List of genres of music: A-F - Definition and Overview

A B C D E F

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• 2Step
• 4-beat

A

Aa-Ad - Af-Ak - Al - Am - An - Ap-Ax

• A cappella - any singing performed without instrumental backing

Aa-Ad

• Aak - Chinese ritual music
• Aaroubi - evolved form of al-andalous classical music which comes from Algiers
• Abaimajani
• Abajeños - folk music of the Perépecha of Mexico
• Aboriginal rock - rock and roll mixed with Australian aborigine music, began in 1980s
• Abstract hip hop
• Abwe
• Acid croft - mixture of traditional Scottish music with house influences
• Acid house - house music using simple tone generators with tempo-controlled resonant filters
• Acid groove
• Acid jazz - jazz mixed with soul, hip hop and funk
• Acid rock
• Acid techno
• Adult contemporary

Af-Ak

• Afoxe
• African blues
• African jazz
• Afrobeat - African rhythms mixed with American funk
• Afro-Cuban jazz - jazz mixed with merengue, salsa or other Latin forms
• Afro-Cuban rumba
• Afro-juju
• Afro-Manding blues
• Afro-reggae
• Afro-soul
• Afro-zouk
• Afroma
• Aguinaldo
• Ahouach
• Ahidus
• Air
• Akyn - Kazakh folk music made by travelling musicians also called akyn

Al

• Al-âla
• Alb-pop - Albanian pop music
• Aleatoric music - music the composition of which is partially left to chance
• Algerias
• Alomaco
• Alpine New Wave
• Alpunk
• Alternative country - reaction against the 1990s highly-polished Nashville sound
• Alternative hip hop - reaction against gangsta rap, usually includes socially or politically aware lyrics (also known as alternative rap or Bohemian hip hop)
• Alternative metal - catch-all term for heavy metal mixed with punk, funk, hip hop or other influences
• Alternative rock - broad movement reacting against the perceived sterility of 1970s pop music with generally inaccessible lyrics and accompaniment

Am

• Amanédhes
• Ambient - atmospheric electronic music combined with jazz, New Age and other influences
• Ambient acoustic
• Ambient breakbeat
• Ambient dub
• Ambient house
• Ambient groove
• Ambient techno
• Ambient trance
• American fingerstyle guitar (American primitive guitar)
• Americana

An

• Anadolu rock - Turkish rock music
• Anarcho-punk - 1970s mixture of punk rock with anarchist lyrics
• Andártika
• Andean New Age - a mixture of native Peruvian and Western musics which arose in tourist areas in Lima, Cuzco and Ollantaytambo
• Angklung - Osinger and Balinese style of gamelan performed exclusively by young boys
• Angolan merengue
• Anti-folk
• Antiphonal

Ap-Ax

• Apala
• Appalachian folk - in the United States, commonly referred to as simply folk music
• Arabesk - Turkish popular music
• Areito
• Arena rock - 1970s catchy, bombastic mixture of hard rock, prog and pop music
• Arpa grande - a style of rural Mexican folk music
• Arribeño - lyrical folk music from Sierra Gorda, Mexico
• Ars antiqua
• Ars nova
• Art metal
• Art rock
• Ashiq - Azeri bards who sing and accompany themselves on a saz (a kind of lute)
• Ashoug
• Asian Underground - British-based form of Indian and Western fusion
• Australian pub rock
• Australian hip hop
• Australian war metal
• Avant-garde jazz
• Avant-garde music - any kind of experimental music incorporated bizarre ideas, structures or instrumentation
• Axé - pop music from Salvador, Bahia

B

Ba - Be-Bh - Bi-Bl - Bo - Br-Bu

Bac-Bal

• Bachata
• Baiao
• Bakersfield sound - gritty, hard-edged reaction against 1950s pop country (Nashville sound)
• Bakshy - Turkmen folk music made by travelling musicians also called bakshy
• Baiáo - Dance music created by a trio of triangle, bass drum and accordion
• Baila - Sri Lankan dance music derived from African slaves held by the Portuguese
• Baisha xiyue - a song and dance suite from the Naxi of Lijiang, China
• Bajourou
• Bakou - trilling vocals that accompany Wolof wrestling
• Bagad
• Bal granmoun
• Bal-musette
• Balakadri
• Ballad - generic term for usually slow, romantic, despairing and catastrophic songs
• Ballad calypso
• Ballata
• Ballet (music)
• Balss

Bam-Bay

• Bamberas
• Bamboo band - originally from the Solomon Islands, music played by hitting bamboo tubes with sandals
• Bamboula wake
• Bambuco
• Banda - Mexican brass norteño pop music invented in the 1960s
• Bangsawan
• Bantowbol
• Barbarian Black Metal - exreme black metal about paganism and barbarism
• Barbershop music - extremely melodic a cappella vocal style
• Barndance
• Baroque music - 17th-18th century European classical music
• Baroque metal
• Bass music (Miami bass, Booty bass) - electro influenced form of hip hop dance music arising in Miami, Florida
• Bastard Pop
• Batá
• Batá-rumba
• Batucada
• Batuco
• Bayin - Taiwanese Hakka instrumental music

Be-Bh

• Beach music
• Beatboxing
• Bebop - 1940s jazz style with complex improvisation and a fast tempo
• Bedoui
• Bedoui citadinisé
• Beguine (biguine)
• Beguine moderne
• Beguine vide
• Beiguan - Taiwanese instrumental music
• Bel canto - Italian vocal style which arose in the late 16th century and which ended in the mid-19th century
• Belair
• Bend-skin
• Benga
• Bhajan - a northern Hindu religious song
• Bhakti
• Bhangra - originally Punjabi dance music which became popular in the UK
• Bhangra-wine
• Bhangragga
• Bhangramuffin

Bi-Bl

• Big band music - large orchestras which play a form of swing music
• Big Beat - 1990s electronic music based on breakbeat with other influences
• Big Hip
• Biguine - Martinican folk music
• Biguine moderne - Martinican biguine adapted to pop forms and including reggae and other influences
• Black metal - highly distorted and swift form of heavy metal
• Bloco afro
• Bluegrass - American country music mixed with Irish and Scottish influences
• Blue-eyed soul
• Blues - African-American music from the Mississippi Delta area
• Blues ballad
• Blues-rock
• Blurcore
• Big Drum Dance
• Bigono duu
• Bitpop

Bo

• Bocet
• Boi - Central Amazonian folk music
• Bolero - Spanish and Cuban dance and music
• Bomba
• Bombay pop
• Bongo - distinctive African drum and style of drumming
• Bongo wake
• Boogie rock
• Boogie woogie - style of piano-based blues popular in the 1940s US
• Boogaloo - soul and mambo fusion popular in 1960s United States
• Booty bass (Miami bass, Bass music)
• Borbangnadyr
• Borbannadir - type of Tuvan xoomii said to sound like the rapids of a river
• Border ballad
• Bossa nova
• Boy band

Br-Bu

• Brass band
• Brass Hop
• Brazilian funky
• Brazilian jazz - bossa nova and samba mixed with American jazz
• Breakbeat
• Breakbeat hardcore
• Breakcore
• Bright disco
• Brill Building Pop
• Britfunk
• Britpop
• British blues
• British folk
• British Invasion
• Broadside ballad
• Brokenbeat
• Brown-eyed soul
• Broxa (brosca)
• Brukdown - rural Belizean creole music
• Bubblegum pop - sometimes synonymous with pop music, especially that performed by teen idols; can also refer to specific styles of South African or Japanese pop
• Buiasche
• Bikutsi
• Bulerias
• Bumba-meu-boi
• Bunggul
• Bunraku - Japanese style originated from a kind of puppet-theater.
• Burger-highlife
• Burgundian School

C

Ca - Cc-Ce - Ch - Ci-Cl - Co - Cr-Cu

Cad-Cam

• Ca din tulnic
• Ca pe lunca
• Ca tru - (hat a dao) Vietnamese folk music
• Cabaret
• Cadence
• Cadence-lypso - guitar-dominated Cadence music combined with calypso horns
• Cadence rampa
• Café-aman
• Cai luong - Vietnamese opera
• Cajun music
• Cakewalk
• Calenda - Trinidadian drum dance
• Calentanos - folk music of the Balsas River Basin, Mexico
• Calgia - tradition urban ensemble music from Macedonia
• Calipso - Venezuelan calypso music
• Calypso - Trinidadian folk, and later pop, genre
• Calypso-style baila - Sri Lankan baila mixed with calypso influences
• Campursari - Indonesian modern folk music, a fusion of dangdut, langgam, and pop music
• Campillaneros

Can-Car

• Caña
• Candombe
• Canon
• Cante chico
• Cante jondo
• Canterbury Scene
• Cantiñas
• Cantiga - Portuguese ballad form
• Cantique
• Canto livre - Portuguese modernized fado
• Canto nuevo - Bolivian pop-folk music which evolved out of Chilean nueva cancion
• Cantopop - western-style pop music from Hong Kong
• Canzone napoletana - urban songs from Naples
• Capoeira music
• Caracoles
• Carceleras
• Cardas
• Carimbó - dance music of Belém, Brazil
• Cariso
• Carnatic music
• Carol
• Cartageneras

Cas-Cav

• Cassé-co
• Cassette culture
• Castilian
• Cavacha

Cc-Ce

• CCM (Contemporary Christian Music)
• Celempungan
• Cello rock
• Celtic
• Celtic metal

Cha-Chi

• Cha-cha-cha
• Chakacha
• Chamamé - Argentinian folk music
• Chamber jazz
• Chamber pop
• Chamber music
• Champeta - Colombian musical form derived from African communities in Cartagena
• Changuí
• Chanson
• Charanga
• Charanga-vallenato - 1980s mixture of salsa, charanga and vallenata
• Charikawi
• Chastushki - humorous Russian folk songs
• Chau van - Vietnamese trance music
• Chemical breaks
• Chèo
• Chill-Out
• Chicago house
• Chicken scratch - Arizona-based Native American music
• Chimurenga (mbira)
• Chinese music
• Chinese rock - rock and roll from China, often with protest lyrics
• Chip music

Cho-Chr

• Chongak - Korean aristocratic chamber music
• Chouval bwa
• Chowtal
• Chicago blues
• Chicago jazz (Dixieland jazz)
• Chicago soul
• Chicha - a Peruvian fusion of rock and roll, cumbia and huayno
• Cho-kantrum - the most traditional form of Cambodian kantrum
• Choctaw Social Dance
• Chorinho
• Choro - Brazilian folk music
• Christian alternative
• Christmas carol (see also List of Christmas carols)
• Christian hip hop
• Christian metal
• Christian rock
• Chylandyk - type of xoomii which sounds like the chirping of crickets

Chu

• Chumba
• Chut-kai-pang
• Chutney - popular Indo-Trinidadian music
• Chutney-bhangra
• Chutney-hip hop
• Chutney-soca - Chutney mixed with calypso and other influences

Ci-Cl

• Cigányzene
• Cînd ciobanu s-i a pierdut oile
• Cîntec batrînesc
• Ciobanul
• Circus metal
• Classic female blues - early popular form of blues
• Classical music era
• Clicks n Cuts
• Close harmony

Coc-Cor

• Cocobale
• Coimbra fado - a form of refined fado from Coimbra, Portugal
• Colombianas
• Comedy rock
• Comic opera
• Comparsa
• Compas direct
• Compas meringue
• Concert overture
• Concerto
• Concerto grosso
• Congo - Panamanian dance music
• Congolese sound
• Conjunto
• Contemporary Christian Music (CCM)
• Contonbley
• Contradanza
• Cool jazz
• Cocorrido
• Coladeira
• Coldwave (or industrial rock)
• Combined Rhythm - music of the Dutch Antilles
• Corsican polyphonic song
• Cothoza mfana

Cou-Cow

• Country blues
• Country music
• Country rock
• Countrypolitan
• Couple de sonneurs - Breton dance music
• Cow punk

Cr-Cu

• Crapcore
• Creative jazz
• Creole
• Crossover music
• Crunk
• Crust Punk
• Csárdás
• Cuarteto - Argentinian folk music
• Cuecas
• Cumbia - popular dance music, originally Colombian but now popular across Latin America, especially Mexico
• Cumbia panameña - Panamanian cumbia
• Cumfa
• Cybercore

D

Da - De-Dh - Di-Dr - Du-Dz

Da

• Dabka - Palestinian dance music for weddings
• Dadra
• Daina - Latvian sung poetry
• Daino - Lithuanian traditional music
• Dalauna
• Dance (music) - dance (form of musical composition)
• Dance music - any rhythmic music intended for dancing
• Dance pop - comtemporary form of dance music with pop music structures
• Dancehall
• Dangdut - popular Indonesian dance music with influences from Arabic and Indian music
• Danube New Wave - mixture of Viennese schrammelmusik and American blues and rock and roll
• Danza
• Danzón
• Dark ambient
• Dark trance
• Darkwave

De-Dh

• De codru
• De dragoste
• De jale
• De pahar
• Death industrial
• Death metal
• Death rock (also known as death punk)
• Death techno
• Deblas
• Deboche - Brazilian fusion of electric frevo and ijexá
• Décima
• Degung
• Delta blues
• Deep house
• Deep soul
• Desi - Indian folk music
• Detroit blues
• Detroit techno
• Dhamar - a type of highly-oranemented dhrupad
• Dhimotiká - traditional Greek songs
• Dhrupad - Hindustani vocal music performed by men singing in midieval Hindi
• Dhun

Di-Dr

• Dialect rock - rock music sung in various Swiss-German dialects
• Digital hardcore
• Dirge
• Dirty South (also known as Southern rap)
• Disco
• Disco house
• Dixieland jazz (Chicago jazz)
• Djambadon
• Dodompa - Japanese tango
• Doina
• Dombola
• Dondang sayang - slow folk music that mixes Malaysian forms with Portuguese, India, Chinese and Arabic music
• Donegal fiddle tradition
• Donjiang - Chinese Naxi form of folk music, related to silk and bamboo music from Chinca
• Doo wop
• Doom metal
• Dopé
• Downtempo
• Dream pop
• Drill and bass
• Drum and bass (DNB)

Du-Dz

• Dub
• Dub techno
• Dundun - Yoruban drum music
• Dunedin Sound - early 1980s alternative rock sound based out of Dunedin, New Zealand and Flying Nun Records
• Dutch jazz
• Dutch trance
• Dziesma
• Dzoke - type of yang chanting

E

Ea-En - Er-Ez

Ea-En

• Early music
• East Coast blues
• East Coast hip hop
• Eastern Tradition of Sephardic music
• Easy listening
• El pasillo
• El yarabi
• Elafrolaïkó
• Electric blues
• Electro
• Electro hop
• Electroclash
• Electrofunk
• Electronic art music
• Electronic body music (EBM, also known as industrial dance)
• Electronic luk thung - Dance-ready form of Thai pleng luk thung
• Electronic music
• Electronica
• Electropop
• Elektro
• Elevator music (or Muzak)
• Emeba
• Emo
• Endecasillabo - Central Italian 11-syllabic song form
• English funk
• English madrigal
• Enka - Japanese pop music, using native forms
• Éntekhno

Ep-Ez

• Epic metal
• Eremwu eu
• Euba
• Eurodance
• Europop
• Eurotrance (traditional dance music)
• Exotica
• Experimental music
• Experimental noise
• Experimental rock
• Ezengileer - type of Tuvan xoomii said to imitate the trotting of horses

F

Fa-Fr - Fu

Fa-Fr

• Fado - Portuguese roots-based popular music
• Falak - Tajik folk music
• fandango - Spanish dance music
• Farruca - a genre of flamenco
• Filk - modern, science fiction-oriented music
• Film scores
• Filmi - Indian film music
• Filmi-ghazal - filmi based on Hindustani ghazaal
• Finger-style
• Fjatpangarri - Aboriginal Australian music local to Yirrbala
• Flamenco - dance music of Spanish Gypsies
• Foaie verde - classical form of Romanian Gypsy doina
• Fofa
• Folk metal
• Folk music
• Folk rock
• Folktronica
• Fonn Mall
• Forró - extremely popular music of Northeastern Brazil
• Free improvisation - freeform musical improvisation
• Free jazz - improvised 1960s jazz
• Free music
• Freestyle music - funky, electronic hip hop
• Freetekno
• Frevo - folk music from Recife, Brazil
• Fricote - dance music from Salvador, Brazil

Fu

• Fuji - Yoruban vocal and percussion music
• Fulia - Afro-Venezuelan percussion music
• Funacola
• Funana
• Funk - a bass-heavy outgrowth of soul music
• Funk metal - 1980s combination of funk, heavy metal and punk rock
• Funky breaks - a type of breaks electronic music
• Funky highlife - fusion of funk and Ghanaian highlife
• Fusion bhangra (New Wave bhangra) - bhangra combined with rock and roll, reggae, hip hop, ragga and funk
• Fusion jazz - mixture of rock and jazz
• Future jazz
• Futurepop - outgrowth of synthpop, EBM and darkwave