List of genres of music: S-Z - Definition and Overview

S T U V W X Y Z

S

• Sabar - drumming style found in Senegal
• Sacred Harp
• Sadcore
• Saetas
• Saibara
• Saiyidi - folk music of the upper Nile Delta
• Sakyapa chanting - form of Tibetan Buddhist chanting
• Salegy
• Salsa - fusion of multiple Cuban- and Puerto Rican-derived pop genres from immigrants in New York City
• Salsa erotica - lyrically explicit form of salsa romantica
• Salsa gorda
• Salsa romantica - a soft, romantic form of salsa music
• Saltarello
• Salve
• Samba - form of Brazilian popular music
• Samba breque - a genre ofsamba with a choppy, reggae-like rhythm
• Samba-canção - modern samba dance music
• Samba da garrafa - modern incarnation of samba do pagode
• Samba de enredo - Samba played during Carnival celebrations
• Samba do pagode - popular dance-oriented samba
• Samba reggae - samba and reggae fusion
• Sambai
• Sangeo - Afro-Venezuelan form of percussion music
• Sanjo - Korean instrumental folk music
• Sanjuanitos
• Sarandunga
• Sardinian polyphonic chanting
• Sato kagura
• Sawahili - folk music from the Mediterranean coast of Egypt
• Sawt - urban music from Kuwait and Bahrain
• Sax jive
• Sayas - Bolivian dance music which was popularized as lambada in the 1980s
• Sazdohol
• Scandinavian metal (Viking metal)
• Schottisch
• Schranz
• Sea shantie
• Sean nós
• Second Viennese School
• Sega music
• Seggae
• Seis
• Semba
• Semi-tone calypso (Half calypso)
• Sephardic music
• Serialism
• Serrana
• Set dance
• Sevdalinka - Bosnian urban popular music
• Sevillana
• Shabab
• Shabad
• Shalako - Armenian folk dance
• Shan'ge - Taiwanese Hakka mountain songs
• Shango
• Shape note
• Sharkan - American Christian chanting
• Shawm and drum - Instrumental pairing common in Gypsy music
• Shlager
• Shibuya-kei
• Shidaiqu - Hong Kong-based form of traditional music updated for pop audiences and sung in Mandarin
• Shima uta - a form of Okinawan dance music
• Shin-min'yo - a modernized form of min'yo, or folk music
• Shoegazing
• Shoka - Japanese songs written during the Meiji Restoration to bring Western music to Japanese schools
• Shomyo - Japanese Buddhist chanting
• Showtunes
• Sica
• Siguiriyas
• Silat - Malaysian mixture of music, dance and martial arts
• Sinawi - Korean religious music meant for dancing; it is improvised and reminiscent of jazz
• Singer-songwriter
• Single tone calypso
• Sinjonjo
• Sizhu - folk ensembles from southern China
• Ska
• Ska punk
• Skacore (third wave of ska)
• Skald
• Skate punk
• Skiffle
• Skotsploech - traditional Frisian ensemble music
• Skillingstryk
• Slack-key guitar (kihoalu) - Hawaiian form invented by retuning open strings on a guitar
• Slängpolska
• Slide
• Slow airs
• Slowcore
• Sludge metal
• Smooth jazz
• S'o wa mbe
• Soca
• Soca-bhangra
• Soca-funk
• Soft ambient
• Soft rock
• Solea (soleares)
• Sombient
• Son
• Son-batá (batá rock)
• Son montuno - Cuban folk music
• Sonata
• Songo - a mixture of changuí and son montuno
• Songo-salsa - a mixture of songo, hip hop and salsa
• Sonido
• Soukous
• Soul blues
• Soul jazz
• Soul music
• Southern Harmony
• Southern hip hop
• Southern rock
• Southern soul
• Space music
• Space rock
• Spacesynth
• Spectralism
• Speedcore
• Speed garage
• Speed metal
• Spirituals
• Spouge - Barbadian folk music
• Square dance
• St. Louis blues
• St. Louis soul
• Stambolovski orkestri
• Staroprazske pisnieky - pub songs from Prague
• Steelband
• Stev - short, often improvised, Norwegian folk songs
• Stoner metal
• Straight edge
• Strathspeys
• Street songs - bawdy adolescent chants of unknown authorship
• Stride
• String - 1980s Thai pop music
• String quartet
• Stubenmusik - Bavarian string ensembles
• Suite
• Suomirock
• Suomitrance
• Surf rock
• Sutartines
• Swahili sound
• Sway
• Swamp blues
• Swamp pop
• Swingbeat (New Jack Swing, New Jack R&B)
• Swing music
• Sygyt - type of xoomii (Tuvan throat singing), likened to the sound of whistling
• Symphonic black metal
• Symphonic poem
• Symphony
• Synth metal
• Synth pop
• Synth rock
• Synthpunk
• Syrtó

T

• Taarab
• Tættir
• Tai tu - Vietnamese chamber music
• Taiwanese pop - early Taiwanese pop music influenced by enka and popular with older listeners
• Tala - a rhythmic pattern in Indian classical music
• Tamborito - Panamanian dance music
• Tambu
• Tamburitza
• Tamil tiruppukazh
• Táncház - Hungarian dance music
• Tango - Argentinian dance music that became internationally popular in the 1920s
• Tango-canción - the first wildly popular form of tango in Argentina
• Tango flamenco
• Tanguk - a form of Korean court music that includes elements of Chinese music
• Tanjidor - traditional, instrumental music from Indonesia with various brass intruments, usually played in processions
• Talempong - a distinct Minangkabau gamelan music
• Taibubu
• Tapany maintso
• Tappa
• Tarabu
• Tarana - form of vocal music from northern India using highly rythmic nonsense syllables
• Tarannum
• Tarantella
• Tarantolati - Calabrian folk healing ritual
• Taranto
• Tassou - Senegalese rapping
• Tawshih
• Tchink-system
• Tchinkoumé
• Tech house
• Techno
• Techno-tribal
• Technoid
• Tembang sunda - Sundanese sung free verse poetry
• Teen pop
• Tejano
• Texas blues
• Tex-Mex - American term for that which is known as norteño in Mexico
• Thrash metal
• Thresher
• Thumri - a type of popular Hindustani vocal music
• Tibetan pop - pop music heavily influenced by Chinese forms, emerging in the 1980s
• Tientos
• Thillana - form of vocal music from South India using highly rhythmic nonsense syllables
• Tin Pan Alley
• Tina
• Tinga
• Tis távlas - drinking songs from Epirus
• Togaku
• Tonas
• Toshe - Tibetan dance music
• T'ong guitar - acoustic guitar pop music of Korea
• Township jive (Mbaqanga)
• Toziych
• Traditional pop music
• Trallalero - Genoese urban songs
• Trampská hudba - Czech urban folk music
• Trance
• Tribal house
• Trip-hop
• Trikitrixa - Basque accordion music
• Troista-country
• Troll metal
• Tropicalia
• TRT
• Truck-driving country
• Tsámiko
• Tsapika
• Tsonga disco
• Tumba
• Tuuli (Maglaal)
• Turbo-folk - aggressive form of modernized Serbian music
• Turntablism
• Tuvan throat-singing
• Twarab
• Twee pop
• Two tone (second wave of ska)

U

• Ufie
• UK garage
• UK pub rock
• Umui - Okinawann religious songs
• Underground music
• Urban Cowboy
• Urban jazz
• Urtin duu
• Ute

V

• Vakodrazana
• Vakojazzana
• Vallenato - accordion-based Colombian folk music
• Vallenato-protesta
• Variet
• Vaudeville
• Verbunkos - Hungarian folk music
• Verismo
• Video game music
• Viennese-style classical music
• Villancicos
• Villanella - 16th century Neapolitan songs
• Virelais
• Vísir
• Visual rock
• Visual techno
• Vocal house
• Vocal jazz
• Vuelie

W

• Wahrani
• Waila (chicken scratch) - a Tohono O'odham fusion of polka, norteño and Native American music
• Waltz
• Wangga
• Warabe uta
• Wassoulou
• Watcha watcha
• Were
• West Coast hip hop
• Western blues
• Western swing
• Western Tradition of Sephardic music
• Women's music or womyn's music, wimmin's music--1970s lesbian/feminist
• Wong shadow - 1960s Thai pop music
• Work song
• Worldbeat
• World music

X

• Xi'an drum music - popular around Xi'an, China, ensembles of percussion and wind instruments
• Xoomii (khoomii, hoomii) - a type of Tuvan throat singing

Y

• Yang - form of Tibetan Buddhist chanting
• Yanvalou
• Yé-yé
• Yo-pop
• Yodeling
• Young Brigade
• Yukar

Z

• Zairean sound
• Zajal
• Zapin - derived from ancient Arabic music, zapin is popular throughout Malaysia
• Zarzuela - a form of Spanish operetta
• Zbójnicki
• Zen (music)
• Zendani
• Ziglibithy
• Zikir Barat - Sufi vocal music from Malaysia
• Zinge - Latvian vocal music
• Zoblazo
• Zolo - characterized by hyper jerky rhythms and cacophonous/ harmonious bleeps and boings
• Zouglou
• Zouk - Antillean dance music
• Zouk chouv
• Zouk funk - a fusion of zouk and funk
• Zout
• Zulu a cappella
• Zydeco - popular Louisianan Creole music