Music taste differs from person to person. Some like country music, others might like hip-hop. Countless different music styles and subgenres exist under wider genre categories like rock, hip-hop, and pop.
There have been many debates about what the best genre is, what music sucks, and what music is good. In my opinion, it all depends on who’s listening. Music tastes can be different for a wide variety of reasons. Personality, culture, personal experiences, and age can be determining factors.
Many people, though, enjoy just mainstream music, which is definitely fine. Popular music is popular for a reason; it either sounds good or is too catchy to not listen to.
Everyone has heard songs from the major categories of music: classical, pop, rock, hip-hop, electronic, jazz, metal, punk, folk, country, and blues. Every genre has many sub-genres, some more popular than the others.
Classical
Classical music is an extremely old genre as it has roots in the renaissance and medieval time period, but it is not the first genre. We can date music back thousands of years, even before written notation existed; generations passed down music. classical has many subgenres such as concerto, opera, sonata, fugue, and symphony.
Pop
Pop music too has many genres, all being diverse in their own ways. People play europop, new wave, and electropop worldwide when they want more upbeat music. This genre is one of the most popular in America.
Hip-Hop
Hip-hop is, too, a very diverse and popular genre of music. Hip-hop has a very long, important history. It was an art movement and subculture that originated in New York City during the 1970s and is an old and new movement. It refers to a culture of DJing, MCing, graffiti art, and b-boying. People widely recognize DJ Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash as pioneers and the “Holy Trinity” as they are the main DJs that popularised hip-hop around America. A few hip-hop genres include old school, industrial hip-hop, and boom bap.
Electronic
Electronic music features many instruments, specifically electronic instruments like keyboards and guitars. Electronic subgenres include industrial, house, techno, and dub (which is different from dubstep). Most electronic music, specifically EDM and its subgenres, are heavily influenced by Jamaican dub music which has some reggae elements.
Jazz
Some popular Jazz genres include Bebop, Funk, and Swing. Jazz music usually includes instruments such as brass instruments (trombone, saxophone, etc.), piano, bass, vocals, and guitar. Jazz influenced many other genres such as the blues, rock and roll, R&B, and other American music.
Metal
Metal is a genre of rock that has many sides as well as any other genre and some include Nu Metal, Glam Metal, Black Metal, and Industrial Metal. Metal relies heavily on drums, electric guitars, and bass. Many credit Black Sabbath with popularizing the metal genre, as well as inspiring many metal bands as of today.
Punk
Punk is also a genre of rock and some of its subgenres are Afro-Punk, Riot Grrrl, and Pop Punk. Another well-known subgenre of Punk is Emo, which usually includes emotional lyrics, where the subgenre’s name originated from, and other Punk aspects such as electric guitars, bass, and other loud instrumental aspects.
Folk
Folk is a genre a bit similar to Jazz, as it was one of its inspirations, and has subgenres such as folk rock, anti folk, and indie folk. The word folk originates from the German word ‘volk,’ meaning “the people.” An example of folk music is hymns sung in church, songs sung during mourning (like during funerals), etc.
Country
Country is a genre that can be extremely broad, its subgenres can range from bluegrass, country rock, country rap, traditional country, and cowpunk. These subgenres all are unique in their own ways while sticking to the original sounds of country music. A subgenre of country I found interesting was cowpunk as it combines both punk and country aspects into music and surprisingly doesn’t clash.
Blues
Blues is a genre of folk and has an interesting, long history as well as subgenres such as Chicago blues, blues rock, punk blues, and boogie-woogie. The origins of blues music go way back to the 1860s, emerging from the African American communities of the Deep South evolving from work songs and spirituals. Blues inspired many other genres, such as jazz and rock.
There are a wide variety of music genres that a variety of people can enjoy. Not everyone is going to enjoy the same type of music, but it’s good to try something new now and then. I, personally, enjoy all types of music as long as it sounds good, but I prefer songs that have a guitar, acoustic or electric. I enjoy listening to popular artists as well as lesser known ones. The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, Adrianne Lenker, BROCKHAMPTON, Jeff Buckley, Kimya Dawson, Tame Impala, Lil Uzi, and Orange Sector are only a few of my favourite music artists.