| Style | Description |
|---|
| M-Base | M-Base (short for "macro-basic array of structured extemporization") is a concept of how to create modern music. It reached its peak in the mid-to-late-80s and early 90s. |
| Madchester | The term Madchester was coined for a rock music scene that developed in Manchester, England, at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. |
| Madrigal | A madrigal is a type of secular vocal music composition, written during the Renaissance and early Baroque eras. |
| Mahori | type of Thai classical music |
| Makossa | Makossa is a type of music which is most popular in urban areas in Cameroon. It is similar to soukous, except it includes strong bass rhythm and a prominent horn section. |
| Maluf | evolved form of al-andalous classical music which developed in Constantine, Algeria |
| Mambo | Mambo is a Cuban musical form and dance style. The word mambo (which means conversation with the gods) is the name of a priestess in Haitian Voodoo. |
| Manaschi | Kyrgyz folk music made by traveling musicians also called manaschi |
| Mandarin pop | early Taiwanese pop sung in Mandarin and popular with young listeners |
| Manila sound | Early 1970s development in Pinoy rock which mixed Tagalog and English lyrics |
| Marabi | Marabi is an indigenous music that evolved in South Africa over the last century. |
| Maracatu | African and Portuguese music popular around Recife, Brazil |
| Marga | Indian classical music |
| Mariachi | Mariachi is a type of musical group, originally from Cocula, Jalisco,Mexico. Usually a mariachi consists of at least two violins, two trumpets, one Mexican guitar, one vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar) and one guitarrón (a small-scaled acoustic bass). |
| Marrabenta | Marrabenta is a form of Mozambican dance music. It was developed in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, formerly Laurenco Marques. |
| Maskanda | Maskanda (or maskandi) is a kind of Zulu folk music that is evolving with South African society. |
| Mass | The Mass, a form of sacred musical composition, is a choral composition that sets the fixed portions of the Eucharistic liturgy (principally that of the Roman Catholic Church, the Churches of the Anglican Communion, and also the Lutheran Church) to music. |
| Martinetes | Martinetes are a flamenco palo belonging to the group of the tonás or cantes a palo seco. As the rest of the songs in this group, it is sung with no accompaniment. |
| Mathcore | Mathcore (also known as technical metalcore, technical hardcore and progressive metalcore) is a style of metalcore recognized for a high level of technical musicianship. The subgenre has its roots in bands like Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. |
| Math rock | Math rock is a rhythmically complex, guitar-based style of experimental rock music that emerged in the late 1980s. It is characterized by complex, atypical rhythmic structures (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords. |
| Mazurka | The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter with a lively tempo, containing a heavy accent on the third or second beat. It is always found to have either a triplet, trill, dotted eighth note pair, or ordinary eighth note pair before two quarter notes. |
| Mbalax | Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal. It is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal. |
| Mbaqanga (township jive) | Mbaqanga is a style of South African music with rural Zulu roots that continues to influence musicians worldwide today. The style was originated in the early 1960s. |
| Mbira (Chimurenga) | Chimurenga music is a Zimbabwean popular music genre coined by and popularized by Thomas Mapfumo. Chimurenga is a Shona language word for struggle. |
| Mbube | Mbube is a form of South African vocal music, made famous by the South African group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The word mbube means "lion" in Zulu. |
| Meditation | Meditation and music includes music played with or listened to during meditation, music the performance of which is a meditation, or music which is meditative. Music may distract from or enhance meditation, and meditation may involve music making. |
| Medieval music | The term medieval music encompasses European music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire (476 AD) and ends in approximately the middle of the fifteenth century. |
| Medieval rock | Medieval rock or Medieval metal (a literal translation of the German terms Mittelalter-Rock and Mittelalter-Metal) is a stylistic blend of hard rock or heavy metal music with folk and medieval music. |
| Melodic black metal | Melodic black metal is a style of black metal. It is classified according to several key aspects; typical black metal characteristics, such as growled or shrieked vocals, blast beats, and heavily distorted guitars. |
| Melodic death metal | Melodic death metal (also referred to as melodeath and Gothenburg metal) is a subgenre of death metal. Originally the genre combined the harmony style and groove melodies of heavy metal with the harsh thrashing sound and vocals of death metal. Later the genre evolved due to many different influences, a notable evolution in the genre being the addition of keyboards. |
| Melodic music | Melodic music is a term that covers various genres of non-classical music which are primarily characterised by the dominance of a single strong melody line. Rhythm, tempo and beat are subordinate to the melody line or tune, which is generally easily memorable, and followed without great difficulty. |
| Memphis blues | The Memphis blues is a style of blues music that was created in the 1920s and 1930s by Memphis-area musicians like Frank Stokes, Sleepy John Estes, Furry Lewis and Memphis Minnie. |
| Memphis soul | Memphis soul is stylish, funky, uptown soul music that is not as hard edged as Southern soul. It is a shimmering, sultry style produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring melodic unison horn lines, organ, bass, and a driving beat on the drums. |
| Mento | Mento is a style of Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass part of the music. |
| Merengue | Merengue is a type of lively, joyful music and dance that comes from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic, and all over Latin America. |
| Merengue-bomba | Puerto Rican fusion of bomba and merengue |
| Méringue | Méringue (also mereng) is a type of Haïtian music related to twoubadou and the Dominican merengue. It is a guitar-based style (unlike the primarily accordion-based merengue), and is generally sung in Haïtian Kréyòl. Native to Haiti. |
