These are the Forty Types of Music you should know to be effective as Music Ministers. Music is one of the most sublime, pure, and ethereal art forms.
It’s magical.
It can make us feel happiness, sadness, anger, euphoria, nostalgia, love… But it can also define fashions, making us think differently and shaping society.
Apart from its multiple powers, it also takes infinite forms.
Therefore, today we will take the time for up to 40 types of Music that have marked an era.
Are you with me?
Types Of Music
Here are the types of Music:
1. Blues
Blues
The Blues is a musical style that began during the nineteenth century. Although it is now played with a configuration similar to any rock band, originally, it was a single singer with his guitar or banjo.
Transport yourself to the Chicago of 1935 with this recording by Big Joe Williams.
Some famous blues singers have been BB King, Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, and Robert Johnson.
2. Country
Country music, also known as western Music, is a style typical of the United States of America, specifically the South.
It is the product of the union of the cultures, Music, and roots of Irish immigrants, Celtic Music, and traditional English ballads. It is characterized by using acoustic guitars, Bass, and drums.
Today it has evolved to give rise to different subgenres such as country rock or the so-called neo-country.
3. Dance
For many, dance music is synonymous with electronic Music. No real differences between one style and the other. However, for the trained ear, there are clear differences.
Dance music, in particular, arises from disco music and feeds on pop Music’s evolution. Thus, it peaked between the decades of the 80s and 90s.
In turn, dance music has had its evolution. And similarly to what has happened with the country, it has also given rise to other subgenres.
4. Disc
Disk
In the 70s, we began to create what we know today as disco music due to rhythm and blues (R & B) and its mixture with other genres such as soul or funk.
Something typical and super interesting of this musical genre is that it mixes touches of orchestral Music with interesting string arrangements in its melodies and harmonies.
All this mescolanza gave rise to the dance music that fed the discos of the 70s.
5. Drill
A drill is a newer genre and, to be frank, quite underground. If you’ve never heard it, don’t worry. It’s normal.
It is a style that combines influences from rap, grime, and dance music. But it gives it a more aggressive touch, with very fast and marked tempos.
Drill’s song lyrics tend to be very violent and describe criminal acts. Therefore, they are always surrounded by controversy, police investigations, and bans on platforms such as YouTube.
6. Drum & Bass
Drum & Bass is another one of those genres that most people call electronic Music, but it’s a subgenre of it.
It is one of the many branches of dance music, coming to differentiate itself in such a way that today, it is its musical genre.
It is characterized by its fast tempos and very marked Bass.
The truth is quite easy to distinguish due to its very clear characteristics. Listen to it here.
7. Dubstep
Dubstep is another of the subgenres of dance that, like Drum & Bass, has become a genre in its own right.
Although, in reality, it has been the product of the union between the Garage style and the Drum & Bass. You can already imagine where its sound goes, with heavy Bass and strong distortion as in the D &B.
It had its greatest apogee in the early 2000s, with the help of DJs such as Skrillex or Snails.
8. Easy Listening
Let’s see, and this is a very particular musical style since it is not a genre per se, with its characteristics, typical instruments, or lines … it’s more about the listener’s humor.
Easy Listening removes voices from Music and makes softer and lighter versions of the best-known and most famous pop and rock music.
To put it even clearer: they are soft and light covers of well-known Music.
It emerged in the 70s, and today it is known more as chill-out music.
9. Electronic Dance Music (EDM)
Electronic-Dance-Music
One of the characteristics of electronic Music is a large number of subgenres it possesses. We are facing another subgenre of dance music, which in turn is a subgenre of electronics.
The issue with EDM is that it has become the most popular genre of the dance movement. DJs like Guetta, Calvin Harris, or Tiesto are the ones who have driven it.
Although it started as something more underground, today it is easily the best-known dance genre, with big festivals and famous DJs on a medical level.
10. Emo
The emo style takes many influences from genres such as rock and pop or extreme styles such as metal or punk.
However, emo music takes all these elements to create music that generates a certain emotional response. It is usually accompanied by strong lyrics, often on depression, sadness, and suicide.
Another key feature of emo is its distinctive dress that takes elements of metal and punk.
11. Flamenco
Flamenco is the Spanish musical genre par excellence, although it has emerged in the South of Spain and is typical of that region.
Although its origin cannot be explained, it is believed to be a mixture of fifteenth-century Andalusian popular culture, gypsy culture, and Arab influence.
Three different facets characterize it: singing, playing and dancing. Therefore, in a typical flamenco ensemble, you usually see a singer, guitarists, cajones, and bailaores.
Some of its greatest exponents have been Paco de LucÃa and Camarón de la Isla.
12. Funk
Funk is a genre that makes marked use of syncopation in its rhythms and strong Bass. Frankly, it’s a musical genre with a real ROLLAZO.
His roots are in the soul, jazz, and R&B. Of course, as well as those genres, and it also has its origin in African-American culture.
Funk has had such an influence since its emergence in the 1970s that it has played many genres as varied as dance or even rock.
13. Folk
Folk music is a musical style that stands out because it is based on telling stories and is passed down from generation to generation, usually orally.
They are songs that survive the passage of time in their communities oral traditions and are part of their roots and culture.
Although it is intrinsically traditional Music with ancient roots, the musical style can and has varied over time.
14. Garage
Garage
Another subgenre of electronic Music. In this case, specifically electronic dance music (EDM).
The case of garage is particular because it is the mixture between several strong subgenres of electronics, such as EDM and D&B, but also unites soul and R&B.
As you’d expect, you’ll hear loud Bass and jagged, asynchronous drums. In the end, they are the most differentiated characteristics of these styles.
15. Grunge
This type of Music is a mix between rock and pop of the 80s. Musicians began to take both influences, and during the 1990s, they began to hear bands that would be iconic today, such as Nirvana or Pearl Jam.
Grunge is characterized because it is played in a traditional rock band configuration. That is electric guitar, electric Bass, vocalist, and drums. Distorted guitars, of course.
Apart from this, the vocal style is a little more distressing and with a more pessimistic sense in its lyrics.
16. Grime
This is a more popular style in the UK, where genres as different as hip-hop, dubstep, garage, dancehall, D&B, and rap have come to merge.
However, they have managed to make it work quite well. If that description has already piqued your curiosity, catch this video.
It has gained strength in London, where it has gained space on pirate radio stations.
17. Gospel
Moving away from rock and electronic Music, the time has come to talk about the gospel, a genre also known as spiritual or evangelical Music.
Interestingly, it is one of the genres that served as a seed for creating other styles such as blues, R & B, jazz, rock, disco, dance, etc.
It was created in the African-American Evangelical Pentecostal and Protestant churches of the eighteenth century and became widely popular in 1930.
It is usually performed in churches in choirs of a maximum of 30 people.
18. Hardcore Punk
Hardcore punk, hard or extreme, is a subgenre of punk created in the United States and later brought to the United Kingdom in 1970.
To put it easy: it’s a faster, more violent, radical version of traditional punk.
This is evidenced in tempos of 200 BPM, fast, distorted electric guitars without much makeup, powerful electric basses that double the guitars, and vocalists that scream with force and speed.
It’s not the typical genre you listen to relax.
19. Hip hop
Today, hip hop is a globally famous genre. Likely, each of us has ever heard of some hip-hop artist.
However, in its beginnings, it was an underground genre that served as a protest and form of expression in the black neighborhoods of the lower class until it exploded and became the world-famous genre it is now.
It has become a musical genre that most influenced modern culture and society.
20. House
House
House is another of the musical genres related to Electronic Music. It was born from the influence of EDM and trance, another style we will discuss later.
It emerged specifically in 1970 in an American nightclub called The Warehouse. It is characterized by starting soft, going up in intensity until it explodes with total intensity.
Although EDM has stolen its prominence, it is still popular in places of many parties and electronic culture, such as Ibiza.
21. Indie
The Indie movement comes directly from rock and punk music. It was originally made up of bands and artists who considered themselves independent and were not part of labels or the commercial music industry.
Hence the term “Indie.”
Although the configuration is still typical rock band, the style and Music played by these bands have varied, incorporating electronic and dance influences.
22. Jazz
Jazz has its historical origin in New Orleans in 1900, where ships crossing the Mississippi River had on board entire orchestras of African-American musicians playing jazz.
Little has changed since then, as jazz remains a genre where musical freedom is a standard, solos play a vital role, and musician and instrument configurations are highly variable.
Some typical jazz instruments are the saxophone, trumpet, Bass, and guitar.
23. K-Pop
The K-Pop phenomenon was already a hit in Korea for many years, but recently it has been captivating the rest of the world to become the boom it is now.
Before BTS, it can be said that the first exponent that came to the Western world was Psy’s Gangnam Style, or at least the first to do so en masse.
K-Pop has many forms, being able to mix elements of rap, dubstep, or R&B.
24. World music
When we talk about world music, one thing must be made clear: it refers to any traditional Music from other countries. For example, a piece of African, African Music has its names, genres, and subgenres. However, for a European, it can be world music or world music.
Therefore, we understand the world’s Music as all the manifestations of Traditional Music throughout the planet.
25. Crossover music
Crossover music refers to mixtures between different musical genres.
First, we must remember that, today, musical genres are subjective and fluid. Is it still dubstep if you add violins? Does it stop being rock if you add trumpets? Does it stop being salsa if you use another type of drum?
Such a debate was generated with the theme Old Town Road by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus. Is it a country? Rap? What is it? It’s Music.
All genres are mixed.
26. Classical Music
Classical Music
Classical Music is a musical genre that occurred between 1750 and 1820 and is part of the so-called academic Music. However, today, it is common for the general public to employ the term “classical music” to refer to all academic Music.
This type of Music has many subgenres, such as Baroque, Neoclassical, Renaissance, Expressionist, Modern, Opera, etc.
It is common for it to be played in the format of the orchestra, chamber ensembles, or quartets and had its greatest apogee in Western Europe, although in the East as well.
27. Latin Music
Latin America has a wide spectrum of musical genres derived from the popular Music of its different countries and from the mixture of the other cultures with which it came into contact through the entire process of colonization: Spanish and African.
For the rest of the world, Latin genres such as salsa, merengue, or bachata began to be known when they arrived in the United States with the Latin migration, especially Cuban and Dominican.
28. Metal
Returning to the rock wave, we come to heavy metal. This subgenre of rock has become a separate genre today to such an extent that the most diligent metal fans completely separate it from rock.
Among the subgenres of rock, metal is the most extreme and the one that has probably given rise to the most subgenres.
What characterizes it? Fast tempos, distorted, fast and virtuoso guitars, complex basses and strong drums with complicated patterns.
29. Motown
Whenever we talk about musical genres, there is a seed behind them. And it seems that it is always the product of the experimentation of the musicians and the mixture of different instruments.
Motown is a particular case since it is a genre created by the Mowtown label, a subsidiary of Universal.
Sound familiar? It’s where Michael Jackson began his musical career alongside Jackson 5.
It is a union between pop and soul that the label devised and that would become a genre in itself.
30. Mod
More than a type of Music, the mod is a modernist movement that grew and became popular in the working lower classes of the UK during the 1960s.
His main influences were modern jazz and northern soul.
If you are interested in this musical style that characterized a subculture, I recommend watching the movie Quadrophenia.
31. Opera
Operates
Among the many genres of classical – or academic – Music, one of special historical and artistic relevance: is opera.
Opera combines theatre, voices, Music, and orchestration to tell stories and touch the audience’s sensibility or touch on sensitive and controversial subjects.
Several of the most famous operas, such as Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro or Wagner’s The Valkyries, are considered some of the most complete and important works of Western Music.
32. Pop
To this day, I think no one wonders what pop Music is. It has gotten so deep into our cultural fabric that it seems part of modern society, from The Beatles to Lady Gaga.
However, the origin of pop, how it evolves or exactly which songs are considered pop and why are slightly more complex topics.
Now, if we try to summarize as much as possible, and being very generalist, we could say that any song they put on the radio or TV is pop.
33. Punk
Punk is one of the best-known strands of alternative rock and that, like hip hop, went from being an underground genre with a cult scene in Britain to a world-famous genre with many subgenres.
Punk is characterized by its musical simplicity, with guitars, drums, and Bass with a lot of strength and distortion, but simple.
However, it is a very radical genre, both in its dress and the lyrics.
34. Rap
Although technically, the word rap refers to a way of vocalizing and many types of rap, the truth is that today it is known worldwide as a musical genre in all its expressions.
It has been closely related to hip hop since they were created at par in the United States.
However, rap is characterized by having evolved specifically from the MCs or emcees who led Jamaican dancehall music parties.
35. Reggae
Reggae is the genre par excellence of relaxation and good vibes. It was created in Jamaica in the 60s and taken to the rest of the world by a gentleman you probably already know…
It’s that talking about reggae without mentioning Bob Marley would be nonsense.
It was he who popularized and brought to the rest of the world this musical style fusion of traditional Jamaican Music, jazz, and R&B.
Setbacks, chords in staccato, and lyrics related to Rastafarianism and Central African religion are fundamental parts of this style.
36. Rhythm & Blues (R&B)
Rhythm-Blues
Rhythm and Blues (R&B) is a genre that has changed a lot over the years. Blues albums, or even funk and soul, have come to be called R&B.
Of course, the similarities and relationships between these genres are very close.
However, R&B originated in the 40s, hand in hand with the African American communities that finished popularizing it in the following decade.
In recent decades it has blended with hip hop and other genres.
37. Rock
Another musical genre that has changed the most over the years is rock.
Born from the creation of electric guitars and distortion only about 70 years ago, it has been one of the genres that have generated more different subgenres.
Since the days of Elvis Presley, the king of rock and roll, with simple 4×4 tempos, verses, and choruses, it has branched out into myriad complex genres.
38. Soul
Another of the genres par excellence of the African-American community is soul. It is an evolution of other genres of the same origin, such as jazz, gospel, and R&B.
This musical style borrows the applause, the calls and responses, the strength of the solo vocalists, and the rhythms moved to achieve one of the most influential genres of recent years.
39. Techno
Techno is another of the children of dance music. Only it has a much faster tempo, 4×4 patterns, and is guided by the rhythm of the bass drum.
Unlike genres like dubstep or D&B, the patterns are simpler and more melodic.
40. Trance
Trance
The relationship between techno and trance, another of the subgenres of dance, is very close.
The goal of trance music is to induce a trance state in its listeners through strong Bass and deep synthesizers.
It is a piece of Music to dance with euphoria.
CONCLUSION
From the above, we can see the various types of Music.This list is endless and these are some of the types of Music we have.This is really an eye opener for us to identify types of Music we have .This is a very helpful article that worths sharing.Thanks