into genres is that, for many, their style of music changes over time.
Some genre labels are quite vague, and may be contrived by ; , for example, is a term devised and defined by . Another example of this is , which while defined by its media, can also represent its own style, as well as that of any other musical genre.
Categorizing music, especially into finer genres or sub genres, can be difficult for newly emerging styles or for pieces of music that incorporate features of multiple genres. Attempts to pigeonhole particular piece. Some people feel that the categorization of music into genres is based more on commercial and motives than musical criteria.
, for example, a musician whose work has covered a wide range of genres, wrote in Arcana: Musicians on Music that genres are tools used to and makes it easier for individuals to find artists that they enjoy. Moreover, the use of genre labels may actually drive the target audience in the early and middle stages of a musical trend.
Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
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