| Style | Description |
|---|
| Shidaiqu | Shidaiqu (Chinese:時代曲 Si Doi Kuk) is a type of Chinese folk/European jazz fusion music that originated in Shanghai, China, in the 1920s. |
| Shima uta | a form of Okinawan dance music |
| Shlager | Schlager (German Schlager, literally "hitter" or, more loosely translated, "a hit") is a style of popular music that is prevalent in northern Europe, in particular Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, Latvia and Lithuania, but also to a lesser extent in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. |
| Shoegaze | Shoegazing (also known as shoegaze or shoegazer; practitioners referred to as shoegazers) is a genre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. It lasted until the mid 1990s, peaking circa 1990 to 1991. |
| Shoka | Japanese songs written during the Meiji Restoration to bring Western music to Japanese schools |
| Shomyo | Shōmyō (声明) is a style of Japanese Buddhist chant, used mainly in the Tendai and Shingon sects. There are two styles: ryokyoku and rikkyoku, described as difficult and easy to remember, respectively. |
| Siguiriyas | Siguiriyas (also seguiriyas, seguidilla gitana) is a form of flamenco music belonging to the cante jondo category. Its deep, expressive style is among the most important in flamenco. |
| Sinawi | Sinawi, sometimes spelled Shinawi, is a traditional form of Korean music. It is performed improvisationally by a musical ensemble, and traditionally accompanies the rites of Korean shamanism. The style first emerged in the Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces, but is now widespread. |
| Ska | Ska is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was a precursor to rocksteady and reggae. |
| Ska punk | Ska punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska and punk rock. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk. |
| Skacore (third wave of ska) | Ska punk is a fusion music genre that combines ska and punk rock. Ska-core is a subgenre of ska punk, blending ska with hardcore punk. |
| Skiffle | Skiffle is a type of folk music with a jazz and blues influence, usually using homemade or improvised instruments such as the washboard, tea chest bass, kazoo, cigar-box fiddle, musical saw, comb and paper, and so forth, as well as more conventional instruments such as acoustic guitar and banjo. Skiffle and jug band music are closely related. Skiffle was particularly popular in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Skronk | Skronk is a jazz/rock fusion musical genre associated with the works of Sonny Sharrock. |
| Slack-key guitar (kihoalu) | Slack-key guitar is a fingerstyle genre of guitar music that originated in Hawaii. Its name refers to its characteristic tuning: the English term is a translation of the Hawaiian kī hōʻalu, which means "loosen the tuning key". Most slack-key tunings can be achieved by starting with a classically-tuned guitar and detuning or "slacking" one or more of the strings until the six strings form a single chord, frequently G major. |
| Slowcore | The term slowcore, generally used interchangeably with sadcore, refers to a subgenre of alternative rock that developed from the downbeat melodies and slower tempos of late 1980s indie rock. |
| Sludge metal | Sludge metal is a form of heavy metal music that is generally regarded as a fusion of doom metal and hardcore punk often incorporating stoner metal and southern rock influences. |
| Smooth jazz | Smooth jazz, also sometimes referred to as new adult contemporary music, is generally described as a genre of music that utilizes instruments (and, at times, improvisation) traditionally associated with jazz and stylistic influences drawn from mostly R&B, but also funk and pop. |
| Soca | Soca, or soul calypso, is a form of dance music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago from calypso music. |
| Soft rock | Soft rock, also referred to as light rock or easy rock, is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock and roll to compose a softer, supposedly more ear-pleasing sound for listening, often at work or when driving. Soft rock is usually sung with higher-pitched vocals, and the lyrics tend to be non-confrontational, focusing in very general language on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of pianos, synthesizers and sometimes saxophones. |
| Son montuno | Cuban folk music |
| Sonata | Sonata (From Latin and Italian sonare, "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to cantata (Latin and Italian cantare, to sing), a piece sung. |
| Songo | Songo is a type of Cuban music, where there is a structuration of the musical phrase of the bass, drum/kick, and the congas for a more dynamic interaction of the rhythms section. It combines elements from the rumba, son Cubano, and other contemporary non-Latin styles like jazz and funk. |
| Songo-salsa | Songo-salsa is a style of music that blends Spanish rapping and hip hop beats with salsa music and songo. Well-known exponents include Bamboleo and Charanga Habanera. |
| Soukous | Soukous (also known as Lingala or Congo, and previously as 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. |
| Soul blues | Soul blues is a style of blues music developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s that combines elements of soul music and urban contemporary music. Soul blues saw its popularity rise in 1980s Bobby Bland continues with this style. This is a sub-genre within the blues genre which is very popular with African American audiences but less known by white audiences. |
| Soul jazz | Soul jazz was a development of hard bop which incorporated strong influences from blues, gospel and rhythm and blues in music for small groups, often the organ trio which featured the Hammond organ. |
| Soul music | Soul music is a music genre that combines rhythm and blues and gospel music, originating in the United States. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." |
| Southern Harmony | The roots of Southern Harmony singing, like the Sacred Harp, are found in the American colonial era. Singing schools were created to provide instruction in choral singing, especially for the use of churches. |
| Southern hip hop | Southern hip hop is a form of American hip hop music that emerged in the late-1990s as a popular force from cities such as Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Memphis, New Orleans, Miami, Baton Rouge. |
| Southern rock | Southern rock is a subgenre of rock music. It developed in the Southern United States from rock and roll, country music, and blues, and is focused generally on electric guitar and vocals. |
| Southern soul | Southern soul is the term applied to a particular type of deep soul music that emerged from the southern region of the United States. There were also southern-born artists who brought their influences to northern U.S. cities as well. It has also been tagged deep soul or even Country soul. |
| Space age pop | Space age pop is a general and loosely based term for a music genre associated with certain American composers and songwriters in the Space Age of the 1950s and 1960s. |
| Space music | Space music, also spelled spacemusic, is an umbrella term that has been applied to music from a broad range of genres. |
| Space rock | Space rock is a style of music; the term originally referred to a group of early mostly British 1970s progressive rock and psychedelic bands like Hawkwind and Pink Floyd, characterised by slow, lengthy instrumental passages dominated by synthesisers, experimental guitar work and science fiction lyrical themes, though it was later repurposed to refer to a series of late 1980s British alternative rock bands that drew from earlier influences to create a more melodic but still ambient form of pop music. |
| Spacesynth | Spectral music (or spectralism) is a musical genre or movement originating in France in the 1970s featuring the use of sound, including timbre, pitch, and rhythm of individual sounds, as a model for composition, most often using computer analysis of sound wave components and their evolution over time, especially using FFT analysis. |
| Spectralism | Spectral music (or spectralism) is a musical genre or movement originating in France in the 1970s featuring the use of sound, including timbre, pitch, and rhythm of individual sounds, as a model for composition, most often using computer analysis of sound wave components and their evolution over time, especially using FFT analysis. |
