-
Folk Blues/ Country Blues- blues
Country Blues means rural Blues; Blues far away from the city, at a time when there existed almost no popular music whatsovere. Country Blues did not evolve out of Country Music: it was the other way around.
Important artists:
-Blind Lemon Jefferson
-Papa Charlie Jackson -
New Orleans Jazz & Dixieland Jazz
The very first type of Jazz was played in the background of bars (barrelhouse),brothels, and cabarets by small bands. It first appeared in New Orleans thanks to the melting pot present of Ragtime,Haitian Folk, Creole Folk and Country Blues. New Orleans was not only home of Dixieland marching bands and main port for sea travel with Cuba, but also a former French colony as well.
Artists:
-Kid Ory
-King Oliver -
Vaudeville/ Classic Blues-blues
Classic Blues is not the first type of Blues,but the name can be explained by its feat as the first Blues genre to go on record(and thus one of the first recorded popular music in general). Also known as Vocal or Female Blues,Classic Blues is a whole different story than Country Blues.Under the influence of classy Jazz musicians,Blues was reshaped into an upper-class phenomenon played in theaters in the big city and therefore regarded as a sort of vanguard.
Important artists:
-Ma Rainey
-Ida Cox -
Chicago Jazz
During America's period of prohibition,Chicago became a very popular transition hub,connecting various parts across the country.As the first true "city Jazz",Chicago Jazz influenced (and got influenced by) many musicians, also Blues artists. Where "the Windy City proved beneficial in bringing different regional styles of Blues together, the upside of Jazz was more superficial as Jazz started primarily in one region.
Artists:
-Maz Kaminsky
-Eddie Condon -
Folk Blues/ Country Blues- evolution
Folk or Country Blues has almost as many different sub-genres as there are regions in Southeastern U.S.: Delta Blues, Acoustic Texas Blues, Memphis Blue, Atlanta Blues, Piedmont Blues, etc. Delta Blues (also known as Mississippi Blues) evolved around 1927 in the Mississippi Delta and remained a small but long-lasting subgenre. -
Boogie Woogie/ Piano Blues- blues
Inspired by Ragtime music, Blues got introduced to the piano by the end of the twenties, forming Piano Blues, but better known as Boogie Woogie. Just like Ragtime, it left hand provided a steady bass and the right hand provided the treble counterpoint. The result was a very rhythmic, syncopated Blues, much more up-tempo and happier than usual.The piano also made it possible to add a 4/4 beat, with accent on 2nd and 4th beat.
Important artists:
- Charles Davenport
- Clarence Smith -
Swing/ Big Band Jazz
The gradual expansion of Jazz bands synergized with an increasing demand for escapist music during the thirties.After all, the world had just experienced its biggest financial crisis ever, where suicide was not out of the ordinary. Sheltering in the frivolous yet deafening sound of Big Band Jazz, men and women, black & white alike, gathered in parties to deny the cold reality outside and experience this new craze: swing.
Artists:
-Benny Goodman
-Count Basie -
(Electric) Texas Blues-blues
Texas Blues is one of the most important types of Country Blues. Like so many others genres, Texas Blues evolved from a strictly acoustic style to an electric one. The addition of electric guitars would not happen until the late forties, but this changed it into something else: proto Blues Rock. Blues suddenly sounded a lot more edgy, emotional and rough; something that made up the core of Blues, but which it had lost along the way.
Important artists:
- Memphis Minnie
- Clarence Brown -
Progressive Jazz/ Third Stream & Modal Jazz
The whole of Jazz music is sometimes divided into three categories or "streams":First, there is Traditional Jazz (quite formal) which could be seen as the opposite of the experimental, second stream: Modern Jazz. The third stream was reserved for the type of Jazz that was neither, but a merging between Classical Music (particularly Chamber Music) and Jazz. Third Streams songs are more intricate with longer and deeper progression than other types of Jazz.
Artists:
-Bill Russo
-Charles Tolliver -
Jump Blues- blues
The appeal of grand parties with a big band found its way to (Piano) Blues at the end of the thirties. More instruments were added to Piano Blues, especially brass (including saxophone), but also rhythm guitars. The result was a much larger band than usual with less focus on the singer: a combination of Jazz and Blues.
Important artists:
-Jimmy Witherspoon
-Wynonie Harris -
New Orleans Jazz & Dixieland Jazz Revivals
New Orleans & Dixieland Revival is hardly a new genre, as the name implies. But, being listed in nearly every summary or genealogy of Jazz, its inclusion on the index is almost mandatory. Furthermore, the difference with the original genre is not zero. The success of Swing created a sort or nostalgia for Early Jazz with small bands as many Jazz musicians were fed up with the predictable template of Big Band and its extravert performances.
Artists:
-Brunk Johnson
-Eddie Condon -
Early Rhythm & Blues- rhythm & blues
Blues dramatically changed when the bands stopped being an anonymous whole but received a face: the front man, the singer/songwriter.
Important artists:
-Fats Domino
-Dinah Washington -
Bebop
Genres that grow too big eventually will fall.This was no different with Swing.It did not only become difficult to maintain such large,expensive orchestras,but more and more white people were copying the music.Through Jazz had always been less racially restricted than Blues,a number of Black Jazz musicians felt a need to redefine Black Jazz culture with a new, radical genre: Bebop.Their dissatisfaction is reflected in Bebop's trademarks: frantic,chaotic, and aggressive.
Artists:
-Max Roach
-Fats -
Chicago Blues/ City Blues/ Urban Blues- blues
Chicago Blues has been around since The Great Depression. Slowly, the genre developed during the thirties and forties, albeit in a much different way than what is usually referred to as Chicago Blues. What was originally a strictly acoustic, more reserved type of music, changed into a loud and angry son of a gun after World War II.
Important artists:
- Sonny Boy Williamson
- Jimmy Reed -
Race Music
Race Music was a Billboard category reserved for Blues music, as Jazz & Gospel also featured white musicians. Such outspoken racism was put to a halt in 1948, with the replacement of the term by " Rhythm and Blues", abbreviated as R&B -
SKIFFLE (REVIVAL)
Skiffle is one of the oldest popular music genres. Emerging in the twenties in the United States, early Skiffle can be seen as a Folk influenced form of Proto-Country; Skiffle was music for the poorest of people, who created a true jack-of-all-trades musical melting pot with whatever instrument they could lay their hands on, as long as it was cheap.From 1949 until 1958 a Skiffle Revival takes place in the United Kingdom.
Artists:
-Tommy Steele
-Chris Barber -
Cool Jazz & Western Coast Jazz
Cool Jazz is an evolution of Bebop, where the music is approached in a more rational, reserved, and calculated manner: in a "cool way"."Keeping cool" was an important part of the spirit of the fifties, after all.
Artists:
-Modern Jazz Quartet
-Mel Lewis Septet -
SCHLAGER
An enormous genre often forgotten in music genealogies is “Schlager”. The word is also synonymous with the type of song (“a Schlager”) and is German for hit song (to hit = schlagen).
Its roots lie deep in traditional Folk music (particularly town criers and troubadours) but the style evolved into a more popular form of music starting as early as the thirties in some countries.
Artists:
-Bobbejaan Schoepen
-Toto Cutugno -
Doo Wop-rhythm & blues
Doo Wop is an often neglected, but familiar and characteristic genre. It is being performed by girl or boy groups that sing in vocal harmony.
Important artists:
-The Platters
-Ink Spots -
Hard Bop
As an attempt to take back Jazz listeners that had turned to R&B, many(East Coast) Bebop musicians changed their sound into something more accessible: Hard Bop. Hard Bop is a more modern evolution of Bebop, but not particularly "harder" despite the term. The music is smoothened out and more emphasis is being put on the rhythm.
Artists:
-Horace Silver
-John Coltrane -
ROCK 'N ROLL & ROCKABILLY
Rock ‘n’ Roll was musically speaking not a great step forward; its origins in Boogie Woogie and R&B were obvious. It was mainly a racial thing: young, attractive, white singers bringing black music into rooms of white people. At the same time, Hillbilly Country musicians became influenced by early Country Blues and created uptempo Country with a strong beat, slapped upright bass, and stuttering vocals: Rockabilly.
Artists:
-Elvis Presley
-Jerry Lee Lewis -
West Coast Blues- blues
East Coast Blues is the umbrella term for Piedmont Country Blues and Jump Blues, both more jazzy types of Blues. Therefore, it is not really a well-defined genre, whereas West Coast Blues certainly is. A bit surprisingly, West Coast Blues is also very jazzy, but not in a cool and relaxed way like East Coast Blues. West Coast Blues radiates a typically West Coast warm, delicate, and rhythmical aura. The genre is also heavily based on piano.
Important artists:
- Lowell Fulson
-Charles Brown -
Soul Jazz/Jazz Funk
Soul Jazz is one of the smallest genres of Jazz.In fact,it can be seen as an overlapping subgenres of Hard Bop. It is influence is extremely important however, leading directly to Funk.As an eclectic, heavily R&B-influenced type of Jazz,it is sometimes very hard to separate Soul Jazz from Fusion or Soul Blues,especially later recordings.Soul Jazz is music for a small Bebop band,with the addition of more rare Jazz instruments such as organs and tenor saxophones.
Artists:
-Shirley Scott
-Jimmy S. -
BRILL BUILDING POP & CROONERS
At first, Brill Building’s focus lay at creating music for the family, but that all changed in the late fifties.Charming male crooners in the fifties and hired girl groups in the sixties were meant to express an irresistible image of sexiness.Building Pop evolved from a more minimal singer/songwriter type of music into a light version of Rock ‘n’ Roll written in 6/8 signature with Latin or exotic sounds, strings, children’s melodies and Rhythm ‘n’ Blues influences.
Artists:
-The Dixie Cups -
AMERICAN & BRITISH FOLK REVIVAL
Folk music is as old as people (Folk=people), but got suppressed by the popularity of Blues, Jazz, and R&B. A first revival during the thirties as the voice of protest for lower class (1928).
The second, post-war revival was much larger and happened both in U.K. and U.S. The arrival of Rock opened the door for college students and bohemians to pick up a guitar and start writing Folk-like protest songs.
Artists:
-Pete Seeger
-Joan Baez -
SURF ROCK / INSTRUMENTAL
The sun, beach, palm trees, and carefree lifestyle were the perfect atmosphere for surf boys to retreat in the shack to work on their guitar technique. With incredibly fast, rolling guitar riffs put in reverb, they created a washing sound that could easily imitate ocean waves and impress girls in that true Rock 'N' Roll heritage. Almost all Surf Rock is purely instrumental and this draws even more attention towards the proficiency of its guitarists.
Artists;
-The surfaris
-The Revels -
Free Jazz/Avant-Garde(Jazz)
After the invention of Bebop on one hand and long play records on the other,the road laid open for highly experimental Jazz.Long,complex songs with lots of sound effects painted an impressionistic soundscape.Group improvisation was more important than ever,with Jazz bands paying seamlessly endless songs of which no-one knew how it was going to end.The Jazz player was set free from any rule or form: primal,freeform Jazz known as Free Jazz, or even,Avant Garde.
Artists:
-Sun Ra
-Cecil Taylor -
Memphis Soul/Deep Soul/Southern Soul(Stax)- rhythm & blues
A lot of things had changed in 1959 since the ascent of R&B around 1943. It was a year of great opportunities and hope. In the Southern and Middle states of U.S.A., Black R&B musicians threw R&B, Gospel, Blues, and a bit of Country into a big melting pot.
Important artists:
-Sam Cooke
-Otis Redding -
Louisiana Blues/ Swamp Blues- blues
Deep in the swamps of Louisiana, not only Country, but also Blues was made. As one could expect, this was a slow, pain, Country-like Blues. In this isolated and humid wilderness, Creole Folk music already existed long before Blues. One of the first types, Cajun, mixed with Rhythm 'n' Blues into Zydeco, a French type of proto Blues. Both Cajun and Zydeco are known for their driving beat, dotted with harsher or unusual sounds like washboards.
Important artists:
- Lazy Lester
- Lightnin' Slim -
Golden Age/ Classic Rock
The Golden Age of Rock or Classic Rock are terms not frequently used, but there is no debate about their meaning. Rock completely erupts in an unimaginable way in the sixties, which was so dominant that it still is considered by many music journalists as the most important popular music genre.
Artists:
-Jefferson Airplane
-The Crazy World of Arthur Brown -
GARAGE ROCK
Rockabilly died almost as abruptly as it emerged when its main icons were either dead, in jail, or in the army. However, Rock was not dead; countless ambitious teens got hooked on the sound and started forming their own Rock bands. Garage rock is a genre where the "fuzz" distortion effect i used intensively and it helped spread "the Fuzz sound" across other genres.
Artists:
- The 13th Floor Elevators
-The Count Five -
Chicago Soul & Detroit Soul (Motown)- rhythm & blues
After rurals areas, Soul quickly caught in urban areas, where it lost a bit of that rural roughness (just as happened with Country). First, almost immediately in Chicago (Chicago Soul) and a bit later in the motor city: Detroit.
Important artists:
-The Supremes
-The Four Tops -
Philly Soul - rhythm & blues
After Chicago and Detroit, a third type of " City Soul" emerged (the term Urban Soul applies to something else). This time it happened in Philadelphia, where Soul would have a huge influence on a lot of music to come.
Important artists:
- The Delfonics
-The Spinners -
(MERSEY)BEAT / BRITISH INVASION
Where the early London Rock scene was more concerned with Blues, the city of Liverpool took interest in cleverly produced music (jukebox music) such as Motown. After a while, local vocal groups (young eager Rock bands) started creating a new type of Rock with a strong backbeat rhythm and polyphonic vocals: a mix of Motown & R’n’R.
Mersey Beat (called after the river Mersey in Liverpool) or simply ‘Beat’ was the great second revolution of Rock.
Artists:
-The Beatles
-The Animals -
British Blues & Blues Rock
Parallel to the British Rock Invasion,the British Blues Invasion took hold,which was sometimes hard to separate from the other one.Yet British Blues started out in London instead of Liverpool and it was not influenced by Merseybeat.As Blues became harder, faster and louder,and Rock started to take an interest in Jazz,the 2 grew from different paths into a powerful combination which was performed by a huge amount of artists during 60's and 70's
Important artists:
-Eric Clapton
-The Rolling Stones -
PSYCHEDELIC ROCK / ACID ROCK & PSYCHEDELIA
The sixties marked a new age of hope, reconstruction, love and peace after the aftershocks of World War II. A huge spiritual hippie subculture flourished in many places.These young hippies were inspired by eastern cultures and music the structure and experimental nature of Free Jazz, and countless psychedelic drugs. All these different inspirations were set loose upon the popular college music of the time,to create freeform, exotic Rock music with psychedelic sound effects.
Artists:
-Jimmy H. -
FOLK ROCK
The British Invasion casted a shockwave throughout music industry and was practically impossible to ignore in the UK.Even the secluded folk communities took an interest in the strong backbeat and catchy guitar hooks. Pioneering band the Byrds initiated this evolution, starting out as a pure Folk band but dragging along many others in a real Folk Rock hype.Folk Rock differs from the previous Folk Revivals in the use of electric, 12-string guitars and vocal harmonies in bands.
Artists:
-The Byrds -
BUBBLEGUM & TEENYBOP
A lot of baby boomer teenage children were a perfect target for a new music genre, fittingly called Bubblegum (Pop). Music producers took Rock ‘n’ Roll and stripped it down to simple, melodic Pop music that was premanufactured, commercialized, bought and sold. Bubblegum often featured ‘fun’, colorful instruments such as Hammond Organs.
Teenybop was pop music specifically made for very young or sensitive teens, which dealt about melodramatic and sentimental events.
Artists:
-Archies
-The Monkees -
Early Funk & P-Funk - rhythm & blues
Soul was very popular and melodic, but it was not really daring or danceable. After a while, artists started looking at Rock and Jazz for new elements. They preferred the psychedelic, rebellious nature of Acid Rock alongside the deep, dynamic part of Soul Jazz as flavors of choice for the revolutionary fusion that was Funk.
Important artists:
- James Brown
- Isaac Hayes -
COUNTRY POP & COUNTRY ROCK
At the end of the nineties, Rock crosses over into two different directions: harder Blues Rock/Metal versus Country. What started as typical Folk Rock of the sixties,gradually got mixed up with Country and becomes Country Rock.But via Folk Rock,Country Rock also reaches back to the fifties. And this is its cardinal feature: Country Rock is specifically made for those who grew up with Rock ‘n’ Roll, but felt little connection with British or experimental Rock of the sixties.
Artists:
-The Eagles -
HARD ROCK
In the UK, many music genres have been restyled into a rougher, “British” version of themselves. The same happened with Blues Rock in the late sixties, which got restyled into Hard Rock. A louder and faster kind of Blues Rock / Acid Rock and is therefore the missing link between these genres and Heavy Metal. The genre quickly caught on with the masses. After all, it was the first “heavy” music genre to exist or certainly the heaviest at this time.
Artists:
-AC/DC
-Aerosmith -
PROGRESSIVE ROCK, ART-ROCK & SYMPHONIC ROCK
The difference between Art Rock and Symphonic Rock is pretty straightforward (more ‘artsy’ versus more classical elements), but their adjectives can be applied to Progressive Rock as well. Though technically different, we will treat these three genres as one and the same for the sake of conciseness.
Artists:
-Pink Floyd
-Emerson Lake & Palmer -
Texas Blues Rock & Modern Electric Blues- blues
Texas Blues, a heavily guitar-oriented type of old Country Blues, and Chicago Blues, led to The Golden Age of Blues. Both became the subject of revivals with strong influences from Rock. These revivals were respectively named Texas Blues Rock and Modern Electric (blues). Technically, both genres involve the introduction of electric guitar and a Rock drum kit, which created a sort of second wave of Blues Rock.
Important artists:
-Roy Buchanan
-Robben Ford -
Fusion/Jazz Rock
Acoustic Traditional Jazz reached its saturation point at the end of the sixties: due to its experimental nature, almost every genre was already invented. Jazz had to cross over into the territories of the hottest music of the time: Funk, for example, but mainly Rock. This powerful reinvention became so popular and well-spread, with many derivative genres, which was simply called "Fusion", although Jazz Rock is also a correct term.
Artists:
-Miles Davis
-Chick Corea -
KRAUT ROCK
Motorik gave Krautrock a sterile sound due to a complete absence of acoustic elements. By using this motorik, krautrock introduced a slow song progression reminiscent of Minimalism and avant-garde Downtempo, instead of traditional Rock structures and solos. Influences from Psychedelia were also welcomed by German bands, with which they shared a love for experimentation.
Artists:
-Guru Guru
-Cosmic Jokers -
GLAM ROCK / GLITTER ROCK / SHOCK ROCK
The implosion of the flower power age led to a shift of focus towards individualism and with some artists to a cult of personality.This was strongly felt in the world of Rock where Hard Rock became less about auditory and more about the visual.Certain Rock artists grasped the opportunity of TV to stand out and get noticed,either by shocking audiences with sexual or provocative acts or by conceiving eccentric alter egos through makeup and fashion,but the sound was glamorous
Artists:
-Queen
-Sweet -
SOUTHERN ROCK
Southern Rock is another example of many styles typical for the southern states of the US and arguably the one that stresses most the will of pride glory and freedom.This fusion genre is patriotic to the bone: southern American Blues (Delta) meets southern American Country (Outlaw) meets American Rock (Rock ‘n’ Roll). After a period of experimenting and psychedelic Rock,the time for back to the roots Rock music was at hand. Southern Rock is distinguishable by being raw and loud.
Artists:
-ZZ Top -
PUB ROCK & PROTO PUNK
In the US, Pub Rock is seen as no-nonsense Rock for the everyday common man affiliated with A.O.R. In the UK, Pub Rock popped up in bars (pubs) as a more raw, stripped down kind of Rock. It was a short, spontaneous, loose movement, fitting for brawls and malcontent after the end of the flower power age. Pub Rock and Proto Punk are fairly different genres, but they are both predecessors of Punk.
Artists:
-Iggy Pop & the Stooges
-Velvet Underground -
SINGER/SONGWRITER
Starting in 1967, Folk Rock slowly breaks loose from its predefined constraints and gives birth to perhaps the most immortal of music genres: Singer/Songwriter (S/SW). This marks a pivotal moment in music history: the artist in Pop music is no longer simply the performer of prewritten lines, but the author of them as well. By 1971, the genre has fully taken form. Personal stories and emotions take precedence over social criticism and community feeling.
Artists:
-Tim Buckley
-Leonard Cohen -
Soul Blues (Southern Soul II)- rhythm & blues
Poor black communities of the southern states felt nostalgic about this rough, emotional, and sometimes tragic music,to which they could relate to more than contemporary genres.As a part of the regional culture,Stax Soul got reinstituted but in the form of a crossover with Blues.This is why it is not wrong to speak of a resurgence of Southern Soul or a second wave, and perhaps it is even advisable to differentiate the genre from another type of Soul Blues.
Important artists:
-B.B. King
-Bobby B. -
Disco- rhythm & blue
Some Philly Soul songs were accompanied by pulsing repetitive drum rhythm, which made them the best dance floor fillers in the exclusive gay clubs of New York. With a dominant, accelerated 4/4 beat, sing-a-long diva choruses, catchy melodies, and much more superficial lyrics than Soul, producers had found such a perfect commercial combination of popular R&B elements that Disco broke out of its isolated environment and conquered the world in a unimaginable way.
Important artists:
-Chic
-Boney M -
Soul Blues (Southern Soul II)- blues
Poor black communities of the southern states felt nostalgic about this rough, emotional, and sometimes tragic music,to which they could relate to more than contemporary genres.As a part of the regional culture,Stax Soul got reinstituted but in the form of a crossover with Blues.This is why it is not wrong to speak of a resurgence of Southern Soul or a second wave, and perhaps it is even advisable to differentiate the genre from another type of Soul Blues.
Important artists:
-B.B. King
-Bobby B. -
(EARLY) POP ROCK & POWER POP
Power Pop, one of the first true Pop Rock genres, is in fact a revival of Mersey Beat, a second British Invasion so to speak. However, you can hear an important difference: the riffs are played with short, energetic strokes, enhanced by fast, repetitive drum beats. To steer the people as far away from these ‘bad’ types of Rock as possible, the sound of Power Pop went in the opposite direction: happy, melodic and light.
Artists:
-The Romantics
-Matthew Sweet -
HEARTLAND ROCK & A.O.R. (ADULT ORIENTED ROCK)
When people think about Rock of the seventies, it’s usually not Hard Rock or Glam Rock, but the antagonistic “A.O.R.” short for Adult Oriented Rock (and not album oriented rock as sometimes described). A.O.R provided the counterweight for loud, sharp, in-your-face Rock within more alternative and “mature” circles, hence its name (though many adults were also college students in the beginning).
Artists:
-Bruce Springsteen
-Tom Petty -
End of the Vietnam War
The end of the Vietnam War in 1975, marked moments of joy despite the actual loss of the war by the U.S. Yet the people had every reason to celebrate.That is why Disco celebration was without limits. -
Smooth Jazz
The Jazz era after Fusion had to deal with the growing popularity and commercial approach of R&B,particularly Disco. As such, an offshoot of Fusion known as Smooth Jazz with a slick, heavily produced and, of course, smooth sound. Jazz's commercial direction is a striking part of the seventies "Me generation", where capitalist yuppies replaced naive hippies.
Artists:
-Larry Carlton
-George Benson -
PUNK ROCK
Punk Rock probably was the biggest revolution in Rock history, although the build-up was already tangible in the British bars in the form of Pub Rock.
The music was Hard / Garage Rock, but much shorter, faster, energetic, raw and stripped to the base chords which blended in with the rapidly growing out of control Punk subculture.
Punk liked to indulge in a provocative culture of rebellious fashion and disgusting behavior.
Artists:
-The Sex Pistols
-The Buzzcocks -
Go & Go (& Bounce Beat)- rhythm & blues
Go & Go is one of the smallest genres listed on the map. It can be seen as a subgenre of Funk, but very distinctive one. Go-Go is very straightforward Funk with little experimentation or technology.
Important artists:
- Trouble Funk
-Junk Yard Band -
Saturday Night Fever
A pivotal moment between two types of Disco was the film released "Saturday Night Fever" in 1977, after which not a living soul on earth did not know what Disco was. -
SOFT ROCK / ADULT CONTEMPORARY (A.C.)
Some A.O.R. bands took a lighter approach (no guitar solos and less bass) and created Soft Rock. What started as an alternative countermovement became so commercial that eventually it was pure Pop music. Another break in A.O.R.’s trend is the stepping of more solo and singer/songwriter artists into the spotlight instead of faceless bands. The outcome and legacy of A.O.R. was a large and soft genre, yet not targeted at teens, but specifically for adults: Adult Contemporary.
Artists:
-Phil Collins -
ANARCHO-PUNK, CRUST PUNK, & D-BEAT / DISCORE
Punk Rock was besides music also a marketing machine. In response, a new subgenre answered to the machine: Anarcho-Punk. It wasn’t really anarchistic though, mostly reactionary towards Punk Rock. These bands swore by heavy DIY approach, little marketing or publicity, and by their own record production, forming the prelude to Hardcore Punk. But most importantly are real political messages, fueled by a distaste for the lyrical shallowness of some of Punk Rock’s most famous bands.
Artists:
-Crass -
SKA REVIVAL (2-TONE), SKA PUNK & SKACORE
This second wave of Ska or Ska Revival got mixed up with Punk, but became also influenced by Thrashcore and Skatepunk and by the end of the eighties the formation of Ska-Punk was complete.
The second wave of Ska changed Punk songs into uptempo, optimistic tracks with brass instruments, though still politically aware. Ska-Punk is also known as the third wave of Ska, keeping the spirit of Ska alive all the way into the nineties.
Artists:
-Against All Authority
-Mighty Mighty Bosstones -
POST PUNK
Punk Rock, or more accurately the Punk movement, died around the same time Disco reached her peak.This can be witnessed in the many genres interwoven in the same sociocultural framework as Post-Punk: Early Industrial and Noise genres, Gothic Rock and the No Wave movement.
In this genre, a dark, arty struggle is noticeable; a difficult coping with what society had become and the impotence of music to change it.
Artists:
-The Psychedelic Furs
-Echo & the Bunnymen -
Deep Funk/Rare Groove & Nu Funk- rhythm & blues
Some may say that Funk is just Funk, but there is a difference between well-known Vocal (Early) Funk aimed at performing and the heavier, instrumental Funk focused on recording, known as Deep Funk.
In the other hand Rare Groove´s characteristics (heavy beats,instrumental, recording-focused, relatively unknown) make the genre ideal for sampling and extremely popular with Rap and Breakbeats artists.
Important artists:
-The Rhythm Heritage
-Incredible Bongo Band -
NO WAVE
Despite the modest popularity and briefness of the movement, No Wave is a well documented and often portrayed music genre. No Wave was a cultural avant-garde movement sprawling forth out of the darker, more industrial and abandoned places of New York City and the work of avant-garde bands like Suicide and The Velvet Underground.
All No Wave artists were connected by their rejection of everything (“NO”), yet failed to become a conglomerated movement.
Artists:
-Teenage Jesus and the Jerks
-Swans -
SYNTHPOP & NEW ROMANTICS
In the eighties, Synth Pop reigns supreme: electronic New Wave that became highly popular due to the combination of a recognizable Pop/Rock song-structure and new and exciting synthesizer sounds.
The difference between original New Wave and mid-eighties Synth Pop is quite large. It’s less aggressive and more melodic, with less Rock and more Pop. In this momentum a temporary movement also existed, known as the New Romantics: a hybrid Synth Pop/Wave with Disco influences.
Artists:
-Soft Cell -
HI-NRG / EURODISCO
Hi-NRG or Eurodisco is a surprisingly large genre with many subgenres. Italy developed the biggest and most familiar subgenre of Hi-NRG: Italo-Disco,full of silly melodies and lyrics that gave new meaning to the word “catchy”. France took a more futuristic and instrumental approach with Space Disco And then there is Eurobeat: hyperfast Italo-Disco with a much stronger beat, developing in the late eighties, gaining much popularity in Japan, and forming a bridge towards Eurodance.
Artists:
-Divine -
Boogie/ Electrofunk- rhythm & blues
The influence from Funk on Electro bounced back to Funk, forging Electronic Funk and keeping Funk in the eighties alive. This genre has many different subforms, but to prevent further pigeonholing, it is advisable to regard all these names as one and the same: Synth Funk, United Funk, Naked Funk, Electrofunk and (Electro) Boogie.
Important artists:
-Zapp & Roger
-Rick James -
DISCO POP / POST-DISCO
In the aftermath of the great Disco supernova implosion, a supermassive, eclectic post-genre opened up, attracting a bit of everything that was hot at the time (but mostly Synthpop and a touch of instant recognizable glammy metallic guitar solos). The result is Discopop or Post-Disco: a collection of all Disco-based Pop music that is almost synonymous with “the sound of the eighties”.
Artists:
- Michael Jackson
- Whitney Houston -
INDIE POP (TWEE)
College communities in the US had a sustained culture of amateur Singer/Songwriter during the seventies and eighties. This wave, known as College Pop, becomes more poppy, lo-fi and increasingly amateuristic in sound.This led to a softer version of the latter, with more focus on melody and less of an abrasive sound harnessing positive, sentimental emotions instead of Indie Rock’s negative angst-filled ones. Therefore Indie Pop is also sometimes known as “Twee (Pop)”.
Artists:
-The pastels -
New Jack Swing/Swingbeat- rhythm & blues
Make no mistake, this genre has nothing to do with Swing. On the contrary, New Jack Swing (NJS) is the updated continuation of the Philadelphia Sound: the body of Philly Soul in a brand new jacket of Rap.
Swingbeat (a synonym for NJS) is exactly the way it sounds: extremely catchy and funky with strong emphasis on beat. Important artists:
- Wreckx-N-Effect
-Bobby Brown -
DREAM POP & SHOEGAZE
Around 1982,Dream Pop branches off from Neo-Psy: a softer, more ambient version and in fact a kind of Proto-Post-Rock. Later, a part of Neo-Psy evolved into a new kind of “Acid Indie Rock”, called Shoegaze or Shoegazing, but sometimes Dream Pop and Shoegaze are used as interchangeable terms. Shoegaze is filled with layered, heavily distorted guitars, washing over each other to create a spacy, atmospheric, textured sound, which is sometimes referred to as a “wall of noise”.
Artists:
- AR Kane -
Acid Jazz/Jazz Dance
Acid Jazz is a crossover genre gone too far: there is barely any Jazz left in it. Actually, there is almost zero 'acid' about it as well, except a slight psychedelic sound, placing it high on the chart for poorly chosen genre names. In fact, it is more of the deepest funky Fusion combined with Rap, so Fusion Rap would be more appropriate.
Artists:
-Groove Collective
-James Taylor Quartet -
Hill Country Blues & Trance Blues
"Hill Country" refers to a specific region in Northeast Mississippi, where a more radical style of Delta Blues was being developed, almost as old as Blues itself: Hill Country Blues appeared.
The hypnotic quality of Hill Country Blues was further extended in the nineties, due to the experimental use of techniques atypical of Blues such as sampling, mixing or digitally creating. Hill Country Blues evolved into something else: Trance Blues.
Important artists:
-Fred McDowell
-Junior Kimbrough -
ASIAN POP
Asian Pop music is often neglected in music genealogies. The main reason is that it serves obviously as a portmanteau and when one looks at the individual Asian pop genres, the majority of them are minor reinterpretations of existing genres. However, it is not world music definition-wise as the main countries of subject are without a doubt technically advanced. Artists:
-Yellow Magic Orchestra
-Leslie Cheung -
Nu Jazz/Electro Jazz
During summer afternoons or evenings, in picturesque metropolitan suburbs, Nu-Jazz would be the ideal background music for any café terrace or coffee bar. It is electronic, melodic, playful Jazz with lots of soothing, ambient sound effects that wash over the gentle Jazz percussion like a warm summer breeze. Being made entirely electronic, it marked the end of the traditional Jazz Band.All Jazz Music from Nu-Jazz and forward portmanteau "Future Jazz".
Artists:
-Llorca
-Jazzanova -
DANCE POP
In the eighties, Pop music changed from a pure trade commodity to a much bigger enterprise.
After Disco-Pop, major record labels turned their eye towards Dance music, as Eurodance had proven to be very profitable. Thus, Dance Pop is the fusion of Dance (mostly House) with Pop and is not the same as Disco-Pop or Urban Pop, though a large amount of overlapping is fairly common in the eclectic world of Pop music, where sell value presides over genre integrity.
Artists:
-Britney Spears
-Spice Girls -
Neo Soul/ Nu Soul- rhythm & blues
During the nineties, Rhythm 'n' Blues started to cross over to many other popular genres, combined with a a lyrical tendency towards shallow and popular content. Slowly the term R&B became a vassal for major records labels to ensure their profits, with Swingbeat as the first, careful step. Compared to older styles of Soul, this "Nu Soul" was stripped down and simple: only one singer instead of vocal harmonies , and not too many instruments.
Important artists:
-Amy Winehouse
- John Legend -
Urban Soul/ Pop (Nur R&B I)-rhythm & blues
Urban Soul/ R&B or the "new" R&B is so omnipresent that it is often identified with the general term R&B ignoring five decades of musical evolution. Out of the popular Rap/ R&B hybrid of New Jack Swing, a new hybrid gradually unfolds, bursting to life in 1998: real Urban Soul or the first wave of Nu R&B.
Important artists:
-Jennifer Lopez
-Mariah Carey
-All Saints -
Nordic Jazz
The final chapter of Jazz is a shrouded one, rarely recognized as a defined genre.However, Nordic Jazz, the title of this chapter, deserves more recognition than the current one. During the seventies and afterwards, many American Jazz musicians hit financial rock bottom and were forced to flee to Europe.Especially in countries with a colder climate, Jazz nightlife flourished well.
Artists:
-Tomasz Stanko
-Russ Sargeant -
Urban Breaks (Nu R&B II)- rhythm & blues
Where the first wave of Nu (new) or Urban R&B was still linked to original forms of R&B (especially Soul), a second wave broke all those ties and became a monster dance floor phenomenon. Here we have a soft and smooth type of Rap music, but with big hooks and heavy synth basslines, hence Urban Breaks is a more appropriate term.
Important artists:
-Beyoncé
-Rihanna -
Nu Disco & Funktronica- rhythm & blues
Nu Disco focuses specifically on (Post-) Disco of the late seventies and Eurodisco of the early eighties. This is Disco semi-detached from Soul, while harboring a stronger beat, which makes it more accessible for the modern public. Just like Electroclash brought back Synth pop to an EDM-fatigued audience, so reinstalls Nu-Disco with similar success. Nu Disco recreates these "old" genres by using the latest equipment and technologies.
Important artists:
-Michael Grey
-Big Gigantic -
Electro Swing
Music history likes to repeat itself. After the financial crisis of 2008, Swing proved to be once more the pre-eminently escapists genre, just like it was during the Great Depression.Not only the music, but many aspects of the pre war era of the thirties started to gain a renewed interest at the dawn of the 'tens': fashion, TV-series, dance, and of course, music.
Artists:
-Yolanda Be cool vs DCUP
-Caravan Palace
