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Musical Elements and Music Sub-genres
Since music is combinatorial, all it takes is a handful of musical elements and a set of rules governing each that a significant number of musicians agree to play by. The result: a music genre or sub-genre that sounds strikingly different.
Imagine, for example, what country music would have sounded like if, in place of the steel guitar as a key element of the country sound, bagpipes had had that role from the beginning. That single instrumental difference would have made country music sound a whole lot different from what we’re accustomed to hearing today.
A major genre of popular music typically spins off numerous sub-genres. For example:
- In jazz, a couple of spin-offs were bop and fusion (among many others)
- In country, honky tonk and bluegrass (again, among many others)
- In rock, metal and punk
- In R & B/Soul, Motown and funk
- In hip-hop, gangsta and crunk
There are hundreds and hundreds of sub-genres and sub-sub-genres.
At last count, there were 647,512 genres and sub-genres in popular music.
No, wait! Some guy with his laptop in his bedroom in Milton Keynes, England, has just created another one. That makes 647,513.
No, wait!
A trio of 14-year-old girls in Amarillo, Texas, has just created a sub-genre of a sub-sub-genre. Now we’re up to 647,514.
No, wait! ...