Truly talented and brilliant musicians never adhere to a specific framework of any genre of music or style. Moreover, due to the rapid development of styles of modern mass music, these frames have no clearly defined borders.
But still, people engaged in music professionally, and just music fans need to understand the diversity of musical styles, especially if they are dealing with the modern music industry.
So, before answering the question what styles are in modern music, it is necessary to decide what is the musical style. Just want to warn against the confusion of concepts of style and genre. Genre (from the French word genre - genus) in music has a broad concept that defines any kind of work. The style is connected with the language itself, with the way the musician expresses himself. The most basic and widely used styles of modern music are discussed below.
folk music
The term for this type of music (folk music English) was widely known at the end of the last century, for defining folk music in various cultures of the world. Naturally the species itself originated much earlier and is one of the first in music. In turn, it traces three main genres: instrumental, song and dance.
Blues
As a musical style, it originated in the XIX century, and gained wide popularity at the beginning of the next. It is a mix of several areas of African-American music such as "working song", "spirituals" and "cholera". The blues had a great influence on the emergence of other musical styles, in particular pop music, jazz, rock'n'roll, rhythm'n'blues and several others.
Jazz
Jazz, based on the blues, is characterized by great ignition and improvisation. The main feature of this style is polyrhythm based on syncopated rhythm. Jazz is an elite music that has evolved thanks to the mastery of new patterns of rhythm and harmony by musicians. Some genres of jazz can be attributed to the professional and academic direction. For example, cool jazz, bebop.
Rock'n'roll
In the middle of the 20th century, rock'n'roll appeared in the USA. This style combines an incredible mix of a huge, and as it seems at first glance, incompatible number of genres. A distinctive feature of rock'n'roll is a clear rhythm and frankly uninhibited performance. The boundaries of rock'n'roll expanded considerably, which is why rock music appeared - an absolutely independent, new style.
Rock music
Rock in English means to swing, which can be attributed to the characteristic rhythm for this style. In rock music there are a huge number of areas, ranging from pop rock, brit rock, which can be attributed to the lighter options. And ending with heavy and aggressive ones: death metal, thrash metal, hardcore and many others. Also, certain genres of rock music are inherently associated with subcultural phenomena: hippies, punks, goths, metallers and others.
Electonic music
This type of music combines works created with the help of electronic technologies and instruments, mainly specialized computer programs and synthesizers. It was established in the second half of the 20th century and combines a wide range of different genres, subgenres and styles. Music composers using modern computer technology belongs to the academic electronics.
Hip-hop
In 1979, a new style of music - hip-hop - was born in the USA in the African-American environment. Two elements: rap (clearly rhymed rhythmic recitative) and the rhythm that sets the DJ (mostly bass and synthesizer) - are the foundation of the genre. Hip-hop, like many of the styles listed above, also has a huge number of genres and subgenres.
All these styles of modern mass music are very popular. We, probably, didn’t name any separate subspecies, but basically we uncovered the question of what styles are in modern music. All of the above is the basis, the core, and precisely what modern composers and musicians push off when creating their works. Thanks to this basis and the mixing of already existing musical styles, absolutely new directions appear, but still, it is quite possible to trace the sources in them.
The author - Stanislav Kolesnik
And lastly, watch the wonderful video in which B.B. King, the king of the blues, plays the guitar Blues Boys Tune:
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