Types of music genres

Diversity is a factor that in any area translates to wealth. The fact of having available different contributions and versions of the same thing allows us to obtain the opportunity to identify ourselves with something that is close to our personal tastes and in which we recognize ourselves as individuals, as well as a group of people. The art of sound, music, has given us through time an impressive range of variations that resonates according to our way of enjoying, feeling and seeing the world. In this lesson from a TEACHER we will talk about all these variations, about the types of music genres and the diversity that exists to classify music.

Index

1. What is the musical genre: simple definition
2. Elements to consider for musical genres
3. Classical music, one of the most important musical genres
4. Jazz and blues, the musical genre of the 30s
5. Rock, the musical genre of the 50s, 60s and 70s
6. The music of the 80s and 90s

Before talking about the types of musical genres that exist, it is important that we understand this concept better. For gender we understand a set of elements that they have characteristics in common and for which they belong to a set. In such a way, genre is a way of classifying something, in this case, music.

Thanks to the fact that music is as old as art and the human need for expression, throughout history they have developed endless types of music that possess specific characteristics. These are usually related to the time, its events and characters and have received a name that comes to stay to identify the genre.

The music's evolution and its relationship with history also causes the same genus branching out, knowing that it comes from the same origin but that it has developed individual characteristics. When this happens, we call these different classifications of the same gender subgenre.

Image: Musicaljada

The first thing to take into account is the aspect of the history and birth of the genre. By this we mean the time and place of origin. These factors, in addition to being a starting point, help us to understand why of the way of being of a gender and the rest of its characteristics. In this section we would also include the expressive message of the music, that is, the motives and the reason why it was created.

Finally we would take into account the musical elements, such as: instrumentation, tempo, metric and natural accents, harmony and structure, chord progression and cadences, types of melody, length of the work and complexity, among others.

For classical musicwe understand all that music that has established the formal rules of musical creation, and has its origin in Europe since the Baroque(1600) to modernist music (1970). Music created today that follows the formal rules of this genre is also often called classical music, although it is not strictly so.

This type of music is mainly instrumental (although theatrical genres such as opera are also included) that are performs with scores of specific works and tends to have a more formal and strict context than that of music popular. The instruments bear the same name, "classical instruments”.

The greatest exponent of classical music in terms of grouping is the symphonic Orchestra, a large group of even up to 100 musicians, but there are also smaller groups such as chamber groups, duos, trios, quartets, quintets, etc. Classical music is classified into subgenres according to the time, for example: Baroque, Renaissance, Romanticism, Impressionism, etc. And also by musical form: waltz, concert, night, fugue, serenade, opera, symphony... among others.

Jazz has its origin in Blues, the mixture of african rhythms with the structure and classical harmony of European music. This happens when black slaves brought to the United States from Africa are provided with music education. Apart from classical music, jazz is perhaps one of the most demanding genres in terms of virtuosity and musical knowledge, since it is based on improvisation. Many musicians are revered for these qualities, as is the case with Charlie Parker.

Jazz had its peak during the 30's until the emergence and popularization of rock in the 60's. Today it persists as a genre although with much less popularity. In its heyday, jazz was part of social and dance events with the Big Bands, groups of various musicians with brass and woodwind sections (apart from traditional jazz instruments: guitar, piano, double bass, voice and drums) that even included classical music sections.

Jazz subgenres include: cool jazz, b-bop, hard bop, blues, ragtime, dixieland, and jazz fusion among others.

Image: Arriquitaum!

Rock emerged in the 50's with the name of "Rock n Roll” and many attribute it to Elvis Presley. This genre was related in its time to young people of the time and was performed by "bands" of approximately 4-6 people that included guitar, bass, drums and voice. Rock was the beginning of the craze for music as a popular trend movement.

In its beginnings, rock was an evolved genre of blues, sharing various characteristics like chord progression and structure. Today there is a wide variety of rock subgenres, including alternative rock, heavy metal, pop-rock, progressive rock, punk, psychedelic rock, and fusion rock, among others.

Image: Slideplayer

Continuing with the different types of musical genres, we will now talk about the music of the 80s and 90s that we can classify as follows:

Funk and disco (70's and 80's)

It's an evolution of rock, often oriented to dance and the use of electronic instruments such as keyboards and synthesizers. Funk in particular is characterized by the subdivision of figures into sixteenth notes and the inclusion of sections of brass instruments, such as the Tower of Power group.

Pop (90’s)

Pop is a difficult genre to identify as such since it refers to music that is popular at the moment. In its time swing was a pop genre, also rock and funk. Nowadays pop could be hip-hop music with electronics or reggaeton. Still, in terms of musical characteristics we affiliate pop with music that developed from the 90's, with characters like Madonna.

If you want to read more articles similar to Types of music genres, we recommend that you enter our category of Music history.