What Are The Common Music Genres?

While pop music is literally short for “popular music,” the genre evolved vastly over the last century. 

Initially, the genre included artists like Scott Joplin; however, he is now considered a jazz musician. 

Modern pop music started gaining traction in the 1940s and 50s with the arrival of artists and bands like Duke Ellington, the Andrew Sisters, and Glenn Miller. 

Pop music further expanded its market with the introduction of television in American households in the 1950s. 

Genres like soft rock, dance, and R&B are believed to have been heavily influenced by pop music. The use of pop songs in several TV shows helped grow its reach among regular TV viewers.

The genre comprises several subgenres, including art pop, indie pop, Surf pop, teen pop, and more. It is currently the most popular music niche in the world. 

Some of the most famous pop artists and bands include Maroon 5, U2, Queen, The Eagles, Coldplay, and One Direction.

Rock music, also known as rock & roll, was made famous by musician Bill Haley in the 50s. 

In the 60s, British bands like the Herman’s Hermits, Rolling Stones, and the Beatles took the genre to new heights of popularity.

Over the years, rock has been categorized into multiple subgenres like psychedelic rock, soft rock, progressive rock, arena rock, grunge rock, and more.

Today, several artists and groups are associated with the genre, including The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Foo Fighters, and many more.

Rock music remained vastly popular from the 50s to the early 2010s. While its influence has significantly lowered in the last few years due to the availability of different new formats of music, the genre is far from obsolete.

Still, there are multiple rock bands that have packed-stadiums ticket sales and millions in revenue from merchandise sales.

R&B, short for Rhythm and Blues, is a famous music genre. It developed in the 1940s when African-American artists started combining jazz and blues music.

The genre was initially called race music but was later rebranded as “Rhythm & Blues” by music journalist Jerry Wexler. 

R&B is based on playing powerful downbeat by the rhythm section, normally in a simple quadruple of 4/4 meter. Due to its simplistic technique, r&b was initially considered “lowbrow” when compared to complex art forms like jazz.

Similarly, vocals consisted of melodies and lyrics resembling blues. The genre was pioneered by artists like Jackie Wilson and Little Richard in the 50s.

Famous artists currently associated with the category include The Weeknd, John Legend, Beyonce, Mariah Carey, Drake, and Bruno Mars, among others.

Likewise, R&B subgenres consist of Contemporary R&B, Doo Wop, Motown, Soul, Funk, and more.

Hip Hop is a style of music that developed in the Bronx, New York during the 1970s. 

A 2017 Nielsen report called it the most popular music genre in the US, surpassing rock music. 

The genre first evolved as an underground movement in the Bronx. At the time, its influence was limited to neighborhoods with a majority African-American population. 

The first hip hop song was recorded for commercial use in TV and radio in 1979. Old school hip hop became the first mainstream wave of the category, primarily due to its party-themed lyrics. 

Over the years, several subgenres emerged, including gangsta rap, alternative hip hop, jazz rap, hardcore hip hop, Atlanta hip hop, and more.

DJs like Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaata, and Grandmaster Flash, are often considered the pioneers of hip hop music.

The genre consists of four components, including MCing, deejaying, break dancing, and beatboxing. Previously, graffiti was also considered an element of hip hop; however, it is no longer a major element of the genre.

Likewise, music listeners often interchange hip hop with rap music. But, rapping is only a component of the broad category. 

Artists currently associated with the genre include Kanye West, Jay-Z, Travis Scott, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and so on.

Metal, also known as heavy metal, refers to music featuring heavily distorted guitar melody and chords, aggressive vocals, loud drumming, and low bass notes.

It became famous in the 1960s with the arrival of bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Similarly, musicians like Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris, Black Sabbath’s Ronnie James Dio, Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, Deep Purple’s Richie Blackmore, and Ozzy Osbourne, among others are considered iconic metal artists. 

Metal music was heavily lambasted by critics in the initial days, even though it has famous with the listeners. Accusations of misogyny were common due to the words used in the lyrics of these songs. 

The genre has several subcategories, including shock metal, glam metal, thrash metal, black metal, and death metal. 

The influence and popularity of metal music have significantly decreased over the years but many groups are still famous for their live performances. Bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden and Avenged Sevenfold regularly have their tickets sold out during live concerts.

Classical music generally refers to music developed in Western Europe during the middle ages.

Iconic musicians like Ludwig van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Richard Wagner, and Claude Debussy, among others, are associated with the genre.

Classical music is mostly understood as Western classical music as the term also covers non-Western music. The category is mostly associated with religion and royalty as they were mostly funded by churches and royal families. While the funding ensured that artists didn’t starve, it often limited their musical experimentation.

This form of music is primarily practiced with a large orchestra consisting of multiple musicians playing different instruments. Instruments like cello, violin, flute, timpani, bass drum, and piano are used in the music composition. 

Musicians often practice in large courts and stations with sufficient space for the performers and audience.

Classical music also has four subgenres, including baroque, classical, romantic, and modernist. 

Johann Sebastian Bach and Antonio Vivaldi are famous for playing baroque music. Similarly, Mozart and Beethoven fit in the classical subgenre.

Richard Wagner and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky are associated with the romantic subcategory. Likewise, Aaron Copland and Gustav Holst are iconic modernist-era musicians.

Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is a broad genre consisting of music centered on nightclubs, festivals, and raves. 

The genre has roots in the disco era of the 1970s. Artists like Donna Summer, ABBA, Bee Gees, and Gloria Gaynor are considered pioneers of the genre. 

However, it first became popular during the late 80s and early 90s in Europe with the start of the club culture. In the US, EDM”s influence was initially limited to regions like New York, California, Florida, and the Midwest. 

While the genre was gaining attraction among listeners in Europe and the US, mainstream media was heavily hostile to the category. Further, the spread of rave culture wrongly associated electronic music with drug use. 

By the early 2000s, it gained global popularity, which subsequently helped in disassociating the misconceptions of the music form. The term “EDM” was first used in the early 2010s as an effort by the American music industry to rebrand the rave culture. 

The genre has evolved into several subcategories, including dance-pop, techno, house, drum and bass, and more. Musicians currently associated with this genre are Marshmello, Skrillex, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, Calvin Harris, and Daft Punk. 

Latin music is an inclusive term used to denote music derived or inspired from Ibero-America, the Latino United States, Portuguese, and Spanish music. 

The term is often stereotyped as relating to the Spanish Caribbean region as Latino immigrants in New York City were mostly of Cuban or Puerto Rican heritage in the 50s. 

However, the genre now includes all music from Spain and Portugal or sung in Spanish or Portuguese. 

National Recording Academy (NARAS) created a separate category called Best Latin Recording for Grammy Awards in 1975 after protests from the Latino community in New York. Musician Enrique Fernandez, however, argued that a single category was not enough to infuse different subgenres of Latin music. In 1983, NARAS added three new categories, including Best Mexican/Mexican-American Performance, Best Tropical Latin Performance, and Best Latin Pop Performance. 

Artists like Sergio Mendez, Carlos Santana, Ritchie Valen, and Julio Iglesias are credited for the early popularity of this genre. Further, musicians like Gloria Estafan, Thalia, Selena, and Shakira are accredited for taking the music to a global audience. 

Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Silvana Estrada, Bomba Estereo, and Aventura are currently the highest-grossing artists of Latin Music.

Country is a form of music that originated in Texas and other Southern states of the US. 

Country music emerged as a distinct genre during the 1920s in Atlanta. However, Bristol, Tennessee is officially recognized as the birthplace of country music by the US Congress. 

The city earned the title thanks to the Bristol recording sessions, or Bristol sessions, of 1927. Country music icons like the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers made their professional debuts during these sessions. 

The music is known for the dance tunes and ballads composed using string instruments like guitars, banjos, harmonicas, and fiddles.

Fiddler Gid Tanner is considered the first star of the music category. He played for the band Skillet Lickers which consisted of musicians like Clayton McMichen, Dan Hornsby, Robert Lee Sweat, and Riley Puckett. 

The genre gained national popularity in the 1930s with the introduction of several country music shows on the radio. Further, the use of cowboy songs in movies also largely contributed to its rising popularity. Western swing artist Bob Wills is one of the first musicians to introduce the electric guitar to the genre. 

Further, bluegrass artists like Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, and Bill Monroe also helped to increase the fame of country music and bring new listeners. 

As of 2023, famous artists currently practicing this genre include Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley, and Alison Krauss.

Contemporary folk, or simply folk, is a form of music influenced by traditional folk music that gained traction in the American folk revival movement in the 1940s. 

Artists like Josh White, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Billie Holiday, Susan Reed, and Ma Rainey, among others, are considered pioneers of this music genre. Similarly, Canadian artists like Leonard Cohen, Bruce Cockburn, Bonnie Dobson, Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, etc. helped further popularise it.

This form of music normally features the use of acoustic instruments like acoustic guitars, flutes, congas, and more. 

The early contemporary folk songs were composed by leftists and unionist artists like Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie who heavily reflected their political views via their music. In the early 50s, a musical quartet called The Weavers became the first folk band to reach the #1 position on Billboard with their song Goodnight Irene. 

In the 60s and 70s, the popularity of folk singers Bob Dylan and John Denver further expanded the market of the genre into regular American households. As of now, over 50 thousand have been officially recorded in the contemporary folk category. Some of the most famous albums linked with this genre include In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998), Pink Moon (1972), The Glow Pt. 2 (2001), Either / Or (1997), Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Five Leaves Left (1969), and so on.