A Collection of Popular Music Genres
The many styles of music genres are as diverse as people are. With thousands of music genres in existence, and new genres taking shape all the time, the best place to find the latest and your favorites is on the ever evolving World Wide Web. The most popular music genres are Country, Rock and Roll, Hip Hop, Rap, Christian, Gospel, Jazz, Blues, and R&B and Soul music. This collection of music genres has the greatest influence on the world of musicians and fans alike.
Country Music
Not just cowboy boots and guitar twangs, country music has revolutionized and is currently the most profitable, popular, best selling music in North America. It's impossible to put country music into a neatly wrapped box and say "This is country music". There are many sub-genres of country music that have been born over the years that have crossed musical borders by combining country with pop, rock and folk music. Just look to Shania Twain, Keith Urban and the Dixie Chicks as trailblazing examples of the shift in the industry. Country music always tells a story, which perhaps is the very reason for its success. People can relate to the heart inside the lyrics. With millions of album sales and country singles topping charts across the board it's obvious that the pace of this music genre will not be slowing down for anyone.
Rock Music
Over 50 years of entertainment, controversy, and infatuation. Rock music's natural ability to produce a following of die hard, devoted fans has been on the rise since the screaming fans of the 60's British invasion to the head banging fans of the Bon Jovi era to the current extreme mix of mellowed out Coldplay fans, hardcore Ozzy fans and energetic Maroon 5 fans. Rock music, like most other music genres, cannot be painted with one brush. Concert halls across the Western Hemisphere have been booked solid with upcoming tour dates for a wide array of bands marketed under the Rock and Roll music identity. Rock music has gone beyond musical influence alone and has had a strong persuasion in fashion, attitude, communication, and lifestyle.
Hip Hop and Rap Music
Originating out of the inner cities of the United States in the 1980's, hip hop and rap music is now the most popular choice of music among people under the age of 25 in the U.S. This raw and often controversial style of music appeals to its listener's appetite for beat and rhyme. Early rap music pioneers like the Sugarhill Gang and Public Enemy, combined with mainstream exposure on MTV, thrust Hip Hop music and rap into the popular limelight. Now rappers such as Will Smith, 50 cent, and P. Diddy are carrying the torch and entertaining the masses.
Christian Music
Melding everything that has made the above genres into powerhouse crowd drawers, the Christian music genre has exploded in recent years. Utilizing the kind of uplifting and inspirational lyrics that its fans are so attracted to, Christian music has found its way into the mainstream. Switchfoot, a band occasionally seated among the top levels of the pop and rock music charts, is an openly Christian rock band, along with names like Flyleaf, Mercy Me, and Relient K. The Christian music banner does not simply apply to the same gospels and hymns that have for decades filled churches across the nation. Today it is home to arena filling rock bands, energetic dance music, and a whole new wave of inspired hip hop and rap music.
Jazz and Blues
Jazz and Blues laid the groundwork for nearly every other musical genre to hit it big since the 1920s. With Jazz emerging from the old ragtime and dance rhythms of the 1890s and Blues fusing guitar mastery with a classic country music sound, both genres have been cornerstones to American music and its influence on the world. Jazz is a genre of numerous styles, sounds, and dozens of different takes, having splintered into dozens of separate genres since its heydays in the 1940s and 50s. Artists today such as Michael Buble and Diana Krall strive to bring back that classically inspired jazz sound to the mainstream while pioneers such as Winton Marsalis simply play amazing jazz music. The blues sound, so important in the crafting of Rock and Roll in the 1950s hasn't changed much since then. With leading masters like B.B King and Bobby Rush winning awards almost 50 years after they started playing, it's no wonder Blues music has become such a defining institution in American musical history.
R&B and Soul
Rhythm and blues, along with soul music wound their way up the ladder of popular music genres as far back as the 1920s and 30s. As inspirations for much of what we know in rock and roll and in the R&B genre itself, R&B and soul needed the likes of powerhouses such as James Brown and Aretha Franklin to hit the mainstream. Because of its roots in African American culture and rhythms, it took some time for R&B and soul to reach the rest of the world, except when covered by a country music star or Elvis Presley. Today, the genre is home to much of the same smooth, soulful crooning that made it popular 50 years ago, with the modern touch of being more provocative. Artists such as Usher, R. Kelly, and Mary J. Blige belt out soulful, soothing, and oft times sexy tracks to the delight of millions. At turns inspirational, explosive, and heart rending, R&B and soul has long been a defining pillar of American music history.
