Rating of musical genres. Main directions in music

This music is performed by a generation of musicians raised on jazz, funk and hip-hop, and uses elements of all three movements. Such features of Acid Jazz as heavy percussion, as well as predominantly live performance, place this style closer to jazz and Afro-Cuban music than to other dance styles. On the other hand, the emphasized groove brings Acid Jazz closer to funk and hip-hop. The term itself first appeared in 1988, both as the name of an American record label and an English series of collections on which jazz and funk music of the 70s was re-released and which the British had previously called rare groove. In the late 80s - early 90s, many Acid Jazz performers appeared, who were both “live” teams - Stereo MC's, James Taylor Quartet, the Brand New Heavies, Groove Collective, Galliano, Jamiroquai, and studio projects - PALm Skin Productions, Mondo GroSSO, Outside, and United Future Organization.

For the most part, the Alternative genre is characterized by the same features that have always been characteristic of Heavy Metal (powerful, loud guitars and hammering riffs), but at the same time the alternative direction has enriched the genre with a punk concept. Instead of sticking strictly to the traditionally frivolous themes that dominated mainstream Heavy Metal, Alternative Metal bands tried to tackle deeper issues in their work, much like Metallica did, but without their recklessly fast tempo. intricate guitar solos and hoarse, roaring vocals.
Actually, in music, alternative metalists initially adhered to more atonal (inharmonious) melodies than traditional metal bands. However, after Nirvana's Great Breakthrough in the early '90s, when Grunge came to dominate hard rock, all the hallmarks of Alternative Metal became more blurred: the genre began to stretch from the hammering, dissonant Helmet to the important, stately riffs of Stone Temple Pilots... Soon, most of the new metal bands were perceived exclusively as alternative, although apart from concert performances and the characteristic fuzzy distortion sound, there was little that distinguished them from traditional metalists.

Ambient was created on the basis of experiments with the synthesis of electronic music, such musicians as Brian Eno and Kraftwerk and dance trance techno in the 80s of the 20th century. Ambient uses electronic reverberation and spatial sound technology, where the texture of the sound itself plays an important role, and not the writing of lyrics and music. The music changes slowly and has a repetitive nature, so it may seem the same to an inexperienced listener. Although the content and timbre of the compositions of ambient performers differ greatly from each other. The ambient style became popular, cult music in the early 90s, thanks to the ambient-techno musicians the Orb and Aphex Twin. Ambient literally means surrounding, enveloping, immersing. There is a legend about the origin of this style, according to which Ambient was invented by one of the greatest sound producers of the late 20th century, Brian Eno. Once in the hospital and lying bedridden for a long time, Eno began to listen to the sounds coming from the window of his room, looking for their inner melody in them. He then began recording environmental noises and composing entire tracks from them. Then he released all this in several discs under the general name Ambient. Of course, now we need to distinguish between original and electronic Ambient. Electronic ambient is soft, drawn-out music that does not have a pronounced beat. This is calm music, in which noise loops are used as the background, and the main melody plays unobtrusively and, as a rule, is very long. Ambient often uses fragments of phrases, pieces of sound from old films, high-tech sounds and, most importantly, a lot of reverberation and echo. Nowadays you can find very little ambient music in its pure form. Ambient elements are now present in almost all styles from house to hip-hop, so this style has flowed into all others and is not going to go back into oblivion, from which Eno pulled it out. The most famous Ambient musicians are Pete Namlook, Aphex Twin, Seefeel, The Future Sound of London, The Orb, Delerium.

Originating from the prolific dance scene in Miami (Freestyle) and Detroit (Electro) in the mid-'80s, Bass Music has brought the Funky-Breaks out of the 70's aesthetic into the digital age with high-frequency drum machines capable of driving such frantic, bass-heavy beats. , which most car or club acoustics of those times could not stand. The early Miami pioneers were 2 Live Crew and DJ Magic Mike - they pushed the style into a distinctive and obsessive crowd, while the Detroit pioneers were DJ Assault, DJ Godfather and DJ Bone who mixed all of the above with Techno to create an extremely fast, tempo, music. Bass Music even entered many dance charts in the early 90s. Teams like 95 South's and 69 Boyz's songs "Whoot (There It Is)" and "Tootsee Roll" not only hit the charts, but were certified multi-platinum.

Blues (English blues from blue devils - melancholy, despondency) is a single blues composition or genre of music that became widespread in the 20s of the 20th century. It is one of the achievements of African-American culture. It was formed from such ethnic musical movements of the black African-American society as “work song”, “spirituals” and cholera. In many ways he influenced modern popular music, especially such genres as “Pop” (English Popular music), “Jazz” (English Jazz), “Rock’n’roll” (English Rock’n’roll). The predominant form of blues is ¾, where the first 4 measures are often played on the tonic harmony, 2 each on the subdominant and tonic, and 2 each on the dominant and tonic. A characteristic feature of the blues is “blue notes”. Often music is built on a “question-answer” structure, expressed both in the lyrical content of the composition and in the musical content, often built on a dialogue between instruments. Blues is an improvisational form of the musical genre, where compositions often use only the main supporting “framework”, which is played by solo instruments. The original blues theme is built on the sensual social component of the life of the African-American population, its difficulties and obstacles that arise on the path of every black person.

Breaks Despite its “black” roots, by the early nineties House music had become very rhythmically simplified and lost the original energy of the black ghetto. It was then that Breaks appeared, which used the sound of hip-hop, reggae, and, less often, raga.

Breakbeat is a (“broken” beat) style, or to be more precise, a whole direction, formed in the early 90s, stylistically finally formed in 1994. The place of his birth is considered to be Great Britain, and the main cities where this style initially became most widespread are London and Bristol. The name of the style fully reflects its essence: no directness or tenderness. Often the term “breakbeat” refers to very specific aggressive music at a tempo of about 130-140 bpm, with a dense guitar sound, with clear drum accents on the 2nd and 4th beats and fussing around the 3rd. The main criterion for defining “breakbeat” is clean, practically unprocessed drums and percussion (except perhaps compression) and a standard 4/4 rhythm. The purposefulness of the sound is emphasized by tangible bass lines, using analog devices such as “Roland TB-303”. Sometimes, for final pathos, brass instruments or a symphony orchestra are used.

Chillout (from the English Chillout, Chill out music) is a style of electronic music, the name of which comes from an English slang word meaning “relaxation”.

Originating in the early 1990s, the chill-out movement of the time was relatively subdued and slow-paced. Several seminal albums with "Chill Out" in the title were released during this time. These albums were also closely associated with the styles of downtempo, trip-hop, slow versions of house music, nu-jazz, psybient and lounge. This musical style is also influenced by trance, ambient and creative dance music (IDM) styles. The term "chill-out" is primarily used to describe music that is tonal, "relaxing", or at least not as intense as its predecessors. It is incorrect to classify various kinds of hypnotic rhythms as a chill-out. Sometimes the name “soft techno” is used instead of chill-out.
Recently, chill-out has become popular among progressive trance and progressive house musicians, making their work more diverse. Therefore, sometimes this genre is called Ibiza Trance/Balearic House - after the island of Ibiza, just like Goa-trance after the name of Goa, India. This music reflects the atmosphere of the island of Ibiza, and as fans of the genre say, listening to this euphoric and spiritually uplifting music can vividly imagine a Mediterranean sunset. This effect is achieved through the use of synthesized sounds of string instruments, wave sounds, mandolins and guitars, as well as “whispered” vocals.
Chill-out is also called a separate dance floor at fairly large concerts (parties) in the style of Goa-trance and its derivatives, or generally a relaxation area in dance clubs. The chill-out usually plays relaxing music of the above-mentioned styles; those dancing on the main dance floor come there to relax. The largest psy-events are also equipped with a special “dark” dance floor, where dark psytrance is played - a kind of opposite to chill-out.

Music (from ancient Greek μουσική - art of muses) - the art of intonation; musical composition. Artistic activity in music is aimed at sound material (musical sound) - individual sounds or sound complexes (harmonic sequences, rhythmic figures, melodic intervals, modes, keys, sonorous effects, etc.), organized in pitch, time, timbre, volume and other relationships with the aim of embodying a special figurative thought that associates the states and processes of the external world, the internal experiences of a person with auditory impressions (artistic image).

Rock music is a general name for many types of music that have existed since the mid-1950s. The word “rock” - to swing - in this case indicates the rhythmic sensations characteristic of these directions associated with a certain form of movement, by analogy with “roll”, “twist”, “swing”, “shake”, etc. Such signs rock music, such as the use of electric musical instruments, creative self-sufficiency (rock musicians typically perform their own compositions) are secondary and often misleading. For this reason, the identity of some styles of music as rock is disputed. Also, rock is a special subcultural phenomenon; subcultures such as mods, hippies, punks, metalheads, goths are inextricably linked with certain genres of rock music.

Rock music has a large number of directions: from light genres such as dance rock and roll, pop rock, Britpop to brutal and aggressive genres such as death metal and grind. The content of the songs varies from light and casual to dark, deep and philosophical. Rock music is often contrasted with pop music and so-called. “pop”, although there is no clear boundary between the concepts of “rock” and “pop”, and many musical phenomena balance on the line between them.

The origins of rock music lie in the blues, from which the first rock genres emerged - rock and roll and rockabilly. The first subgenres of rock music arose in close connection with folk and pop music of that time - primarily folk, country, skiffle, and music hall. During its existence, there have been attempts to combine rock music with almost all possible types of music - with academic music (art rock, appears in the late 60s), jazz (jazz rock, appears in the late 60s - early 70s ), Latin music (Latin rock, appears in the late 60s), Indian music (raga rock, appears in the mid 60s). In the 60-70s, almost all the largest subgenres of rock music appeared, the largest of which, in addition to those listed, are hard rock, punk rock, and avant-garde rock. In the late 70s and early 80s, such genres of rock music as post-punk, new wave, alternative rock, wheat rock (although early representatives of this direction appeared in the late 60s), hardcore (a large subgenre punk rock), as well as brutal subgenres of metal - death metal, black metal. In the 90s, the genres of grunge (appeared in the mid-80s), Britpop (appeared in the mid-60s), and alternative metal (appeared in the late 80s) were widely developed.
The main centers of development of rock music are the USA and Western Europe (especially Great Britain). Most of the lyrics are in English. However, although, as a rule, with some delay, national rock music appeared in almost all countries. Russian-language rock music (so-called Russian rock) appeared in the USSR already in the 1960-1970s. and reached its peak in the 1980s, continuing to develop in the 1990s.

Club/Dance music includes many other styles from Disco to Hip-Hop. In history there are many different dances that are performed to various dance music, including Club/Dance. Club/Dance music became an independent style in the mid-70s, when Soul changed into Disco and entire clubs were dedicated to dancing. In 75-77, dance clubs played only Disco, but by the end of the decade, it changed and moved into other style forms. All these forms were collected under one term “Club/Dance”; Dance-Pop, Hip-Hop, House and Techno and many other styles fell under this comb. All together, these styles were and are connected by only one thing - rhythm - in every dance style, rhythm remains the most important condition.

Club House, this offshoot, came into being in the early 90s, when a wave of commercial music swept Europe. Just as in the 80s disco was called typical club music, in the 90s a movement was formed whose sole purpose was to make people dance. To put it simply, the base remained house, but all dissonant melodic combinations were removed, the vocals became more “sweet,” and syncopations that were “difficult” for the average listener to perceive were also discarded. The result is simple and accessible music with a simple rhythm and simple arrangement. Some varieties of such music are also called handbag (the name comes from a kind of dance that little girls perform on the dance floor). The most interesting form of club house can be considered Mellow House, which uses pure relaxation beats and corresponding sounds.

Hip-Hop/Trip-Hop

In Rap music terminology, Hip-Hop is usually referred to as the culture - painting on the walls of houses, breakdancing and spinning vinyl in addition to rap rhymes - surrounding the music. As a musical style, however, Hip-Hop refers to the type of music that is created by taking all of these attributes into account. Since the direction has been spinning on the music scene for a long time to have a history of its development, Hip-Hop teams began to look back at the work of such old-school masters as MCs Kurtis Blow and Whodini, as well as DJs Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. In fact, the last surge in popularity (Zulu Nation) occurred in the late 80s around two of the most famous Hip-Hop artists - De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. In the 90s, when there was a real breakthrough in Rap music, dozens of Hip-Hop musicians began to return to the roots of the old school (“old school”), including such underground rappers as Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch.

At its core, Hip-Hop is a rhythmic accompaniment to rap lyrics, performed in a rather leisurely manner. It takes a minimalist approach to the use of samples, loops and typical turntable playing. The main load falls on the bass and the dense sound of the drums. Groups such as Public Enemy and others used Hip-Hop rhythms, adding rap lyrics of a social nature to them.

Another representative in a long line of trends that stuck to UK dance culture at the post-acid house stage and quickly changed the constantly experimenting underground. Trip-Hop was created by British music publications to characterize a new style consisting of downtempo, jazz, funk and experimental breakbeat music that began to appear in 1993. with the participation of such record labels as Mo'Wax, Ninja Tune, Cup of Tea and Wall of Sound. Similar (though mostly without vocals) to American hip-hop in its use of sampled drum breaks, the style was more experimental, inspired by more ambient elements and a psychotropic atmosphere. Thus, the term “trip” quickly took root and was used to describe everything from Portishead and Tricky to DJ Shadow and U.N.K.L.E., Coldcut, Wagon Christ and Depth Charge, much to the chagrin of many of these musicians, who saw their music as pushing the boundaries of conventional hip- hop, not its new offshoot used to create hype. One of the first commercially significant dance music hybrids, full-length trip-hop albums became regular toppers of the alternative charts in the UK, and are credited with the likes of Shadow, Tricky, Morcheeba, the Sneaker Pimps and Massive Attack. the style ensured the penetration of much of the music of the first wave of “electronica” into America.

D`n`B Intelligence

DRUM’N’BASS is one of the embodiments of the “breakbeat” concept. It was formed by the early 90s as a style that combines a bass line at a tempo of 80 bpm and an abundance of various drums at a tempo of 160 bpm. Nothing else. Due to the temperament of the drums, this style can be perceived as dance music, due to the slower (often with a reggae character) bass line it can be perceived as relaxing music. Gradually, beautiful, sometimes melancholic melodies began to be added to this style. In short, by the mid-90s, “Drum’n’bass” slowly but surely transformed into intelligent jungle.
INTELLIGENT – music with this characteristic is intended more for listening and relaxing time than for use at parties, especially as a decoration for the dance floor. There are intelligent versions of “jungle” and “techno”. Compared to pure styles, their reasonable versions are more melodic, atmospheric, and you can trace a theme, often a very nice one.

Disco (English: Disco, lit. “disco”) is a genre of dance music that emerged in the early 1970s. Disco developed almost simultaneously in the United States and Europe. American disco is characterized by a sound close to funk and soul. European disco was closely intertwined with traditional pop music and general trends in pop music. One of the first disco hits in Europe was the song “J’attendrai” performed by Dalida (1975). In the USA, the first hits of the style are considered to be “Rock The Boat” by the Hughes Corporation (American hit No. 1 of the year), “Rock You Baby” by George McCray and “Love’s Theme” by Love Unlimited Orchestra (the theme from the film “Heat”), released in 1974. The general formula of a disco composition is as follows: a dance rhythm at a tempo of about 120 beats per minute and “live” melodies, often heavily orchestrated.

Downtempo (English downtempo - low tempo) or downbeat (downbeat) - a style in modern electronic music. Music is characterized by a slow rhythm, most often broken. Close to trip-hop, but less oppressive and depressive. It is close to ambient, but has a rhythmic structure, often consisting of loops that have a “hypnotic” effect. Characterized by a constant desire for innovation.

Easy Listening (Easy Listening) is not a special direction in music, but the attitude of listeners towards it. But in this article we will still call Easy Listening a certain style. Easy Listening – music that is easy to understand and does not require special understanding of the rhythm and melody. The history of this style begins in the 50s, when the famous musician Henry Manchini wrote the soundtrack for the first episodes of the cartoon “The Pink Panther” and many films of the 50s and 60s. The press has since begun to show hysterical interest in this direction. The largest record companies literally flood Easy Listening musicians with offers to release their albums. In addition, various companies are also re-releasing classics in the Easy Listening style. Now we can hear this music in sound tracks for various films such as “From Dusk Till Dawn”, “Pulp Fiction”, “Four Rooms”, “Generation X”, “ Romeo + (and) Juliet”, etc.

Electroclash is a genre of popular music that incorporates elements of new wave, punk and electronic dance. Electroclash musicians use: sound traditions of the 80s (synthesizers, often early analogues, drum machines), retro sounds, musical minimalism, combining this with visual images of the 70s-80s, vintage aesthetics of disco and punk. Prototypes of electroclash aesthetics can be seen in the cult film Liquid Sky. Suicide is considered one of the founders of electroclash. Electroclash gained popularity in the late 90s in New York and Detroit. The official birthplace is considered to be the Lux club in Williamsburg, where Larry T, the man who coined the word “electroclash” and owns the rights to it, hosted parties. The origins of the name lie in the intersection of influences experienced by a number of European and American groups working in this vein. The lyrics mostly borrow from punk themes, are often aggressive and focus more on emotion than technique.

Electronic is a music school focused primarily on the study and application of the possibilities of sound synthesis, the creation of completely new, previously unheard, artificial timbres. Historically, the ground for the emergence of electronic music was prepared by the development of sonorous interpretation of sound in the works of composers of the first half of the twentieth century. Electronic music originated in Germany and first declared itself in 1951, when at the Summer Courses of Contemporary Music in Darmstadt, W. Mayer-Eppler demonstrated a sample of “electric sounds” editing. The largest representatives of the electronic school are the Germans Herbert Eimert, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Hans Werner Henze, the French Henri Pousseur, Pierre Boulez, the Italians Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio, the Japanese Toshiro Mayuzumi and others.

Representatives of the electronic school operate with sound at the level of its primordial basis - that is, the overtone series. The achievements of the electronic school have greatly influenced pop, rock and modern dance music.

Folktronica or Electrofolk is a genre of music that includes various elements of folk music and electronics. The term folktronica, which now “brands” electronic music with elements of ambient, folk, jazz, classical and hip-hop, the creation of which uses mainly analogue synthesizers.

Funk (English funk) is one of the fundamental movements of African-American music. The term denotes a musical direction that, along with soul, makes up rhythm and blues, as well as a style of dancing to this music. The formation of funk began in the 60s in opposition to the growing commercialization of rhythm and blues. The founders of the style were James Brown and George Clinton. The name of the style comes from the word “funky,” which in jazz slang means “a bizarre, intricate manner of performance.”

Funk, first of all, is dance music, which determines its musical features: extreme syncopation of parts of all instruments (syncopated bass is called “funking”), pulsating rhythm, screaming vocals, repeated repetition of short melodic phrases. Larry Graham is often credited with inventing the slap bass drumming technique that became the hallmark of funk. Guitarists in funk bands play in a rhythmic style, often using a wah-wah sound effect. Dead or muted notes are used in riffs to enhance percussive elements. Jimi Hendrix was a pioneer of funk rock. A follower of funk in the new century was the synth-funk style.

In fact, Fusion (from English “fusion”, “fusion”) is a fusion of two or more musical styles (for example, English Art Rock, in which elements of classical music and rock arrangements of instrumental parts are “fused”). However, most bands classified as Fusion artists play a fusion of jazz and rock, pioneered by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who pioneered the use of electric instruments and rock rhythms in long jazz improvisations in the mid-'60s. Davis's numerous followers - John McLaughlin, Tony Williams, Billy Cobham, Chick Corea, Joseph Zawinul and Wayne Shorter - somewhat modified the "fusion" of jazz and rock, shifting the emphasis to rock, which ensured the style's success among youth audiences. Complex piano and guitar chords and virtuoso instrumental solos became characteristic of this direction. In the late 70s, jazz saxophonist Ornette Coleman, known as a free jazz virtuoso, made Jazz-Rock Fusion more powerful, dynamic and called his version “harmonic Fusion”.

Pop (English Pop-music from Popular music) is a direction of modern music, a type of modern mass culture. This is not just popular music, but also based on pop rhythms traditional to the Western world. In various regions of the world it is based on Western pop rhythms, but with only isolated elements of regional varieties of local traditional music. Pop music may imitate different musical styles that are most popular at the moment, but the rhythmic basis changes little. Therefore, pop music has little influence on music of different genres and styles.

This style appeared in the mid-80s in Chicago. In the era of disco's undivided reign, this style was very pretentious and, of course, trendy in very narrow progressive circles. The house style was created exclusively for dancing and was created exclusively with the help of electronic musical instruments, drum machines and synthesizers. There are several versions of the origin of the name of this style. One of them says that House was named after the name of the Warehouse club, where local DJs first began mixing Kraftwerk music with direct beats made on a drum machine. House music has changed a lot since then, in the 90s it became the most relevant and fashionable, dozens of new styles were born based on house, and house compositions took their leading places in the charts. House is undoubtedly the main style of the 90s. You don't need to explain what house sounds like. House music is not very fast, about 130-140BPM, accompanied by an absolutely straight beat (a clap or snare is applied to every second kick drum hit), and a hat sounds on every sixteenth beat. That's all house. Modern house returned to its roots and began to use a lot of disco elements, so that towards the end of the nineties there was a real revival of this style. However, it became less solemn due to the fact that hip-hop has finally taken root in pop culture, and house now belongs to the style of the last century.

A complex term intended to describe 90s electronic music that can be used equally well on the dance floor or at home. Over time, the IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) style has largely gained negative notoriety among dance musicians and fans who were driven by the only question of whether they were playing mindless dance music or not. Originating in the late 1980s, the sound grew out of a combination of heavy dance coming primarily from raver parties and large-scale club events, plus downtempo. DJs such as Mixmaster Morris and Dr. Alex Paterson combined Chicago house, soft synth pop/new wave with ambient, encouraging the emergence of a new wave of musicians inspired by a wide variety of musical sources. (During these years, many DJs and musicians also protested against the growing chart-oriented orientation of British dance music, as exemplified by the new hits "Pump Up the Jam" from Technotronic and "Sesame's Treat" from Smart E's.) Sheffield's Warp Records worked with the best representatives of this genre, in fact, a productive collection from the Warp studio called Artificial Intelligence introduced listeners around the world to half a dozen leading artists in this style: Aphex Twin, the Orb, Plastikman, Autechre, Black Dog Productions and B12. Other major record labels Rising High, GPR, R&S, Rephlex, Fat Cat, Astralwerks also made quality IDM releases, although by the mid-90s the majority of electronica music being recorded for listeners pushed studios towards further experimentation and beat-orientation. In the absence of a central, commercial scene, North America became the most fertile and hospitable ground for IDM, and by the late 90s, dozens of established studios opened their doors to work with musicians in this style, including Beat, Isophlux, Suction, Schematic and Cytrax. Despite frequent attempts to rename the style (Warp suggested the term “electronic listening music”, and Aphex Twin settled on “braindance”), the IDM style remained a viable way for fans to express their usually confused preferences.

“Independent” rock. Typically, the definition of “indie groups” (and, accordingly, “indie rock”) includes groups and performers who work outside the sphere of interests of large record companies and record at so-called “indie” or “independent” companies. Often the “independence” of these companies means low budget, and even more often - the desire to play and promote music that interests a very limited circle of listeners, that is, commercially unpromising. The English and American music press tend to view indie rock as the art of snobs, although in some cases "indie" bands produce truly talented works for which the general public is ill-prepared. As a rule, the style of indie bands has nothing to do with their “independence” - these can be hard rock bands or psychedelic ones, the main thing that unites them is the desire for some kind of artistic integrity and a declaration of the “non-saleability of art.” Since the early 90s, the concepts of “indie” and “alternative rock” have become synonymous. Typical representatives: Nirvana, Jesus Lizard, Porno For Pyros, Sonic Youth, etc.

The culture, conceived and created as anti-music, did not last long. The music of noise has really begun to be perceived as music; it is quite easily sold and bought and “caresses” the ears of hundreds of people around the world. This certainly has something to do with the world of electronic music, if only because Kraftwerk themselves were at the origins of all this.
Industrial styles are distinguished into: Percussion Industrial, Improve Industrial, Industrial Noise, Musique Concrete, Electro Body Music, Aggro-industrial and Darkwave.

This dissonant, harsh-sounding music emerged from the experiments with electronics and recording by mid-'70s bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Throbbing Gristle (the latter's label, Industrial Records, gave the new style its name). This music was full of electronics, distortion and was too avant-garde for the rock of that period. Following these initial examples, Industrial Dance groups emerged in the mid-80s such as Ministry, Front 242, Nitzer Ebb, Skinny Puppy. Over the next decade, Industrial became heavy metal, with artists such as Nine Inch Nails, White Zombie, and Marilyn Manson gaining widespread popularity.

Jazz (English Jazz) is a form of musical art that arose at the beginning of the 20th century in the USA as a result of the synthesis of African and European cultures and subsequently became widespread. The characteristic features of the musical language of jazz initially were improvisation, polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythms, and a unique set of techniques for performing rhythmic texture - swing. The further development of jazz occurred due to the development of new rhythmic and harmonic models by jazz musicians and composers.

Latin (Spanish música latinoamericana) is a generalized name for the musical styles and genres of Latin American countries, as well as the music of people from these countries who live compactly on the territory of other states and form large Latin American communities (for example, in the USA). In colloquial speech, the abbreviated name “Latin music” (Spanish música latina) is often used.
Latin American music, whose role in the everyday life of Latin America is very high, is a fusion of many musical cultures, but it is based on three components: Spanish (or Portuguese), African and Indian musical cultures. As a rule, Latin American songs are performed in Spanish or Portuguese, less often in French. Latin American artists living in the United States are usually bilingual and often use English lyrics.

Spanish and Portuguese music do not belong to Latin American music, being, however, closely connected with the latter by a large number of connections; Moreover, the influence of Spanish and Portuguese music on Latin American music is mutual.

Lo-Fi (eng. Lo-fi) is a direction in music, which is characterized by low quality sound recording. Many lo-fi bands record their music on cheap cassette recorders. This is a unique form of protest that is inherent in alternative rock. The lo-fi movement began quite a long time ago. All early rock 'n' roll records (Buddy Holly, The Beach Boys, Beatles), garage rock of the 1960s, albums by The Velvet Underground, punk rock of the late 1970s can be classified as lo-fi. However, as a distinct genre, lo-fi emerged in the alternative rock of the 1980s. Indie rockers of that time preferred to record on non-professional four-track tape recorders. Lo-fi only became widely known in the 1990s thanks to bands such as Beck, Sebadoh and Pavement. Today, many mp3 release groups of the scene use the term Lo-Fi, placing it in the ID3 tags of the music genre to indicate that a particular mp3 release belongs to the style of quiet, calm and beautiful music with a slow rhythm: chill out, lounge, downtempo, trip hop, acid jazz, etc.

Lounge (also lounge music) is a term in popular music to designate light, background music, which initially often sounded in the lobbies (hence the name - lounge - lounge, living room, salon) of hotels, shops, cafes , in elevators. In contrast to the more general term "light music", lounge music is characterized by more jazz influences, intimacy and improvisation. Although there is specially recorded music for such purposes, the term "lounge" covers a wide range of performers of various genres - from jazz, bossa nova to electronica. The general characteristic is light, soothing compositions. Literally, any musician who plays for the public in restaurants and shops can be considered a lounge performer. Lounge music is associated with parties with the obligatory martini. In the US music industry, the so-called bachelor's living room music intersects with the lounge - another format characterized by the presence of experimental kitschy performers.

There is often an opinion that noise is almost the same as Dark Ambient and this is probably correct. Just like ambient, pure noise is characterized by the absence of clearly defined melody and rhythm, but is characterized by greater heaviness and darkness of sound and, as a rule, a very dirty sound. Noise is characterized by industrial noise and playing on random coincidences of sounds. Also distinguished are such directions as rhytm & noise (the term Power Electronics is also sometimes used), i.e. rhythmic noise (Master/Slave Relationship, Hunting Lodge, Esplendor Geometrico, P.A.L., Blackhouse, Allerseelen) and japanoise (Aube, Merzbow, Masonna), i.e. Japanese noise, the most radical form of noise, the compositions in which, as a rule, are monochromatic aggressive noises.

The history of Goan style is quite intricate. Several decades ago, this term was used to describe a style of music performed in the town of Goa in India. European musicians, inspired by Indian philosophy, culture and aesthetics, tried to express their feelings in music and named the style Goa. Gradually, the concept of Goa-Trance became somewhat blurred; many musicians, taking Goa-trance tracks made by followers of Indian culture as a standard, began to sculpt their own creations, without even an inch trying to delve into the roots of real Goa music. Goa trance began to be called music produced by just anyone. Gradually, the styles were nevertheless separated from all this pseudo-Goan music and a separate layer was identified called Psychedelic Trance. The origin of Psychedelic Trance is the British Isles, later this style spread to Germany, Holland, Denmark and the rest of Western Europe. What is Goa-Trans? This is a soft style. There's no hard beat here. The basis of Goa is melody and harmony. Psychedelic also includes intricate synth lines, transforming, sometimes sharp and bright, sounds associated with hi-tech/space style. Both styles do not have heavy bass, although there are additions of pulsating ultra-low bass. You can meditate to this music, you can dance, you can think. Goa/Psychedelic Trance is not a pure dance style, it is a complex compilation of different styles and concepts, from esotericism. Traditional Indian instruments such as the sitar and sador (or their electronic counterparts) were often used to create the music, combined with the strong, hypnotic synths that trance has always been famous for. This style is much less suitable for DJ and vinyl work than other electronic dance styles (DAT was often used instead of vinyl). Therefore, the Goa style until the end of the 90s had a relatively small number of DJs promoting it around the world. Record labels such as Dragonfly, Blue Room Released, Flying Rhino, Platipus and Paul Oakenfold's Perfecto Fluoro became important sources of new music. England's most popular DJ Oakenfold has finally given Goa trance the big following it has been missing for several years. He promoted this music on radio and in clubs throughout the country. In Britain (Return to the Source) Goa trance was also well received, the studio released three collections of the best trance music. Labels: Perfecto Fluoro, Tip Records, Symbiosis Records, Flying Rhino, Blue Room, Transient.

Rap (English rap, rapping) is a rhythmic recitative, usually read to music with a heavy beat. A rap artist is called a rapper, or more generally, an MC.

Rap is one of the main elements of the hip-hop music style; often used as a synonym for hip-hop. However, rap is used not only in hip-hop music, but also in other genres. Many drum and bass performers use rap. In rock music, it is found in genres such as rapcore, nu metal, alternative rock and alternative rap. Pop musicians and modern RnB performers also often use rap in their compositions.
The word “rap” comes from the English rap - knock, blow (a hint of the rhythm of rap). To rap also means to talk, to talk.
Later, erroneous backronym theories arose, according to which the word rap is supposedly an abbreviation. The transcripts were called “Rhythm and Poetry”, “Rhytmic African Poetry”, or “Radical American Poetry”, etc. Rap ​​first appeared in the 1970s years among African Americans in the Bronx, where he was “exported” by visiting Jamaican DJs. Rap was initially done not for commercial purposes, but for pleasure, and at first it was done mainly by DJs. These were simple rhyming couplets addressed to the audience. Performing rhyming chants on the streets remains a tradition in black neighborhoods to this day. In addition, the so-called “battles” are verbal duels in which two rappers squabble while maintaining rhyme and rhythm. Battles can be not only swearing, it can be the presentation of rhyming text on a certain topic.

The genre and culture of hip-hop, of which rap is a major part, reached its peak in popularity in the 1990s. Rap also had a serious influence on R'n'B music.

R&B – (Rhythm and blues), blues vocal and instrumental style of black music of the 1930s, which arose under the influence of swing. Subsequently commercialized. Considered one of the earliest forms of black rock music. Its commercial modifications, created by white musicians, include “rock and roll” and “twist”.

Reggae music was born in Jamaica in the early 60s, its origins and tributaries are numerous: Ska, Rock-Steady, calypso (music of Trinidad and Tobago), Zouk (music of the Antilles), Soul and, of course, Jazz. In the middle of this century, the Caribbean musical styles of Ska and Calypso became fashionable among British colonists in Jamaica, spread throughout the New World and became popular among Europeans. Jamaica was experiencing tumultuous socio-political events at this time, and it was time for music to reflect the social context. Black Jamaicans needed a sound that would convey exclusively their mood and attitude to what was happening in their lives. New music came from the “unemployed street.” It was a slowed-down combination of Ska and Rock-Steady with an amplified bass line. The centers of communication for young people of both sexes was the “disco” - Dance hall or dances, and all sorts of “strains” in the crowded urban lumpen crowd constantly took place at the “dances”. Then, in one of Bob Marley’s first songs, the “rude boys” were asked to “cool down” - the songs acquired social meaning. The arrival of His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie I to Jamaica in 1966 caused an extraordinary spiritual uplift among most Jamaicans. For Rastafarians this was an event of exceptional importance. His name and faith in the Lord are behind all the best in reggae. When soulful words were set to good dance music, anthems were born. Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Wailer are revolutionaries with guitars, their call is an uprising of the spirit, through awareness of His reality, and through the determination to throw off the shackles of the slavish habit of following the ways of Babylon. Their global message to all the oppressed found a global response: “Get up! Rise up! Rise up for your rights!” It is clear that having received the opportunity to record and publish their own music, Africans turned to their tradition and discovered a sound there that is called “roots” and produced musical products under the general name “reggae”. It must be said that the Rastafari movement is developing independently of reggae, but many musicians praise the Almighty in their songs.

Tango (Spanish tango) - 1. Ancient Spanish folk dance. Pair ballroom dance of free composition, characterized by an energetic and clear rhythm. 2. Music for this dance. Initially developed and spread in Argentina and Uruguay, then it became popular all over the world. Tango was previously known as tango criollo, or simply tango. Today there are many dance styles of tango, including Argentine tango, Uruguayan tango, ballroom tango (American and international style), Finnish tango and ancient tango. Argentine tango is often considered the "authentic" tango because it is closer to what was originally danced in Argentina and Uruguay.
The music and dance elements of tango are popular in activities related to dance, gymnastics, figure skating, synchronized swimming, etc.

Techno originates from electronic house music developed in Detroit in the mid-80s. Where house still has a clear connection to disco, even when that style was entirely mechanical, techno has always been strictly electronic music aimed specifically at a specific small audience. Early techno musicians and DJs Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins and Derrick May emphasized the electronic, synthesized beats of electro-funk artists such as Afrika Bambaataa and synth-rock artists such as Kraftwerk. In the US, techno was only an underground phenomenon, but in the UK it burst into the country's mainstream music scene in the late 80s. In the early 90s, techno began to split into many subgenres, including hardcore, ambient and jungle. In hardcore techno, the beats per minute of each song were increased to ridiculous and un-danceable levels in order to chill and alienate the masses of fans. In the case of the Ambient style, everything happened the other way around - there was a decrease in rhythm and the appearance of spatial electronic textures; it was used as relaxing music when ravers and club youth needed a break from acid house and hardcore techno. Jungle was almost as aggressive as hardcore, combining energetic techno beats with breakbeats and danceable reggae. All techno subgenres were originally intended for use in clubs, where they were mixed by DJs. As a result, most music was available on 12" singles or compilations by various artists, where the tracks were quite long, giving DJs a lot of material to mix. In the mid-90s, a new type of techno musician emerged, primarily ambient artists such as the Orb and Aphex Twin, but also heavier styles such as the Prodigy and Goldie, who began to create albums with compositions that did not contain raw material for DJ mixes. It is not surprising that these musicians, especially the Prodigy, became stars of world techno.

This style broke out in the early 90s, leaving German techno and hardcore behind. Trance is based on endless repetitions of short synthesizer samples throughout the entire track, while allowing minimal changes in the rhythm and frequency characteristics of the synthesizer to be able to differentiate the compositions. The effect of such music is that listeners are immersed in a state of trance, similar to a religious one. Despite the decline in interest in music in the mid-90s, trance returned again, but closer to the end of the century, displacing house style from the world music arena as the most popular style of alternative dance music. Thanks to the influence of acid house and Detroit techno, the development of trance coincided with the opening of the recording studios R&S Records (Ghent, Belgium) and Harthouse/Eye Q Records (Frankfurt, Germany). R&S defined the format with singles such as “Energy Flash” (Joey Beltram), “The Ravesignal” (CJ Bolland) and other tracks from Robert Leiner, Sun Electric and Aphex Twin. The Harthouse studio was opened in 1992 by Sven Vath together with Heinz Roth & Matthias Hoffman. She had a significant influence on the trance sound itself, thanks to compositions from Hardfloor (“Hardtrance Acperience”) and her own composition by Vath (“L’Esperanza”), plus releases by the Arpeggiators, Spicelab and Barbarella. Musicians such as Sven Vath, Bolland, Leiner and many others began to play music in full (without cuts), although this did not make much of a difference in the field of world music. Despite the long period of formation and development, the trance style completely disappeared from the world stage, ending its influence on British musical culture in the late 90s, it was replaced by breakbeat dance (trip-hop and jungle). The classic German sound did make its changes, so the term “progressive” trance appeared, used to describe the influence from the soft forms of house and Euro dance. By 1998, most of the famous DJs such as Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong, Tony De Vit, Danny Rampling, Sasha, Judge Jules were playing trance in the most prestigious British clubs. Even the US has (finally) taken notice of the style, led by excellent DJs including Christopher Lawrence and Kimball Collins.

Music genres(music genres) - a list and brief description of musical genres and trends.

Music genres

1. Folk music - music of various peoples of the world.

2. Latin American music- a generalized name for musical genres and styles in Latin America.

3. Indian classical music- music of the Indian people, one of the most ancient genres of music. It takes its origins from the religious practices of Hinduism.

4. European music- a generalized concept that characterizes the music of European countries.

5. Pop music Disco (from the word “disco”) is a genre of dance music that emerged in the early 1970s. Pop (from the word “popular”) is a type of mass musical culture. Easy music (from “easy listening” - “easy to listen”) is music that covers different styles; the common thing in such music is simple, catchy melodies. A singer who performs music in the Pop genre is Madonna.

6. Rock music - a generalized name for the direction of music, the word “rock” means “to swing, rock” and indicates the rhythm of the music.

Country rock is a genre that combines country and rock, and became part of rock and roll after Elvis Presley performed at the 1955 Grand Ole Opry.

Southern rock - “Southern” rock, was popular in the USA in 1970.

Heartland Rock - “rock from the outback”, founded in 1980 on “country” and “blues”.

Garage rock - founded in the United States of America and Canada in 1960, the predecessor of “punk rock”.

Surf rock - (from the English “surf”) - American beach music, was popular in the early 60s.

Instrumental rock is a genre of rock music, the music of this genre is dominated by music rather than vocals, was popular in the 1950s - 1960s.

Folk rock - a genre combining elements of folk and rock, was formed in the UK and the USA in the mid-1960s.

Blues rock - a hybrid genre combining elements of blues and rock and roll, began its development in England and the USA in 1960.

Rock'n'roll - (from the word “roll”) the genre, born in the 1950s in the USA, is an early stage in the development of rock music.

Merseybeat - (the meaning of the genre comes from the name of groups from Liverpool, which is located near the River Mersey)—the genre originated in the UK in the 1960s.

Psychedelic rock musical genre, it originated in Western Europe and California in the mid-60s, associated with the concepts of “psychedelia” (hallucinogens).

Progressive rock - a genre that is characterized by the complication of musical forms and the introduction of dialogue.

Experimental rock - a style that is based on experiments with the sound of rock music, another name is Avant-garde rock.

Glam rock - (from the word “spectacular” - “glamorous”) - the genre arose in Great Britain in the 1970s.

Pub rock - the predecessor of punk rock, a movement of music that arose in the 1970s as a protest of representatives of British rock against the excessive purity of sound in American AOR and prog rock.

Hardcore - the genre appeared in the UK and USA in the late 1970s. The sound became faster and heavier compared to the traditional punk rock sound.

Skiffle - singing with accompaniment. Instrumentation included a washboard, harmonica and guitar as a rhythm instrument.

Hard rock - (“hard rock”) is a genre that is characterized by emphasizing the sound of percussion instruments and bass guitar. The genre originated in the 1960s and took shape in the early 1970s.

Punk rock - a musical genre that was formed in the USA in the 1970s, a little later - in the UK. The meaning that early groups put into this genre was “the desire to play prevails over the ability to play.”

Bard rock - a genre that appeared in the “Soviet Union” in the 1970s. He developed under the influence of poetry: Viktor Tsoi, Okudzhava.

J-rock (“Japanese rock”) is the name for different styles of rock music that originated in Japan.

Metal - a genre that was formed by hard rock in England and the USA in the 1970s.

Post-punk - a musical genre that was formed in the late 1970s in Great Britain. It was a continuation of punk rock and was distinguished by its diversity of self-expression in music.

New Wave - a direction that includes different genres of rock music, ideologically and stylistically breaking with all previous rock genres. Arose in the late 1970s - early 1980s.

No Wave - direction in cinema, music and performance art. Developed in New York in the late 1970s. This is a kind of response of free musicians and artists to the commercial “New Wave”.

Stoner rock is medium tempo music or slow music with low frequency musical instruments such as bass and guitar.

The genre arose in the 1990s, based on the work of the group “Kyuss”.

Alternative rock — this term refers to various styles of rock music. Appeared in the 1980s and covers many styles and movements that originate in post-punk, punk rock and other styles and musical genres.

Post-rock - experimental musical genre of rock music. Typical for the genrethe use of instruments that are usually used in rock music and chords that are not typical for rock (traditional).

7. Blues - a musical genre that originated at the end of the 19th century, in the Southeastern United States in the African-American community, among the Cotton Belt rebels.

8. Jazz - a genre of music that arose at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries in the USA, as a result of the synthesis of European and African cultures.

9. Country - (“country music”) is one of the most common types of North American music.

10. Chanson - (translated from French - chanson, means song).

Has 2 meanings:

1. French song in cabaret style.

2. Soviet song in French, Renaissance and late Middle Ages.

The first composer and poet who performed songs in the chanson style was Guillaume de Machaut.

The peculiarity of the genre is that the performer, author of the song, music and words are the same person.

12. Romance - (“romance” means “in Spanish”) is a short poem that has lyrical content, sung to music. The term itself originated in medieval Spain and denoted a Soviet song sung in Spanish.

13. Blatnaya song - a genre of song in which one sings about difficult morals and life in a criminal environment. Since the 1990s, the Russian music industry has called the criminal song “Russian chanson,” although it has nothing in common with chanson.

13. Electonic musicis a musical genre that refers to music that was created using electronic musical instruments. Often various computer programs are used to create it.

14. Ska - a style that appeared in the late 1950s in Jamaica.

The style is characterized by a 2 by 4 rhythm: when the bass guitar or double bass emphasizes the odd drum beats, and the guitar emphasizes the even ones.

15. Hip-hop - a genre of music that originated in New York, among the working class - November 12, 1974. The founder of hip-hop was DJ Kevin Donovan.

The above list includes only the most popular music genres.

Currently, new musical genres (genres of music) and directions are constantly emerging.

Lady Gaga - Judas (combines electronic music and dance rhythms).

You have found yourself in the music genres section, where we will get acquainted with each musical direction in more detail. We will describe what it is, why it is needed and what features it has. Also at the very end there will be articles in this section that will describe each direction in more detail.

What are music genres

Before discussing what genres of music are, the following should be mentioned. We need a certain coordinate system so that we can put all phenomena into it. The most serious and global level in this coordinate system is the concept of style or art-historical system.

There is a style from the Middle Ages, Renaissance, Baroque or Romanticism. Moreover, in each specific era, this concept covers all arts (literature, music, painting, and so on).

However, music has its own categories within each style. There is a system of genres, musical forms and means of expression.

What is a genre?

Each era gives musicians and listeners a certain set of stage venues. Moreover, each site has its own rules of the game. These sites may disappear over time or remain for some time.

New groups of listeners with new interests are emerging - new stages are emerging, new genres are emerging.

Let's say, in the era of the European Middle Ages, approximately until the end of the 11th century, the only such stage for professional musicians was the church. Time and place of worship.

This is where the genres of church music take shape. And the most important of them (mass and mathet) will go far into the future.

If we take the late Middle Ages, the era of the Crusades, then a new stage appears - a feudal castle, a feudal courtyard of an aristocrat, a court holiday or simply a place of leisure.

And here the genre of secular song arises.

For example, the 17th century literally explodes with fireworks of new musical genres. Here things arise that go far ahead of our time and will still remain after us.

For example, opera, oratorio or cantata. In instrumental music, this is an instrumental concerto. Even such a term as symphony appears. Although maybe it was built a little differently than it is now.

Genres of chamber music emerge. And underneath it all lies the emergence of new stage venues. For example, an opera house, a concert hall or a richly decorated salon of a city aristocratic house.

Before you start, be sure to start exploring different directions. This then translates very well in practice. It will be especially useful when creating something new!

Musical form

The next level is musical form. How many parts are there in the product? How is each part organized, how many sections does it have and how are they connected to each other? This is what we mean by the concept of musical form.

Let's say opera is a genre. But one opera can be in two acts, another in three, and there are operas in five acts.

Or a symphony.

Most familiar European symphonies are constructed in four movements. But let’s say that Berlioz’s symphony Fantastique has 5 movements.

Expressive means

The next level is a system of musical expressive means. Melody in its unity with rhythm.

Rhythm is the deep organizing force of all musical sound. It underlies the existence of music. Because through rhythm, human life is connected with reality, with the cosmos.

Many labor movements are rhythmic. Especially in agriculture. Much is rhythmic in the processing of stone and metals.

The rhythm itself appears, perhaps, before the melody. We can say that rhythm generalizes, and melody individualizes.

The feeling of rhythm, like some kind of magic, arises in the very early stages of civilization. And later, in the era of antiquity, such a feeling is recognized as an idea of ​​​​the universal connection of phenomena, which is rhythmic.

Rhythm is associated with number. And for the Greeks, number was an extremely important idea of ​​the world order. And this whole idea of ​​rhythm stuck for a very long time.

At the beginning of the 17th century, the German composer Michael Pritorius spoke of the early Italian experiments in opera (there was no ordered rhythm): “This music is without connections and measure. She is an affront to God’s established order!”

The nature of the movement is fast, brisk, moderate and calm. They also set the tone for any superstructure that is made on them. There is also a sense of universal connection here. 4 sides of movement character, 4 cardinal directions, 4 temperaments.

If we go into even more detail, then this is timbre or sound coloring. Or let's say how the melody is pronounced. Distinctly dissected or coherent.

Melody, rhythm and everything else appears as a direct emotional response to reality. And they take shape in those infinitely distant times in the primitive communal system, when a person has not yet realized his own self in comparison with other selves or with nature.

But as soon as class society appears, a distance arises between one’s self and other selves, between self and nature. And then music genres, musical forms, and styles begin to take shape.

Genres of chamber music

Before talking about the genres of chamber music, let's understand the direction. Chamber music is music performed by a small number of performers for a small number of listeners.

Previously, such music was very often performed at home. For example, with family. This is where they came up with the name chamber. From Latin camera means room. That is, small, home or room music.

There is also such a thing as a chamber orchestra. This is a smaller version (usually no more than 10 people) of a regular orchestra. Well, there aren’t many listeners either. Usually these are relatives, acquaintances and friends.

folk song- the simplest and most widespread genre of chamber music. Previously, very often many grandparents sang various folk songs to their children and grandchildren. The same song could be sung with different words. As if adding something of your own.

However, the melody itself generally remained unchanged. Only the text of the folk song changed and improved.

Many people's favorite romances- This is also a genre of chamber music. Usually they performed a small vocal piece. It was usually accompanied by a guitar. That’s why we really love such lyrical songs with a guitar. Many people probably know about them and have already heard them more than once.

Ballad- this is a kind of narrative about various exploits or dramas. Ballads were often performed in taverns. As a rule, they praised the exploits of various heroes. Sometimes ballads were used before an upcoming battle to raise the morale of people.

Of course, in such songs certain moments were often embellished. But in essence, without additional imagination, the very significance of the ballad would decrease.

Requiem- This is a funeral mass. This kind of mourning choral singing is performed in Catholic churches. In our country, the requiem was usually used as a tribute to the memory of folk heroes.

- song without Words. Usually intended for one singer as a training exercise. For example, to develop a vocalist's voice.

Serenade- a genre of chamber music that was performed for a beloved. Usually men performed them under the windows of their beloved women and girls. As a rule, such songs praised the beauty of the fair sex.

Genres of instrumental and vocal music

Below you will find the main genres of instrumental and vocal music. For each direction I will give you short descriptions. Let's touch on the basic definition of each type of music a little more.

Genres of vocal music

There are several genres of vocal music. It is worth saying that the direction itself is the oldest in the history of the development of music. After all, it is the main key for the transition of literature into music. That is, literary words began to be used in musical form.

Of course, these words were given the main role. Due to this, such music began to be called vocal. A little later, instrumental music appeared.

In vocal music, in addition to vocals, various instruments can also be used. However, in this direction their role is relegated to the background.

Here is a list of the main genres of vocal music:

• Oratorio- a very large work for soloists, orchestra or choir. Typically, such works dealt with problems of a religious nature. A little later, secular oratorios appeared.
• Opera- a huge dramatic work that combines the genres of instrumental and vocal music, choreography and painting. A special role here is given to various solo numbers (aria, monologue, and so on).
• Chamber music- it was mentioned above.

Genres of instrumental music

Instrumental music- these are compositions that are performed without the participation of a vocalist. Hence the name instrumental. That is, it is performed only with the help of instruments.

Very often, many artists in their albums use instrumentals as bonus tracks in the album. That is, several of the most popular compositions can be selected and then their versions without vocals can be recorded.

Or they can select all the songs on the album. In this case, the album is released in two versions. This is usually done to increase the value of the product and raise its price.

There is a list for certain genres of instrumental music:

• Dance music- usually simple music for dancing
• Sonata– used as a solo or duet for chamber music
• Symphony- harmonious sound for symphony orchestra

Genres of Russian folk songs

Let's talk about the genres of Russian folk songs. They reflect all the charm of the soul of the Russian people. Typically, such musical works praise the nature of the native land, heroes and ordinary workers. The joys and troubles of the Russian people are also mentioned.

Here is a list of the main genres of Russian folk songs:

• Labor songs- chanted while working to facilitate a person’s work activity. That is, with such songs it was much easier for the workers to work. They set the rhythm of the work. Such musical works reflected the basic life of the working class people. Labor shouts were often used for work.
• Ditties- a very common genre of folk music. As a rule, this is a short quatrain with a repeating melody. Chatushki carried a great meaning of the Russian word. They expressed the basic mood of the people.
• Calendar songs- used on various calendar holidays. For example, on Christmas or New Year's Eve. This musical genre was also well used for fortune telling or during the changing seasons.
• Lullaby- gentle, simple and affectionate songs that mothers sang to their children. As a rule, in such songs mothers introduced their children to the world around them.
• Family songs- used at various family holidays. This genre reflected very well at weddings. It was also used at the birth of a child, when a son was sent to the army, and so on. It is worth saying that such songs were accompanied by a certain ritual. All this together helped protect against dark forces and various troubles.
• Lyrical compositions— in such works the difficult lot of the Russian people is mentioned. For example, the difficult life of women and the difficult life of ordinary peasants is very often mentioned.

Genres of modern music

Now let's talk about the genres of modern music. There are quite a lot of them. However, they all depart from the three main directions in modern music. So we'll talk a little about them.

Rock

Rock is popular today. It may not be the same as before, but in our time it has become firmly entrenched. Therefore, it is impossible not to mention it. And the direction itself gave impetus to the birth of many genres. Here are some of them:

• Folk rock- elements of folk songs are well used
• Pop rock- music for a very wide audience
• Hard rock- heavier music with a harsh sound

Pop

Popular music also covers many genres that are often used in modern music:

• House- electronic music performed on a synthesizer
• Trance- electronic music with a predominance of sad and cosmic melodies
• Disco– dance music with abundant rhythmic drum and bass sections

Rap

In recent years, rap has been gaining momentum quite well. In fact, this direction has practically no vocals. Basically they don’t sing here, but rather read. This is where the phrase rap came from. Here is a list of some genres:

• Rapcore- a mixture of rap and heavy music
• Alternative rap- a mixture of traditional rap with other genres
• Jazz rap- a mixture of rap and jazz

Electronic music genres

Let's look a little at the main genres of electronic music. Of course, we won’t touch on everything here. However, we will analyze some of them. Here is the list:

• House(house) - appeared in the 80s of the last century. It originates from the disco of the 70s. Appeared thanks to the experiments of DJs. Main features: repeating beat rhythm, 4x4 time signature and sampling.
• Deep house(deep house) - lighter, atmospheric music with a deep, dense sound. Includes elements of jazz and ambient. The production uses solo keyboards, electric organ, piano and female vocals (mostly). It has been developing since the late 80s. Vocals in this genre always take a secondary place. The first one contains melodies and sounds to depict the mood.
• Garage house(garage house) - the same as deep house, only vocals take the main role.
• New disco(nu disco) is a more modern musical genre based on the renewed interest in disco music. It's very popular now to go back to your roots. Therefore, this genre is based on the music of the 70s and 80s. The genre itself appeared in the early 2000s. Synthesized sounds similar to the sounds of real instruments are used to create disco of the 70s and 80s.
• Soul full house(soulful house) - the basis is taken from house with a 4x4 rhythmic pattern, as well as vocals (full or in the form of samples). The vocals here are mostly soulful and very beautiful. Plus the use of a variety of musical instruments. Such a rich presence of instruments brings the music of this genre to life very well.

Rap genres

Let's move on to consider the main genres of rap. This direction is also actively developing. Therefore, it would be nice to touch on that too. Here is a small list of genres:

• Comedy Rap- intelligent and funny music for entertainment. Has a combination of real hip-hop and regular humor. Comedy rap emerged in the 80s.
• Dirty rap- dirty rap, characterized by a pronounced heavy bass. Basically this music is intended to excite the audience at various parties.
• gangsta rap- music with a very hard sound. The genre of music appeared in the late 80s. Elements from hardcore rap were taken as the parent basis of this trend.
• Hardcore rap— aggressive music with noisy samples and heavy beats. Appeared in the late 80s.

Genres of classical music

There are works divided into many genres of classical music. They became especially widespread in the 18th century. Here is a partial list of destinations:

• Overture- a short instrumental introduction to a performance, plays or works.
• Sonata- a work for chamber performers, which is used as a solo or duet. Consists of three parts connected to each other.
• Etude- a small instrumental piece designed to hone the technique of performing music.
• Scherzo- the beginning of music with a lively and rapid tempo. Mainly conveys to the listener humorous and unexpected moments in the work.
• Opera, symphony, oratorio- they were mentioned above.

Rock music genres

Now let's look at some genres of rock music other than those already mentioned above. Here is a short list with a description:

• Gothic rock- rock music with a gothic and gloomy direction. Appeared in the early 1980s.
• Grunge- music with a solid guitar sound and dark depressive lyrics. Appeared somewhere in the mid-1980s.
• Folk rock— was formed as a result of mixing rock with folk music. Appeared in the mid-1960s.
• Viking rock- punk rock with elements of folk music. Such works reveal the history of Scandinavia and the Vikings themselves.
• Trashcore- faster hardcore. The works are usually small.

Genres of sacred and secular music

Let's look at some genres of sacred and secular music. To begin with, let's define these two directions. You will find out what it is and what is the difference. After that, we'll go through several genres.

Spiritual music

Spiritual music is intended to heal the soul. Such works are used mainly for services in churches. That's why some people also call it church music. Here is a short list of its genres:

• Liturgy- Easter or Christmas service. Performed by a choir, and can also include additional soloists. As a rule, various scenes of events from the Holy Scriptures were inserted into the liturgical drama. Elements of theatricality were often used.
• Antiphon- repetitive music performed by alternating several choral groups. For example, the same verses can be performed alternately by two faces. There are several types of antiphons. For example, holidays (on holidays), sedate (Sundays), everyday, and so on.
• Rondel- was created to an original melody in the form of a special form with the next introduction of vocals to the same motive.
• Proprium- part of the Mass that varies depending on the church calendar.
• Ordinarium- an unaltered part of the mass.

Secular music

Secular music is recognized to show the national character of different cultures. Mainly the main image and life of a common man was described. This type of music was very common among traveling musicians in the Middle Ages.

The purpose of this article is to introduce readers to various modern musical genres and the musical means that composers use when creating works within a certain style. The ability to navigate musical genres and subgenres is one of the first signs of professionalism, so this article will be of interest to all those who have already embarked on the path of improvement in the musical field.

Most critics divide modern musical genres into three main directions: pop, rock and rap, which in turn are rooted in earlier styles and have spawned a large number of their own offshoots.

Pop is modern popular music. This is a very broad term that covers many genres such as disco, trance, house, techno, funk, new wave and others. Let's stop and look at the features of each of them.

• Disco. Not long ago it was the most popular genre of dance-pop music. It is characterized by an abundance of effects, the leading role of the rhythm section of drums and bass, as well as the secondary, background sound of strings and wind instruments.
• Trance. It belongs to one of the genres of electronic music and is notable for its high emotional impact on the listener. This effect is achieved through the use of sad, “cosmic” melodies.
• House. This is the name of dance, completely electronic music. The main and only instrument is the synthesizer. A distinctive feature of this genre is the presence of looped musical phrases and solo melodies. Effects are widely used.
• Techno. In one phrase we can say this: futuristic music of the big city. Techno features include fantastic melodies, dark metallic sound, and “cold” vocals devoid of emotion.
• Funk. One of the dance genres, which is characterized by clearly defined drummers dominating all other instruments, low melody, and “sloppy” rhythm.
• New wave. A genre of popular music that evolved from punk rock and uses the same musical means.

Rock as an independent genre, its roots are in the “black” American blues, which appeared in the 20s and 30s. Traditional blues consists of 12 bars, that is, sections of a composition consisting of several notes, the first of which has a stress or accent. To the main toolkit blues includes a counter bass or bass that sets the rhythm, a lead guitar, drums, often keyboards and wind instruments. To be completely precise, rock emerged from a branch of this genre - guitar blues, which already had much less keyboards and brass instruments.

Appearance rock And rock and roll, concepts that are often identified with musicians such as Elvis Presley and the Beatles. The former can be called the popularizer of this genre, while the Beatles were the ones who turned rock into art.

Musically, rock has remained practically the same blues, but their semantic content is different: rock is music of protest against society, government or something else.

Rock has many subgenres, the main ones being soft rock, hard rock, pop rock, folk rock, punk rock, psychedelic rock, heavy metal and thrash.

• Hard rock. Literally this translates as “heavy, hard.” This style has such a name for a reason, because its sound corresponds to what it is called. Heaviness in hard rock is achieved through the dominant sound of a loud and powerful rhythm section over the rest of the instruments. In most cases, the drums, bass or rhythm guitar are “heavier”. Overdrive and distortion effects are often used in hard rock.
• Pop rock. Popular rock. This style is well balanced, using all kinds of effects and popular arrangements. Pop rock includes any rock music that is intended for a wide audience of listeners.
• Folk rock. This is rock music with elements of folk music.
• Punk rock. This genre includes rough, often unprofessional, but expressive music, which is characterized by simple, unpretentious, but shocking melodies.
• Psychedelic rock. Complex, unconventional music, full of various effects. This music has a high level of emotional impact on the listener.
• Heavy metal is called harsh metal music, which is often inharmonious. She is far from the usual standards.
• Thrash. This is a very tough genre, which is characterized by complexity and continuity of melodies, as well as improvisation.

Rap how the genre evolved from dance music. Characteristic features: uneven rhythm, complex experiments with drummers, the presence of looped musical fragments. One of the main features of rap is the absence of vocals, which are replaced by recitative. Rap is read like poetry, not sung. The main instruments are drums and a complex bass, which often plays solo. Rap musicians often use the scratch effect - the creaking of vinyl records.

Most likely rap originated from reggae- a dance style that originated in Jamaica. These two styles have a lot in common: the same uneven, ragged rhythm, the presence of looped musical fragments, and a complex drummer.

Truly talented and brilliant musicians never adhere to certain boundaries of any style or style. Moreover, thanks to the rapid development of modern mass music styles, these frameworks do not have clearly defined boundaries.

But still, people involved in music professionally, and simply music lovers, need to understand the variety of musical styles, especially if they are dealing with the modern music industry.

So, before answering the question of what styles there are in modern music, it is necessary to decide what a musical style is. I would immediately like to warn against confusion between the concepts of style and genre. Genre (from the French word genre - genus) in music has a broad concept that defines any type of work. Style is associated with the language itself, with the way the musician expresses himself. We will consider the most basic and widely used styles of modern music below.

folk music

The term for this type of music (folk music in English) became widely known at the end of the last century, to define folk music in various cultures of the world. Naturally, the form itself originated much earlier and is one of the first in music. In turn, three main genres can be traced in it: instrumental, song and dance.

Blues

As a musical style, it originated in the 19th century, and became widespread at the beginning of the next. It is a mixture of several directions of music of African-American culture such as “work song”, “spirituals” and “cholera”. The blues had a great influence on the emergence of other musical styles, in particular pop music, jazz, rock'n'roll, rhythm'n'blues and a number of others.

Jazz

Jazz, based on the blues, is characterized by great intensity and improvisation. The main feature of this style is polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythm. Jazz is an elite music that developed thanks to the mastery of new models of rhythm and harmony by musicians. Some genres of jazz can be classified as a professional-academic direction. For example, cool jazz, bebop.

Rock'n'roll

In the middle of the 20th century, rock'n'roll appeared in the USA. This style combines an incredible mixture of a huge, and as it seems at first glance, incompatible number of genres. A distinctive feature of rock'n'roll is a clear rhythm and frankly uninhibited performance. The boundaries of rock'n'roll expanded significantly, as a result of which rock music appeared - an absolutely independent, new style.

Rock music

Rock translated from English means to rock, which can be attributed to the characteristic of this style. There are a huge number of trends in rock music, ranging from pop rock, Brit rock, which can be classified as lighter options. And ending with heavy and aggressive: death metal, thrash metal, hardcore and many others. Also, certain genres of rock music are inherently associated with subcultural phenomena: hippies, punks, goths, metalheads and others.

Electonic music

This type of music combines works created with the help of electronic technologies and instruments, mainly specialized computer programs and synthesizers. It established itself in the second half of the 20th century and combines a wide range of different genres, subgenres and styles. The music of composers using modern computer technologies belongs to academic electronics.

Hip-hop

In 1979, in the United States, a new style of music emerged among African-Americans - hip-hop. Two elements: rap (a clearly rhymed rhythmic recitative) and the rhythm set by the DJ (mainly bass lines and ) are the basis of the genre. Hip-hop, like many of the styles listed above, also has a huge number of genres and subgenres.

All these styles of modern mass music are very popular. We may not have named any individual subspecies, but we mainly answered the question of what styles there are in modern music. All of the above is the basis, the core, and exactly what modern composers and musicians start from when creating their works. Thanks to this basis and the mixing of existing musical styles, completely new directions appear, but still, it is quite possible to trace their origins.

And lastly, watch this wonderful video of B.B. King, the King of the Blues, plays Blues Boys Tune on guitar: