| Style | Description |
|---|---|
| Aak | Aak is a genre of Korean court music. It is an imported form of Chinese ritual music. Aak is often labeled as "elegant music" in contrast with other traditional Korean music. Aak started out as the music played during the Korean "Jongmyo Shrine's Jerye Ceremony," and then became used during other occasions as Korean court music, often with lyrics praising the current ruler. |
| Aboriginal rock | Aboriginal rock refers to a style of music which mixes rock music with the instrumentation and singing styles of Aboriginal people. Two countries with prominent Aboriginal rock scenes are Australia and Canada. |
| Abstract hip hop | Abstract hip hop is a subgenre of alternative hip hop that differs from other hip hop music largely in the content of the lyrics. In stark contrast to gangsta rap, which generally deals with living in poor urban neighborhoods and real or imagined aspects of gang life, abstract hip hop deals with topics that aren't immediately associated with hip hop culture. |
| Abwe | An abwe or chekeré is a musical ensemble of Cuba that uses gourds. It is a product of cabildos, historical congregations of African slaves brought to Cuba. |
| Acid house | Acid house is an electronic music-oriented subgenre of house music, which emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, with samples or spoken lines usually used rather than sung lyrics. |
| Acid jazz | Acid jazz (also known as club jazz) is a musical genre that combines elements of soul music, funk, disco, particularly looping beats and modal harmony. It developed over the 1980s and 1990s and could be seen as tacking the sound of jazz-funk onto electronic dance/pop music. |
| Acid rap | Acid rap is a subgenre of abstract hip hop in which lyrics are often cryptic, abstract, trippy, spacey, dark, and sometimes drug or science fiction-related, with eerie, spaced-out drumbeats and instrumentation. |
| Acid rock | Acid rock is a form of psychedelic rock and was the first form of it to achieve popular acclaim. Tom Wolfe describes the LSD-influenced music of the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead as "acid rock" in his book about Ken Kesey and the Acid Tests, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. |
| Acid techno | Acid techno is the term used to describe a style of techno that originated in the London squat party scene in the mid 1990s. |
| Action Rock | Action Rock is a sub genre of rock and roll. It refers to bands that play high energy music influenced by the MC5, the Stooges and similar. |
| Adai-adai | Brunei is a southeast Asian country located next to Malaysia. There is a wide array of native folk music, and dance. Adai-adai is a group work song sung by fisherpeople while they fished. |
| Adult contemporary | Adult contemporary music, frequently abbreviated AC, is a type of radio format that plays mainstream contemporary popular music, excluding hip hop, hard rock, some teen pop music, and rhythmic dance tracks (though during the 2000s, these have been included), which is intended for a mature adult audience. |
| Afoxé | The afoxé is an Afro Brazilian musical instrument composed of a gourd (cabaça) wrapped in a net in which beads or small plastic balls are threaded. The instrument is shaken to produce its musical noise. |
African rumba | African rumba is a musical genre that originated in the two neighbouring countries of Belgian Congo and French Congo during the 1930s and early 1940s, and which has gained popularity throughout Africa. |
| Afrobeat | Afrobeat is a combination of Yoruba music, jazz, Highlife, and funk rhythms, fused with African percussion and vocal styles, popularized in Africa in the 1970s. |
| Afro-Cuban jazz | Afro-Cuban jazz is a variety of Latin jazz, which was started by Dr. Obdulio Morales in 1930s Cuba. Other well-known variant of Latin jazz is Brazilian jazz. Afro-Cuban jazz was played in the U.S. directly after the bebop period, while Brazilian jazz became more popular in the 1960s and 1970s. |
| Afro-juju | Afro-juju is a style of Nigerian popular music, a mixture of Jùjú music and Afrobeat. Its most famous exponent was Shina Peters, who was so popular that the press called the phenomenon "Shinamania". Afro-juju's peak of popularity came in the early 1990s. |
| Afro-punk | Afro-punk (sometimes spelled Afropunk or AfroPunk) refers to African Americans and other black people in the punk subculture. Although Afro-punks make up a minority in the North American punk scene, they represent a majority in predominantly black regions of the world that have burgeoning punk communities, such as in parts of Brazil and Africa. |
| Aggrotech | Aggrotech is an evolution of electro-industrial and dark electro with a strong influence of techno music that first surfaced in the mid-1990s, but has been revitalized in recent years. |
| Aguinaldo | Aguinaldo is a folk genre of Christmas music, which originates from Puerto Rico and is based on an archaic form of Spanish christmas carol. Aguinaldo music is often performed by what is called parrandas—a casual group of people, often family or friends, who go from house to house. |
| Ahouach | Ahouach refers to a style of music and associated dance from southern Morocco. It may originate from the area of Tafraoute. |
| Air | Air (French for "aria"; also ayr, ayre), a variant of the musical song form, is the name of various song-like vocal or instrumental compositions. |
| Akyn | Kazakh folk music made by traveling musicians. |
| Aleatoric music | Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word alea, meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the determination of its performer(s). |
| Alpine New Wave | The 1990s saw the rise of Neue Volksmusik, or Alpine New Wave. Inspired by traditionalists like Sepp Eibl, a new group of bands brought a modern sound to traditional music. Artists included most famously Hundsbuam, who formed in 1994. Bavaria has been part of the Alpine New Wave of folk music alongside Switzerland and Austria. |
| Alternative country | Alternative country includes various subgenres of country music contrasted with mainstream or pop country. Most generally, any musician who plays a type of country music different from the prevailing trend can be said to play "alternative country". |
| Alternative dance | Alternative dance (sometimes known as indie dance in the United Kingdom) is a term used for the genre of music combining elements of dance-pop (or other forms of electronic dance music such as house or techno) and alternative rock genres such as indie pop. |
| Alternative hip hop | opposite of gangsta rap, usually includes socially or politically aware lyrics (also known as alternative rap or Bohemian hip hop) |
| Alternative metal | This is a catch-all term for heavy metal mixed with punk, funk, hip hop or other influences. |
| Alternative rock | Alternative rock (also called alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged from the underground music scene of the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. |
| Ambient | Ambient music refers to environmental music that envelops the listener without drawing significant attention to itself– although it is sufficiently eventful or interesting that it may also be listened to closely. |
| Ambient dub | Ambient dub involves the genre melding of dub styles made famous by King Tubby and other Jamaican sound artists with DJ inspired ambient electronica, complete with all the inherent drop-outs, echo, equalization and psychedelic electronic effects. |
| Ambient music | 'Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting.' - Brian Eno (Music for Airports liner notes, September 1978) |
Prev Top Next |
