| Style | Description |
|---|
| Xhosa music | Xhosa music has long been a major part of the music of South Africa, especially in the field of jazz. There are many Xhosa clans, each with their own styles of drumming and dialects. |
| Xoomii (khoomii, hoomii) | Xoomii is a type of Tuvan throat singing. |
| Yang | Yang is a form of Tibetan Buddhist chanting. |
| Yé-yé | Yé-yé was a style of pop music that emerged out of France and Québec in the early 1960s. |
| Yo-pop | Yo-pop is a style of Nigerian popular music, popularized in the 1980s by Segun Adewale. The style did not remain popular for long as it was quickly replaced by afro-juju towards the end of the 1980s. |
| Yodeling | Yodeling (or yodelling, jodeling) is a form of singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the vocal chest register (or "chest voice") to the head register (or "head voice"), making a high-low-high-low sound. This vocal technique is used in many cultures throughout the world. |
| Zapin | derived from ancient Arabic music, zapin is popular throughout Malaysia |
| Zarzuela | Zarzuela, is a Spanish lyric-dramatic genre that alternates between spoken and sung scenes, the latter incorporating operatic and popular song, as well as dance. The name derives from a Royal hunting lodge, the Palacio de la Zarzuela near Madrid, where this type of entertainment was first presented to the court. |
| Zeuhl | Zeuhl typically blends progressive rock, symphonic rock, fusion, neoclassicism, aspects of rock in opposition and vocal elements of African-American spirituals and Western military call and response. Common aspects include dissonance, marching themes, throbbing bass, keyboards including piano, Rhodes piano, or organ, and brass instruments. |
| Ziglibithy | Ziglibithy is a style of Ivorian popular music that developed in the 1970s. It was the first major genre of music from the Ivory Coast. The first major pioneer of the style was Ernesto Djedje. |
| Zouglou | Zouglou is a dance oriented style of music from the Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) that first evolved in the 1990s. It started with students (les parents du Campus) from the University of Abidjan. It has since spread elsewhere, including to Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Gabon. |
| Zouk | Zouk is a style of rhythmic music originating from the French islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. It has its roots in kompa music from Haiti, cadence music from Dominica, as popularised by Grammacks and Exile One. Zouk means "party" or "festival" in the local creole of French with English and African influences, all three of which contribute the sound. In Europe it is particularly popular in France, and in North America the Canadian province of Quebec, while on the African islands of Cape Verde they have developed their own type of zouk. |
| Zouk chouv | Zouk chouv is a musical genre of Martinique and Guadeloupe. It includes instrumentation from percussion, bamboo flute, accordion and wax-paper/comb-type kazoo. Zouk chouv evolved from chouval bwa, adding electric instrumentation. It has been popularized by musical artists such as Claude Germany, Tumpak, Dede Saint-Prix, and Pakatak. |
| Zouklove | Zouk-love is a genre of popular French West Indian music. It is a slower and more dramatic derivative of zouk, and is similar to the African kizomba. Popular performers include West Indian like Edith Lefel and Gilles Floro, Africans like Philipe Monteiro and the Dutch-based Suzanna Lubrano and Gil Semedo. |
| Zulu music | The Zulu are a South African ethnic group. Many Zulu musicians have become a major part of South African music. A number of Zulu-folk derived styles have also become well-known across South Africa and abroad. The 1970s duo Juluka, consisting of a white man, Johnny Clegg, and a Zulu, Sipho Mchunu. They became wildly popular with a blend of rock and Zulu folk music called maskanda, which has since evolved into an urban style called mbaqanga. |
| Zydeco | Zydeco is a form of American roots or folk music, that evolved from the jure during the late 1800s call and response vocal music of the black and multiracial French speaking Creoles of south and southwest Louisiana. |
