| Style | Description |
|---|
| Sabar | The sabar is traditional drum from the West African nation of Senegal. Sabar is also recognized as the style of music played while using this drum. |
| Sacred Harp | Sacred Harp singing is a tradition of sacred choral music that took root in the Southern region of the United States. It is part of the larger tradition of shape note music. |
| Sadcore | Sadcore is an infrequent subgenre used by music journalists to describe examples of alternative rock characterised by bleak lyrics, downbeat melodies and slower tempos. |
| Saibara | Saibara (催馬楽) is a genre of accompanied vocal Japanese court music that existed during the Heian period in the region of Nara and Kyoto. It draws from traditional folk music from the Nara period set to togaku and komagaku melodies. |
| Salegy | Salegy is a popular type of Afropop styles exported from Madagascar. This Sub-Saharan African folk music dance originated with the Malagasy language of Madagascar, Southern Africa. It is noted that one of the main identifier of Malagasy Music is the Salegy rhythm. |
| Salsa | Salsa music is a diverse and predominantly Spanish Caribbean genre that is popular across Latin America and among Latinos abroad. Salsa incorporates multiple styles and variations. |
| Salsa gorda | Salsa gorda is a music genre, a kind of salsa music also known as salsa dura. Salsa gorda means 'fat' salsa, salsa dura means 'hard' salsa. Both terms are used to describe salsa that retains the basic characteristics of classic salsa: driving rhythms, call and response, 'montuno' sections and socially conscious lyrics. |
| Salsa romantica | Salsa romántica, also known as salsa monga, is a sub-genre of salsa music that between the mid 1980s and early 1990s in New York and Puerto Rico. It has been the most commercially successful form of salsa in the last 20 years, despite criticism that it is a pale imitation of "real" salsa. |
| Saltarello | The saltarello was a lively, merry dance first mentioned in Naples during the 13th century. The music survives, but no early instructions for the actual dance are known. It was played in a fast triple meter and is named for its peculiar leaping step, after the Italian verb saltare ("to jump"). |
| Samba | form of Brazilian popular music |
| Samba-reggae | Samba-reggae is a music genre from Bahia, Brazil. Samba-reggae, as its name suggests, was originally derived as a blend of Brazilian samba with Jamaican reggae as typified by Bob Marley. |
| Samba-canção | Samba-canção is a kind of slow samba music from Brazil. It appeared in the late 1940s. |
| Sanjo | Sanjo is a style of traditional Korean music, involving an instrumental solo accompanied by drumming on the janggu, an hourglass-shaped drum. |
| Sato kagura | Sato kagura(里神楽), or village kagura, is a popular form of kagura that presents ritualized dance-dramas reenacting mythological themes, including the primal restoration of sunlight to the world. It is often heard during festivals, when musicians accompany their songs on flutes and a variety of drums. |
| Sawt | Sawt (also spelled sout or sowt) is a kind of popular music found in the Arabian states of the Persian Gulf area, especially in Kuwait and Bahrain. |
| Scandinavian death metal | Scandinavian death metal concerns the death metal bands of Scandinavian origin. The most dominant countries of the genre are Norway, Sweden and Finland. |
| Schottisch | The Schottische is a partnered country dance, Bohemian in origin, that is two short runs and a hop followed by four turning hop steps: step step step hop, step step step hop, step hop step hop step hop step hop. |
| Schranz | Schranz is the name given to European (especially German) hard techno, a style of techno typically around 150-170 BPM and based around massively bass-heavy kick drums, driving percussion and distorted, looping synth noises. The music can however be slower. |
| Scottish Baroque music | Scottish Baroque music is a style of music that combines features of traditional Scottish music and European classical music. |
| Screamo | Screamo is a musical genre which evolved from emo and hardcore punk in the early 1990s. Characteristic of the genre are screaming vocals, harmonized guitars, and fast-paced riffs. |
| Scrumpy and Western | Scrumpy and Western refers humorously to music from England's West Country that fuses comical folk-style songs, often full of double entendre, with affectionate parodies of more mainstream musical genres, all delivered in the local accent/dialect. |
| Sea shanty | Sea shanties (singular "shanty", also spelled "chantey"; derived from the French word "chanter", 'to sing') were shipboard working songs. |
| Sean nós | Sean Nós Singing is a highly-ornamented style of solo, unaccompanied singing in the Irish tradition. |
| Second Viennese School | The Second Viennese School is the term generally used in English-speaking countries to denote the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna. |
| Sega music | Sega music is an evolved combination of traditional Music of Seychelles,Mauritian and Réunionnais music with European dance music like polka and quadrilles. |
| Seggae | Seggae is a music genre invented in the mid 1980s by the Mauritian Rasta singer, Joseph Reginald Topize who was sometimes known as Kaya, after a song title by Bob Marley. |
| Seis | The seis is a type of Puerto Rican dance music, related to décima. It originated in the later half of the 17th century in the southern part of Spain. |
| Semba | Semba is a traditional type of music from the Southern-African country of Angola. Semba is the predecessor to a variety of music styles originated from Africa, of which three of the most famous are Samba (from Brazil), Kizomba (Angolan style of music derived directly from Zouk music) and Kuduro (or Kuduru, energetic, fast-paced Angolan Techno music, so to speak). |
| Sephardic music | Sephardic music was born in medieval Spain, with canciones being performed at the royal courts. Since then, it has picked up influences from across Spain, Morocco, Argentina, Turkey, Greece and various popular tunes from Spain and further abroad. |
| Serrana | Serrana is a solo guitar etude that relies heavily on arpeggios and the technique of sweep picking. It was written and composed by neo-classical metal guitarist Jason Becker. |
| Sevdalinka | Sevdalinka is a traditional genre of folk music originating from Bosnia and Herzegovina. In many cases, sevdalinka is called simply sevdah. |
| Shabad | Shabad is the term used by Sikhs to refer to a hymn or paragraph or sections of the Holy Text that appears in their several Holy Books. |
| Shalako | Shalako refers to a series of dances and ceremonies conducted by the Zuni tribe at the Winter Solstice, and other Native American tribes of the American Southwest in the fall, typically following the harvest. |
| Shan'ge | Shan'ge is a genre of Chinese folk song. They are commonly sung in rural provinces; the word shan'ge means "mountain song". |
| Shape note | Shape notes are a music notation designed to facilitate congregational singing. Shape notes of various kinds have been used for over two centuries in a variety of sacred music traditions practiced primarily in the Southern region of the United States. |
| Shibuya-kei | Shibuya-kei (渋谷系) is a sub-genre of Japanese pop music which originated in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. It is best described as a mix between jazz, pop, and electropop. The word for Shibuya (渋谷) is suffixed with the Japanese word kei (系), meaning "affiliation", to form Shibuya-kei, which roughly translates to "Shibuya style". |
