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A music genre is a (or ) of pieces of that share a certain or "basic musical language" (van der Merwe 1989, p.3). Music may also be categorized by non-musical criteria such as origin, though a single geographical category will normally 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).
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 .
The music has gone through a series of developments since its inception. In roughly chronological order they are: , , , , , , , (The inclusion of smooth jazz as an actual jazz genre is disputed) and now a recent style known as Caffeine Jazz or (a fusion of funk, latin, and electronica instrumental music about coffee and tropical fruit drinks - and like smooth jazz, somewhat disputed - an example of is the Seattle area band ).
Jazz is primarily an form of music.
The instrument most closely associated with jazz may be the , followed closely by the . The , , , and are also 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 re workings of popular songs, or lyrics were written for jazz tunes in an attempt to create popular hits.
The single most distinguishing characteristic of jazz is . Jazz also tends to utilize complex structures and an advanced sense of . These characteristics in combination with the use of improvisation require a high degree of technical 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 primarily . Modern jazz can also incorporate elements of , , and .
Jazz was a direct influence on , and therefore a secondary influence on most later genres of popular music.
Modern American composers have often used elements of jazz in their compositions.
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 like the .
Its earliest form, , arose from multiple genres in the late 1940s, most importantly . It was first popularized by performers like , , , and , who fused the sound with , resulting in . Rock soon became one of the 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 Atlantic -- the , a catchall term for multiple genres (including , , and ). These groups, including , fused the earlier sounds with , forming , as well as a variety of less-popular genres, including the tradition.
The British Invasion evolved into , which in turn gave birth to and the -influenced .
Perhaps the most significant psychedelic rock band is the British . Some British blues and mod bands like and evolved into . In the 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 performers, which fused modern techniques with a more traditionalist sound. The late 1970s saw the rise of (with bands like , , and the ), notable 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 , , , and , while metal developed into various subdivisions, including , , , and . Alternative rock became more popular in the 1990s, with subgenres like , , , , and being some of the best-known. The newest development in the subgenres of rock is the recent emergence of that was coined from the alternative London rock scene in the UK.
Pop music is an important genre of popular music distinguished from classical or art music and from folk music. The term indicates specific stylistic traits but the genre also includes artists working in many styles (rock, hip hop, rhythm and blues (R B), and country), and it is reasonable to say that "pop music" is a flexible category. It may also be referred to as soft rock or pop/rock.
Electronic music started long before the invention of the , with the use of tape loops and analogue electronics in the 1950s and 1960s. All electronic music owes its historical existence to early pioneers of tape experiments known as , such as , and , as well as early synthesists like , , and . (See ).
Well known examples include the theme music to the TV series , recorded in by , and the catch-all " ," which can sometimes include all of the above electronic sub-genres, but usually refers to electronic music without lyrics.
One of the first people to popularize the synthesizer was who performed classical music on the synthesizer on the recording . Space 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, , claimed that ambient had a bit of "evil" in it, whereas new age music did not. 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.
(also known as Electro-Funk or Electro Funk) is an electronic style of movement that is directly influenced by , and records (unlike earlier rap records that were closer to disco). Records in the genre are unabashed about their use of electronic and artificial sounds, taking this technological fetish almost into with many records about and . Timing range is 100 to over 130 ( ).
Electro is a derivative of the '[ Rhythm Composer, Rhythm Composer, Roland SVC-350 , Roland VP-330 Plus, Roland VP-330 ]' Vocoder's Speech . Electro's sound is distinctively synthetic, instrumental, electronic and experimental. Additionally, the 808 pounding beats and pure sounds were heavily used in , and music.
It was very popular in during the late 1970s and early 1980s and experienced a revival in the late 1990s.
Electronic dance music as we know it today really emerged in with 's From Here to Eternity album.
There are now many subgenres of electronic dance music, these include: (mechanical sounding dance music featuring little melody and more noise), (with a distinct style of instrumentation focused on complex, uplifting chord progressions and melodies), (spawning from and tribal dance, focusing on creating psychedelic sound effects within the songs), (fully electronic music), (using older drum loops and more melodic elements sampled and looped), the formerly called , now (an offshoot of hardcore and Jamaican , that was named utilizing quick 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 and bass as well and often including sped up vocals from 70s pop music), (features strong pop songwriting/melodies with roots in 1980s dance music), and .
Of these subgenres, trance and house are probably the most widespread.
Electronic dance music is often composed to fit easily into a live set.
Melodic music is a term that covers various genres of non-classical music which are primarily characterised by the dominance 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 influenced by classical music in its development and .
In many areas the 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 and film and are firmly placed in the popular melodic category.
The reasons for much of this are largely historical.
Other major categories of melodic music include and , which, along with the , grew out of European folk music. developed from localised forms such as the , and , but with the admixture of Latin American, negro and influences, it diversified into countless sub-genres such as , and .
More specialised forms of melodic music include , . Also movie soundtrack music is melodic.
overlaps a number of these categories: music and , for example, are closely allied to traditional pop.
In during the , American 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 emerged from and American .
In the , a style called became popular primarily in the by British performers of ballad-oriented reggae music. The 1970s also saw the emergence of in , , with bands fusing ska and , as well as covering original tracks. Punk band also used Dub and reggae elements.
Dub emerged in Jamaica when DJs began taking away the vocals from songs so that people could dance to the beat alone. Soon, pioneers like and began adding new vocals over the old beats; the lyrics 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.
is a fusion of reggae and , popular in , but gradually appearing in the charts.
Hip-Hop can be, is 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 , was by far the most popular as hip hop began to break into the mainstream. , 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.
's ( ) 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 various non-American varieties; , , , , , , , and have vibrant Hip-Hop communities. In , a style called is popular.
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 bass-heavy grooves designed for dancing -- .
, or Acid Rap is mainly credited to and the Midwest. There are also rappers with Christian themes in the lyrics -- this is .
Perhaps the most recent development in Hip-Hop is the sub-genre.
Characterized by a renewed focus on poetry and , it includes artists such as , , and .
Other notable contemporary African genres include ( ), ( , ), ( ), ( , ) and in Nigeria (now nearly a century old, and constantly evolving) and . Many African countries have also developed their own versions of reggae and hip hop.
One of the problems with the grouping of music into genres is that it is a subjective process that has a lot to do with the 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, folk, 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. Many were originally contrived by marketing executives or music ; , 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 in a single genre are sometimes ill-founded as they may produce music in a variety of genres over time or even within a single 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 "commodify and commercialize an artist's complex personal vision".
Categorizing music by genre does make it easier to trace threads through , and makes it easier for individuals to find artists that they enjoy. Moreover, the use of genre labels may actually drive the development of new music (especially in a commercial context) insofar as it helps cultivate the interest and participation of a target audience in the early and middle stages of a musical trend.
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