This is a list of music genres and styles. Music can be described in terms of many genres and styles. Classifications are often arbitrary, and may be disputed and closely related forms often overlap. Larger genres and styles comprise more specific sub-categories.
Classical
- Andalusian classical music
- Indian classical music
- Korean court music
- Persian classical music
- Kurdish classical music
- Classical Turkish music
- Western classical music
- Early music
- Renaissance music (1500–1600)
- Common practice period (1600-1900)
- Baroque music (1600–1750)
- Galant music (1720–1770)
- Classical period (1750–1820)
- Romantic music (1780–1910)
- 20th and 21st-centuries classical music (1900–present):
- Modernism (1890–1930)
- Impressionism (1875 or 1890–1925)
- Neoclassicism (1920–1950)
- High modernism (1930–present)
- Postmodern music (1930–present)
- Experimental music (1950–present)
- Contemporary classical music (1945 or 1975–present)
- Minimal music
Popular
Avant-garde & experimental
- Acoustic music
- Avant-garde music
- Crossover music
- Danger music
- Drone music
- Electroacoustic
- Industrial music
- Instrumental
- Lo-fi
- Musical improvisation
- Musique concrète
- Noise
- Outsider music
- Progressive music
- Psychedelic music
- Underground music
Blues
Country
Electronic
Folk
Hip-hop
Jazz
Pop
R&B & soul
Rock
Metal
Punk
Regional
African
Antarctica
- Nunatak (band)
Asian
Middle Eastern
- Arabic music
- Arabic pop music
- Fann at-Tanbura
- Fijiri
- Khaliji
- Liwa
- Kurdish folk
- Hayran
- Dengbêj
- Kurdish maqam
- Music of Israel
- Persian traditional music
- Sawt
- Music of Turkey
- Turkish folk music
- Gypsy music
Australasia & Oceania
- Australian folk music
- Australian hip-hop
- Indigenous music of Australia
- Music of Hawaii
- Music of New Zealand
- Māori music
- Kapa haka
- Music of Polynesia
- Music of Samoa
European
Latin & South American
North American
Religious
- Buddhist
- Christian
- Hindu
- Islamic
- Jewish
- Native American
- Neopagan
- Rastafarian
- Shinto
- Sikh
- Taoist
- Zoroastrian
Traditional folk
- American patriotic music
- Christmas music
- Fado
- Huayno
- Mele
- Polka
- Ragtime
- Son mexicano
- Música criolla
Other
- A cappella
- Barbershop music
- Collegiate a cappella
- Ballroom dance music: pasodoble, cha cha cha and others
- Vogue (dance)
- Bedroom production
- Children's music
- Classic hip-hop
- Computer music
- Hyperpop
- Internet meme
- Dance music
- Slow dance
- Drug use in music
- Incidental music or music for stage and screen: music written for the score of a film, play, musicals, or other spheres, such as filmi, video game music, music hall songs and showtunes and others
- Independent music
- Multi-instrumentalist
- Bassist
- Drummer
- Percussion
- Found object (music)
- Guitarist
- Pianist
- Keyboardist
- One-man band
- LGBT music
- Patriotic music: military music, marches, national anthems, War songs and related compositions
- Martial industrial
- List of war metal bands
- Regional and national music with no significant commercial impact abroad, except when it is a version of an international genre, such as: traditional music, oral traditions, sea shanties, work songs, nursery rhymes, Arabesque and indigenous music. In North America and Western Europe, regional and national genres that are not from the Western world are sometimes classified as world music.
- Theatre music
- Virtuoso
- Yodeling
These categories are not exhaustive. A music platform, Gracenote, listed more than 2000 music genres (included by those created by ordinary music lovers, who are not involved within the music industry, these being said to be part of a 'folksonomy', i.e. a taxonomy created by non-experts). Most of these genres were created by music labels to target new audiences, however classification is useful to find music and distribute it.
See also
- Lists of music genres
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References
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Bibliography
- Borthwick, Stuart, & Moy, Ron (2004) Popular Music Genres: An Introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Fabbri, Franco (1982) A Theory of Popular Music Genres: Two Applications. In Popular Music Perspectives, edited by David Horn and Philip Tagg, 52–81. Göteborg and Exeter: A. Wheaton & Co., Ltd.
- Frith, Simon (1996) Performing Rites: On the Value of Popular Music. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press.
- Holt, Fabian (2007) Genre in Popular Music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Negus, Keith (1999) Music Genres and Corporate Cultures. London and New York: Routledge.
External links
- Genres of popular music - Interactive relationships diagram