RESEARCH: Genre (Elrad)

There are many types of genres for music but here are a few that are quite popular along with their definitions:

Blues

A vocal and instrumental form of music based on a pentatonic scale and a characteristic twelve-bar chord progression, blues evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants that found its earliest stylistic roots in West Africa. Blues has been a major influence on later American and Western popular music, finding expression in ragtime, jazz, big band, rhythm & blues, rock & roll, country music, conventional pop songs and even modern classical music.

Reggae

Music founded upon a rhythm style, which is characterized by regular chops on the backbeat, played by a rhythm guitarist. Reggae is an African-Caribbean style of music developed on the island of Jamaica and closely linked to the religion of Rastafarianism (though not universally popular among its members).

Classical

Classical music is generally a classification covering music composed and performed by professionally trained artists. Classical music is a written tradition. It is composed and written using music notation, and as a rule is performed faithfully to the score. In common usage, "classical music" often refers to orchestral music in general, regardless of when it was composed or for what purpose (film scores and orchestral arrangements on pop music recordings, for example).

Country

Once known as Country & Western music, this music form is developed mostly in the southern United States of America, with roots in traditional folk music, spirituals and blues.

Hip Hop

Music composed of four main elements: rapping (also known as emceeing), disk jockeying, breakdancing and graffiti. A cultural movement, hip hop began among African Americans in New York City in the 1970s. Most typically, hip hop music consists of one or more rappers who chant semi-autobiographic tales, often relating to a fictionalized counterpart, in an intensely rhythmic lyrical form, making abundant use of techniques like assonance, alliteration, and rhyme. The rapper is accompanied by an instrumental track, usually referred to as a "beat" because of the emphasis on rhythm, performed by a DJ, a record producer, or one or more instrumentalists. This beat is often created using a sample of the percussion break of another song, usually a funk, rock, or soul recording. In addition to the beat, other sounds are often sampled, synthesized, or performed. Sometimes, a track can be made up of just the beat by itself, as a showcase of the skills of the DJ or producer.

Motown

A style of soul music with distinctive characteristics, including the use of tambourine along with drums, bass instrumentation, a distinctive melodical and chord structure, and a call and response singing style originating in gospel music.

R&B

Rhythm and blues (or R&B) was coined as a musical marketing term in the late 1940s by Jerry Wexler at Billboard magazine, used to designate upbeat popular music performed by African American artists that combined jazz and blues. It was initially used to identify the style of music that later developed into rock and roll. By the 1970s, rhythm and blues was being used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk as well. Today, the acronym "R&B" is almost always used instead of "rhythm and blues", and defines the modern version of the soul and funk influenced African-American pop music that originated with the demise of disco in 1980.

Rap

A form of rhyming lyrics spoken rhythmically over musical instruments that typically uses a musical backdrop of sampling, scratching and mixing by disk jockeys (DJs). Rapping is one of the elements of hip hop music and was originally called emceeing.

Techno

This term has come to have two popular interpretations, the first being a description of all electronic music. 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.

Soul

Soul music is a combination of rhythm and blues and gospel. Rhythm and blues (a term coined by music writer and record producer Jerry Wexler) is itself a combination of blues and jazz, and arose in the 1940s as small groups, often playing saxophones, built upon the blues tradition. Soul music is differentiated by its use of gospel-music devices, its greater emphasis on vocalists, and its merging of religious and secular themes.

Rock (Rock & Roll)

Also called rock 'n' roll, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), a strong back beat, electric guitars, and a catchy melody backed by three or four chords.

World

World music is, most generally, all the music in the world. More specifically, the term is currently used to classify and market recordings of the many genres of non-western music which were previously described as "folk music" or "ethnic music". Succinctly, it can be described as "local music from out there." The term is used primarily as a marketing/classification device, sometimes referring to any kind of foreign music, especially in a foreign language.

Being a street/break dancer i mostly associate with Hip Hop music so will be looking towards that genre to use for my Music Video. Today's youth also seem to mostly listen to Hip Hop/ Rap. I have listened to music from all these genres at least once as i really have no taste in certain music and listen to a bit of everything.