Model Music Curriculum - Genres
Find out a little about the various genres of music in the Model Music Curriculum.
What is a musical genre?
A genre is a term we use to organise music for convenience. Music that has a common set of traditions, characteristics, and particular stylistic qualities, such as rhythm, instrumentation, lyrical themes, or cultural origins that it shares with other pieces of music; we may say that it belongs to a particular 'genre'.
Pop music, classical music, rock music, dance music, country music - these are a few genres of music. If someone says that a piece of music is 'rock', you will have an idea of what it sounds like. However, this is only a very general description. A bit like saying that a hat is brown; it doesn't tell you what type of brown hat it is, or what shade of brown that particular brown hat might be. Whereas if we say the brown hat is a light tan homburg, we know the shape and colour more accurately.
Therefore, genres of music tend to be more specific. 'Pop music' might suggest that the music is lively or modern, describing the piece as 'disco' tells us that the music has been created with the dance floor in mind and has a particular sound.
There are many, many genres attempting to categorise music. However, music is not always easy to categorise and whilst it is possible, it is also highly likely that a piece of music will fit into more than one category.
Below are some brief descriptions to provide background information and perhaps inspire further research or discussion.
Genres
Blues originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s and the abolition of slavery.
It incorporated spirituals, work songs, 'field hollers', shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the African-American culture.
Blues can be found in the roots of jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock, characterised by the call-and-response pattern, the blues scale, and specific chord progressions, of which the twelve-bar blues is the most common. Blues shuffles or walking bass lines reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as 'the groove'. Many elements, such as the call-and-response format, can be traced back to the music of Africa.
The origins of the blues are also closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community, the spirituals.
In the 1960's, blues music became very popular in the U.K., and many young (mostly white) musicians formed groups that played their interpretations of American blues music. Many of the old blues musicians toured Britain, often backed by the bands who were influenced by their records.
Ironically, many of these young white British bands became popular in America (the so-called 'British Invasion'), introducing young white musicians to the music of black Americans.
Born in 1915, this song was first recorded in 1938. Essentially a gospel singer, she incorporated a strong element of the blues and her use of electric guitar has led her to be called "the Godmother of rock and roll". Her guitar style is directly responsible for the rise of electric blues.
Watch Muddy Waters perform "Hoochie Coochie Man" here
This song is an example of Chicago blues, a form of the blues - characterised by the use of electric guitar and amplified harmonica - that developed following the migration of people fleeing the harsh 'Jim Crow' laws of the southern United States.
Watch Howlin' Wolf perform "Smokestack Lightning" here
This is Chicago blues song described as: "almost like a distillation of the essence of the blues ... a pleasingly primitive and raw representation of the blues, pure and chant-like".
Watch Son House performing "Death Letter Blues" here
An example of 'Delta' blues, this is Son House's signature song, performed using a bottleneck on his National resonator guitar. This type of blues originated in the Mississippi Delta early in the 20th century.
Watch The Blues Brothers performing "Sweet Home Chicago" here
Jazz is a musical genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime.
Jazz is characterised by 'swing' and 'blue notes', complex chords, call and response, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythms. In the 1940s, a more complicated style called 'Bebop' developed, moving jazz away from being danceable, popular music.
Many different styles have emerged since the 1950s, including 'hard Bop', 'modal' and 'free' jazz', 'jazz-rock', 'fusion' 'Afro-Cuban', 'smooth' jazz, and so on.
Watch Dizzy Gillespie and his Orchestra performing "Salt Peanuts"
This is a 'bebop' tune written by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and drummer Kenny Clarke in 1941. It showcases the frantic nature that is associated with bebop, which would become increasingly known for complicated chord changes.
Watch Miles Davis performing "So What" here
From the 1959 album "kind Of Blue", this performance features trumpeter and band leader Davis with tenor sax player John Coltrane and pianist Bill Evans providing solos, but the central theme is provided by the bass of Paul Chambers - unusual for the time.
Watch The Dave Brubeck Quartet performing "Take Five"
Written in 1959 by sax player Paul Desmond to allow drummer Joe Morello to show off his skills in 5/4 time, this well-known tune is anchored by Brubeck's two-chord piano vamp. This performance features extended improvised solos.
Rock & Roll originated in the southern United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, from a blend of various 'black' musical styles of the time, including rhythm and blues and gospel music, and the 'white' country and western music.
The American radio DJ Alan Freed began playing R&B records on his show in 1951 - a time when there was still racial segregation in some of the Southern states, and the records were what was called "race music" - and is credited for first using the term 'rock & roll'.
Debate surrounds what may have been 'the first rock and roll record'. "The House of Blue Lights" by Ella Mae Morse and Freddie Slack (1946), Wynonie Harris's "Good Rocking Tonight" (1948), Jimmy Preston's "Rock the Joint"(1949) and "Rocket 88" by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (1951) are all nominees, but it can be argued that it was when the recordings made by white boys like Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, and Bill Haley & His Comets are what made rock & roll so popular.
Watch Jerry Lee Lewis performing "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
Born in 1935, Lewis grew up poor in Louisiana. He learned piano as a child, influenced by the blues he heard in the black 'juke joints' and white church and country music. This video shows off his energetic style and the influence of boogie-woogie and Southern evangelism in his performance and music.
Watch Eddie Cochran perform "C'mon Everybody"
Although he died at the age of 22 in 1960, Cochran was highly influential. Not only has his guitar technique (including being one of the first to use an unwound third string) been a huge influence on generations of musicians, he was a multi-instrumentalist who was keen to experiment in the recording studio.
Watch Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps perform "Be-Bop-a-Lula"
Featured here in the 1956 film 'The Girl Can't Help It', this is another highly influential song. Vincent has inspired many singers since, and Cliff Gallup's electric guitar style has influenced many guitarists. The song has an obvious blues influence, unsurprisingly as the band were all southern boys.
Watch Bo Diddley performing "Bo Diddley"
Another native of Mississippi, Bo Diddley is known for his primal sound, rooted in African rhythms which is evident in this recording from 1955. He has influenced many musicians and the 'Diddley beat' has appeared in a multitude of songs over the years, and the British Group The Pretty Things took their name from one of his songs ("Pretty Thing").
Pop is a very vague term to describe what could be literally any form of music that is popular.
More specifically though, it can be applied to the more commercial music that would be found in the form of a 'single' - a vinyl record that unlike an 'album', usually had only one song on either side - which would (hopefully) appear in the weekly pop charts. Despite occasional exceptions, the pop charts were filled with records that were short, catchy and aimed at the younger end of the record-buying public and frequently featured lightweight songs about teenage romance.
Since they first appeared in the 1950s, the pop charts have included many different genres of music, usually in a 'cleaned-up' form for wider appeal.
Pop music has often been considered inferior to other genres such as jazz, rock and classical; by the 1970s many 'serious' artists would try to distance themselves from 'pop', viewing it as commercial and having no artistic value... not that many would refuse the benefits of having a hit single.
Watch Cilla Black singing "Anyone Who Had A Heart"
Cilla Black, a working class girl from Liverpool, began her career in The Cavern Club and thanks to The Beatles, got a recording deal in 1963. This song by Burt Bacharach and Hal David recorded by Black in 1964, was the biggest female UK chart hit of the 1960s.
Watch the video for "Pop Muzik" by M
This song both celebrates and pokes fun at pop music. It features quirky, nonsensical but clever lyrics, the music being largely driven by synthesizers - which were very cutting-edge in 1979.
Watch The Who performing "Substitute"
A single from 1966. Influenced by soul and rhythm & blues. Fun, danceable but also showing the 'artistic' leanings of the band as part of the 'mod' movement.
Watch The Reynolds Girls performing "I'd Rather Jack"
A typical Stock Aitken and Waterman high-energy production, voted number 91 in a list of the 100 Worst Pop Records of All Time, this single from 1989 pokes fun at 'old' music.
Funk originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music.
It introduced a focus on the rhythm section of prominent electric bass, the drums often played complex patterns, locking with the bass to create danceable 'grooves'. The name (from an 18th century word meaning 'musty' oor 'earthy') can be traced to the early 1900s when jazz musicians used it to refer to something 'deeeply felt' or 'an exquisite performance'.
James Brown can take credit for funk as a genre, coming up with a style that included not only elements of jazz as well as soul and R&B.
The bass is essential to funk, and the use of muted and ghost notes to add feel to the bassline and a more percussive style (leading eventually to 'slap bass'). There was also a lot of experimenting with new effects pedals (much as guitarists would) and it isn't unusual to hear envelope filters and wah pedals being used to give a squelchy sound. Bootsy Collins is probably one of the best known funk bassists and users of bass effects.
Funk drumming creates a 'groove', with a steady tempo and groove and few fills whilst the hi-hat adds accents, syncopation and swing.
Towards the end of the 1960s, bands like Sly and The Family Stone, combined elements of pop, soul and rock with heavy funk, whilst Parliament and Funkadelic added a heavy dose of psychedelia to create 'P-funk'. Funk continued to develop throughout the 70s, with bands like Kool and The Gang, The Fatback Band and Graham Central Station all having their own styles.
See Parliament "Give Up The Funk"
Parliament's 1975 album 'Mothership Connection' was part of singer George Clinton's concept of 'P-Funk', futuristic psychedelic funk sci-fi mythology. The group was originally a doo-wop vocal group before mutating into psychedelic soul and then getting the funk.
See Bootsy's Rubber Band perform "Another Point Of View"
Bootsy Collins is probably one of the best known funk bassists and users of bass effects. He played with both James Brown and Parliament/ Funkadelic before forming Bootsy's Rubber Band.
Watch Prince & The Revolution perform "Controversy / Mutiny"
The prolific American multi-instrumentalist Prince was influenced by James Brown and P-Funk, and his stage shows would incorporate elements of both.
Watch The Steve Hillage Band performing "Unidentified (Flying Being)"
This 1978 song from British psychedelic guitarist Steve Hillage is heavily influenced by P-Funk.
Disco is a form of dance music.The name is short for "Discothèque", a place where people would go to dance - originally a type of nightclub that evolved in Paris during the Nazi occupation. The first one opened in New York in 1960.
Disco music evolved from the sounds being played in the discoteques of New York and Philadelphia in the late 60s and early 70s, which included Motown, soul psychedelic soul and funk.
The disco sound is typified by 'four-on-the-floor' beats with emphatic 'hi-hat lifts' and characteristic handclaps, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric piano, synthesizers, and electric rhythm guitars.
In many ways, disco was a reaction to and against the rock music of the late 60s and early 70's (and the culture around it) that was becoming much too serious (see 'Pop'!), and as a result, disco music features almost no guitar solos.
Disco usually has a very highly produced sound, and 'Philadelphia soul' sounded highly polished, with very lush string arrangements (the 'Philly Sound').
Disco records were produced for dancing. the concept of an actual band was generally replaced by productions using studio musicians backing featured vocalists such as Donna Summer, Chaka Khan and Gloria Gaynor. There were bands - KC and the Sunshine Band and Chic for example - but they were rare, and the Bee Gees are better known for their disco records as a vocal trio than being instrumental musicians.
By the end of the 1970s, following the success of the film 'Saturday Night Fever' and it's soundtrack, disco was incredibly popular, and despite a backlash from fans of rock and 'more serious' music, several rock groups (including ELO and Kiss) embraced the disco sound.
One of the innovations of disco was the invention of the 12-inch remix. Traditional singles came on a 7-inch disc with one track on either side. The 12-inch format allowed for a re-mixed version of the track, usually featuring extended instrumental segments. This benefitted the DJ and dancers alike as it meant fewer breaks in the music. Additionally, the bigger disc allowed the grooves in the record to be deeper and wider, making 12-inch singles louder - especially in the bass frequencies.
Watch The Trammps perform "Disco Inferno"
Vocal group The Trammps recorded this in 1975 but it was it's inclusion in the film "Saturday Night Fever" that made it a hit.
Watch John Travolta dancing to "You Should be Dancing" by The Bee Gees, from "Saturday Night Fever"
The Bee Gees had been performing together since the 1950s and recording since the mid-60s. Despite much success as performers and songwriters, it was this song that made them global stars.
Watch KC and the Sunshine Band perform "Shake, Shake, Shake"
The magazine Record World described the song as "A hypnotic invitation to get on the dance floor...".
Watch Sheila & B. Devotion performing "Spacer"
This song from 1980 featured French singer Sheila and was written and produced by Bernard Edwards and Nile Rodgers of Chic. Edwards plays bass and Rogers guitar - including a rare guitar solo.
80s Synth-Pop - also known as electro- or techno-pop - is a style of pop music that uses synthesizers, drum machines and sequencers in place of usual instruments.
It's roots are in the experimental electronic music of the late '60s and early '70s, particularly Silver Apples, Wendy Carlos and Kraftwerk, whose single 'Autobahn' from 1974, became a pop hit, and was very influential on British groups like Ultravox, The Human League and Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark.
Another huge influence was the disco song 'I Feel Love' by Donna Summer, from 1977. The producer, Giorgio Moroder, recorded the song entirely using synthesizers and analogue sequencers.
Watch Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark play "Enola Gay"
This song from 1980 was named after the bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb. Influenced by Kraftwerk, the melodies are played on small, multitracked monophonic synthesizers, but features real drums (although each one recorded individually to sound less like a real drum kit) and bass guitar.
Watch the video to Visage's "Fade To Grey"
From 1980, the song is recorded using synthesizers and electronic percussion over an acoustic drumkit. It was written by (and performed by) members of Gary Numan's band and is influenced by Kraftwerk and David Bowie.
Watch Kraftwerk performing "Pocket Calculator" (in German!)
German group Kraftwerk have been hugely influential to musicians in diverse genres from rock to hip-hop pop, dance and electronica. This live performance from 1981 sees them using sequencer, toy keyboard, Stylophone, modified calculator and custom-built electronic percussion.
Watch "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by The Eurythmics
This song from 1983 was recorded in a home studio using an early digital drum sequencer system for the drums and synth bassline and another synth providing the 'string' sounds.
A singer/songwriter is a singer who writes and performs their own songs, usually playing an acoustic guitar or piano. The songs' lyrics are often confessional, inward-looking or making political statements or commenting on society.
Early 20th folk and blues performers often wrote their own songs, as did later country and western artists.
Bob Dylan emerged as the biggest star of the 'folk revival' of the 1960s. He has influenced many musicians with his songwriting style - his 'poetic' lyrics liberated songwriters from the burden of writing songs about teenage love!
By the 1970s, singer/songwriters were very popular, and a commercially successful product. Singer-songwriters never went away. The 1990s saw many female performers coming to the fore (although there have always been female singer-songwriters), using various musical forms such as rock, country and western, pop, etc., etc.
Watch Alanis Morissette performing "Hand In My Pocket"
From her 'Jagged Little Pill' album, this is a lyrically interesting, humorous song in a post-grunge style. Although this is a live performance, the recorded version was recorded entirely in a home studio with Morisette playing harmonica and singing, with all other instruments played by co-author and producer Glen Ballard.
Watch Beck performing "Loser"
The seeds of this song come from when Beck was performing blues standards in coffee bars in the early 90s. The title (and chorus) comes from his realisation that he wasn't very good at rapping. Beck composed the song using folk music influences with hip-hop and alternative rock elements.
Watch Jeff Buckley perform "Grace"
Jeff was the son of 60s singer-songwriter Tim Buckley. This song from 1994 was based on a tune by guitarist Gary Lucas with Buckley providing the lyrics.
Watch PJ Harvey perform "Down By The Water"
This song was influenced by American blues musician Lead Belly's recording of 'Salty Dog Blues'. It marked a move from Harvey's previously more punky and rocky material into a more experimental style with a more folk and blues influence.
90s RnB - or 'Contemporary R&B' - is a dancefloor-friendly combination of rhythm and blues with elements of pop, soul, funk, hip hop, and electronic music.
The genre features a distinctive record production style and a smooth, lush style of vocal arrangement. Electronic influences and the use of hip hop or dance-inspired beats are typical. At one point it was known as 'hip hop soul' after recordings by Mary J. Blige and Sean Coombs.
R&B singers (famously Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston) often use a technique called 'melisma'.
Listen to some 90's RnB here
Listen to some more 90's RnB here
Art Pop is a term that has been applied to musicians who are creating music that is not necessarily aimed at the commerciality of the pop charts.Art pop is not a style of music, but a way of categorising artists who may not fit any particular genre, or have indeed produced many different styles of music.
The Beatles and The Beach Boys famously began using the recording studio to experiment with new ways of creating music that was no longer 'pop', but something much more serious: it was art!
Songs such as 'A Day In The Life' and 'Good Vibrations' were complex musical compositions crafted in the studio and which at the time would be extremely difficult to perform live. Nevertheless, many musicians rapidly followed suit and the late sixties saw much experimentation using the recording studio as part of the creative process.
The American group The Velvet Underground were closely involved with the artist Andy Warhol (a leading figure in the Pop! Art movement), creating music that was highly original. In addition to the unusual lyrical content, they employed various techniques borrowed from the avant-garde music of the time, influenced largely by bassist/ viola player John Cale who had studied under John Cage, Cornelius Cardew and LaMonte Young. At the time they were not a commercial success, but they have influenced many musicians since, including David Bowie, Brian Eno, Talking Heads and Wet, Wet, Wet.
Listen to The Velvet Underground's "All Tomorrow's Parties"
This song, inspired by one of the characters that hung around Andy Warhol's 'Factory' studio in New York, has several avant garde musical features; the repetitive piano part by John Cale is influenced by the work of Terry Riley and had paper clips attached to the strings - in the manner of the 'prepared piano' of John Cage; Lou Reed (who also wrote the song) used a fretless guitar with all strings tuned to one note (which he termed 'Ostrich guitar') playing in an Eastern-influenced style whilst the drumbeat is played by a monotonous bassdrum and tambourine. The idiosyncratic vocals by Nico are icy and have influenced many singers ever since.
Watch The Talking Heads' "Once In A Lifetime"
This song originally a failed attempt to play funk, was produced by Brian Eno. He broke the original song into repetitive parts with differing rhythmic stresses, that the band then learned to play, and he created the chorus vocal melody. Singer David Byrne delivers his lyrics in the style of a preacher in front of a congregation, with almost a celebration of the American Dream.
Watch Roxy Music perform "Re-make/Re-model"
This song from 1972 has the chorus "CPL593H", a car number plate that singer Bryan Ferry saw on his way to the studio. Sax player Andy McKay and synthesizer player Brian Eno were both into avant garde and electronic music. Eno was not a musician but could operate the VCS3 synthesizer which he played in the studio and onstage, often using it to manipulate other instruments in the group.
Watch Sparks perform "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us"
Sparks, fronted by Anglophile American brothers Ron and Russell Mael, produced quirky, witty music which fell under the 'glam rock' umbrella. They later went on to work with Giorgio Moroder producing electronic dance music.
'Indie' comes from the 1980s, a collective term coined to describe music being issued on independent record labels. Many of these had appeared during the 1970s, particularly during - and because of - the 'punk era'.
'Indie' music comes in many forms, but because of it's origins in self-produced records by (usually) young and un-signed groups, it generally describes guitar-based music. As a result, indie can be punky, jangly, loud, gentle, 60's-influenced, avant-garde, retro, cutting-edge, danceable, UN-danceable, and so on.
In the 90s, British indie was very diverse, but from elements of the neo-psychedelic 'shoegaze' and the dancy 'Madchester' scenes, emerged 'Brit-pop'. American indie by this time was producing more rock-based but equally diverse music from the likes of Nirvana, Pavement, Olivia Tremor Control, Sebadoh etc.
Watch Mazzy Star performing "Fade Into You"
Emerging from Los Angeles and the so-called 'Paisley Underground' of the early 80s, Mazzy Star combined elements of psychedelia, folk and rock with dreamy often ethereal vocals. This is probably their most well-known song.
Watch Pavement perform "Stereo"
Pavement were a very influential band from California had punk, rock and country leanings, and humorous, often ridiculous stream-of-consciousness lyrics - as can be heard on "Stereo"!
Watch Stereolab perform "Les Yper Sound"
Anglo-French Stereolab blended elements of 60s French pop, easy listening and lounge music, motorik Kosmische Musik, avant-garde, rock and funk. Their lyrics, often sung in French, have political and philosophical themes influenced by the Surrealist and Situationist art movements.
Watch Pale Saints "Throwing Back The Apple"
Pale Saints were from Leeds and are associated with 'shoegaze' - a term describing bands which used guitar pedals, noise and had ethereal vocals.
Musical Traditions
Samba is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in Afro-Brazilian communities in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It is considered one of the most important cultural phenomena in Brazil, and one of the country's symbols.
Having its roots in the Afro-Brazilian Candomblé cult (as well as other Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous folk traditions) samba was criminalized by the Brazilian government. It was a distinctly Afro-Brazilian musical genre, that brought people together in community and celebration, but that,
and all that drumming, to the Brazilian elite was threatening. Samba therefore became an underground movement, defying the government. However, by the early 1900s, samba had emerged as an important part of what has become the Brazilian Carnival.
Listen to some samba music here
Listen to some more samba music here
Gamelan is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia.
It is mostly played on percussive instruments. There are hand-drums that keep a beat, and an array of 'metallophones' - instruments made of metal. Other instruments used nclude xylophones, bamboo flutes and stringed instruments, and also vocalists.
In Javanese mythology, the gamelan was created by Sang Hyang Guru, the god who ruled as king of all Java in AD 230, as they needed a signal to summon the other gods. However, images of a recognisable gamelan orchestra have been found in 9th century art, proving it's ancient origins. The gamelan orchestra is known to have existed in it's current form since medieval times.
Listen to some gamelan music here
Listen to some more gamelan music here
Indian classical music is based on 'ragas'. A raga can be most simply (?) described as a set of melodies which the musician will improvise around, following 'musical rules' that are specific to the specific raga being played.
Since the 15th century, Indian Classical music has had two forms: the North Indian 'Hindustani', which was very influenced by Persian and Arabic music, and South Indian 'Carnatic', which was not.
Carnatic music is mostly written to be sung, and even when played on instruments, they are played in a style to emulate singing. Hidustani music, whilst also having vocal performances, has always incorporated instrumentation, many of which (such as the sitar and sarod) evolved from Persian instruments.
Listen to some Indian classical music here
Listen to some more Indian classical music here
What we refer to as Bhangra, is a musical style originating in the UK, based on Sikh Punjabi folk music, but using more modern, Western song structures and instruments. Listen to some bhangra here
Calypso is a style of Caribbean music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago during the early to the mid-19th century, especially after the abolition of slavery in the British Empire in 1832. The music has influences from various African, Central American and Carribean traditional music. Listen to some calypso here
Nigerian drumming is based on the Yoruba drumming tradition, with a characteristic use of 'dundun' drums. Listen to some African drumming here
A tango is a dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the border between Argentina and Uruguay, and has influences from African and European culture. Listen to some tango music here
South African choral music came to international notice following the appearance of the group Ladysmith Black Mambazo on Paul Simon's album 'Graceland'. Listen to some South African choral music here
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.
The 'Middle East' covers a lot of territory! However, despite this, much of the music of the lands that surround the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas has a lot in common; the region is home to ancient civilisations, who would trade, conquer and colonise, spreading their influence and absorbing others. Listen to some Middle Eastern folk music here
English folk music is very diverse. There are songs that are associated with sailors, industrial workers, agriculture, as well as history and legend. Watch Bob Fox & Stu Luckley perform "The Fishing"
Between 1772 and 1918, Poland was divided and occupied by the powers of Russia, Prussia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Listen to some Polish folk music here
Describing music prior to the Renaissance, 'Early' generally refers to music of the medieval period - between the 6th and 16th centuries. Watch Aux Couleurs du Moyen-Âge performing some medieval music
Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, from the rise of triadic harmony and the contenance angloise style from Britain to the adoption of basso continuo at the beginning of the Baroque period. Watch a performance of "Circumdederunt Me" by Cristóbal de Morales
The baroque period lasted (roughly) between 1600 and 1750 and was mostly European in origin. Listen to some baroque music here
Classical music generally refers to the 'art' music of the Western world, as opposed to folk or popular music traditions. Listen to some classical music here
The Romantic movement within the clssical genre was a musical interpretation of a general artistic movement that arose during the second half of the 18th century.
Listen to Ludwig van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 6"
In the 20th century, the classical genre evolved in many different ways, producing music which doesn't always fit with the general perception of 'classical music'. Listen to Igor Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring"
Bhangra traditionally is a Punjabi dance form and music based around the double-ended Dhol drum; modern bhangra can be identified by it's use of dhol, dholak, tumbi drums.
Listen to some more bhangra here
During the 1920s and 30s, calypso became a way of spreading information round Trinidad, and was considered to be one of the most reliable news sources, as well as a method of making political comments. Many popular calypso recordings were songs with lyrics that dealt with social or political issues, often in protest against the colonial government of the time.
Listen to some more calypso here
Ensembles using dundun drums play a type of music that is also called dundun. These ensembles consist of various sizes of dundun drums, along with kettledrums (gudugudu).
The leader of a dundun ensemble is the iyalu, who uses the drum to "talk" by imitating the tonality of the Yoruba language of Nigeria. Much Yoruba music is spiritual in nature.
Listen to some more African drumming here
Dances from the 'candombe' ceremonies of enslaved Africans, helped shape the modern day tango. The music derived from the fusion of various forms of music from Europe.
The words "tango" and "tambo" were initially used to refer to musical gatherings of slaves, as early as 1789.
The tango became popular around the world in the early 1900s, particularly in Paris - although the dance was considered a little saucy.
Listen to some more tango music here
This particular choral style originated in the 1920s, but is apparently based on a blend of the traditional music of the Zulu people, and American vaudeville shows that were very popular in South Africa around 1860.
Listen to some more South African choral music here
Nowadays, folk music from 'other parts of the world' is often called world music - a term popularised in the 1980s by record companies to more easily market music that does not follow "North American or British pop and folk traditions".
The music of the region often contains quarter-tone intervals (Western music only has semi-tones) which are achieved using the voice and fretless stringed instruments such as the oud and violin.
Listen to some more Middle Eastern folk music here
Different regions of England (including Scotland, as there is much crossover of songs and tunes) often have different styles of song.
English and Scottish folk music was carried to America by settlers in the 17th-19th centuries, and (along with influences from elsewhere - not least the Afro-American banjo) formed the basis for American folk muscic and ultimately bluegrass and country & western.
There was a revival in interest in English folk in the early 1900s, and again after The Second World War; it is thanks to enthusiasts going around the country recording songs (and dances) - either in audio or written form - that we have knowledge of so much English folk music.
In the mid-1960s, musicians began combining folk music with elements of pop and rock, a style which became known as 'folk-rock'.
This is a performance from 1983 of "North Sea Holes", a song written in 1960 by folk singer Ewan MacColl, who was hugely influential in the revival of interest in British folk music. The song celebrates the herring fishermen of the steam-drifter era of the first half of the 20th century.
Watch Martin Carthy perform "The Famous Flower of Serving Men"
Laurence Price wrote and published this ballad in July 1656. It includes many of the themes of traditional folk songs - terminal bullying, child killing, abject humiliation and shame, redemption and terrible revenge. Carthy is of the most important musicians of the English folk music, bringing many traditional songs to a wide audience and influencing generations of musicians with his guitar technique.
Polish music dates back to hand written scripts for polyphonic chants from the 13th century.
Polish folk music developed from as accompaniments for dances such as the mazurek, chodzony and pieszy. The mazurka and Polonaise are the most well-known examples.
Two traditional Polish instruments are the suka and the plock fiddle, both types of spike fiddle.
Listen to some more Polish folk music hereThe Western Classical Tradition up to the 1940s
It encompassed religious and secular music from the monophony of plainsong to the fluid polyphony of the madrigal.
During this period music notation began to be developed, at first for religious songs, but secular instrumental composition also began to be written down.
Instruments began to evolve as technology allowed, giving us the hurdy-gurdy, cor anglais, various flutes, the sackbutt - which was an early form of trombone, and numerous ancestors of the guitar such as the lute and cittern.
Aux Couleurs du Moyen-Âge are a French group who use authentic instruments. The sound is very raucous and ideal for street performance.
Watch Andrey Vinogradov playing a hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy evolved from the various types of early fiddles, adding keys to play the notes and a cranked wheel to replace the bow. It has a very characteristic sound.
Watch Elthin performing "Saltarello no. 4"
This 14th century Italian dance tune. Czech group Elthin perform using authentic medieval instruments.
Music increasingly used polyphony - melodies using two or more notes at the same time - and chord progressions. And so the basis of Western Classical harmony was born.
Watch Le Banquet du Roy playing a renaissance bourrée
The name comes from 'Baroco', a form of philosphical thinking, which eventually began to be used for anything that was overly complicated, although describing the music of this period as 'baroque' originated in the 20th century.
Baroque music saw the beginning of ideas about harmony and tonality and the development of musical notation to convey the new ideas.
Baroque music would be performed with the accompaniment of the basso continuo, like a backing group of harpsichord or lute playing chords, with viol, cello and double bass providing the basslines.
Listen to some more baroque music here
The term 'classical' started to be used in 18th-century England, to describe the music that was being performed in the growing concert music scene in London. The term "classical"—or more often "ancient music"—emerged, which was still built on "the principles of formality and excellence." It coincided with the 'neo-Classical' movement in art and architecture.
The Oxford Dictionary defines classical music as "relating to formal European music of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, characterized by harmony, balance, and adherence to established compositional forms".
It was during this period that the now-familiar orchestra began to develop.
Listen to some more classical music here
Put simply, Romantic music was inspired by nature, poetry, literature, the supernatural or the fine arts, and moved away from previous musical forms by introducing chromaticism - using all twelve notes available withing an octave, regardless of key. Hungarian composer Franz Liszt coined the term 'programmatic music' to describe instrumental music that attempts to represent these non-musical influences.
One of the greatest influences was the German author and composer E.T.A. Hoffmanann, whose writings and music influenced later composers and whose musical critiques of Beethoven more or less established the principles of what 'Romantic music' entails.
Briefly, Romanticism featured shifting harmonic structures, movement between keys, an inrease in highlighting instrumental virtuosity, emphasis on melody, increased dynamics and tonal range made possible by the use of the piano and large orchestras.
New musical structures began to be employed alongside traditional classical forms, such as rhapsodies, etudes song cycles and so forth.
Nationalist feeling during the later Romantic period was also reflected in the works of composers such as Sibelius, Chopin and Smetana.
From 1808, this is Beethoven's most 'programmatic' work. Also known as 'The Pastoral Symphony' it describes a visit to the countryside, portraying arrival, a quiet moment by a brook, an encounter with dancing peasants, a thunderstorm, and the peasants' song of thankgiving when the storm is over.
Listen to Franz Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2"
Liszt was strongly influenced by the music heard in his youth, particularly Hungarian folk music. He is famed for the nationalistic character of his music. This piece features themes based on two Hungarian folk dances - a sedate lassan followed by a more lively friska.
Listen to "Pictures at an Exhibition" by Modest Mussorgsky
A musical depiction of a tour of an art exhibition. The ten movements of the suite is based on an individual work, with a recurring 'promenade' in between. Originally written as a piano suite in 1874, this version was orchestrated by Maurice Ravel in 1931.
However, music absorbed the influences upon it's composers in the ways that it always has, and in the 20th century these influences could be dramatic; from art, jazz, architecture, science and technology, to war, politics and persecution.
Composers began to introduce concepts of atonality, dissonance, and the use of unusual, non-orchestral instruments; the Italian Futurist artist Luigi Russolo's manifesto ("The Art Of Noises") recommended the use of all sorts of sounds, from non-verbal vocalising to the sounds of machinery, explosions and the sounds made by beating various materials, such as stone, wood or metal.
He went so far as to build a number of devices ("Intonarumori ") to try to replicate these sounds.
Technology also gave composers access to electronic devices (such as the theremin, the Ondes Martinot and frequency generators) and various recording devices which were used in many different ways.
Written in 1913, "The Rite of Spring" is a ballet and orchestral concert work. The avant-garde nature of the music and choreography was controversial at the time, featuring experiments in tonality, metre, rhythm, stress and dissonance. It is regarded as among the first modernist works, influencing many of the 20th century's leading composers.
Listen to Edgard Varèse's "Ionisation"
Written for thirteen percussionists and first performed in 1933, the title refers to the ionization of molecules. Varèse said: "I was... influenced... by natural objects and physical phenomena". He also acknowledged the influence of the Italian Futurists.
Listen to Arnold Schoenberg's "String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor, Op. 10"
First performed in 1908, this work caused riots amongst the conservative audience of Vienna due to it's harmonic innovation and atonality. Comparisons have been made between the music of Schoenberg and the Expressionist paintings of Oskar Kokoshka, Egon Schiele and the abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky.
The Western Classical Tradition and Film beyond the 1940s
Classical music post-1940 continued to evolve just as it always had. Unsurprisingly, The Second World War exerted a huge influence, perhaps most notably in Dmitry Shostakovich's 'Leningrad Symphony' of 1942, written whilst the city was besieged by the Nazis, and 'Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima' by Krzysztof Penderecki (1960).
Whereas Shostakovich's work can be described as sounding more like 'traditional' classical music, using a very large orchestra, Penderecki takes a more 'avant-garde' approach.
Although not new (Stravinsky employed the technique), 'twelve-tone' (ensuring that all twelve notes of a scale are given equal importance), and other forms of 'serialism' which placed equal emphasis to various other aspects of music (pitch, dynamics, rhythm etc.), became more prevalent. Often this experimentation resulted in pieces that could be 'difficult' for the listener.
Listen to Dmitry Shostakovich's 'Leningrad Symphony'
Conceived and (partially) written during the 870-day siege of Leningrad, which began in June 1941, the symphony was performed in Leningrad on August 9, 1942, under exceptionally difficult circumstances due to the ongoing siege. The first movement features a famous "war machine" crescendo, a relentless and insistent theme that builds in volume and intensity.
Listen to Krysztof Penderecki's 'Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'
Penderecki used a string section comprising 52 instruments, directing the players to use unconventional techniques, atonality and varying vibrato, but with a rigorous adherence to the timing of the notes. The piece is designed to sound threatening, to make the listener feel uncomfortable and convey the horror of the experience of the people bombed at Hiroshima.
Listen to Milton Babbitt's 'Composition for Four Instruments'
Based on Babbitt's rigorous application of twelve-tone technique, "Composition for Four Instruments" from 1948 is a chamber work for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello. The piece begins with a solo for clarinet, which introduces a three-note unit followed by sections for duos, trios, and solos and concludes with a full ensemble.
In an age when we can create music using phone apps and much of the music we hear has been created electronically by one means or other, the term 'Electronic Music' requires some explanation.
Briefly, 'electronic music' in this instance, comes in two basic flavours: music created using instruments that use electronics to generate sounds, and 'electroacoustic' music that uses electronic devices (such as recording devices) to manipulate sound.
The invention of the thermionic valve in 1904 and it's subsequent development for use in radio technology (which evolved rapidly due to necessity in the First World War) made electronic technology viable. Apart from telecommunications and media, the thermionic valve allowed sound to be amplified and generated electronically.
The earliest purely electronic instrument was the theremin, invented in 1920 by Leon Theremin whilst experimenting on motion detection with radio waves! The theremin is played by not actually touching the instrument. Many composers wrote for the theremin, and it was also a popular performance instrument, becoming very associated with sci-fi films of the 1950's but it became less popular as instruments that were easier to play became available.
Now largely forgotten, the ondes Martenot was played by sliding a metal ring along a wire to produce glissando, theremin-like sounds, with the later addition of a keyboard, and a selection of loudspeakers. It was a popular instrument with many classical composers, including Edgard Varese, Arthur Honneger and Olivier Messiaen, as well as being used in sci-fi and horror films.
Electroacoustic music really cam to life in the 1940s with the development of magnetic recording devices. The earliest known piece is Halim El-Dahb's 'The Expression of Zaar' from 1944.
'Musique concrète' was the term applied to this technique by French composer Pierre Schaffer, to differentiate it from music that used traditional notation; written gudelines, diagrams and charts were used to offer direction for any performers of the pieces that required more than just the playback of tape recordings.
American composer used tapes, but also other devices in performances of his compositions. Perhaps the most well-known is "4'33" in which the ambient sounds of the auditorium become the performance as the msuicians sit without playing a note.
Listen to Bohuslav Martinů's 'Fantasia' H301
Written in 1944 for Theremin, oboe, string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello), and piano for Lucie Bigelow Rosen, who was the theremin soloist at its premiere in New York in 1945. It is a well-known work among theremin enthusiasts and showcases a unique combination of instruments.
Listen to Olivier Messiaen's '4 Feuillets Inédits'
"Feuillets inédits" ("unpublished pages") are four partially incomplete works by Messiaen from the 1930s arranged and revised for piano and ondes Martenot by his second wife, composer Yvonne Loriod. They remained unpublished until 2001.
Watch John Cage perform 'Water Walk'
'Water Walk' was composed for an Italian TV quiz show, using 'Fontana Mix' as the composing means. Cage used 34 materials, as well as a single-track tape. The materials required are mostly related to water. 'Fontana Mix' was a composition that used a system of pictures and transparencies which could be used in any combination to produce any other arrangement of parts.
Listen to an excerpt from El-Dabh's 'The Expression of Zaar'
Halim El-Dahb used a wire recorder (originating in the late 19th century, before the invention of magnetic tape recording devices used steel wire) on which he recorded sounds on the streets of Cairo, and used the audio manipulation equipment available in radio station studio to filter the sound, add echos and reverb, creating something different and new - a 'sound collage'.
Minimalism is a term coined by composer Michael Nyman in 1968 to describe music that features "limited or minimal materials... that use only a few notes... a few words of text... pieces written for a very limited instruments... pieces that move in endless circles... that take a very long time to move from one kind of music to another kind...".
Minimalist music uses repetitive patterns, pulses, drones and evolving phrases, and rather than attempting to be descriptive or 'tell stories' and 'paint pictures', it is more about drawing the listener into the music.
It is probably no surprise that minimalism emerged at the same time as a growing interest in Eastern pholosophies, trascendentalism and psychedelic drugs. Minimalist music can be very trance-like and cerebral.
La Monte Young had influences from the Dadaist art movemnent, Stockhausen and Schoenberg to John Cage, Gregorian chant and psychedelic drugs. During the 1950s his compositions encompassed twelve-tone and tape music. In 1962 he formed the music collective 'Theatre of Eternal Music' to perform his drone-based compositions.
Terry Riley introduced the idea of repetition using tape, and came up with what he called a "time-lag accumulator" (a way of creating tape-based delay and repeats, later introduced to popular music by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp). In 1964 he composed "In C" which was made up of 53 repeated melodic fragments as a way for musicians to perform what he was creating with tape. In 1968 "A Rainbow In Curved Air" was one of the first recordings to use 8-track tape machines, performed by Riley overdubbing various keyboard instruments. The piece turned out to be highly influential.
Steve Reich's discovered whilst experimenting with tape that two identical machines wouldn't necessarily be running at identical speeds, and that two identical recordings playing at the same time would drift out of sync, creating interesting beats, rhythmic and musical effects - even from something as ordinary as a recording of a street preacher. One of his earliest compositions "Piano Phases" used two pianos playing a rapid sequence of notes that gradually mutate as the piece progresses. The effect is quite mesmeric. Other pieces were written for instruments as diverse as organs, violins, percussion and clapping. "Music For 18 Musicians" features vibraphones, marimbas, bass clarinets, strings and vocals.
Philip Glass is one of the most well-known of the Minimalist composers. He'd studied in Paris where he had worked with Indian musicians Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha, which influenced Glass's musical thinking, and he had a strong influence in Buddhism. After attending a performance by Steve Reich, he began to adapt the techniques to his own work.
Minimalist music clearly has had an influence on popular music forms such as German Kosmische Musik, post-rock, ambient and experimental electronic music and subsequent electronic dance styles. It is almost impossible to watch film or television without hearing music that is influenced by minimalism.
Watch a performance of La Monte Young's "Composition 1960 #7"
Young's "Composition 1960 #7" he began to employ sustained drones. He stated that one of the influences on his music was the sustained sound of the wind through telephone wires as a child in Idaho.
Watch a performance of Terry Riley's "In C"
It's pulsing rhythm was the suggestion of Steve Reich (part of the original group Riley assembled to perform the piece) to help keep the performers together.
Watch a scene from "Koyaanisqatsi"
The 1982 film "Koyaanisqatsi" an "essay in images and sound on the state of American civilization" with it's soundtrack by Philip Glass brought minimalist music to a much wider audience.
Watch Steve Reich & Wolfram Winkel perform "Clapping Music"
Inspired by flamenco musicians and using an African pattern as the basis, this piece from 1972 works by one musician skipping a beat every few bars, creating evolving rhythms before eventually returning to clapping in unison.
mp3