Music Styles

Sung rather than rapped, built on groove and vocal technique, and continually reshaped by whatever hip-hop is doing.

Offbeat guitar, a bass line carrying the melody, and a drum pattern that leaves beat one open.

Cuban and Puerto Rican rhythms arranged for a big band, organized around the two-bar clave pattern.

Offbeat guitar chops and a horn section, out of Jamaica, and the ancestor of reggae.

Jazz instrumentation with pop structure and no rough edges, made for radio and, famously, for waiting rooms.

Gospel singing moved to secular subjects, with a rhythm section built around the groove.

Written to serve something else on screen, which means it has to work while you are not listening to it.

Pop built on synthesizers and drum machines, where the sound of the instrument is part of the songwriting.

Machine-made and repetitive on purpose, built from drum machines and synthesizers rather than songs.

Long builds and breakdowns designed to arrive somewhere, with melody carrying more weight than in most electronic music.

Rolling hi-hats, heavy 808 bass and sparse melodies, now the default sound of a lot of mainstream pop.

Shuffled, syncopated drums with chopped vocals, and the direct ancestor of grime and UK drill.

Guitar, bass and drums as the core lineup. Broad enough that half the genres on this list started inside it.