DDEX Data Dictionary for Allowed Value Sets, 2019-09-16

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Intro

avs:SubGenre

A Type of SubGenre.

Relationships
Belongs to Class	AllowedValueSet	A Set of allowed values.
AVS Members	AcousticChicagoBlues	A version of Chicago Blues that uses no electric instruments. Chicago blues developed in the early 20th century after the Great Migration. The style blends urban living themes with traditional blues music.
	BoogieWoogie	With geographical origins reaching deep into the Southern United States and musical ingredients inherited from ragtime and the blues of the Mississippi Delta, Boogie Woogie is considered by many to be a forefather of Rock n Roll and Rockabilly. Originally performed for dance and characteristically identified as a percussive and virtuosic, piano-based blues technique, Boogie Woogie's musical identity is fundamentally defined by a rapid, two-handed piano conversation -- comprised of a left- handed bass (i.e. a walking or ostinato bass pattern) and a melodically-playful, often wildly-improvised, right-hand -- chronicled within a twelve-bar blues song-form.
	BritishBlues	Regional, electric guitar-centric form of blues music that emerged in Britain following exposure to American blues records. Many prominent British classic rock artists first started playing together as blues musicians, including The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and Led Zeppelin.
	ChicagoBlues	One of the epicenters of Traditional Electric Blues, Chicago Blues used amplification on guitar, electric bass and harmonica. Chicago Blues has a more extended palette of notes than the standard six-note blues scale; often, notes from the major scale and dominant 9th chords are added which gives the music more of a 'jazz feel' while remaining in the confines of the blues genre. Chicago blues is also known for its heavy rolling bass. Chicago Blues developed in the first half of the twentieth century due to the Migration of poor Black workers which moved from the South into the industrial cities of the North such as Chicago.
	ClassicFemaleBlues	Blue music based around female vocalists. E.g. Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters. The style was wildly popular in the 1920s and helped shape the blues genre.
	CountryBlues	An acoustic, mainly guitar-driven form of the blues, that mixes blues elements with characteristics of country and folk.
	DeltaBlues	Delta blues is one of the earliest-known styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States. Guitar and harmonica are its dominant instruments; slide guitar (usually played on a steel guitar) is a hallmark of the style. Vocal styles in Delta blues range from introspective and soulful to passionate and fiery.
	ElectricTexasBlues	Texas blues played with electric instruments.
	HillCountryBlues	Northern Mississippi style of blues characterized by a strong emphasis on rhythm and percussion, steady guitar riffs, few chord changes, unconventional song structures, and heavy emphasis on the 'groove', which has been characterized as a 'hypnotic boogie'.
	Jump-Blues	An up-tempo style of blues, usually played by small groups and featuring saxophone or brass instruments. It was popular in the 1940s and was a precursor of rhythm and blues and rock and roll.
	ModernBlues	[missing definition]
	NewOrleansBlues	A subgenre of blues music and a variation of Louisiana blues that developed in the 1940s and 1950s in and around the city of New Orleans, rooted by the rich blues roots of the city going back generations earlier. Strongly influenced by jazz and incorporated Caribbean influences, it is dominated by piano, saxophone, and guitar.
	PianoBlues	A catch-all term for blues genres that are structured around the piano as the primary musical instrument. Boogie Woogie is one of the best known styles of piano blues.
	PiedmontBlues	Spanning most of the Eastern seaboard -- from Delaware to Florida -- Piedmont Blues refers at once to the geographical proximity of its practitioners and to a distinct style of playing guitar. This 'Piedmont style' consists of a syncopated finger- picked guitar melody that follows a ragtime-esque rhythm. Ensembles usually consist of a solo performer who both sings and plays guitar. Piedmont style can be traced back to the 1920s, though it did not gain popularity until the 1930s and early 40s. By the end of World War II, the style had fallen out of favor-- only to attain an audience once again during the 60s Folk Revival. It remained popular in black communities until the final quarter of the 20th century.
	Roots	[missing definition]
	SwampBlues	Swamp Blues arose from the Louisiana sound incorporating elements of zydeco, soul music and Cajun music. It is noticeably more laid back than other blues styles -- even its uptempo songs are reminiscent of slow blues. Utilizes simple, but effective guitar work and standard blues form.
	TexasBlues	A style of blues with a strong jazz/swing influence. The style originated in Texas in the 1920s.
	TraditionalAcoustic	Blues came from over a hundred-year-evolving juxtaposition of the musical and cultural traditions of Africa (i.e. African American slaves) and Europe. Traditional Blues represent the structural and cultural genesis of blues, a genre that manifested an array of African-American cultural experience (i.e. spirituals to work songs to field hollers) into a three-phrase lyrical prose aligned within a 12-bar song structure. The 12-bar blues song-form is musically identified by a thematic, three-chord progression which uses the tonic, sub-dominant and dominant chords of the scale and a melodically alternating, bended 'blue note': a lowered third scale degree (or mediant), which alternates with frequent improvisation, between its natural third scale degree. Rooted in the traditions of the Deep South and also known as Country Blues, Traditional Acoustic Blues is primarily minimal in instrumentation (i.e. a vocalist accompanied by an acoustic guitar) and lyric themes tend to focus on hardship and sorrow.
	TraditionalElectric	The 1920s was witness to a Black workers' emigration from life on the Delta; Black workers left behind rural plantation life and headed into urban centers, North, West and East, which promised a higher quality of life. Both this urbanization, which shifted the geographical focus of blues away from its traditional Southern Roots, and the invention of the electric guitar (which had gained popularity in the Jazz Big Bands of 1930s) gave birth to the adoption of the electric guitar into Blues. Early Traditional Electric Blues traces include West Coast Blues guitarist T-Bone Walker (originally form Texas), who began experimenting with the electric guitar in the mid 1930s in Los Angeles. While in the 1940s, in Memphis, Memphis Minnie, Muddy Waters and Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup in Chicago, in Texas, Sam 'Lightnin Hopkins and in Detroit, John Lee Hooker. Through the 1950s-1970s, Traditional Electric Blues paved the way for other genres including Rock N' Roll, R&B, Soul and Classic Rock many artists of which continued to expand the aesthetic potential of the Blues by applying more contemporary instrumentation to it, all the while upholding the essential components of Blues music in their compositions. Electric blues is a type of Traditional Blues music distinguished by the amplification of the guitar, bass guitar and often the harmonica.
	WestCoastBlues	Influenced by jazz and jump blues, with a strong piano-dominated sound and jazz-like guitar solos. Originated with Texas blues players who relocated to California in the 1940s.
	20thCentury	Western art music composed in the 20th century by composers typically drawing inspiration from modern and postmodern philosophy.
	21stCentury	Contemporary classical music produced after the year 2000. It is often characterized by its influence from rock, pop, and jazz music.
	Acousmatic	Sound is heard, but the sound source is not clearly discernable. It is typically used in connection with musique concréte, a style of music that involves the layering and manipulation of multiple independent sounds by creative use of tape. The term acousmatic can also be applied to nondiegetic film music, or to all fixed media compositions, whether in combination with live sound sources or not.
	AmbrosianChant	[missing definition]
	ArsAntiqua	Refers mostly to sacred or polyphonic music written between 1170 and 1310. It saw advances in conception and notation of rhythm such as the use of rhythmic modes in music notation. Forms such as organum and conductus were prominent, as was the Notre Dame school of polyphony, which featured independent, overlapping melodic lines. The motet began to developed toward the end of the Ars Antiqua period.
	ArsNova	Can refer either specifically to a style from France and the Low Countries roughly between 1310 and 1377 or to all European polyphonic music of the same time period. Ars Nova features rhythmic innovations over the Ars Antiqua, including notational developments such as the isorhythm that made it possible for composers to write more rhythmically sophisticated pieces than rhythmic modes previously allowed. The polyphonic innovations made in the sacred realm in the previous century began to spread into the secular realm in the 14th century.
	Baroque	Western art music composed from approximately 1580 to 1760. Common-practice tonality began to emerge in the Baroque era, moving from the Renaissance era focus on independent melodic lines toward a key-centric view of tonality and an emphasis on formal separation of bass, melody, and accompaniment. Baroque music often features elaborate musical ornamentation and looser implied rules regarding counterpoint and dissonance than Renaissance music. Western musical groups and forms expanded in size, range, complexity and variety during the Baroque era - forms such as the opera, cantata, oratorio, solo concerto, sonata, and fugue emerged during this time. In contrast to later Classical eras, Baroque performers were often skilled improvisers of melodic lines and accompaniment, and improvisation and ornamentation were fundamental elements of many Baroque performances. The Baroque era saw the increasing preeminence of instruments and instrumental forms - composers began to write for specific instruments and instrumental ensembles with texture in mind, as opposed to the earlier Renaissance focus on vocal music and the limitation of instrumental music largely to transcriptions of vocal music.
	ByzantineChant	[missing definition]
	Classical	Era of classical music between roughly 1730 and 1820. The sound of classical music during this time was less complex than during the Baroque period and featured clear melodies. Also, orchestras became larger during this time and sections in a piece became increasingly contrasting, which led the way into the Romantic era.
	ClassicalCrossover	Popular classical music and pop music with classical stylings.
	Contemporary	Contemporary Classical refers to increasingly divergent developments in art music following the death of serial music composer Anton Webern in 1945, and includes diverse genres such as electroacoustic music, musique concréte, minimalist music, experimental music, post-modern music, spectral music, and sound art.
	Early20thCentury	Diverse array of genres, from late Romantic styles, French Impressionism, jazz-influenced composition, and Expressionism, to the emergence of modernism and post-modernism as guiding philosophies.
	EarlyBaroque	Approximately from 1580 to 1630 baroque music began to transition Western art music from Renaissance norms, as the Florentine Camerata, a group of humanists, artists, and intellectuals inspired by Ancient Greek musical practice, began to codify certain exceptions to the rule in Renaissance music as the new norm - things such as emphasis on separate melody, bass, and accompaniment, and harmony and single-key tonality over multiple independent melodic lines and counterpoint. Early Baroque saw the spread of the idea that a sequence of chords rather than just a sequence of notes could provide movement and closure to a piece of music. Claudio Monteverdi is a major figure in the Early Baroque - he began his career writing in the earlier Renaissance polyphonic styles, but helped transition musical culture to the Early Baroque with the innovation of basso continuo (a notational method featuring numerals and symbols which communicate intervals and chords to play above the bass) and his theorizing of seconda pratica, a codification and defense of his new musical approach in opposition to the earlier Renaissance polyphonic style, or prima pratica.
	EarlyElectronic	Featuring early electronic instruments such as the theremin and ondes Martenot amongst more traditional performance ensembles and styles, as well as early manipulation of recorded sounds and pieces created primarily by sound synthesis.
	EarlyRenaissance	Consists primarily of the years 1400 to 1470. Late Medieval techniques such as isorhythm continued to be used in the Early Renaissance, even as newer developments such as triads took hold. Many composers began to prefer simpler, prettier music over the often highly complex styles of late Medieval music, while other composers increased the complexity of their music.
	EarlyRomantic	Began with Beethoven and goes up to about 1850. Melodies became more chromatic, music became more expressive, and descriptive musical forms such as program music and character pieces began to predominate. Important Early Romantic composers include Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann and Hector Berlioz. Concerts and music became an increasingly prominent part of public and private life for the burgeoning middle class, and were afforded more respect and attention than the aristocracy had given in previous eras.
	ExperimentalClassical	Pushes the social and cultural musical norms of the classical tradition. It can be applied to a broad range of music, from John Cage's experiments with indeterminacy and musique concréte's tape manipulations to music involving alternate tuning systems, experimental instruments, and free improvisation.
	Expressionism	A categorization of music often applied to music by composers of the second viennese school and their successors. It refers to expressing true feelings without illusions, disguises or euphemisms.
	FirstVienneseSchool	Three major composers of the Classical era - Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven. In German-speaking countries, the term is used more broadly as a reference to the Classical period as a whole.
	Futurism	Cross-domain artistic movement initiated by the Italian Filippo Tommaso Marinetti with his publication of the Manifesto of Futurism in 1909. Musically, Futurism involved the rejection of traditional music and instead focused on experimental sounds, often produced by or in imitation of machinery.
	GregorianChant	Most significant tradition of Western plainchant. It is a monophonic, entirely vocal, sacred from of music developed for use in the Roman Catholic Church. Neumes, an early form of musical notation that showed general direction of a melodic line, were developed to jog the memories of Gregorian Chant singers. There are two major categories of Gregorian chant melody: recitatives and free melodies. Recitatives are largely syllable repeated over a single note, or reciting tone, with infrequent appearance of other pitches, whereas free melodies are freer and consist of a great variety of pitches.
	Impressionism	Originated in France in the late 19th century and carried on into the early 20th century. Major composers include Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, though both composers disliked the term and considered it an inaccurate label for their music and for any kind of music in general. Prominently focuses on color, or timbre of instruments, as well as extended and ambiguous tonality and chords, common usage of modes and exotic scales, parallel motion, and musical evocations of imagery, such as in Debussy's La Cathédrale Engloutie, a musical depiction of the mythical cathedral of Ys rising from the ocean.
	Late20thCentury	Encompassed by a wide array of musical movements both arising from and seemingly unrelated to the widely divergent Classical genres of the Early 20th Century. The philosophies of Modernism and Postmodernism held sway. Composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Schaeffer utilized new electronics and computer technology to compose with never-before-heard sounds and techniques for manipulating sound. Minimalism, a trancelike stripping down of musical surface complexity, became a major force, typified by composers such as La Monte Young and Steve Reich. Experimental composers such as John Cage played with new methods of performing on old instruments, as in his pieces for prepared piano, and with traditionally held expectations of music in general, as in his piece 4'33'.
	LateBaroque	Approximately from 1630 to 1760, baroque music saw increasing complexity in the works of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel, and a proliferation of dance forms, such as the minuet, gigue, courante, allemande, and sarabande, as well as a large number of operas and oratorios.
	LateRenaissance	Took place from 1530 to 1600. Developments over the Middle Renaissance include the use of large ensembles consisting of multiple choirs of singers, brass, and strings among the Venetian School. Music by secular composers trended toward greater complexity and chromaticism.
	LateRomantic	Increased experimentalism, chromaticism and expressiveness defined the Late Romantic period. The continuing expansion of both the middle class and music education led to ever greater resources and an ever great quantity of professional musicians and music. Major Late Romantic composers include Richard Strauss and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.
	LightMusic	'Light' orchestral music, designed to appeal to a wide audience and less sophisticated and complicated than more serious forms of classical music. Typically short, sweet, and tuneful. Particularly popular in the mid-20th century.
	Medieval	Western music from approximately 500 to 1400. Medieval music ranges from monophonic chants to highly complex and layered rhythmical and melodic concoctions. Early Medieval music was learned by ear, but it was in the Medieval era that musical notation made significant developments, first in showing general melodic direction, and later, by way of the innovation of the musical staff, the ability to show more exact musical pitch intervals and the subsequent capability of non-oral transmission of melodies. Rhythmic notation began to develop in the Medieval era as well, opening up new musical possibilities which composers gladly exploited.
	Middle20thCentury	[missing definition]
	MiddleBaroque	Approximately from 1630 to 1680, baroque music saw the widespread introduction of chamber music, or music for small ensembles of instrumentalists, along with the emergence of the cantata, oratorio, and opera. In vocal music, the status of melody and harmony were raised to an equal level with words, and totally instrumental styles of music began to become more popular. Conducting as a method to hold ensembles of instrumentalists together began to emerge in the Middle Baroque. Archetypical composers of the Middle Baroque include the French court composer Jean-Baptiste Lully and the violinist and innovator of the concerto grosso, Arcangelo Corelli.
	MiddleRenaissance	Took place from 1470 to 1530. At the beginning of the period, some music continued to become more complex, but later in the period, according with the new restrictions on excessively complex polyphony of the Council of Trent, composers such as Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina drastically simplified their music.
	MiddleRomantic	[missing definition]
	Minimalism	Uses limited musical materials. Tends to lack the sense of progression between sections found in other classical-derived music styles. Minimalist music often uses a small set of slow-moving and simple harmonies, strung together in a trancelike steady rhythmic pulse and part of a constantly shifting quilt of repeated phrases and smaller melodic units of music. Some minimalist music relies on processes such as phase shifting. Archetypal composers include Terry Riley, John Adams, and Steve Reich.
	Modernism	[missing definition]
	MusiqueConcrete	Experimental electronic music that involves the manipulation and layering of tape recordings. Its theoretical underpinnings were developed by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer in the early 1940s. The term concréte refers to the fact that the music is fixed and does not change from performance to performance.
	Nationalist	The Late Romantic period saw a growing strain of nationalism among certain composers. For instance, the Russian Five, including Modest Mussorgsky, saw themselves as breaking free from Western European hegemony and forging a distinctly Russian style. Other composers such as Jean Sibelius of Finland and Frédéric Chopin of Poland incorporated nationalist elements into their music as a reaction against Russian dominance of their respective homelands. In all areas of Europe, incorporation of old folk tunes in compositions became a significant way of emphasizing national themes.
	NeoClassical	Aesthetic trend which took place largely between the world wars, Neo-Classical music represented an infatuation with the perceived orderliness of Classical music as opposed to the perceived formlessness and lack of restraint of late Romantic music and the extremes of early 20th-century experimental music. Neo-Classical music involved the use of Classical (and older) forms of music such as the concerto grosso, devices such as ostinato figures and long pedal notes, and the quotation of old melodies, such as in Igor Stravinsky's ballet Pulcinella.
	NeoRomantic	20th-century return to the sentimentality and emotional expression associated with 19th-century Romanticism. Neo-Romantic composers include Wolfgang Rihm and Francis Poulenc.
	OrchestralFusion	Mixes traditional Western orchestral ensembles and styles with other kinds of performance groups and styles.
	Organum	Plainchant melody with at least one added voice, typically singing in parallel 4ths or 5ths to the primary melody. It is an early harmonic development in Western music.
	Plainsong	[missing definition]
	PostClassical	Combination of classical styles and approaches to making music with emerging technologies and with elements of electronic music and other popular music, such as rock and hip-hop. A classical-first form of 21st century crossover music. Well-known composers include Max Richter, Nils Frahm, and Jóhann Jóhannsson.
	PostMinimalism	Conventionally classical in format, length, performance method, and presentation, but harmonically, procedurally, and texturally minimal. Often features subtle influences from other styles of music, ranging from pop and jazz to Balinese gamelan.
	PreClassical	Transitional period between the Baroque and the Classical eras. It is sometimes referred to as Galant or Rococo, and in this time period, established Baroque composers such as Handel and Telemann continued to compose in the old style even as proponents of the new, more homophonic style such as C.P.E. Bach flourished.
	Renaissance	Western music from roughly 1400 to 1600. Secular and sacred music were both common, made possible by massive advances in musical notation and the development of the printing press, which allowed for easier copying of musical notation. Polyphony flourished in the Renaissance period. Triads began to appear in the 15th century, and in the 16th century, the harmonic system of church modes was gradually replaced by the concept of functional tonality. Opera was developed in the Renaissance, along with early versions of many modern instruments.
	Romantic	Romantic music consists of Western art music written approximately from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. Romantic music, compared to music of the preceding Classical period, was more expressive, dynamic, and programmatic. The size of the orchestra increased as its internal makeup diversified. Melodies became longer and more fluid, harmonic progressions became more elaborate, dynamic and tonal range increased, and a wider range of musical structures were employed than in the Classical era. A growing middle class and increased demand for public concerts led to greater independence of composers from wealthy patrons. Ludwig van Beethoven ushered in the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic with his highly expressive compositions. Other major Romantic composers include Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, and Gustav Mahler.
	Serialism	A method of composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though some of his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as a form of post-tonal thinking.
	Spectralism	Broadly informed by spectral analysis of sound. Timbre, rather than motif, is the central organizing element - generally focuses on sound and texture. Spectralist composers often make use of sonographic representations and the analysis of sound spectra and generated spectra to both create hybrid timbres and organize the structure of their compositions. Originated in France in the early 1970s.
	AlternativeCountry	Diverse in sound, but united by operating outside of the contemporary traditions, tropes and industry of mainstream country music. Often features relatively lo-fi production relative to the Nashville standard, as well as a somewhat punk rock or rock ‘n’ roll attitude and aesthetic. Sonically, the music typically more closely resembles traditional country, Americana, and bluegrass than it does contemporary mainstream country music.
	Americana	With roots in early folk and country music, as well as elements of other acoustic American genres, such as blues, rhythm & blues and rock & roll. Emerged in the 1990s to describe music in the country tradition that fuses elements of earlier American popular music styles. Closely overlaps with alt-country, though Americana features a broader sonic palette. Artists include Son Volt, The Band, and Alison Krauss.
	BakersfieldSound	Features significant rock and roll influence, especially by way of extensive use of electric instruments and emphasis on the backbeat. Developed around Bakersfield, California in the 1950s. Major artists include Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
	Bluegrass	With roots in blues, jazz, and the traditional ballads and dance tunes of the British Isles, by way of Appalachian musical tradition. Pioneered by and named for Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys, who began playing in the style in the mid-1940s. Traditional instrumentation includes the guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo and bass, though bluegrass groups may feature other instruments such as the dobro, piano, and accordion. Guitarists typically flatpick, bassists play the root and fifth in a pizzicato style, and fiddlers play in thirds and fifths while vocalists harmonize in two to four parts, often with the highest voice singing dissonant or modal harmony. Bluegrass is often virtuosic and rapidly played. As in jazz, different instruments typically take turns stating and improvising around the melody.
	CountryPop	Fusion of country and pop. Favors pop instrumentation over the musical elements of traditional country, typically favoring pop-like melodies and a sleek production aesthetic rather than fiddles and banjos.
	CountryRap	Fusion of country and rap, running the gamut from raps over country instrumentals to country vocals over rap-like beats. Prominent recordings include Kid Rock's 'Cowboy' and B.o.B. and Taylor Swift's 'Both of Us'.
	CountryRock	Fusion of country and rock, with varying degrees of influence of either style depending on the artist. Includes artists ranging from the Eagles and Emmylou Harris to Hank Williams Jr.
	HonkyTonk	Early country music with a full rhythm section that plays a two-beat rhythm with a crisp backbeat. Guitar, string bass, steel guitar and fiddle are prominently featured. Grew stylistically out a style of piano playing related to ragtime that emphasized rhythm over melody and harmony due to the lack of reliability of pianos in the early honky tonk environment. Major musicians include Hank Williams and George Jones.
	ModernCountry	Strains of country music that developed in the final decades of the 20th century and the early decades of the 21st. Features stronger incorporation of other popular music styles, such as pop, rock, and hip-hop, and often fewer traditional country elements.
	NashvilleSound	Characterized by smooth strings, sophisticated background vocals, and relatively slower tempos. Developed in Nashville in the 1950s.
	NeoTraditionalCountry	Aspires to the sounds and styles of old country music, a la Hank Williams and Kitty Wells, updated with modern production methods and other more modern musical elements. Emerged in the 1980s and eschewed the dominant pop country style of the time. In addition to adopting the sounds of older country music, neotraditionalists often dress in the style of older country musicians. Prominent artists include George Strait and the Judds.
	OutlawCountry	Draws from earlier subgenres like honky tonk and rockabilly and is characterized by a blend of rock and folk rhythms, country instrumentation and introspective lyrics. It was most popular during the 1970s and 1980s. Major artists include Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson.
	TexasCountry	[missing definition]
	TraditionalCountry	Emerged from the folk music of the American South as a phenomenon in the late 1920s. In this decade, Jimmie Rodgers and The Carters were among the first star country music acts. Early country saw folk styles mixed with popular styles such as jazz, pop and rock, with folk sounds fading as the decades went on. Characterized by twang.
	WesternSwing	Features significant influences from jazz and swing. Melodies are often swung, and saxophones and trumpets are added to the traditional early country lineup of drums, string bass, fiddle, guitar, and pedal steel guitar. The style proliferated in the American West and South from the late 1920s through the mid 1940s. Major Western Swing musicians include Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Hank Thompson And His Brazos Valley Boys.
	2StepGarage	Lacks a 4 on the floor kick drum beat, instead favoring beat-skipping kick drums. Prominently features jittery, irregular percussion and synths. MCs and sung vocals (often female, in a contemporary R&B style, and/or cut up and looped) are often featured.
	AcidHouse	Lively, quirky, mid-tempo, and defined by the unique “acid” squelching sounds of the Roland TB-303, produced by modulation of its filter resonance and filter cut-off. Developed in the mid-1980s by Chicago house DJs.
	AcidTechno	Prominently features the 'squelching' sounds of synthesizers such as the Roland TB-303, like its predecessor acid house. Different from acid house in the same ways that techno is different from house - it has faster tempos and is dark, driving, and hypnotic, opposed to house’s more upbeat, soulful feel.
	Ambient	Foregrounds tone and atmosphere over structure and rhythm. Repetitive and slow-paced. It is meant to be able to be listened to both actively and passively. Emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in the United Kingdom, and the style was first described as 'ambient' by ambient music pioneer Brian Eno in 1978.
	AmbientHouse	Fusion of ambient music and house music that emerged in the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. Features 4-on-the-floor beats, vocal samples and atmospheric synth pads. Prominent practitioners include The Orb and Aphex Twin.
	Bassline	Inspired by the pop sound and strong basslines of 2-step garage, but utilizing four-on-the-floor rhythms at tempos around 135-142 BPM. Bassline became popular around Sheffield/Leeds, United Kingdom in the early 2000s.
	BigBeat	Characterized by distorted, compressed breakbeats, moderate tempos (i.e. 120 to 140 BPM), intense, distorted bass lines, acid house-style synthesizer patterns, and heavy loops from 60s and 70s funk, jazz, rock, and pop songs, often punctuated with punk-style vocals. Other common elements include crescendos, builds, drops, dramatic sound effects such as explosions or sirens, and extended drum rolls. As with other contemporary electronic dance genres, the use of effects such as cut-off, phasing, and flanging is pervasive. Emerged in the late 1980s and enjoyed mainstream success throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. Well-known acts include The Prodigy, The Chemical Brothers, and Fatboy Slim.
	Breakbeat	Prominently features drum breaks sampled from earlier funk, jazz, and R&B recordings. First emerged as a distinct phenomenon among American hip-hop DJs in the 1970s.
	BrokenBeat	Consists of stilted or 'broken' staccato drum machine rhythms and drum break samples along with heavy basslines. The music is typically described as soulful, and it sometimes contains keyboards and vocals that are reminiscent of both jazz and soul music. Emerged in London in the 1990s.
	ChicagoHouse	Earliest form of house music. Developed in Chicago from the mid to late 1980s, and characterized by an upbeat, pointed, driving, and straight but syncopated musical arrangement. Contains a four-on-the-floor rhythmic core alongside syncopated, lively hi-hat and snare drum patterns (including frequent snare drum roll break downs), simple bass-lines, textured synth pads, thematic synth stabs and arpeggiation. Vocal question and answer techniques frequently alternate between a featured R&B vocalist and spoken lyrical motifs, either performed by an emcee or made up of sampled vocal phrases. All other variants of house, save for garage house, are effectively descendants of this style.
	DeepHouse	Relatively laid-back, melancholic, and down-tempo (110-125 bpm). Characterized by a hypnotic sound featuring continuously evolving motifs and few dynamic shifts. Features characteristically sparse arrangements which often contain harmonic ostinatos outlining jazz chord colors and simplified drum machine patterns with soft kick drum sounds and short, subtle hi-hat patterns. Typically involves overt usage of production techniques such as reverb, delay, and filtering.
	DetroitHouse	Particularly Afrocentric, subtle, and groovy strain of house that often avoids the standard 4-on-the-floor rhythm prevalent in most house music. Key artists include Theo Parrish and Moodymann.
	DetroitTechno	Funky and robotic. Techno’s embryonic form. Essentially a darker, faster, and more futuristic variant of early Chicago house. George Clinton meets Kraftwerk. Birthed in Detroit, Michigan by the Belleville Three: Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May, and prominent from the mid-1980s through the early 90s. Music in this style is not necessarily from Detroit producers, though the vast majority of it is.
	DigitalHardcore	High-tempo, abrasive, piercing, and distorted dance music that finds the common thread in the speed, heaviness and attitude of hardcore punk, industrial rock, and aggressive electronic styles such as techno and drum and bass. Some bands such as Atari Teenage Riot incorporate rapping and other elements of hip-hop. Electric guitar is common and is played in conjunction with samplers, synthesizers and drum machines, and occasionally supported by traditional electric bass guitars and acoustic drum kits. Vocals are more often shouted than sung, and often by more than one member of the group.
	Downtempo	Laid-back, dreamy, and hypnotic electronic music. Usually contains a beat, but is slower and gentler than music intended for dance.
	DrillNBass	Uptempo music defined by extremely frantic, aggressive, pointed, intricate, syncopated and complex, often metrically irregular drums programmed to sound like rapid drum breaks combined with abstract, mechanical, spherical and often pointed and syncopated synthesizer lines which outline a minimal harmonic and melodic structure. Developed in the mid-1990s in the UK as stylistic mixture of IDM, drum n bass, breakbeat, and jungle.
	DrumNBass	Driving, uptempo (i.e. 160-180 BPM), breakbeat-based electronic dance music. Features intricate, pointed breakbeat drum sequencing coupled with deep, powerful sub-bass basslines. Melodic elements are similarly complexly sequenced and usually feature many effects. Vocals are relatively uncommon, though when present, are often reminiscent of the soulful vocal elements of house music. Beats are generally simple, fast, and repetitive.
	Drumstep	Fusion of drum and bass and dubstep. Typically in the 160-180 BPM range, like drum and bass, but with a halftime feel, like dubstep, so it feels slower than drum and bass. It features the drum breaks of drum and bass along with the wobble bass of dubstep.
	DubstepUK	Dark, halftime and uptempo (i.e. 138-142 BPM). Characterized by sub-bass wobble bass lines (created by modulating the filter cutoff and envelope attack) juxtaposed against drum patterns that include a straight ahead kick drum pattern frequently syncopated in turnarounds. Build ups and breakdowns are common. Mostly instrumental, though sinjaying, rapping and R&B-style singing occasionally show up. Originated in South London in the late 1990s. Highly influenced by 2-step and dub reggae, with lesser influence from other genres such as jungle, broken beat, and grime. Standout artists include Burial and Kode 9.
	DubstepUS	American spin-off of UK dubstep. Features aggressive robotic sounds and synthesized growling bass.
	Dubtronica	Consists of repetitive electronic beats played in a downbeat manner. Highly influenced by dub reggae. It is much slower in speed than techno and generally warmer than dance-oriented electronica. Some tracks employ reggae toasters or singers to produce a more accessible form of the music.
	DutchHouse	Characterized by complex percussion and drum beats, dramatic buildups, and short riffs of high-pitched synths. Emerged in the Netherlands in 2006.
	EBM	Industrial music infused with lighter forms of electronic music. More danceable and melodic than industrial. Lively, dark, synthetic, mechanical and mid-tempo (i.e. 128 BPM). Makes use of four-on-the-floor and rock-like syncopated kick drum patterns fused with bright and repetitive arpeggiating synthesizers. Vocals are either clean or only slightly distorted, and are often made up of talk-singing, growls and shouts. The name was coined by Ralf Hütter of Kraftwerk to describe the group’s album The Man-Machine, and the style came to prominence in the 1980s in Germany and Belgium.
	Electro	Funk, boogie and electropop-influenced style of electronic music that largely emerged in NYC’s early 1980s hip-hop culture. Features heavy use of synthesizers and drum machines, particularly the Roland TR-808, which are programmed to emulate funk grooves. Kick drums are syncopated and snares or claps accent the backbeat. Vocals are often absent, and when present, are typically presented deadpan and through vocoders or talkboxes. Seminal recordings include Afrika Bambaataa’s “Planet Rock” and Hashim’s “Al-Naafiysh (The Soul)”.
	ElectroHouse	Robotic, pointed, playful, lively and mid to uptempo (i.e. 125 to 140 BPM). Incorporates heavy bass, minimal, processed four-on-the-floor beats, melodically rich synth leads and anthemic, trance-like harmonic progressions. A fusion of electro and house. Example tracks include Benny Benassi's 'Satisfaction' and Knife Party's 'Antidote'.
	Electronica/Eclectic	Electronica/Eclectic is an umbrella term used to describe the emergence of Electronic Dance Music increasingly geared to listening instead of strictly dancing (i.e. Post Club Music), Electronica is normally considered more intelligent than dance music. The music is more about using technology to create unusual sounds, melodies and heavily processed drums (often in patterns where the same bar is never repeated requiring painstaking programming). These elements are crafted into an intricate and some times emotive piece of music. The results are usually closer ambient and experimental music than they are to dance music.
	Eurodance	Combines elements of techno, trance, Hi-NRG & Euro disco. Typically between 110-150 BPM. Characterized by euphoric, melodic synthesizer riffs, catchy hooks, female vocals and occasional male rapping. Like most styles informed by house, it features strong four-on-the-floor kick drum patterns and has a cheerful mood. Often in a minor key, with contrasting, positive lyrics. Originated in the late 1980s in Europe.
	ExperimentalElectronic	Electronic music that pushes boundaries.
	FrenchHouse	Groove-oriented, anthemic, and mid-tempo (i.e. 110-130 bpm). Combines four-on-the-floor kick drums with filter cut-off & phaser effects and classic disco samples and traits. Exemplified by groups such as Daft Punk and AIR.
	FutureGarage	Combines off-kilter rhythms from 2-step garage with synth pads and other dark atmospheric elements. The style came out of the UK in the mid 2000s.
	Gabba	Driving, aggressive, and frantic uptempo (i.e. 160 to 220 BPM) derivative of hardcore techno. Characteristically loud and often aggressive. Uses a driving and wildly distorted four-on-the-floor Roland TR-909 kick drum pattern, often overdriven to the point where it becomes a square wave and makes a recognizably melodic tone. It usually has either a scary or a happy mood. Vocal delivery is aggressive and rough. The hoover sound is prominent - a distorted, grainy, sweeping sound which when played on a low key can create a dark and brooding bass line. Alternatively, when played at higher pitches the hoover becomes an aggressive, shrieking lead. Faster tracks often apply extremely fast hoover patterns.
	GarageHouse	Draws influence from various styles of R&B, featuring soulful vocals, piano riffs, and stylistic imitation and sampling of disco records. Developed in the 1980s in New York City and New Jersey around the same time as house initially developed in Chicago. While similar to the Chicago style, garage house is typically more vocal-led.
	Glitch	Uses and emulates sounds created by malfunctioning digital technology - bugs, crashes, system errors, hardware noise, CD skipping, and digital distortion. Pointed, robotic, mechanical and somewhat hectic. Modern glitch tends to use software to recreate these sounds rather than capturing the sound of defective technology itself. The increased ease of creating glitch elements has resulted in the style expanding out into other genres, such as glitch pop and glitch hop.
	HappyHardcore	Driving, happy, four-on-the-floor, uptempo (i.e. 160-180 BPM) derivative of hardcore techno. Distinguished from the highly similar gabba by its extremely quirky and happy emotional energy paired with solo vocals which are often cheerful and sometimes dreamy and sentimental.
	HardTrance	Blend of typical trance structure and elements such as melodic lead synths with harder, driving kick drums and resonant, sometimes offbeat bass lines. Tempo are higher than other forms of trance, varying from 140-180 BPM. Developed amongst the hardcore breakbeat production community in early 1990s Western Europe.
	Hardcore	Characterized by fast tempos (160 BPM and up), intense kicks, synthesized bass, saturation and distortion, similar to industrial music. Prominent in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
	HardcoreBreakbeat	Upbeat, driving music that features 4-on-the-floor kick drum rhythms, breakbeats, and shuffled drum machine patterns alongside synths and short fragments of vocal samples. Derivative genre of acid house and techno that emerged in the UK in the late 80s and which remained popular through the early 1990s before fragmenting into jungle music and happy hardcore.
	Hardstyle	Mixture of hardcore and techno. Consists of overdriven, sustained kick drums and intense, reversed basslines. Often incorporates distorted synthesizers and other distorted sounds. Began to emerge among hardcore DJs in the Netherlands in the late 1990s.
	HipHouse	Fusion of the rhythmic, harmonic, melodic and production elements of classic Chicago house with the performance style of hip-hop; effectively rap over a house track.
	House	Emerged among Chicago club DJs in the early 1990s. It is characterized by 4 on the floor kick drums, drum machine rhythms, hi-hat hits on offbeats, and synthesized basslines. It is typically instrumental, though some house music features wordless singing or lyric singing. Prominent early house musicians include Chip E. and Frankie Knuckles.
	IDM	Wide-ranging post-rave style with elements of glitch and noise. Suited more for headphones than the dance floor. Through the late 1990s, IDM morphed into the primary label for electronic experiments with a beat. Prominent practitioners include Aphex Twin and Autechre.
	JazzHouse	Various fusions of house and jazz. Can merely feature jazz-like chords, or may go as far as actively incorporating improvisation.
	Jungle	Uptempo (i.e. 150-170 BPM), pointed, syncopated, and minimal. Typically comprised of fast and frantic breakbeats, particularly the 'Amen break' - and frequently defined by a lively, high-pass filtered, syncopated hi-hat and snare beat. Breakbeats are varied by filtering and splicing over the course of a track's development, and are often paired with a slower, syncopated, sine-wave reggae dub/dancehall influenced bass line (i.e. a tuned 808 kick) rhythmically matched with a kick drum (i.e. often a punchy, filtered acoustic kick drum sample). Emerged in urban England in the 1990s. Generally acknowledged to be the predecessor of drum n bass. The frequent use of ragga and reggae vocals and jungle's tendency towards traditional groove-oriented breakbeats differentiates it from drum n bass.
	Kwaito	House with prevalent African drum samples. Hails from Johannesburg, South Africa.
	LatinHouse	Features the distinctive harmonic, melodic and rhythmic elements of Latin musical styles such as those originating in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic along with quintessential house elements such as four-on-the-floor kicks. Vocals are typically in Spanish.
	MinimalHouse	Sparse, minimal style, with house’s typical percussion sounds replaced by clicks, static, glitches and noise. Features extensive use of extremely short samples of voices, instruments, computer-generated tones and other noises arranged together to form sophisticated patchwork melodies. Driving and repetitive, like techno, and groovy, like house, with faint synth strings and dreamy pads. Emerged in the late 1990s.
	MinimalTechno	Minimalist style that emerged in early 1990s Detroit out of an attempt to reclaim techno’s funky, soulful roots following its hitting the rave mainstream and subsequent drug-fueled speedup and sterilization. Average BPM ranges from 125 to 130. Techno stripped down to its raw, funky, robotic core. Despite its emergence in Detroit, the style may have been even more popular in Berlin at its height.
	NoiseMusic	Expressive use of noise within a musical context. Created primarily through electronic means, as opposed to other, generally earlier noise styles which primarily used electric and acoustic noise sources. The use of noise in music has a deep history tracing back to Europe in the early 20th century, but strictly noise music has been popular in Europe, the United State, and Japan since the 1970s.
	NuDisco	Essentially disco music made with the sleek production values of early 21st century electronic music. Came about amidst a renewal of interest in disco in the 2000s.
	ProgressiveHouse	Anthemic, melodic, dynamic, evolving, and uptempo (i.e. 128 - 140 BPM). Characterized by three underlying anatomical elements of form shared with trance music; a build-up (a dynamic or energetic anticipation building sequence of sometimes three to four minutes in length), a break-down (an dynamic or energetic dissipation of the build-up) and a climax (a dynamic or energetic explosion of the build-up). Subtle variations in instrumentation (i.e., increasing and decreasing ensemble participation) anticipates the transition to each subsequent anatomical element. The introductory build-up and ending break-down are similarly related adding a feel of symmetry to the overall anatomical form.
	ProgressiveTrance	Mid-tempo, dark dance music (i.e. 130-140 BPM). Often without vocals and focused on deep, dark ostinatos that evolve over a long period of time and feature long builds, subtle breakdowns and arpeggiated, gated synths.
	PsychedelicTrance	Evolving, syncopated, distinctive, uptempo dance music (generally between 140 and 150 BPM) that features a driving four on the floor kick drum pattern and often uses arpeggiated 16th or 32nd notes. New elements and musical ideas are typically added every 4 or 8 bars. Will typically build up to an energetic section in the second half of the track and then taper off fairly quickly toward the end. Tracks are generally 8-12 minutes long, and usually feature noticeably stronger bass lines than other forms of trance music alongside acid's organic 'squelchy' sounds. It was largely developed by and for Western hippies and partygoers in Goa, India during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
	Schranz	Uptempo (150-170 BPM), aggressive, frantic, overwhelmingly repetitive style of European techno music. Makes use of massive kick drums, driving percussion and distorted, looping synthesizers. Harsh, abrasive, and mechanical, with compact rhythmic patterns.
	SpeedGarage	Uses sped-up 4-on-the-floor NY garage beats combined with breakbeats. Heavily warped basslines influenced by jungle music are characteristic. Originated in the UK in the 1990s.
	Synthwave	Synth-centric music with a retrofuturistic aesthetic inspired by film and video game music of the 1980s. The genre was created in the 2000s and gained more popularity in the 2010s. Prominent artists include Kavinsky and Com Truise.
	TechHouse	Mid-tempo fusion of techno’s minimal sterility with house’s soulful color. Akin to both minimal techno (i.e. shorter, deeper, darker kick-drum sounds, smaller, filtered hi-hats and noisier snares) and deep house (i.e. dark, soulful, groove-based, minimalistic, and energetic). Occasionally borrows from the dynamic variation of progressive house and the dirty, hollow acid-style synth textures of acid house.
	Techno	Inspired by and similar to house music, but is typically faster (120-150 BPM), darker, and more concerned with futuristic themes. Emerged in Detroit in the mid-1980s.
	Trance	Developed in the late 1980s UK rave scene and in the early 1990s in Germany. It is typically more melodic than contemporary electronic dance music genres, using melody and harmony to build tension and create a sense of progression, and also to build to peaks or drops in the music. It is typically between 110 and 150 BPM, and it prominently features beats as well as more atmospheric, beatless sections, which typically occur after musical climaxes.
	TribalHouse	Characterized by sophisticated, polyrhythmic percussion over four-on-the-floor kick drum patterns. Reminiscent of African and South American tribal music – hand drum samples and passionate vocal shouting and chanting are frequently employed. Unlike other styles of house, core melodies and prominent synthesizer parts are rare, as percussion is foregrounded.
	TripHop	Mellow, melancholy fusion of hip-hop and electronica, with influence from a variety of other styles, including funk, dub, soul, and R&B. Features bass-heavy drum beats and often makes use of a wide array of samples of both live and electronic instrumentals, including turntable scratches and vocal melodies. The beats often invoke a psychedelic, hypnotic, dreamy and slightly dark atmosphere. Vocals are typically female, and draw influence from R&B and jazz. Standout artists include Massive Attack and Portishead.
	UKFunky	Characterized by the use of bass loops and drum beats along with African/Latin percussion often playing dem bow rhythm and contemporary R&B vocal styles. The style was born in London in the mid 2000s.
	UKGarage	Descendant of House music which originated in the UK, UK Garage is a lively, mid-tempo, pointed, syncopated, and groove-based Broken-Beat focused Electronic Dance music. UK Garage quintessentially features a distinctive syncopated, hi-pass filtered Broken Beat which interplays with a syncopated dub-style synth bass, frequently combined with 'chopped up' and time or pitch-shifted vocal samples and a pop sensibility-focused song structure. The defining musical elements of Garage were largely absorbed into other sub-genres in the mid-2000s, including Grime, UK Funky, Dubstep and Bassline.
	VocalHouse	Driving, majestic, anthemic, and over-the-top. Soulful R&B vocals over house music's four-on-the-floor rhythmic core.
	AmericanFolk	Early traditional music of the United States and more contemporary music of artists such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. Significantly influenced by British and Celtic folk styles.
	AmericanPrimitiveGuitar	Typically instrumental style defined by the use of traditional country and blues fingerpicking techniques. Pioneered by John Fahey in the late 1950s.
	BarbershopMusic	A cappella style usually performed by a close harmony group of four typically male singers taking the roles of bass, baritone, lead, and tenor.
	BritishFolk	Folk music of the British Isles.
	CanadianFiddling	Traditional Canadian folk music as played on the fiddle. Significantly influenced by British, Celtic and French folk music traditions.
	CanadianFolk	Traditional folk music of Canada as well as contemporary folk music from artists such as Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot.
	Celtic	Folk music of Celtic peoples. Common instruments include various flutes, fiddles, bagpipes, and string instruments.
	ElectricFolk	Folk rock played by British musicians which makes use of traditional English folk songs and tunes.
	EnglishFolk	Traditional music of non-aristocratic English people, ranging from ballads and jigs to sea shanties and protest songs. Common instruments include the guitar, fiddle, and hurdy-gurdy.
	FolkBaroque	Features a distinctive fingerpicking style and combines elements of British folk music with American folk, blues, jazz, ragtime and various other global styles. Often features alternate guitar tunings such as DADGAD to assist in the playing of modal English folk songs.
	FolkRevival	Contemporary folk music, which grew out of a 20th century fascination with folk music traditions and which combined those traditions with popular music styles. It includes the music of artists such as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell.
	IndieFolk	Essentially indie rock with folk (or folk revival) influences. Emerged in the 1990s. The influence of earlier folk is typically strictly musical, as most Indie Folk features only personal lyrics rather than the kinds of political lyrics that are common in folk revival music.
	IrishFolk	Traditional music of non-aristocratic Irish people. Common instruments include flutes, fiddles, harps, accordions, and banjos. Often features call and response and often written to accompany dance.
	NorthAmericanFolk	Folk music of North America.
	OldTime	American folk music played on the fiddle and on plucked string instruments such as guitar, banjo, and mandolin. Developed as accompaniment to North American folk dance styles such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing.
	ScottishFolk	Traditional music of non-aristocratic Scots. Forms range from marches to laments and ballads, and common instruments include the fiddle and Highland bagpipes.
	SeaShanties	Work songs that were formerly sung to accompany work on merchant sailing ships.
	WelshFolk	Traditional music of non-artistocratic Welsh people, featuring instruments such as the triple harp, fiddle, and guitar.
	Zydeco	Blend of blues, R&B, jazz, gospel and traditional Creole musical styles originated by French Creole speakers in southwest Louisiana. Separate from, but frequently influenced by Cajun music. Common instruments include accordion, fiddle, guitar, bass and washboard.
	ClassicGospel	Sung Christian music with roots in traditional hymns and early African-American spirituals. Often features call and response, and often performed a cappella, with foot stomps and hand claps for rhythmic accompaniment. Gospel can also feature piano, organ, guitar, drums, and other instruments.
	SouthernGospel	Predominantly white gospel music, mostly from the American South. Prominently featured vocal quartets singing in close harmony early on, though later music features soloists and a greater variety of instruments and stylistic influences.
	AlternativeRap	Fond of crossing the boundaries of a particular genre Alternative Rap artists attempt to upend the traditional aesthetic of hip hop by combining it with elements of funk rock jazz or any other genre. It is typically not as popular as other genres of hip hop though it does lend itself to a crossover audience.
	ChristianRap	Focused on faith, praise and worship of God. Can sonically resemble many styles of rap music - no one style dominates.
	ClassicHipHop	Generally has an upbeat vibe, and typically features a relatively simple vocal cadence compared to more recent rap. From the 80s and early 90s.
	ConsciousRap	Primary lyrically focuses on social or political issues.
	Crunk	Tends to be at a lower tempo than other styles of hip-hop. It features drum machine rhythms, layered synths, heavy bass, and shouted vocals. It frequently incorporates call-and-response. Crunk is a party-focused form of hip-hop, and its lyrics are typically simple and hedonistic - Crunk rarely addresses the deeper social themes prevalent in many other forms of hip-hop. Crunk originated in the 1990s in the American South, and was first played publicly at African-American strip clubs in Memphis, Tennessee. It was extremely popular throughout the first decade of the 21st century. 'Get Low' by Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins is an archetypal Crunk recording.
	DirtyRap	Consists mainly of sexually suggestive lyrical content. Overtly explicit and graphic, often to the point of either being cartoonish or extremely offensive. Historically, Dirty Rap contained a distinctly bass-driven sound, reflecting the influence of the popular Miami bass rap scene.
	EastcoastHipHop	A highly influential style of Hip Hop that developed in New York City, particularly in the South Bronx, during the seventies. It's history can be traced back as far as the Hip Hop genre itself. While East Coast Hip Hop's complex development and endless permutations can never be summed up by one particular sound, the late eighties and early nineties specifically saw a number of artists define themselves by hard-hitting, sample-heavy production, as well as lyricism with both a refined social conscience and trademark aggression. At its most basic definition, East Coast Rap is rap that encompasses any artists or music that originated in the eastern seaboard region of the United States.
	ExperimentalHipHop	Pushes the boundaries of rap music.
	FunkCarioca	Brazilian rap style that combines musical elements of 1980s Miami bass with the explicit lyrical tropes of gangsta rap. Like Miami bass, beats are typically spare and often feature 80s-style drum machines and synthesizers. Clave rhythms are often prominent in the percussion of more recent recordings. Emerged in the mid-1980s in Rio de Janeiro.
	GFunk	Originating on the West Coast through the work of Dr. Dre with Above the Law, G-Funk stood in contrast to many of the dominant Hip Hop sounds of the time. Heavily utilizing P-Funk samples, Dr. Dre and Cold 187um created a form of Rap which sounded much more relaxed and organic than other forms of rap. This was achieved through limiting the amount of samples in a track and dressing them up with live instrumentation. By the mid-1990s, this style proliferated throughout the Midwest and Southern states, becoming, for a period, the dominant form of Hip-Hop. G-Funk was not as common among East Coast rap artists, although artists like Redman would adopt its emphasis on funk samples.
	GangstaRap	Defined by lyrical themes about the 'gangsta' lifestyle. Emerged in the mid-1980s, and was the commercially dominant form of hip-hop for the late 1980s and much of the 1990s.
	GoldenAge	As the term implies, the Golden Age is considered to be the heyday of Hip Hop. During these years, Hip Hop transitioned from regional clusters of musically unique sub-cultures into a global, multi-platinum, mainstream musical force. Despite their success, Hip Hop artists of the Golden Age maintained their sense of roots, innovation, musical diversity, and integrity. Sampling production techniques became an essential ingredient of the genre and lyrical subject principally focused on underlying themes of black identity and socio-political consciousness. Golden Age encompasses the monumental US releases of these years including, Run-DMC's 'Rising Against', Public Enemy's 'It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back', Beastie Boys' 'License To Ill' and KRS-One, Eric B. & Rakim, De La Soul, and A Tribe Call Quest.
	Grime	British rap style. Mixture of UK garage, drum and bass, hip hop and dancehall. Features fast 2-step breakbeats, typically around 140 BPM, laid under jagged, choppy synths and samples, especially and distinctively from 90s video games. Major artists include Dizzee Rascal, Stormzy, Skepta, and Wiley. Developed in early 2000s London and erupted into the British mainstream in the mid 2000s.
	HardcoreRap	Often reflecting the grittiness of urban environments, Hardcore Rap maintains a tough aesthetic through both its instrumentation and lyrical content. Beats are aggressive and noisy while lyrics are similarly tough-minded and occasionally menacing. Following its inception, Hardcore Rap expanded to encompass an array of themes and styles -- from party anthems to Gangsta Rap.
	InstrumentalHipHop	Beats. The sounds of rap, minus the rapping.
	MiamiBass	Miami Bass is a form of hip hop known for an upbeat tempo and heavy throbbing Roland 808-style beats, hyperkinetic rhythms and usually sexually explicit lyrics.
	PopRap	Fuses the rhythm-based lyricism of hip hop music with pop music's preference for melodious vocals and catchy tunes. Gained mainstream popularity in the 1990s.
	SouthernRap	Umbrella term for the rap music of the American South.
	Trap	Features fast hi-hats, heavy sub-bass kick drums, layered synthesizers, and a generally bleak atmosphere. The sound was developed in the American South, particularly in and around Atlanta, in the late 1990s, and came to be known as trap by the early 2000s. Popular through the first decades of the 21st century. In the 2010s, the trap sound came to dominate most commercial rap music, as well as much pop music. The term 'trap' refers to trap houses - gutted out houses reserved for storing and dealing drugs.
	WestcoastHipHop	Hip-hop music that originates in the westernmost region of the United States (specifically California). Though Westcoast Hip-hop has no single distinct sound, it has been a major contributor to the growth of Hip-hop music and has spawned many styles such as Gangsta Rap, G-Funk, and Latin Rap. Westcoast Hip-hop’s subject matter usually includes fame, money, cars & women as well as the gangsta lifestyle and marijuana.
	AcidJazz	Constitutes the fusing of Jazz aesthetics and chord structures with funk and hip-hop styles. It frequently utilizes looped rhythms and other forms of electric instrumentation. Acid Jazz may be performed by a band or DJ.
	AfricanJazz	As played in Africa by African musicians.
	AvantGardeJazz	Experimental fringes of jazz.
	Bebop	Sophisticated, progressive style of jazz that emerged in the mid-1940s, pushed by major players such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. It grew out of trends toward greater harmonic sophistication and emphasis on the solos in swing music that became apparent in the mid-1930s. Bebop is characterized by fast tempos, complex harmonic progressions with quick chord changes and frequent key changes, and virtuosic improvisation.
	BossaNova	Fusion of samba and jazz that emerged in Brazil in the late 1950s. Makes heavy use of a modified clave rhythm, and often prominently features nylon-string classical guitar accompaniment.
	BritishDanceBand	[missing definition]
	CapeJazz	Jazz music played by South African musicians. The name is a reference to Cape Town, South Africa, where the South African jazz scene first took off.
	CoolJazz	Named for relaxed tempos, gentle tones, and smooth harmonies. Emerged commercially on Miles Davis's Birth of the Cool, and soon became a particularly popular style among white jazz players. Arrangements and compositions were of great importance, occasionally hinting at classical and swing influences.
	Dixieland	Earliest form of music typically referred to as jazz. Evolved in New Orleans in the early years of the 20th century as a mixture of ragtime, blues, marches, and other styles of African and European-influenced music prevalent in the region at the time. A standard Dixieland band consists of a front line of melodic instruments, typically including a trumpet or cornet, trombone, and clarinet, along with a rhythm section that includes a guitar or banjo, a tuba or string bass, a piano, and drums. One front line instrument, usually the trumpet or cornet, plays the lead melody, while the other front line instruments improvise around the melody, which results in a relatively polyphonic sound compared to most subsequent styles of jazz.
	EthiopianJazz	Jazz music played by Ethiopian musicians. Mulatu Astatke is the progenitor of and primary representative of Ethiopian jazz. Ethiopian jazz contains distinctly Ethiopian melodic elements.
	FreeJazz	Infused with the radical politics of the 1960s, Free Jazz musicians strayed from chord structures, instead focusing on short themes and a near complete autonomy of improvisation. Highly experimental and usually atonal, Free Jazz constitutes one of the most controversial sub-genres in Jazz.
	GypsyJazz	Typically played by small ensembles which often prominently feature distinctive guitar playing. Fast-paced, and uses the feel of swing music, with emphasis on the 2nd and 4th beats of a measure. Developed by Romani guitarist Django Reinhardt and other Romani and French musicians based in and around Paris in the 1930s.
	HardBop	Combination of bebop and contemporary rhythm and blues. Soulful and bluesy. Emerged in the United States in the mid-1950s. Standout albums include Miles Davis’s Walkin' and Sonny Rollins’s Saxophone Colossus.
	JazzBlues	Blues chord progressions with jazz instrumentation and improvisational stylings. Other aspects of these genres (i.e. blues riffs, jazz chord substitutions) are regularly employed.
	JazzFunk	With the popularization of Funk music a sub-genre amalgamation of funk and jazz was inevitable. Jazz Funk pulls from funk, soul, R&B and Jazz-- it is a primary form of Fusion. It is one of the first styles of Jazz to incorporate synthesizers.
	JazzFusion	Various mixtures of jazz with other popular styles.
	JazzRock	Fusion of jazz and rock. Electric instruments, distortion and effects, and jazz-like virtuosic improvisation.
	JazzPop	Post-heyday styles of jazz with mainstream appeal.
	LatinJazz	Latin rhythms and instruments mixed into jazz's format. Typically straight, not swung.
	ModalJazz	Utilizes modal tonalities rather than the standard functional chord progressions typical of most other styles of jazz. Characterized by slow-moving harmonic rhythm, with single chords often lasting for many measures. Developed in the late 1950s, largely due to the significant influence of composer George Russell and his book Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, published in 1953.
	ModernCreative	Modern Creative serves as a highly experimental and fusion-based take on progressive jazz. It usually applies the stylistic conceits of older jazz genres-- be it bop, free or traditional-- with more contemporary genres like rock, pop or funk. It may be structured or free, and arrangements may vary.
	ModernJazz	Oriented more toward listening than dancing. An intellectual and artistic evolution in jazz. Generally thought to have emerged as a phenomenon in the mid-1940s with bebop and musicians such as Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie.
	PostBop	Complex style – modal jazz meets bebop. Not as far out as free jazz, but definitely further out than bebop or hard bop. Features free forms, tempi, and meters, as well as shifting styles. Usually performed by a small combo. Typified by Miles Davis’s second quintet and its albums such as E.S.P. and Miles Smiles.
	SmoothJazz	Stemming from the evolution of Fusion in the 1970s, Smooth Jazz highlighted the more polished and gentle side of the then-nascent genre. It subdues improvisation for the sake of groove and rhythm, and is usually characterized by slow tempos and flowing melodies. It utilizes electronic instruments and pulls together strands of Funk, R&B and Jazz.
	SoulJazz	An antecedent of the Jazz Funk movement of the 1970s and heavily influenced by Blues, Gospel & R&B, Soul Jazz was mostly performed by organ or piano based combos and was thematically focused around deep rhythmic grooves and melodic ostinatos.
	Swing	Developed out of earlier forms of jazz such as Dixieland. Swing music incorporated written arrangements to better suit large ensembles (as opposed to Dixieland which relied massively on improvisation). Melodic improvisation only occurs during a solo, and not during the entire duration of the song as in Dixieland. Swing soloists are more inclined to show restraint than soloists in earlier Dixieland music and later styles of jazz such as bebop.
	SwingRevival	A style of music that emerged in the 1990s that resuscitated Swing and Jump Blues, and combined them with Rockabilly and Rock music. Retro Swing bands usually feature a small horn section along with a typical pop/rock ensemble.
	TraditionalJazz	Earliest incarnations of jazz music.
	TraditionalPop	Jazzy pre-rock pop music. Associated with the repertoire of the 'Great American Songbook' and with performers such as Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, and Nat King Cole.
	Bachata	Bachata is the traditional music of Dominican Republic. It combined Cuban, Puerto Rican and African music traditions and is closely related to Bolero. It is the predecessor of Merengue. It has undergone many changes to get to it's contemporary form, but in it's original incarnation it featured a lead accordion.
	Banda	Denotes both ensemble and genre. Banda music is performed by brass/percussion ensembles typically in the genres of Ranchera, Polka, Corrido, etc.
	Boogaloo	A style of Latin music that combines mambo and son montuno with R&B and Soul Music. It was popular among teenagers in New York City in the 1960s.
	Brazilian	Latin Music originating from Brazil.
	Conjunto	Mexican Conjunto music was formed in South Texas with the incorporation of the German button accordion into traditional Mexican music. The Bajo Sexto (Mexican 12 string guitar) is also integral to the Conjunto sound.
	Corridos	A Mexican ballad form that has Waltz or Polka rhythms. It has a simple melodic tune and guitar accompaniment.
	Duranguense	Derived from Banda but notably replaces the tuba and other instruments with synthesizers. Duranguense was a popular genre in the American Chicano community in the mid 2000s.
	Grupera	Cumbia, Norteño, and Ranchera, Grupera music is a Mexican Folk Music genre with strong 60s rock influences.
	Hupango	A Mexican dance form that mixes duple and triple rhythmic feels to mirror the complex dance moves that the music accompanies.
	Mariachi	Originated as string ensembles playing son music. Modern Mariachi ensembles have developed to incorporate more guitars and brass instruments.
	NewMexicoMusic	The rebirth of traditional music derived from 13th century Puebloan Music and 16th - 19th century folk music of Hispanos de Nuevo México in Sante Fe. The music has been popular among New Mexico Natives since the 1960s.
	Norteno	Developed in Northern Mexico as a genre derived from polka/corrido music. Norteño ensembles contain accordion and bajo sexto.
	Ranchera	A traditional Mexican genre originating before the Mexican revolution. Ensembles consist of guitars, strings, brass, and vocals.
	Reggaeton	Reggaeton combines Reggae and Dancehall with Latin American music styles and Hip Hop. The style features rapping or singing, usually in Spanish. Reggaeton originated in Panama and Puerto Rico in the early 1990s.
	RegionalMexican	Latin Music originating from Mexico.
	Salsa	Latin music styles (mainly Cuban and Puerto Rican) played by Puerto Rican People in New York City starting in the 1960s. Salsa sometimes includes elements of Rock, R&B, and Funk. The scene was built around the New York record label Fania.
	Sertanejo	Most of sertanejo music artists consist of duos, at times made of brother siblings, typically with one of them being the backing vocalist to the other one. Men have traditionally dominated the scene, although recently some women (notably, Paula Fernandes and Maria Cecília) have also achieved mainstream success. It is the most popular music style in Brazil, particularly throughout the southern/southeastern and center-western countryside Brazil.
	Tejano	German immigrants living in Texas around the time of the Mexican Revolution combined traditional German music with traditional Mexican music to form Tejano music.
	AfricanPop	Contemporary African Pop Music, which often combines traditional African Music with Western popular music genres.
	Afrobeat	A genre which combines West African music with American Jazz and Funk. Afrobeat originated and became popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
	AlternativeDance	Emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s. It is a genre that mixes rock song structures with the beats, instrumentation, samples, and club focus of electronic dance music.
	AlternativePop	A wide ranging genre that remains distinctly separate from mainstream pop music.
	Axe	Axé is a pop genre that emerged in the city of Salvador in the Brazilian state of Bahia in the 1980s. It combines Afro-Caribbean genres such as reggae, calypso, merengue, and marcha with Brazilian sounds such as forró, frevo, afoxé, and carixada.
	Bikutsi	A Cameroonian dance genre that emerged among the Beti people in the mid-20th century as the musical accompaniment to parties, funerals, and weddings. It prominently features the balafon and guitars modified with dampened strings to resemble the sound of the balafon. Bikutsi is typically in 6 (3+3).
	Bollywood	Hindi songs featured in Bollywood films. Bollywood songs are India's predominant type of pop music.
	BrazilianPop	South American Music meant to be commercially successful that often has Latin and American Pop influences.
	Brega	Brazilian ballads with catchy melodies and explicit romantic lyrics.
	CantoPop	Cantonese pop music, strongly influenced by Western pop styles.
	CaribbeanPop	Popular Music originating from the Caribbean.
	ChamberPop	With an emphasis on melody, harmony and clean production, Chamber Pop attempts to apply Classical aesthetics to a distinctly Pop song structure and template. Instrumentation frequently includes strings and woodwinds. Chamber Pop may also be referred to as 'Baroque Pop'
	Chimurenga	A Zimbabwean popular music genre which focuses on social justice.
	ChinesePop	Popular Music originating from China. Sometimes abbreviated C-pop, Chinese pop music contains three main sub genres: Cantopop, Mandopop, and Minnan Pop. Originally Chinese pop music reflected Maoist ideologies but has since lost political ties and now is similar to J-pop and K-pop music cultures.
	DreamPop	Dream Pop is an atmospheric subgenre of alternative rock that relies on sonic textures as much as melody. Dream pop often features breathy vocals and processed, echo-laden guitars and synthesizers. Though the Cocteau Twins, with their indecipherable vocals and languid soundscapes, are frequently seen as the leaders of dream pop, the genre has more stylistic diversity than their slow, electronic textures. Dream pop also encompasses the post-Velvet Underground guitar rock of Galaxie 500, as well as the loud, shimmering feedback of My Bloody Valentine. It is all tied together by a reliance on sonic texture, both in terms of instruments and vocals. fusion of post-punk, aery textures and bittersweet pop melodies with sensual, sonically spacious soundscapes. Breathy vocals and reverb/chorus-drenched instruments are typical, and lyrics are generally introspective and existential.
	Electroclash	A style of Electronic Music that fuses New Wave, Punk, Synth Pop & Electronic Dance Music. The music prominently features synthesizers, drum machines, and other hallmarks of electronic music, often distorted. The name derives from the Electropop bands who provide the majority of the musical influence. Lyrics are generally punk inspired and more given to emotion than technique while the vocals are generally atonal in nature.
	ElectronicPop	Features an overtly electronic sound and an electronic music culture-derived aesthetic.
	Enka	Modern Enka music was developed in the postwar era. Enka consists of sentimental ballads which follow traditional Japanese music stylistically.
	FilipinoPop	Often called Pinoy Pop, Filipino Pop draws influence from traditional forms of Filipino Music and Western pop genres. Through the 1990s and 2000s pop rock, hip hop, and R&B ruled the Filipino Pop scene. Around 2010, Filipino Pop music vastly changed and became more in tune with current Western Pop Music trends.
	Folktronica	A genre combining elements of folk music and electronica. Folktronica features both acoustic and electronic instruments and often has a dance feel.
	FrenchPop	Pop music sung in French. Cabaret Music is one of the biggest developments to come out of French popular music.
	GermanPop	Pop music sung in German. Some popular genres in Germany are Electronic and Metal genres.
	GreekPop	Closely related to Greek Folk Music and has a rich heritage. Some forms of Greek pop Music are Rebetiko, Éntekhno, Laïkó, and New Wave.
	Highlife	A Ghanaian pop genre originating in the 20th century that uses melodic and rhythmic structure from traditional Akan music, but is played with western instruments such as guitars and horns.
	Hiplife	A Ghanaian pop music genre drawing influence from Highlife and American hip-hop and electronic.
	HokkienPop	Music similar to Cantopop, but sung in Taiwanese Hokkien and produced in Taiwan.
	IndianPop	Mainly comes out of Indian films. Bollywood and Telugu music are the most popular Indian pop genres.
	IndiePop	Often incorporates (but certainly isn't limited to) jangly guitars, sloppy riffs, ironic and/or cutesy lyrics, and lo-fi production. In many ways it has developed out of a suburban interpretation of the cool aesthetic. Currently, Indie Pop has a strong international following, with many bands coming from the UK, United States, Continental Europe, Japan, Australia, etc. Indie Pop has its roots in the Alternative Rock/Pop and Underground scenes of the UK and United States. Initially, the term 'indie' referred to bands signed to independent record labels. Indie Pop initially referred to music which utilizes the musical elements of pop music while existing outside of the politics and PR of mainstream pop music. However, many Indie Pop bands signed to major labels as the popularity of the subgenre has grew, especially in the late-90s and early-aughts of the 21st century. Indie Pop can be used as a catch-all phrase for many underground subgenres from the 1980s and 1990s, such as Dream Pop, Post Punk, Power Pop, Twee Pop, Shoegaze, etc. Its sound is less aggressive than its sister subgenre, Indie Rock.
	Indietronica	The electronic variant of Indie Rock/Pop, it is a short tern for Indie Electronic Music. Typical instruments include electronic keyboard, synthesizer, sampler and drum machine, as well as bass guitar and electric guitar. During the early 2000s, the number of indie electronic artists grew exponentially as home recording and software synthesizers (or softsynths) became common.
	IndonesianPop	Pop music that closely reflects the trends of American, British, Japanese, and Korean pop music cultures.
	JapanesePop	Emerged as a distinct genre in the 90s, and is influenced by traditional Japanese music, American Rock and Pop music of the 1960s and 1970s, and earlier popular Japanese music such as the synthpop group Yellow Magic Orchestra.
	Kayokyoku	Western based Japanese pop music that became the base for modern J-pop. Typically refers to Japanese pop music created prior to the 90s.
	Kizomba	An Angolan pop genre combining African rhythms with a sensual sound. The lyrics are typically sung in Portuguese.
	KoreanPop	Pop music sung in Korean with strong western influences and overarching cultural importance in many mediums.
	Kuduro	An Angolan pop genre which combines samples of African drumming and music with western styles of electronic music.
	LatinFreestyle	Freestyle is an Electronic Dance Music genre which fuses Latin Hip Hop and Latin Pop music with melodic vocal styles found in '70s disco music with synthesized instrumentation of the '80s Electro/Hip Hop sound. It was developed mostly in New York and Miami, and peaked in the mid to late '80s. The style is characterized by Latin percussion, heavy syncopation and themes of romance, love, and partying.
	Madchester	Madchester came onto British Pop scene in the mid-1980s as a fusion of British Rock, Acid House and modernized-60s Pop. The result is a pop style that relies heavily on melody and Pop structure while incorporating 'baggy' beats, so that the music is dance-oriented.
	Makossa	A Cameroonian popular music genre originating in the 1980s, which uses heavy electric bass lines and brass instruments.
	MandoPop	Mandarin pop music, which followed the rising cultural trend of Cantopop.
	Mbalax	The national popular dance music of Senegal and Gambia. Mbalax combines western dance music genres with traditional Senegalese drumming and music.
	Mbaqanga	A popular genre of native black South African people combining traditional South African dance genres with swing.
	ModernLaiko	Contemporary Greek mainstream pop music derived from traditional laika music. Modern Laika draws influence from western dance music styles.
	ModernPop	Sleek, shiny, smooth, and clean, with all its wrinkles smoothed out through extensive production and editing.
	MPB	Also known as Música Popular Brasileira, MPB was formed in the late 60s as a modernized form of Bossa Nova and Samba-Cancao. MPB encompasses many non-Brazilian styles of popular music (i.e. American rock/pop/folk/jazz) while retaining its distinct Brazilian identity, partially with use of Portuguese lyrics.
	MusicOfThePhilippines	Filipino pop music that combines influences from traditional Filipino music, American music, and Spanish/Latin music. Performance is a big component of this music.
	NDW	Derived from punk rock synth pop and new wave NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle/German New Wave) utilizes a predominantly synthetic aesthetic to engage several strains of 70s/80s pop music. Beginning as an underground scene NDW's non-traditional German sound soon found clout with a wider audience.
	NeoPsychedelia	Neo-Psychedelia evolved from the Psychedelic movement of the 1960's. Neo-Psychedelia is a blanket term for many styles: some taking cues from their 1960's predecessors and some going another direction incorporating elements from Punk, Post Punk, etc.
	NewRomantic	A more decadent, heavily produced, glam-influenced brand of New Wave. The music embodies the trends and fashions of the UK in the early 1980s. Because of it's reliance on a distinct yet fickle fashion, it was quick to die out a few years after its inception.
	NewWave	The term 'New Wave' began as a near synonym with punk in the early 1970s, and gradually diverged to refer to groups with a punk ethos, but which played more polished and lyrically and musically sophisticated styles than punk groups. Compared to punk music, New Wave prominently featured synthesizers, a jittery sound, a broader range of cultural influences, and frequently, a nerdy aesthetic (see the Talking Head, Elvis Costello). As synthesizers and drum machines engulfed popular music in the 1980s, New Wave came to indicate more of a pop-based than a rock-based style, and was used to refer to synthpop groups such as Duran Duran.
	NoisePop	Taking thematic and structural queues from traditional/mainstream Pop, Noise Pop combines tropes of noise music (i.e. feedback, drones, distortion) with a melodic sensibility.
	NouvelleChanson	Also known as 'New Chanson', Nouvelle Chanson is a recently coined buzzword used to define a new style of music emerging in France one which takes clear inspiration from the forefathers of French Chanson (including Jacques Brel Barbara and Charles Aznavour) albeit in an updated style. However the principal influences appear to be the more avant-garde artists. The defining characteristic of Chanson both old and new is that it focuses on the French language as vehicle and instrument.
	PopRock	The combination of Pop and Rock music.
	PsychedelicPop	Grew out of the Psychedelic Rock scene of the mid-60's. Where Psychedelic Rock tends to expand on the form of the pop song, Psychedelic Pop essentially remains grounded within the pop template, adding instruments and sounds associated with the Psychedelic movement (sitars, pedals, synthesizers, reversed tape, distortion).
	Schlager	Catchy, light hearted tunes with happy-go-lucky lyrics. Recently, the sound of Schlager music has shifted to be more electronic.
	Soca	A style of Caribbean Music that emerged in Trinidad & Tobago in the early 1970s. It is geared towards dance and celebration, and it blends traditional Calypso with Indian-inspired music, such as Chutney music. Soca is characterized by a steady bass drumbeat, against which a highly syncopated cymbal and snare drum pattern are juxtaposed. The basslines are syncopated. Like other styles of modern music, today's Soca often utilizes programmed drums. The percussion is at the forefront of the track, and is sometimes the only thing backing up the vocals. Horn sections are often present in live Soca shows, typically including two trumpets and a trombone, with occasional saxophones.
	Soukous	A high tempo dance genre derived from the Congolese Rumba.
	SynthPop	A subgenre of New Wave and pop music in which the synthesizer is the dominant musical instrument. While most current popular music in the industrialized world is realized via electronic instruments, Synth Pop has its own stylistic tendencies which differentiate it from other music produced by the same means. Synth Pop is epitomized by the band Depeche Mode.
	Telugu	Songs featured in Tollywood films. Telugu songs represent south Indian Carnatic and classical music form.
	TweePop	Twee Pop is a derivative of Indie Pop and therefore has its roots in the release of NME's C86 mixtape. Twee typically features a quaint, child-like vocal delivery-- there is no confrontation. It utilizes jangly guitars, low-end model keyboards, lo-fi production and innocent lyrics. Songs are typically sweet, carefree and/or cheerful/bright in sub-mood.
	AfroFunk	Combines a funk style with traditional West African percussion. Unlike Afrobeat, Afrofunk does not have a jazz influence.
	AlternativeR&B	Contemporary R&B that blends with Electronic, Rock, and Pop genres.
	BlueEyedSoul	Blue-Eyed Soul is soul music performed by white artists.
	Boogie	Also known as Post-disco, Boogie music combines R&B and EDM. It originated in the United States in the late 1970s.
	ChicagoSoul	Heavily influenced by gospel music. Lighter in approach compared to southern and country-soul, it spurred the album- oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.
	ClassicR&B	An abbreviation for Rhythm & Blues, R&B originated in the 1940s in the African American community. Early R&B lyrics usually described the pain and struggle for freedom of the African American community. Instrumentation included electric guitars, drums, horns, lead vocals, and background vocals. Notable Early R&B artists include Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Roy Brown, Billy Wright, and Wynonie Harris.
	ContemporaryR&B	Smooth-sounding, with many electronic elements - drum machines, synthesizers and generally electronic timbres predominate, along with lush vocal arrangements, creative production, and extensive use of pitch corrected vocals.
	DeepSoul	Similar in sound and aesthetic to Southern Soul with more prominent gospel-vocal influences.
	Disco	Dance music style that originated in the United States in the early to late 1970s that fuses R&B, Funk & Soul music. Unlike the simpler four-piece band sound of the funk & soul of the late 1960s, disco music often included vocalists, with several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer), several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion, electronic drums), a horn section, a string orchestra, and a variety of 'classical' solo instruments. Not coincidentally Disco was generally a producer led genre rather than as centered as much around the artists as other genres. As a genre that introduced dj's, dance clubs, extended mixes and remixes, Disco is the true beginning and basis for all dance music
	DooWop	Doo Wop grafted African-American Gospel sensibilities with R&B and Rock N' Roll rhythms. 'Doo Wop' describes the intricate vocal interplay in the music; smooth diatonic vocal harmonies, shouts, and rhythmic vocals both respond to and accompany the lead vocal, as it is frequently traded-off between the singers of the group
	Funk	Created in the 1960s in the African American community as a blending of Soul, Jazz, and R&B. The genre deemphasizes melody and focuses on groove and bassline.
	GoGo	Heavily syncopated funk music with a large percussion section originating for Washington DC in the 1960s and 1970s.
	HiNRG	Typified by a fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-floor pattern), reverberated 'intense' vocals and 'pulsating' octave basslines, it was particularly influential on the EDM scene. It originated in the United States in the late 1970s and is pronounced 'high energy'.
	ItaloDisco	Disco music produced in Italy mainly from the 1970s to the late 1980s.
	MemphisSoul	Memphis Soul is a funkier soul music which describes pioneered by the artists of Memphis' Stax and Hi Records.
	MinneapolisFunk	Funk with elements of synth pop and new-wave that originated in Minneapolis in the late 1970s (in Prince's mind, basically). e.g. Prince, SOS Band, Morris Day & The Time, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Janet Jackson
	ModernR&B	R&B (modern) describes the modern fusion of soul gospel and funk with modern production techniques and technologies including sampling and synthesis.
	MotownSound	Named after the legendary Detroit record label founded by Berry Gordy, Motown was the first African-American owned label featuring African-American artists to achieve American mainstream popular success. The 'Motown Sound' characterized by soft, smooth, soulful vocals over simple, straight-forward arrangements with highly memorable melodic hooks echoing throughout the instrumentation. Motown's success and distinctive sound can be attributed to the use of the same songwriters, producers, musicians and studio for every recording. Notably, the Funk Brothers, a group of highly-talented session musicians who helped defined the sound and craft of Motown's music.
	NeoSoul	Neo-soul is the 1990s (to present) modern R&B re-invention of the classic soul era. It is a fusion of R&B's modern production techniques with a return to the singer-songwriter tradition and sound of the classic era of soul music. In unison with the identity of the classic soul music movement Neo-soul focuses on black American identity unity and socio-political consciousness.
	NewJackSwing	Originally called Swingbeat, New Jack Swing is the infusion of hip-hop beat-production techniques with the songwriting and sensual singing style of contemporary R&B. Producer and songwriter Teddy Riley is often credited as the founding force of the New Jack Swing sound (along with early Babyface & L.A. Reid).
	NewOrleansR&B	Buoyed by a usually uptempo and cheerful aesthetic, New Orleans R&B is primarily driven by piano, horn sections and vocal groups. However, it is also characterized by laid-back, swaying rhythms.
	OGFunk	e.g. James Brown, The J.B.s, The Meters, Bobby Byrd, Lyn Colins
	PFunk	Music created by George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic.
	Phillysound	Phillysound is the highly-produced and arranged soul music sound of 1970s Philadelphia. It's lush, impressive orchestrations include sweeping strings, intricate vocal interplay, horns and melodic jazz undertones. The Phillysound is the forerunner to Disco and Modern Urban and R&B.
	PopFunk	Funk combined with pop elements. e.g. Earth Wind & Fire, Kool & The Gang (post 1978), Brass Construction, LTD, Quincy Jones
	PsychedelicSoul	Considered to be a precursor to funk, Psychedelic Soul combines the modern technologies of the late 1960s including electronic keyboards and synthesizers, guitar effects, studio effects and production techniques similarly used in Psychedelic Rock to infuse esoteric, ambient and distorted textures into traditional soul arrangements.
	QuietStorm	R&B's answer to soft rock and adult contemporary. Primarily ballad-driven, soft, subdued and sensual anthems, Quiet Storm was inspired by the Smokey Robinson album 'A Quiet Storm'.
	RetroSoul	Retro Soul is the carbon copy re-creation of the musically-defining ingredients of the classic era of soul typically including the replication of vintage production aesthetics instrumentation arrangements and songwriting style.
	Soul	Developed in the African American community combining influences from traditional Gospel Music, Rhythm & Blues, and Rock n' Roll. Some notable artists are Ray Charles, James Brown, and Sam Cooke.
	SouthernSoul	Southern Soul is gritty, funky soul that borrows from southern gospel and high energy rhythm and blues. It is distinguished by a gospel- tinged singer, punchy horns, chicken-scratch guitars and tight rhythm sections.
	TraditionalR&B	A catch-all term referring to the first several decades of R&B's existence -- during which the genre emphasized blues- like rhythms, tight and spare instrumentation, and vocal groups.
	UrbanContemporaryGospel	A modern form of Christian music that expresses either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music. Musically, it follows the trends in secular urban contemporary music.
	WestCoastSoul	e.g. Johnny Otis, Barry White, Brenda Holloway, SOLAR.
	Dancehall	Developed in the late 1970s as a street offshoot of reggae in which singers or deejays performed over pre-recorded backing tracks played on sound systems. In the mid 80s, faster rhythms and digital electronic elements like drum machines, samplers and synthesizers began to predominate among dancehall productions. Lyrics are oriented toward local dancehall audiences, and are more concerned with dancing, sex, and violence than the political or Rastafarian themes of reggae. A major precursor to hip-hop, as that style formed amongst New York block parties inspired by Jamaican sound system culture and dancehall music, brought to New York by Jamaican immigrants.
	Dub	Essentially reggae with vocals removed, heavy emphasis on bass and drums, and extensive use of studio production techniques such as delay, reverb, and dubbing of vocal and instrumental snippets over the beat. The sound is spacious, relaxed, and minimal. Dub was spurred by the popularity of instrumental versions of reggae tracks at sound system parties, and originally began to be commercially released as producer-led instrumental B-sides of 45 rpm reggae singles in the late 1960s. The style gained popularity and developed its own following, creating its own star artists, such as the melodicist Augustus Pablo and the producer King Tubby. Often cited as a major precursor to and forefather of contemporary electronic dance music - the concept of remixing is believed to have originated with dub.
	Rocksteady	Slower descendant of ska. Said to be the result of a hot summer in 1966 and the subsequent need for more relaxed dance music. Like ska, rocksteady features skanking offbeat rhythms and horns, but its perceived tempo is nearly half that of ska, due to a slower harmonic rhythm and lower density of rhythmic events. The slower rhythm creates more space for vocalists and musicians to be melodically expressive. Rocksteady later politicized and spiritualized into reggae.
	RootsReggae	Classic reggae - Bob Marley & the Wailers, Burning Spear, Steel Pulse, The Abyssinians, etc. An ideologized descendant of rocksteady, and like that style, sonically typified by skanking guitar, an offbeat emphasis, and low to mid tempos. Lyrics are often political or spiritual, and concern topics from Rastafarianism, poverty, and love to corruption, racial oppression, and liberation. Emerged in the late 1960s and reached its most prominent phase of cultural output in the late 70s.
	Ska	Features fast tempos, lead horns, and skanking piano and guitar putting emphasis on the backbeat, giving ska a trademark jerky liveliness. Earliest internationally successful style of Jamaican popular music. Incorporates a variety of influences, ranging from New Orleans R&B, jump blues, and jazz to Jamaican mento and Caribbean calypso. Rocksteady and its descendant, reggae, developed as a slower evolution of ska. Ska has spawned international subgenres mingled with punk in the UK and US which maintain the fast tempo and horns of ska, such as 2-Tone and Third Wave.
	AfroRock	Rock music played by African musicians, with Western instruments and harmonies, though sometimes with more distinctly African percussion instruments.
	AltMetal	Characterized by most notably heavy riffs but usually with a pronounced experimental edge, including unconventional lyrics, more syncopation than typical metal, unusual technique, a resistance to conventional approaches to heavy music and an incorporation of a wide range of influences outside of the metal music scene.
	AlternativeRock	Wide-ranging subgenre of rock music, originally underground, or (since the 90s, especially) mainstream but with roots in and major influence from prior underground music, such as punk.
	ArtRock	Art Rock and Progressive Rock are quite similar. Art Rock, though, is more likely to have experimental or avant-garde influences, placing novel sonic texture above prog-rock's symphonic ambitions. Both Art Rock and Progressive rock stem from a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility.
	BlackMetal	Black Metal often employs fast tempos, shrieked vocals, highly distorted guitars played with tremolo picking, double-kick drumming, and unconventional song structure. When composing music, guitarists often use scales, intervals and chord progressions that produce the most dissonant, fearful and ominous sounds. Additionally, guitar solos and low guitar tunings are a rarity in black metal.
	BoogieRock	Extending from the popular Blues Rock sounds of the late 1960s, Boogie Rock placed a greater emphasis on a repetitive groove instead of improvisation.
	BritRock	Brit Rock refers not to the entire pantheon of British Rock music, but instead a spate of British bands from the late 1980s- early 90s who were influenced by 1960s British Rock, New Wave and Punk.
	BritishInvasion	Influenced by American Rock n Roll and Blues, a wave of British bands found popularity in the U.S. in the mid-1960s-- thanks in no small part to the Beatles. Their sound reflected a range of styles-- from bluesy hard rock to sweet pop/rock. A second wave in the late 60s found influence in both American musicians and their British precedents.
	BritPop	Britpop is an amalgam of various group from English Pop history: The Beatles, The Kinks, David Bowie, The Smiths and XTC (among a plethora of others) created music which would influence a generation of British performers. Britpop focuses on British culture and the British experience with little regard for how it is perceived outside of British Society. Although it may have been moderately popular in foreign underground music scenes, the music is/was highly commercialized in the UK. Britpop typically has a bright sound, as the genre was formed as a response to the darker lyrical trends of popular music at the time.
	ClassicRock	The timeless rock format of the 1960s and 1970s. Hints of glam and psychedelia with the raw energy and palatability of 1960s Pop Rock.
	DarkWave	Although Darkwave can be traced back to the beginnings of Post Punk and Synth Pop, the term was first used in the early 1980s to describe bands of these styles with a noticeably dark sound and lyrics. Darkwave is essentially Post Punk with a gothic sound and lyrics focusing on self-deprecation, angst and drug use.
	DeathMetal	Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal. It typically employs fast tempos, heavily distorted guitars, deep demonic growling vocals, blast beat drumming, and complex song structures with multiple tempo changes.
	DoomMetal	Doom metal is a form of heavy metal music that typically employs very slow tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much 'thicker' or 'heavier' sound than other metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics intend to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom.
	EarlyRock	Mainstream rock styles prevalent before the 90s.
	ElectroGoth	Combination of goth rock/dark wave and electronic music.
	EmoRock	Emo rock is a style of rock music characterized by melodic musicianship and expressive, often confessional lyrics. It originated in the mid-1980s hardcore punk movement of Washington, DC, where it was known as 'emotional hardcore' or 'emocore' and pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace.
	ExperimentalRock	Characterized by atypical sounds, arrangements, performance techniques, or production techniques.
	FunkMetal	Combines hard-driving heavy metal guitar riffs, the pounding bass rhythms characteristic of funk, and sometimes hip hop-style rhymes into an alternative rock approach to songwriting.
	GarageRock	Far more gritty and less melodic than its Pop Punk counterparts, Garage bands fostered an attitude that was frequently angry, cynical, darkly humorous and violent-- though its early practitioners were more playful. Garage garnered its name thanks to its amateur inclinations both in its live performance and production values. However, it defied geography and significantly influenced mainstream acts of the 1960s and 70s.
	GlamRock	A sub-genre whose aesthetic is based as much on fashion as music, Glam Rock's flamboyant hedonism catered to a style that dabbled at once in hard rock and eccentric balladeering.
	GothicMetal	It combines the aggression of heavy metal with the dark melancholy of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different styles of heavy metal music. Lyrics are generally melodramatic and mournful with inspiration from gothic fiction as well as personal experiences.
	GothicRock	Also referred to as goth rock or simply goth, Gothic Rock is a musical subgenre of alternative rock. Gothic rock bands grew from the strong ties they had to the English punk rock and emerging post-punk scenes. The genre itself was defined as a separate movement from punk rock during the early 1980s largely due to the significant stylistic divergences of the movement; gothic rock, as opposed to punk, combines dark, often keyboard-heavy music with introspective and depressing lyrics.
	Grindcore	Grindcore is characterized by heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, high speed tempo, blast beats, songs often lasting no more than two minutes (some are seconds long), and vocals which consist of growls and high-pitched screams. Lyrical themes range from social and political issues to gore and black humor.
	Grunge	Has its roots in Punk and Heavy Metal with heavily distorted guitars and lyrical themes of existential angst. Grunge was a reaction to the polished production, overwrought showmanship and fashion of mainstream music in the 1980s. However, in the 1990s Grunge dominated mainstream rock music due to the success of bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
	HairMetal	Also known as Glam Metal, Hair Metal is a subgenre of heavy metal, which features pop-influenced hooks and guitar riffs, and borrows from the fashion of 1970s glam rock.
	HardRock	The major influence on hard rock is blues music. Considerably harder than conventional rock music. Hard rock is loud, aggressive guitar rock, but it isn't as heavy as heavy metal, and it's only very rarely influenced by punk (though it helped inspire punk). Hard rock generally prizes big, stadium-ready guitar riffs, anthemic choruses, and stomping, swaggering backbeats.
	HardcorePunk	Hardcore punk (or hardcore) is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock, while its vocalists usually scream, chant and use spoken word poetry. Hardcore was heavily involved with the rise of the independent record labels in the 1980s and with the DIY ethics in underground music scenes. It has influenced a number of music genres which have experienced mainstream success, such as alternative rock, metalcore, grunge, thrash metal, emo, and post-hardcore.
	HeartlandRock	Influenced by 60s and 70s Garage Rock, Americana, and Roots rock, Heartland rock is a timeless genre that has mass appeal, catchy hooks, and anthemic production. This sub-genre is epitomized by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Bob Seger.
	IndieRock	Indie is short for 'independent,' leading one to assume that Indie Rock is concurrent with the Punk DIY aesthetic. Since Indie Rock is free of the mainstream, it allows bands to experiment and incorporate aspects of underground culture. Since the late 1990s, Indie Rock has grown in popularity with bands signing to corporate record labels and music publishers, thus Indie Rock has become more of a prescription for song composition than a protest against commercialism.
	Industrial	Abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music, industrial was initially a blend of avant-garde electronics experiments (tape music, musique concrète, white noise, synthesizers, sequencers, etc.) and punk provocation. It's early forms included mail art, performance art, installation pieces and other art forms.
	IndustrialMetal	While pure 'industrial' takes its primary cues from experimental music and electronic dance, Industrial Metal makes the distorted noise of electric guitars a crucial part of the music. Ministry was the first band to popularize industrial metal in the late '80s, basing their signature grind on countless repetitions of jackhammer guitar riffs, as well as electronics, samples, and distorted vocals; however, it was Nine Inch Nails that really brought the sound to the mainstream during the early '90s, thanks to Trent Reznor's flair for melodic songwriting and multi-layered production.
	JovemGuarda	Music from a Brazilian Television Program with performing musicians playing music influenced by early American rock and British Invasion bands.
	Krautrock	Kraut Rock refers to the legions of German bands of the early '70s that expanded the sonic possibilities of art and progressive rock. Working with early synthesizers and splicing together seemingly unconnected reels of tape, bands like Faust, Can, and Neu created a droning, pulsating sound that owed more to the avant garde than to rock & roll.
	MathRock	Has complex, frequently changing meters, contrapuntal guitar lines, and dissonant harmonies. Math rock draws influence from progressive rock and 20th century composers.
	Merseybeat	Beat music constituted one of the first forms of British Pop not directly inspired by American musicians. Its most famous proponents are the Beatles, whose melodic sensibility and complex songwriting style harkened to more traditional forms of European folk music.
	Metal	Characterized by a thick, massive sound with highly amplified distortion, extended guitar solos, and emphatic beats. The genre was pioneered by the bands Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple. Metal music has since split into many sub genres.
	Metalcore	Metalcore combines extreme metal with hardcore punk. The most defining characteristic of metalcore is the presence of breakdowns where the music goes into a half-time heavily syncopated groove. These breakdowns are generally the climax of intensity for the song. Blastbeats, and hardcore style double time riffs are also common.
	NoWave	An avant-garde music scene that existed in the late 1970s and early 80s in New York City. Most No Wave groups prominently featured dissonance, atonality, and noise in their music, and they generally foregrounded musical texture over melody. No Wave groups, unlike other reactive scenes of the 70s, such as punk, generally rejected common rock tropes. The name 'No Wave' is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the then mainstream genre of New Wave. No Wave music varied widely in sound, and groups took influence from genres such as funk, free jazz, blues, and punk rock. No Wave represented a nihilistic philosophy inspired by the urban decay of 1970s New York. Brian Eno's compilation album No New York is a good introduction to the scene. In the 80s, the No Wave scene gravitated toward making more danceable music, and started to work in elements of hip hop, disco, dub reggae, and world music.
	NoiseRock	Noise-Rock is an outgrowth of punk rock, specifically the sort of punk that expressed youthful angst and exuberance through the glorious racket of amateurishly played electric guitars. Most noise-rock bands concentrate on the ear-shattering sounds that can be produced by distorted electric guitars, some also use electronic instrumentation, whether as percussion or to add to an overall cacophony of sound.
	NuMetal	Nu metal is a blend of grunge, alternative metal, and funk metal. Vocals have a range extending from melodic singing, rapping, and guttural screaming, to death growls and shouting. Bass parts are often reminiscent of hip hop or funk grooves, and in some songs, slap bass technique is used to give the music a funk groove.
	Oi!	Began in the UK as an attempt to keep Punk music rooted in working-class/street culture. It was a simpler, harder, and faster version of Punk - aligning itself with drinking songs and football chants. Unfortunately, (due to the band 'Skrewdriver') the genre became closely associated with Neo-Nazism.
	PopPunk	Pop Punk is an amalgam of Punk and Pop, taking cues from mainstream pop music while playing in a punk style: fast distorted riffs, simple composition and melodies. Lyrics are usually wry, cocky and/or apathetic.
	PostGrunge	Began to surface almost immediately after the commercial success of the Grunge movement. Post Grunge essentially used the Grunge aesthetic as a prescription for song composition-- imitating the Grunge sound, while incorporating mainstream production techniques. The result is a movement created specifically for the spotlight of the 1990s.
	PostRock	Post-rock was the dominant form of experimental rock during the '90s. Post-rock was hypnotic and often droning (especially the guitar- oriented bands), and the brighter-sounding groups were still cool and cerebral -- overall, the antithesis of rock's visceral power.
	PostHardcore	A product of the early hardcore punk movement, Post-Hardcore conveys a more expressive and complex means of communicating aggravation and angst. Post-Hardcore utilizes the harsh, guitar-heavy timbres of Hardcore Punk, but expands beyond the fast tempos and three-chord composition.
	PostPunk	Post Punk took the independent, D.I.Y. attitude of Punk and incorporated musical experimentation. This resulted in a more complicated derivative of Punk, with particular attention paid to lyrics and composition. Post Punk paved the way for what would become known as Alternative Rock/Pop music.
	PowerPop	Amalgam of pop and rock-- incorporates the energy of 1960s British rock groups with the Beatles-esque melodies and harmonies. Power Pop typically features crisp catchy guitar riffs, vibrant synths, tight vocal harmonies and a strong rhythm section. Production-wise, songs are typically polished and processed.
	ProgressiveMetal	Progressive metal is a fusion genre; a mixture of progressive rock and heavy metal. Progressive metal blends the powerful, guitar-driven sound of metal with the complex compositional structures, odd time signatures, and intricate instrumental playing of progressive rock. Some progressive metal bands are also influenced by jazz fusion and classical music. Like progressive rock songs, progressive metal songs are usually much longer than standard metal songs, and they are often thematically linked in concept albums.
	ProgressiveRock	Art Rock and Progressive Rock (Prog Rock) are quite similar. Prog Rock, though, tends to be more traditionally melodic (even when multi-sectioned compositions replace normal song structures), and more oriented toward classically trained instrumental technique. Both Art Rock and Prog Rock stem from a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility.
	ProtoPunk	Proto-Punk refers to a number of bands which were essential precursors to the Punk movement. Since the term refers to a large group of bands, the characteristics of the subgenre vary from band to band. For the most part, these bands were precursors to Punk because they represented the Punk aesthetic before there technically was a Punk aesthetic. These characteristics include primitive production, amateur sounding composition, DIY aesthetic, etc.
	PsychedelicRock	Influenced by the psychedelic culture of the 1960s, Psychedelic Rock bands sought to expand the possibilities of Rock music by incorporating Eastern musical traditions, unusual effects for instruments and free-form song structures. Psychedelic Rock tends toward a dreamy impressionism in its aesthetic, though many of its practitioners were also attached to a traditional, hard-driving Rock sound.
	Psychobilly	Psychobilly combined the Rockabilly revival of the late 70s/early 80s with a distinctly Punk aesthetic and attitude; fast rhythms and loud guitars are accompanied by a countrified swing. Psychobilly maintains a lyrical style that usually plays with cultural taboos, exploring topics like violence and sexuality.
	Punk	Born in the 1970s out of 1960s garage music. Focused on the rejection of mainstream music and culture. Punk rock featured short fast-paced songs with simple instrumentation and harsh guitar and vocal tone. Some notable artists include Ramones, The Clash, and Sex Pistols.
	RiotGrrrl	Riot Grrrl is a feminist punk movement closely associated with the LGBT movement, Queer Theory, and Straight Edge movements. Because of it's association with political activism, it has developed into a subculture. The music is comprised of typically loud and distorted instrumentation with a primary focus on political and social issue themed lyrics.
	RockNRoll	Rock n Roll constitutes an early incarnation of Rock music, a genre of popular music characterized by small groups, boogie woogie blues rhythms, and often sexual lyrics. Rock n Roll had a massive social impact, influencing dance, fashion, language and other art forms, and would generate innumerable new genres over the ensuing decades.
	Rockabilly	An amalgam of early Rock n Roll, Blues and Country music, Rockabilly's frenzied and visceral beat was usually performed with spare instrumentation that touched on traditional country/folk arrangements.
	SambaRock	A Brazilian genre that fuses samba and rock elements.
	Screamo	Screamo takes cues from Hardcore and Emo music, combining the two. The lyrics are typically overwrought and melodramatic, referring to relationships, self-deprecation and violence. The music is distorted and loud, embodying the existential angst inherent to the lyrics.
	Shoegaze	Named after the stoic, hunched performances of its early progenitors, Shoegaze describes a style of Pop that is at once introspective, dense, melodic and noisy. Heavily effected guitars are often layered to create an all-encompassing and dreamlike atmosphere
	SoftRock	Smoother sounding than hard rock, with melodic songs and lush production.
	SouthAmericanRock	Blends influences from American Rock and South American Latin styles.
	SouthernRock	Fusing 60s Blues Rock and Country, Southern Rock places an emphasis on electric guitar-led jams and Country-influenced melodies.
	SpaceRock	Space rock refers to a new generation of alternative/indie bands that draw from psychedelic rock, ambient music, and -- more often than not -- experimental and avant-garde influences. Space rock is nearly always slow, hypnotic, and otherworldly; it typically favors lengthy, mind- bending sonic explorations over conventional song structures, and vocals sometimes play second fiddle to the shimmering instrumental textures.
	SpeedMetal	Described as aggressive and 'extremely fast, abrasive, and technically demanding music. Also speed metal eventually toned down its intense tempos and evolved into thrash metal. Two of the most influential bands to the genre were English groups Motörhead and Judas Priest
	StonerRock	Stoner rock and stoner metal are interchangeable terms describing sub-genres of rock and metal music. It combines elements of psychedelic rock, blues-rock and doom metal. Stoner rock is typically slow-to-mid tempo and features low-tuned guitars, a bass-heavy sound, melodic vocals, and 'retro' production.
	Surf	Came out of the surfing culture of the early 1960s. Initially it was instrumental music featuring a lead saxophone or electric guitar heavily affected by reverb (to emulate the sound of the ocean). Vocal Surf Pop followed with notable acts such as The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean. There are a variety of guitar playing techniques that are associated with surf including bending notes downward with the whammy bar and tremolo picking. It was also one of the first Pop music styles to incorporate the use of electric bass. Through use of these techniques, the reverb, and later, beach-themed lyrics, performers sought to capture the essence of surfing in musical form. Named after the sport with which it became so closely associated, Surf rock is typified by reverb-effected electric guitar, three-chord song structures, rolling drum fills, and vocal harmonies.
	SwampRock	Started in south Louisiana and combines New Orleans R&B, country, and traditional French Louisiana Musical Influences.
	ThirdWaveSka	Combines elements of ska with punk, rock, and pop. e.g. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Reel Big Fish.
	ThrashMetal	Thrash metal (sometimes referred to simply as thrash), is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal that is characterized by its fast tempo and aggression. Thrash metal songs typically use fast, percussive and low-register guitar riffs, overlaid with shredding-style lead work.[1] Thrash metal lyrics often deal with social issues using direct and denunciatory language, an approach which partially overlaps with the hardcore genre.
	Tropicalia	The 1968 album Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis is regarded as the musical manifesto of the Tropicália movement. Although it was a collaborative project, the main creative forces behind the album were Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. The album experimented with unusual time signatures and unorthodox song structures, and also mixed tradition with innovation.
	TwoTone	British music that fuses traditional ska with musical elements of punk rock and new wave music. It developed in the late 1980s.
	Underground	Underground rock fabricated from bands and artists unwilling to be influenced by mainstream music and culture. Underground rock is described by the aesthetic of complete disconnect.
	Commentary	A descriptive spoken account of events, usually as they occur.
	Conversation	An exchange of ideas by multiple people through speech.
	Interview	Conversation where questions are asked and answers are given.
	Monologue	A long speech by a single person.
	Poetry	Reciting of a poem. Evokes vivid emotions, while having some form of style or rhythm.
	Skit	Theatrical recording, often humorous. Common on rap albums.
	StandUpComedy	A comic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience.
	Afoxe	Afoxé is an Afro Brazilian genre of music and it is a traditional rhythm of Pernambuco. It is a secular manifestation of candomblé which utilizes a rhythm known as 'ijexá'.
	AfricanMusic	Sub-Saharan traditional music is characterized by extensive use of percussion, complex polyrhythms, and frequent use of improvisation and call & response. North African music is closely tied to Middle Eastern music. There are a wide variety of distinct traditional music styles in Africa, mostly relying on oral tradition. West African music in particular has had a major influence on modern popular music.
	ArgentinianMusic	Argentina has a strong regional folk music culture. Some of the distinct styles include Andean Music, Chacarera, and Chamamé. Los Chalchaleros, Los Fronterizos. The Ábalos brothers are some important folk music groups that became famous as some of the first Argentinian folk musicians to record their music.
	BalineseMusic	Has gamelan as well as other Indonesian musical styles. Bali, however, has its own techniques and styles, including kecak, a form of singing that imitates the sound of monkeys. In addition, the island is home to several unique kinds of gamelan, including the gamelan jegog, gamelan gong gede, gamelan gambang, gamelan selunding and gamelan semar pegulingan, the cremation music angklung and the processional music bebonangan.
	BrazilianMusic	Influenced by Portuguese and African music. Some native Brazilian genres are Capoeira Music, Maracatu, Afoxé, and Repente.
	Calypso	A style of Afro-Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to mid-19th century. It features a characteristic syncopated rhythm.
	CapoeiraMusic	Music played to accompany Capoeira. Common instruments used are the ngoma drums and berimbau.
	CaribbeanMusic	Influenced by African Music as a result of the West African Slave Trade, as well as by European music, and to a more limited extent, by native music.
	CarnaticMusic	Music commonly associated with southern India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, as well as Sri Lanka. It is one of two main subgenres of Indian classical music that evolved from ancient Hindu traditions. The main emphasis in Carnatic music is on vocal music; most compositions are written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are meant to be performed in gāyaki (singing) style.
	ChaChaCha	Derived from Danzón music but with a monodic vocal style.
	ChileanMusic	Music of indigenous Chilean people such as the Mapuche, Atacama, and Fueguinos peoples. Chilean folk genres began to blossom after the Chilean colonial period ended and influential musicians from other South American countries came to Chile.
	Choro	Often has a fast and happy rhythm. It is characterized by virtuosity, improvisation and subtle modulations, and is full of syncopation and counterpoint. It originated in Rio de Janeiro in the 19th century.
	ColombianMusic	There are many traditional music genres of Columbia, which are all dependent on specific regions. Cumbia is the most popular traditional Columbian music genre.
	Contradanza	The Cuban form of the English Contradanse.
	CubanMusic	Influenced mostly by West African Music and Spanish Music. Traditional forms include Changüí, Coros de clave, Kiribá, Nengón, and Tumba francesa
	Cueca	A family of Chilean music styles performed to accompany Chile's national dance of the same name.
	Cumbia	A Columbian dance music which features vocals singing of the national resistance. The genre originated in the 1820s.
	CzechMusic	[missing definition]
	Danzon	Danzó is a slow Cuban dance genre in 2/4 with elegant pauses for virtuosic instrumental passages.
	Dimotiko	Emerged as a fusion between traditional Greek music and the Byzantine choir music of the Turkish Empire.
	DominicanMusic	Merengue and Bachata are the most popular forms of music in The Dominican Republic. Traditional Dominican Music is influenced by West African, European, and native Taino Music.
	Fado	A traditional Portuguese genre which uses the dorian or ionian modes.
	Flamenco	Traditional music of Andalusian Romani. Flamenco was thought to have started with the migration of Indian gypsies traveling through the middle east and eventually settling in Spain and therefore has many middle eastern and Spanish influences. The music has endured much political backlash throughout its history. Flamenco is characterized by its unique virtuosic singing and guitar playing. The instruments used are the voice, guitar and palmas (hand clapping), as those were the instruments that the Romani gypsies could bring on their travels. Flamenco dancing is a fundamental Flamenco genre and culture, and Flamenco music often accompanies dancing.
	FrenchMusic	Traditional French Folk Music was mostly overshadowed by Cabaret and Chanson, but still remains prominent in isolated regions of France. France was also home to many notable Romantic era composers.
	GauchoMusic	The traditional music of Southern Brazil, especially the one of Río Grande do Sul state, whose population has a strong ancestry of European countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Germany. The songs of gaucho music present themes of the folk traditions of the gaucho: field, farm, horse, moral values, regional cuisine, women. The music is built in a slow, intimate manner, with lyrics abundant in metaphors. Some representative artists have been Teixeirinha, José Mendes, Gildo de Freitas, Dimas Costa, Gaúcho da Fronteira, Porca Véia.
	GermanMusic	Traditional German Folk Music differs in every region of Germany. Germany also produced many well known classical music composers from the Baroque Period on.
	GreekMusic	Traditional Greek Music can be traced back to ancient Greek lyre music. Greece was the birthplace of western music theory through the creation of modes.
	Guaracha	A Cuban genre with a rapid tempo and comic or picaresque lyrics.
	HindustaniClassicalMusic	Besides vocal music, which is considered to be of primary importance, its main instruments are the sitar and sarod. Classical music can be divided into melody and rhythm; there is no concept of harmony.
	IndianMusic	[missing definition]
	IndonesianMusic	Indonesia is made up of thousands of islands each with a unique musical history. The most well known Indonesian Music comes from the islands Java, Sumatra, Bali, and Flores.
	IrishMusic	Traditional Irish music was usually either for singing or dancing. Folk music in Ireland used instruments such as harps, woodwinds, hornpipes, trumpets and bones.
	ItalianMusic	[missing definition]
	JamaicanMusic	Traditional Jamaican music is generally thought of as Calypso and Mento music, which are predecessors of Reggae genres.
	JavaneseMusic	The main genre of traditional Javanese music is Javanese Gamelan, which is slightly different than Balinese Gamelan in that it also uses string instruments.
	JewishMusic	[missing definition]
	JugEnsemble	Jug Ensemble Blues is played by a band consisting of a glass or stone jug played like a brass instrument by buzzing the lips into its mouth, along with a mix of both conventional and homemade instruments. Homemade instruments used include washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe and kazoo.
	Klezmer	A musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim in ensembles known as kapelye, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations.
	Mambo	Mambo, a Latin dance of Cuba.
	Maracatu	An Afro-Brazilian performance genre practiced in the state of Pernambuco, mainly in the cities of Recife and Olinda. The musical ensemble consists of alfaia (a large wooden rope-tuned drum), gonguê (a metal cowbell), tarol (a shallow snare drum), caixa-de-guerra, (or 'war-snare'), agbê (a gourd shaker enveloped in a net of beads), and mineiro (a metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small dried seeds). The song form is call and response between a solo singer and (usually) a female chorus.
	Merengue	A fast dance genre with fast arrangements and a 2/4 beat. The traditional instrumentation for a conjunto típico (traditional band), the usual performing group of folk merengue, is a diatonic accordion, a two–sided drum, called a tambora, held on the lap, and a güira.
	MexicanMusic	Consists of standard Mexican song and ensemble forms such as conjunto, banda, mariachi, and Duranguense.
	MiddleEasternMusic	Middle Eastern music traditions span from Iran to Morocco. Middle Eastern Music is considered separate from music traditions of certain middle eastern countries such as Persian Music and Turkish Music. Various strings, winds, and percussion are used in this genre.
	NeapolitanSong	Songs sung in the Neapolitan language.
	NorthAmericanMusic	Traditional North American Music can range from the music of indigenous North American People to Early American Folk songs.
	PakistaniMusic	Traditional Pakistani Music has many forms. A common classical form is Hindustani Music. Most music is made up of melody and rhythmic cycles.
	Palo	Also known as Atabales, Palo is a sacred religious music in which a drum and voice are the main instruments.
	Pilón	A Cuban dance genre where the rhythms are based on the motions of pounding sugarcane.
	Polka	[missing definition]
	PortugueseMusic	Portuguese music finds influence from many different cultures due to Portugal's geographic location. Fado emerged as an important Portuguese folk genre. Various types of guitars are the most common Portuguese instruments.
	PuertoRicanMusic	Music by Puerto Rican people greatly influenced by Spanish and West African music.
	PunjabiMusic	Ranges from classical music to folk songs. The Folk music sometimes uses lyrics derived from poetry or folk tales. Instruments used include the Tumbi, Algoze, Dhadd, Sarangi, and Chimta.
	Ragtime	A form of music in which bass notes play on onbeats, chords play on offbeats, and melodic accents are syncopated and occur between beats. It is mostly piano-centric, though there are also prominent examples of guitar-based ragtime music. Ragtime developed in the American Midwest in the late 19th century by African American musicians who added distinctively African syncopation and polyrhythms to the popular march style of music.
	Repente	A form of improvisation where a singer riffs on lyrical themes suggested by an audience. The themes are usually based around themes from literatura de cordel.
	RomanianMusic	Heavily melody based. Often times the only percussion instrument used is the cimbalon. Violin and voice are the primary melodic instruments. Romanian music is often compared to Balkan and Turkish music.
	Salves	A call-and-response type of singing that uses güira, panderos, at yales and other African instruments. Salves are highly ceremonial and are used in pilgrimages and at parties dedicated to voodoo saints.
	Samba	Samba, a Brazilian dance style.
	Son	A syncretic genre that blends elements of Spanish and African origin. Among its fundamental Hispanic components are the vocal style, lyrical metre and the primacy of the tres, derived from the Spanish guitar. On the other hand, its characteristic clave rhythm, call and response structure and percussion section (bongo, maracas, etc.) are all rooted in traditions of Bantu origin.
	SouthAmericanMusic	Often based around dance or romance. There are many different cultural ties to music in South America. Instruments commonly used are strings, guitar, brass, voice, and various Latin percussion instruments.
	SpanishMusic	Traditional Spanish Music can be traced back to the medieval music of the Moors, but is known today to draw influence from many different places. Form and instrumentation of Spanish music differs depending on what region of Spain the music originates from.
	Spiritual	Consist mostly of old African-American hymns. Given the oral tradition that allowed these songs to be passed on, they are predominantly vocal and refrain-heavy.
	Tango	Argentinian tango is in 2/4 or 4/4 time characterized by its famous dotted rhythm. The genre can have vocals or be instrumental. It was started by European immigrants in Argentina as far back as the late 19th century.
	TibetanMusic	A religious music formed from Tibetan Buddhism. The Music told the stories of Buddhist Parables through the use of song forms. Street music was also used as a way to spread news or political commentary.
	Tonada	A monotonous song with a melancholic theme played in rural areas in Chile.
	TurkishMusic	Traditional Turkish music was shaped by the migration and immigration of many peoples and also by the rule of the Ottoman Empire. There are many forms and settings of Turkish music ranging from gypsy street band forms to court music and religious music. Typical instruments include tambur, ney, oud, and various percussion instruments.
	TurkishClassicalMusic	Sometimes referred to as Ottoman Classical Music, Turkish Classical music is a primarily vocal music. Performed by a vocal soloist and small ensembles consisting of instruments such as the tambur, ney, kemençe, and kanun.
	WorkSongs	A style of music sung by enslaved African-Americans and later by free manual laborers to pass the time while working, with emphasis on overlapping call-and-response between a leader singing partially improvised verses and a larger group of men responding with more static choruses.
	Exotica	Post-war Western appropriative music meant to depict fantasies of life in imagined-to-be sunny and exotic tribal Africa, the Andes, the Amazon basin, Hawaii, Southeast Asia, and especially Oceania. Contains elements of orchestral easy listening styles such as light music as well as of big band jazz, with instrumentation typically borrowing from those styles as well as commonly including vibraphones and various instruments from different parts of the world, such as congas, bongos, Indonesian and Burmese gongs, bamboo sticks, Tahitian logs, Chinese bell trees, and Japanese kotos. Animal noises such as bird calls, big cat roars and primate shrieks are often incorporated. Seminal albums include Les Baxter’s Ritual of the Savage and Martin Denny’s Exotica.
	NewAge	Serves to inspire relaxation and positive spiritual feelings. Its ethereal textures and circular rhythms are often used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, stress management, or to create a peaceful atmosphere, and the music is often created specifically for such a purpose. Associated with environmentalism and New Age spirituality. Individual compositions sit on a spectrum from acoustic to electric, with many instances in-between. Acoustic forms often incorporate flute, piano, and acoustic guitar in addition to a variety of non-Western instruments, whereas electronic forms tend to contain sustained synth pads and lengthy sequencer patterns. When present, vocals often consist of references to different mythologies or chants inspired by Native American, Sanskrit and Tibetan traditions. Emerged in the 1960s and attained major record label support by the 80s.
	NewFlamenco	Combination of traditional flamenco guitar and singing styles with various contemporary popular music styles such as jazz, salsa, and rock. Developed from traditional flamenco in late 1970s Spain in response to the traditional style’s popular displacement by rock music in the 50s and 60s. Prominent artists include Paco de Lucía, the Gipsy Kings, and Rosalía.
	WorldFusionJazz	Fusion of jazz with various global traditional musical elements.
	Worldbeat	Blend of Western pop and rock with various global traditional music styles. Emerged as a coined term in the mid-1980s.
	UserDefined	A Type of an Entity which is defined by a sender of a DdexMessage in a manner acceptable to its recipient.

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