What are the top genres in the music industry? How did they evolve through time, and how does their popularity change geographically? We’ll try to answer these huge questions in this article. Music is a vast realm. There are countless genres, sub-genres, and styles, from World Music to Rap.
Pop
The most popular genre in the music market. It has evolved so much through time.
- In recent times, it has taken much of its sounds and musical language from hip-hop, with its sub-genres of trap and rap being extremely popular.
Classical music
While orchestras may not sound so mainstream, people all over the world listen to symphonies, operas, and concertos.
- Many young composers tirelessly work to contribute to the creation of the classical musical forms we all enjoy and admire.
Country
This genre keeps evolving through time, adding elements of more popular styles to its repertoire but strongly keeping its identity
Metal
Metal is a Rock sub-genre that gained so much popularity it basically detached from it.
Latin music
This genre became so popular that many elements of it, especially from a rhythmical point of view, are now a recurrent part of many mainstream productions we could consider Pop.
Hip-hop and Rap
These two genres, originating in the Eighties but with ancient roots in the Blues and the Gospel, are a sort of standard for the mainstream.
- Through sharp rhymes and rough sounds, the first rappers narrated the harshness of life in the ghetto, while their descendants are experiencing great success.
Indie and Alternative Rock
Alternative Rock is still a reality, especially in the underground scene.
- While it has never been a chart-filling genre, Alternative Rock and Indie bands rose to fame throughout the Nineties, becoming another great option for anyone who didn’t relate to the glamour of mainstream music.
K-Pop
It is a pop sub-genre, sung in the Korean language, and portrayed as fun, glamorous vivid, teen-oriented, and very colorful.
- Once only known as K-pop, it is now extremely popular in the United States and in some European countries.
Rock
Rock evolved directly from the Blues, and it became popular in the Fifties in the United States and then in Great Britain.
- Over time, Rock became popular all over the world, especially in the States and in Europe, a bit like the two genres analyzed in the previous paragraphs.
Dance and Electronic music
The rise of computers and digital technology allowed producers to explore new ways to make music.
