Music Genres & Subgenres: Choosing the Right Category - Essay Sample

Introduction

Genre is a style used in music. Music genre therefore defined as pieces of music that share a certain style, or basic musical language. Music genre covers a larger a category including sub-genres of sub-genres. Everyone has a choice on the category in which his/her group fits best. In certain cases the artist seems to cross over into a number of categories. In such circumstances it be preferable for one to pick the most prevalent, for instance, a CD may contain 2 folk songs, 4 blues songs and maybe 7 rock songs; that artist would probably go for the "blues" category. There are a number of musical genres which include: Rock, Hip hop music, musical theatre, pop music, Blues, classical music, Jazz, Folk music and many more.

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Music can be divided into several genres in different ways, such as into art music, popular music, religious music and secular music. Music therefore, can be assessed on three dimensions of valence, depth and arousal (Vuust et al. 1439). Arousal gives a reflection of psychological processes like stimulation and relaxation, depth gives a reflection of cognitive processes whereas valence gives a reflection of moods and emotion processes. Both contemporary and historical classical music forms are Art music. Most loved music are mostly found on commercial and public service radio stations in most commercial music retailers, stores and movie and television soundtracks. There are differences in the genres of music.

Blues: is an instrumental and a vocal form of music that is based on a characteristic 12 bar chord progression and a pentatonic scale. Blues originated from the African American spirituals and work songs that found their root in West Africa. Blues was originally played by a single performer singing with a guitar or banjo. A common feature of the Blues music is the 12 bar blues chord structure.

Classical: classical music encompasses a larger range of sub-genres. Classical music is a written tradition. Classical music came as a result of the reactions prevalent in baroque music which came merely before its existence. Many people have the feeling that anything pre-jazz sounds classical. However, one would find whole world music and a stunning range of styles and categories.

Country: country is said to have originally came from USA. Having developed from a combination of different fold styles. Country music was also once known as country and western music. The country music has roots in traditional folk music, spirituals and blues. In the present days, there are a number of sub-genres of country music like country rack, country pop and neo-country.

Emo: is a sub-genre of hard-core punk music. The word Emo is short for the word emotional hard-core. The term emo was derived from the fact that, on occasion, members of a band would become spontaneously and literally emotional during performances (Luck et al. 715). Emo is characterised by expressive melodic musicianship and often confessional lyrics. It is often associated with a particular fashion style that is also influenced by metal and punk.

Funk: funk is associated with use of syncopated beat and heavy basslines and distinctive grooves. Funk originates from African American influences and takes cues from Jazz, Soul and R&B. it is mainly associated with African tones, dance ability and strong Jazz influences.

Rock: rock music also known as garage is mostly associated with the evolution of electronic dance music, bass and drum and R&B. Rock music is characterised by heavy baselines, irregular kick drum patterns and syncopated hi-hats. Largely inspired by British Invasion bands like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who and The Rolling Stones, these groups mostly played a homespun variation on British Invasion rock. "Garage rock" was often musically crude, but nevertheless conveyed great passion and energy.

Gospel music: gospel music came as a result of emergence of African-American churches. It is also known as religious music. The music were composed and sung by white southern Christian artists. While the separation between the two styles was never absolute. Both drew from the Methodist hymnal and artists in one tradition sometimes sang songs belonging to the other.

Hip hop: hip hop music is composed of four main elements: rapping, disk jockeying, graffiti and breakdancing. Hip hop began way back in 1970s among African Americans in New York City (Luck et al. 719). Hip hop consist of either one or more rappers who chant in an intensely rhythmic lyrical form. Hip hop involves use of techniques such as alliteration, assonance, and rhyme. Hip hop has now become extremely significant in terms of music's cultural influence in modern times.

Opera: A key part of the classical music tradition in the west, opera features vocal performances that make up a specific type of musical theatre. Opera is essentially a story told to music. The lines between opera and classical music are extremely blurred and very often the two genres overlap.

R&B: Is a short word for Rhythm and blues. R&B was coined together as a musical marketing term. Rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk as well. Today the acronym "R&B" is mostly used to define the modern version of the soul and funk influenced African-American pop music that originated with the death of disco way back in 1980.

Techno: This term has come to have two popular interpretations, the first being a description of all electronic music (Vuust et al. 1435). The second interpretation is a style that developed from House music, which completely abandoned the influences of Disco; Techno is more mechanical and less organic. Techno music is a direct descendant of the dance music genre. It differentiates itself by having a much higher tempo and kick 4/4 kick drum lead beat.

Reggae: reggae music originated in the 1960s in Jamaica through the work of the reggae artist called Bob Marley. Reggae is a fusion of traditional Jamaican folk music with jazz and R&B. Offbeat rhythms and staccato chords are common musical themes, and Reggae is closely linked to Rastafarianism and Afrocentric religion.

Salsa: Salsa is essentially Cuban in stylistic origin, though it is also a hybrid of various Latin styles mixed with pop, jazz, rock and R&B (Vuust et al. 1440). Most specifically, however, salsa refers to a particular style developed by the 1960s and '70s New York City-area Cuban and Puerto Rican immigrants to the United States.

Soul: soul music is a genre that also originated from African American roots. Soul music is an evolution from original rhythm and blues, gospel and jazz. Soul music is accompanied by hand claps, call and response singing and heavy focus on lead singers.

Conclusion

Genres are of great importance because genres decide what an artist puts out and what the audience expects from it, and also tell a tale of the creation of that music. A lot of that music obviously doesn't fit that well in boxes but a lot of music still does. Users always stick to favourite genres and become well-informed in them, trying every update. Others can stick to only the classics of a particular genre and not branch out any more. Age plays a part in certain cases and restrict the amount of genres we choose to listen to and in certain cases age influences when some genres are popular, such as Classical being also popular in senior years. If we are just supposed to listen to Classical in our senior years or listen to fluff in our teens is undetermined and up to us, but this will definitely not be the first time.

Works Cited

Ballard, Mary E., Alan R. Dodson, and Doris G. Bazzini. "Genre of music and lyrical content: Expectation effects." The Journal of Genetic Psychology 160.4 (1999): 476-487.

Luck, Geoff, et al. "Effects of the Big Five and musical genre on music-induced movement." Journal of Research in Personality 44.6 (2010): 714-720.

Vuust, Peter, et al. "The sound of music: differentiating musicians using a fast, musical multi-feature mismatch negativity paradigm." Neuropsychologia 50.7 (2012): 1432-1443.