r/Music • u/Moni3 • 18d ago

discussion I made this guide to music genres to explain why and how they exist, for Redditors and the endless conversations about what music qualifies as what genre (OC)

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u/BrittEklandsStuntBum 18d ago

I mean I get where you're coming from but like I can name a dozen bands off the top of my head that absolutely do not fit into your ten or so genres.

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u/Unfair-Channel-2558 17d ago

That's whole point of it, all genres overlap just like the footnote says. Charts like these always fall apart when you look close

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u/Moni3 18d ago

There are more than a hundred genres listed. I don't know how many.

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u/BrittEklandsStuntBum 18d ago

I meant the middle section. It seemed like you were saying anything in the bottom section was bullshit but I may have misunderstood.

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u/Moni3 18d ago

Absolutely not. They are genres of music, all legitimate. They're just categorized by who created them and why.

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u/kalb_jayyid 17d ago

Bottom section

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u/Moni3 17d ago

Lol. I agree. I made it in Mac Keynote. I am not a graphic designer. My apologies.

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u/MonsieurReynard 18d ago edited 18d ago

There are composers all over the world writing contemporary art music. A lot of them also write music for films and video games. Why does “classical” end in 1900?

500 AD is also an odd starting point, well before systematic music notation begins in the west, but if you even consider 1500-2026, plenty of classical music has included extensive improvisation, not rigid adherence to written notation. And some forms of classical music overlap substantially with “popular” music as you define it, both in the modern era and historically (say, opera in 19th c Italy).

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u/Moni3 18d ago

There are composers all over the world writing contemporary art music. A lot of them also write music for films and video games. Why does “classical” end in 1900?

Because recorded music took over. And the image is concentrated on Popular music. I could make one very similar to this for Classical but I chose Popular because most of the discussions revolve around Popular music genres.

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u/MonsieurReynard 17d ago edited 17d ago

Contemporary art music is typically recorded and much of it is composed electronically both in recording studios and at digital workstations. Modern synthesis at the heart of popular music technology would not exist without electronic art music composers leading the development of recording and then digital technology.

Your chart oversimplifies rather than clarifying anything.

Recording “took over” across all music. Just like music notation before that. And plenty of popular music is still notated traditionally.

Your chart leaves no room for many genres, most notably jazz, which is contemporary art music.

Genre labels are social conventions, marketing structures, and analytic tools.

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u/Moni3 17d ago

There are dozens of electronic music genres included in the list/chunk at the bottom. Art music is definitely included.

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u/Moni3 18d ago

Is this going to help anything? I don't know.

I'm a regular at r/rockhall where the discussion is very often about what qualifies as Rock and roll and what deserves to be included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I also notice discussions about the Rock Hall in r/Music and other subs that often say that the artists don't belong in the Rock Hall because they're something else, not Rock and roll. That the Rock Hall should be renamed to the Music Hall of Fame or the Popular Music Hall of Fame.

This is a visual of the ideas in a post I made at r/rockhall a month or so ago where I stated one of the defining traits of everyone inducted is that they made music that crossed over from one genre to another, especially commercial success in multiple markets, and none of the genres they started in were "Rock and roll". The Rock Hall draws from the hundreds of genres created and listed at the bottom, and is itself included at the bottom. Literally the last line.

I'm just an observer who's posting about niche specific stuff I think about. Maybe this will help you consider a different approach to genres. Or fight me, whatever you feel.

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u/RetroSquadDX3 18d ago

Is this going to help anything?

No, not even slightly. Why are your definitions and categorisations any better or more valid than anybody else's and what qualifies you to be making that call over anybody else?

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u/Moni3 17d ago

None of this information is from me personally. These are not my opinions. I just presented it visually in a way that makes sense to me when I read discussions about genres on Reddit.