List of music genres and styles
This is a list of music genres and styles. Music can be described in terms of many genres and styles. Classifications are often arbitrary, and may be disputed and closely related forms often overlap. Larger genres and styles comprise more specific sub-categories.
Classical
- Andalusian classical music
- Indian classical music
- Korean court music
- Persian classical music
- Kurdish classical music
- Ottoman music
- Western classical music
- * Early music
- ** Medieval music
- *** Ars antiqua
- *** Ars nova
- *** Ars subtilior
- ** Renaissance music
- **Baroque music
- ** Galant music
- **Classical period
- **Romantic music
- * 20th and 21st-centuries classical music :
- ** Modernism
- ** Impressionism
- **Neoclassicism
- ** High modernism
- ** Postmodern music
- ** Experimental music
- **Contemporary classical music
- **Minimal music
Popular
Avant-garde & experimental
- Crossover music
- Danger music
- Drone music
- Electroacoustic
- Industrial music
- Instrumental
- Lo-fi
- Musical improvisation
- Musique concrète
- Noise
- Outsider music
- Progressive music
- Psychedelic music
- Underground music
Blues
Country
Easy listening
Electronic
Folk
Hip-hop
Jazz
Pop
R&B & soul
Rock
Metal
Punk
Regional
African
Antarctica
- Nunatak
Asian
- Arabic music
- *Arabic pop music
- Fann at-Tanbura
- Fijiri
- Khaliji
- Liwa
- Kurdish folk
- *Hayran
- *Dengbêj
- *Kurdish maqam
- Music of Israel
- Persian traditional music
- Sawt
- Music of Turkey
- *Turkish folk music
- **Gypsy music
Australasia & Oceania
- Australian folk music
- Australian hip-hop
- Indigenous music of Australia
- Music of Hawaii
- Music of New Zealand
- *Māori music
- **Kapa haka
- Music of Polynesia
- Music of Samoa
European
Latin & South American
North American
Religious
- Christian music
- *Contemporary Christian music
- *Contemporary worship music
- *Christian Rock
- **Christian alternative rock
- *Country Gospel
- * Church music
- **Gospel
- **Worship
- **Hymns
- **Jesus Music
- * Liturgical music
- * Spirituals
- * Gregorian chant
- Islamic music
- Sikh music
- Buddhist music
- Yarsani
- Modern pagan music
- Music of ancient Greece
- New-age music
- Shamanic music
Traditional folk
- *American patriotic music
- *Christmas music
- *Fado
- *Huayno
- *Mele
- *Pastorale
- *Polka
- *Ragtime
- *Son mexicano
- *Música criolla
Other
- A cappella
- * Barbershop music
- * Collegiate a cappella
- Ballroom dance music: pasodoble, cha cha cha and others
- *Vogue
- Bedroom production
- Children's music
- Classic hip-hop
- Computer music
- *Hyperpop
- *Internet meme
- Dance music
- *Slow dance
- Drug use in music
- Incidental music or music for stage and screen: music written for the score of a film, play, musicals, or other spheres, such as filmi, video game music, music hall songs and showtunes and others
- Independent music
- *Multi-instrumentalist
- **Bassist
- **Drummer
- ***Percussion
- ****Found object
- **Guitarist
- **Pianist
- ***Keyboardist
- *One-man band
- LGBT music
- Patriotic music: military music, marches, national anthems, War songs and related compositions
- *Martial industrial
- *List of war metal bands
- Regional and national music with no significant commercial impact abroad, except when it is a version of an international genre, such as: traditional music, oral traditions, sea shanties, work songs, nursery rhymes, Arabesque and indigenous music. In North America and Western Europe, regional and national genres that are not from the Western world are sometimes classified as world music.
- Theatre music
- Virtuoso
- Yodeling