DIFFERENT GENRES AND

ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
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A. GENRES OF
MUSIC
GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC
GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

W H AT I S A G E N R E ?

A genre is a group of styles of music having a

common tradition or common fundamental values.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

ROCK

• The umbrella term ‘rock’ is used to describe a large variety of musical styles. The
origins of this stupendously popular style lie in a fusion of two other popular genres —
Blues and Country, along with significant elements of jazz.
• Along with the influences from the two styles, rock and roll was typified by extensive
use of the snare drum.
• The ‘rock and roll’ movement of the mid-1950s revolutionized the music scene in the
West, with the proponents of this innovative and flamboyant style shaping the trends in
racism, fashion and lifestyle.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

ROCK

• Rock and roll — especially Glam Rock — artists’ garish costumes were famous, and in the
racially inflamed 1950s, rock and roll provided an avenue for the appreciation of
popular music without segregation.
• The success of the Rock and Roll movement is personified in the everlasting fame of
‘the King’, Elvis.
• In the late 60s and early 70s two popular rock subgenres developed: Hard Rock and
Heavy Metal. Both have gone on to become massively popular. The contemporaneous
emergence of inventive guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton
helped mold the malleable style of Rock music into numerous other popular styles.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

JAZZ
• Jazz developed among the black • Jazz is often performed by
community of the Southern US. This can
be called a ‘classical version’ of blues
ensembles (although single artists
music. can play as well), with importance laid
• The African influence on this indigenous
on their ability to play off each other,
American style of music can be seen in and improvise ex tempore.
the emphasis on improvisation
• The improvisational style of jazz links it
and a combination of different but
to Indian classical music, which also
simultaneously played rhythms, which is
very unusual in the Western tradition of values improvisation over repetition of
music. set melodies.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

WESTERN CLASSICAL

• The classical music of Europe is (along with the much older Indian classical music) one
of the oldest surviving styles in modern music. In direct contrast to its Indian
counterpart and the Western style of jazz, European classical music values tradition and
set renditions of melodies, without much scope for improvisation.
• Classical music can be of several forms: Symphony, Sonata, Concerto, Suite, Cantata,
Oratorio etc. These are either played on instruments such as a piano or a violin or sung.
Although classical music is often derided as ‘boring’, especially by the younger
audience, it shouldn’t be forgotten that it is one of the oldest and most respected
genres in world music.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

RHYTHM AND BLUES

• Like jazz music, the blues genre originated from African
Americans’ work songs, and was built around the premise of simple
lyrics sung in a simple tune.
• The simple, plain structuring of a blues song is open to innovations
and improvisations; this has led to the emergence of several
completely different styles, such as rock music.
• Since the blues genre was ingrained in local calls and work songs,
the subgenres of blues music are often named after places.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

RHYTHM AND BLUES

• ‘Dallas Blues’ is the first blues song ever published, in 1912. It was written
by Hart Wand, and although there had been unpublished blues songs and
published quasi-blues songs before his time, his was the first true blues
song to be published.
• Blues music was primarily played unplugged (with acoustic instruments).
However, this began to change in the 1940s, and the entry of electric
instruments — thanks to artists such as Muddy Waters — revolutionized blues
music. Although many blues artists chose electric instruments, both electric
and acoustic renditions of blues music are popular today.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

RHYTHM AND BLUES

• Jump blues, an energetic, fast type of blues music, is considered to
be the precursor of rock and R&B music.

• Rhythm and Blues, a subgenre of blues and jazz music, has

developed to be considered as a genre in itself.
• The primary difference between mainstream blues and R&B is, as the
name suggests, the dominance of rhythm. Popular genres such as
soul and funk have derived from R&B.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

COUNTRY

• Like blues music, country music emerged from folk songs of the Southern USA in the
early 1920s.
• Immigrants in the Appalachian Mountains area, who had brought along instruments
from their own countries, merged their art-forms to form the famous genre of country
music. Hence, it contained elements (and instruments) from various countries such as
Ireland, Italy, Germany, and numerous African countries.
• Many of the early instruments in country music were string instruments, with the
notable exception of the harmonica.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

COUNTRY

• Country music has much in common with blues music; the simple, three-chord
arrangement of songs is an important element found in early recordings of both of
these genres. The simple arrangement in both these genres left much scope for
innovation, and like the blues, country music has been adapted and molded by various
artists in different forms.
• The structuring and instrumentation of country music underwent several changes over
the years. The early bands almost exclusively used string instruments. Around the
1940s, electric guitars and drums began to appear in country bands. Although rejected
at first by purist audiences, they soon became an integral part of country music.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

REGGAE
• Reggae music has its roots in a Jamaican music style called Ska, based on
R&B, Jazz and Caribbean musical traditions. Ska originated in the 1960s,
and later spawned the world-famous genre of Reggae.
• Like all Caribbean music genres, Reggae extensively uses drums, typified
by high-pitched snares. It has also incorporated electric instruments, such
as guitars (especially basses) and synthesizers. Unlike virtually every other
genre, the drum rolls in reggae do not end with the cymbal.
• The orchestra is the important part in reggae performances. Reggae is an
instrumentation-based genre rather than a vocals-based genre, since with
the right instruments; a ‘reggae version’ of any song can be quite easily
made.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

HIPHOP

• Favorite among youngsters all over the world, hip hop is one of the most popular
modern genres of music. Hip hop music emerged as an offshoot of the hip hop
movement in the 1970s.
• Centered in Bronx, the movement soon spread to the rest of the US, and hip hop
music benefited from the expansion, becoming one of the most followed genres of the
1970s-1980s. Since the 1990s, the genre has become synonymous with rapping,
although rapping is only one part of hip hop music.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

ELECTRONIC
• One of the more modern genres in world music, electronic music is
based, as is obvious from the name, on electronic instruments. These
instruments include instruments such as synthesizers, the electric
guitar and the theremin.
• Electronic music is widely known in the form of House or Disco
music. It gained in popularity among youth in the 1970s and 1980s,
and has since remained a popular genre of pop music. Over the
ages, electronic music was inculcated in various other genres such as
metal, hard rock, R&B etc.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

L AT I N O

• Latino music evolved in Latin America, i.e., South and Central America, and the
Caribbean. Some Latino styles, such as samba, rumba, salsa and tango, are popular all
over the world.
• Bossa nova, listed as a subgenre of jazz music, is also a famous Brazilian music form.
Many Latin forms have successfully blended components of American music into their
own, and created highly popular genres, such as Tejano music.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

T R A D I T I O N A L O R I E N TA L
• Traditions in Oriental music can stretch back to hundreds, even
thousands of years. Indian Classical Music — the oldest surviving
musical genre in the world — traces its roots to the Vedic period
thousands of years ago, although it has undergone many
transformations in the interim. Chinese and Japanese music
traditions can also be traced back to the Middle Ages.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

T R A D I T I O N A L O R I E N TA L
• The music of China, Japan and Southeast Asia developed fairly
independently; all three have longstanding traditions of music. The
music in these three traditions focuses on ensemble singing.
• On the other hand, due to the Mughal conquest of North Indian
Hindu empires, the highly malleable and miscible music of North
India developed into an indiscernible mixture of Indian and Persian
musical traditions, and retained the ancient Indian trait of being
solely centered on the solitary artist.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

POP

• Pop music in Asia is heavily influenced by the Western pop scene. Western sounds
began to make their way into Asian communities in the mid-20th century, and soon
became popular all over the continent.
• Students studying in the West often brought home the musical influences of their stay
in the West, and Asian pop music started to develop accordingly. Notably, in China
these modern strains of music and its accompanying showmanship were considered
vulgar and were thus banned!

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B. ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

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THE ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

1. Dynamics 2. Form
• Dynamics refers to the volume of a • The Form or Structure of a piece music
piece of music. Music can be described refers to the order and arrangement of
as loud, or soft, or there could be the different parts. Music vocabulary such
as introduction, verse, chorus, bridge,
gradual changes from loud to soft, or
solo, in and outro are common music
soft to loud, depending on the terms that can be used to describe most
performer’s interpretation of the music. rock or pop music. There are several
There are several Italian music terms more musical definitions for many more
that are used to describe the dynamics different types of musical form and
of a piece of music. structure used in classical music.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

HARMONY

• The simple definition of musical harmony is the sound created when two or more
pitches are performed at the same time to form a chord. In modern music, the
harmony often comes from instruments like the guitar and piano.
• These instruments often play chords that support the main melody, which is typically
performed by a singer. Other pitched instruments like the bass contribute and support
the harmony by providing a basis of support for both the melody and the chordal
accompaniment.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

MELODY
• It is a series of pitches that make a tune. In most popular music today, the
melody is like an egg, it is the binding agent that holds all the elements of
music together in a piece of music. The melody is the part that people
remember and will sing along to when listening.
• The melody determines the harmony and tonality of the piece of music.
The main melody can be heard when it is played by an instrument that has
a unique timbre or tone color/quality. If the melody is meant to be happy
or sad, it can drive the rhythm of the piece of music and set the tempo.
a. Pitch- refers to the highness or lowness of a tone.
b. Tune- organized sequence of single tones so related to one
another to create a sound.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

RHYTHM

• Rhythm in music includes several different aspects, and some prefer to use the term
duration. A simple definition of this musical term is to describe how long or short a
sound is. This means describing the notes of any given instrument in a piece of music
as mainly long or sustained, or short.
a. Tempo. It is the speed or pace of music.
b. Duration – It determines how long or short a sound is.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

TEXTURE
• Texture in music refers to the number of instruments or voices that
contribute to the overall density of the music. If there are only a few
instruments playing, like a duet for example, then the music can be
described as thin or sparse.
• On the other hand, if there are several instruments performing
together, like in an orchestra, the piece can be described as either
thick or dense. Texture also refers to the layers of sound in a piece of
music, these layers are named by their role within a piece of music.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

TIMBRE

• Timbre in music refers to the unique sound quality of an instrument. For example, a
nylon string guitar and a steel string guitar each have a unique sound, and just by
hearing them we can determine the instrument.
• Timbre can also be described using the term tone color. Just like in a painting and the
use of different color creates different images; the “color” of an instrument is like
painting sound for our ears to hear. Every instrument and voice has their own unique
sound, and it is this quality that makes a piece of music unique.

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GENRES AND ELEMENTS OF MUSIC

TONALITY
• Tonality in music refers to the overall sound of the music. Is the music
mainly pleasant sounding (consonant) or unpleasant sounding
(dissonant)? Or is the music in a major, minor key? Often a lot of
world music has a tonality based on an unusual scale like the
medieval modes, or Indian raga.

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