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Music Genres

Sourced music genres reference: history, people and documented cultural context.

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Folk music: History and Key Facts

Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival.

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Traditional bachata: History and Key Facts

Traditional bachata is a subgenre of bachata music genre.

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Ambient music: History and Key Facts

Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm.

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Bossa nova: History and Key Facts

Bossa nova (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈbɔsɐ ˈnɔvɐ] ) is a relaxed style of samba developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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Canto livre: History and Key Facts

Canto livre is a kind of protest music infused with traditional folk and Western music, predominantly supportive of ideas from left-wing political parties, especially the Communist Party, arising

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Afrobeat: History and Key Facts

Afrobeat (also known as Afrofunk) is a West African music genre, fusing influences from Yoruba and Ghanaian (such as highlife) music with American funk, jazz, and soul influences.

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Perpetuum mobile: History and Key Facts

In music, perpetuum mobile (English pronunciation /pərˌpɛtjʊəm ˈmoʊbɪleɪ/, /ˈmoʊbɪli/; Latin, literally, "perpetual motion"), moto perpetuo (Italian), mouvement perpétuel (French), movimento perp

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Disco: History and Key Facts

Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightlife scene.

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Mugithi: History and Key Facts

Mugithi music is a form of music that originated from the Kikuyu people of Kenya but is also enjoyed by other ethnic groups within the country, as well as by non-Kenyans in regions with a large K

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Heavy metal music: History and Key Facts

Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States.

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Funk: History and Key Facts

Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres tha

Daphnis and Chloe

Pastoral: History and Key Facts

The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing avail

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Siguiriyas: History and Key Facts

Siguiriyas (Spanish pronunciation: [seɣiˈɾiʝas]; also seguiriyas, siguerillas, siguirillas, seguidilla gitana, etc.) are a form of flamenco music in the cante jondo category.

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Pop music: History and Key Facts

Pop music, or simply pop, is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.

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Synth-pop: History and Key Facts

Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument.

Tower music — Glaspalast München 1883 057.jpg

Tower music: History and Key Facts

Tower music is a musical performance from the top of a tower.

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Folk ragtime: History and Key Facts

Folk ragtime is a subgenre of ragtime, a distinctly American music.

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Nayda: History and Key Facts

Nayda (Moroccan Arabic: نايضة; meaning "to rise up" or "to party"), also known as Hayha is a cultural movement that emerged in Morocco during the early 2000s.

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World music (term): History and Key Facts

The term "world music", meaning folk music from around the world, has been credited to ethnomusicologist Robert E.

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Secular music: History and Key Facts

Secular or saecular (Latin saecularis, "of the ages") is a term usually understood as meaning "worldly" or "non-religious", but when contrasted with cloistered monasteries a cathedral is technica

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Epadunk: History and Key Facts

Epadunk, (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈêːpaˌdɵŋk]) or raggardunk, is a genre of music, often electronic, that has been associated with EPA tractors and A-tractors in Sweden since the early 2020s.

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Ska: History and Key Facts

Ska (; Jamaican Patois: skia, [skjæ]) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae.

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Techno: History and Key Facts

Techno is a genre of electronic music which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm).

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Nightcore: History and Key Facts

A nightcore edit (also known as a sped-up song, sped-up version, sped-up remix, or simply sped-up) is a version of a music track that speeds up its source material by approximately 35%, which als

Trade ad for Ray Charles's single "Yesterday", cropped and cleaned in a graphics editing program. The original can be viewed at the source below.

Soul music: History and Key Facts

Soul music is a popular music genre that originated in African-American communities throughout the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

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Women's music: History and Key Facts

Women's music is a type of music "by women, for women, and about women." Women's music focused on topics of feminism, including the unfair treatment of women by society and their families.

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Were music: History and Key Facts

Were music (Yoruba: Wéré) is an indigenous Yoruba music genre which, like ajisari, is used to arouse the Islamic faithful to pray and eat their early morning meal (sahur) during the holy month of

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Rabiz: History and Key Facts

Rabiz or rabis (Armenian: ռաբիզ or Armenian: ռաբիս) is a genre of Armenian popular music, distinguished by its lyrics and dance-oriented synthesized melodies in 68 time signature with elements of

Gottlieb, William P., 1917-, photographer. [Portrait of Stan Kenton, Shelly Manne, and Eddie Safranski, 1947 or 1948] 1 negative : b&w ; 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. Notes: Gottlieb Collection Assignment No. 177 Purchase William P. Gottlieb Forms part of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress). Subjects: Kento

Progressive music: History and Key Facts

Progressive music is music that attempts to expand existing stylistic boundaries associated with specific genres of music.

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Posi music: History and Key Facts

Posi music (in American English, pronounced POZ-ee) is a colloquial phrase that some modern listeners some have applied retroactively to music and songs in this genre that have been around since

First page of Mozart's manuscript for his Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music) KV 477a (Staatssbibilothek zu Berlin)

Masonic music: History and Key Facts

Masonic music has been defined as "music used in connection with the ritual and social functions of freemasonry." Two major types of music used in masonic lodges are lodge songs, played to keyboa

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Absolute music: History and Key Facts

Absolute music (sometimes abstract music) is music that is not explicitly "about" anything; in contrast to program music, it is non-representational.

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Electronic music: History and Key Facts

Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal com

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Alternative rock: History and Key Facts

Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s.

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Comedy music: History and Key Facts

Comedy music or musical comedy is a genre of music that is comedic in nature.

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Progressive soul: History and Key Facts

Progressive soul (often shortened to prog-soul; also called black prog, black rock, and progressive R&B) is a type of African-American music that uses a progressive approach, particularly in the

Paris Psalter circa 960, Constantinople. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS. gr. 139), folio 1v. Biblical scene with David composing the psalms on a lyre or harp-like instrument, with Melodia sitting behind him. Echo looks on from a distance. The "Mount of Bethlehem" is symbolized by the man sitting (lower right).[1]

Religious music: History and Key Facts

Religious music (also sacred music) is a type of music that is performed or composed for religious use or through religious influence.

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Visual kei: History and Key Facts

Visual kei (Japanese: ヴィジュアル系 or ビジュアル系, Hepburn: Vijuaru kei or Bijuaru kei; lit.

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Copy thachin: History and Key Facts

Copy thachin, (Burmese: ကော်ပီသီချင်း, kawpithăchin: IPA: [kɔ̀pìθət͡ɕʰɪ́ɴ]; Burmese for "copy song"), also known as "copy song" or "copy music" in English, is a genre of music in Myanmar that ori

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Martial music: History and Key Facts

Martial music or military music is a specific genre of music intended for use in military settings performed by professional soldiers called field musicians.