Entertainment UnderstandingMusic Genres

Faye Ton / 7th Grade

Music can sound like anything. However, every song you listen to is classified under a music genre. Music genres are used to classify a song and how the sounds fit into that category. However, some genres don’t necessarily “classify” a song’s sound. For example, pop music is an example of this. What makes a song a “pop” song is solely based on the popularity of the song. If the song is charting well, getting many streams, and is trending on social media, that song is considered a “pop” song. An example of this is Ariana Grande’s song ‘thank u, next’, the song is considered to be an R&B song and has elements of trap music. However, some genres that have the suffix ‘-pop’ at the end are not necessarily popular songs. These are called “pop subgenres/microgenres”. An example of a pop microgenre is hyperpop, most hyperpop songs aren’t necessarily “popular” by textbook definition. Hyperpop has elements of snare drums, earworm beats, and maximal sounds. The easier way to describe the hyperpop soundscape is “pots and pans” music. Examples of popular hyper pop artists include Charlie XCX, SOPHIE, and CMTEN. Another genre that is also described as “pots and pans” music is experimental music (it can also be considered “noise music”).

Experimental music is music that uses different sounds and instruments and puts them together all in one song, pushing the existing boundaries of genre definition. Artists that have experimented with this genre are Radiohead, Björk, and NCT 127. Speaking of NCT 127, even though they are known for their noisy, experimental, and distinct sound, most of their songs are based on the R&B genre. I may be [a little] biased toward this genre but I do believe it’s one of the more unique and flexible genres out there. R&B stands for ‘Rhythm and Blues', it originated in the 1940s in African-American communities, deriving from jazz, folk, gospel, and traditional blues. Some R&B artists include Tinashe, Kehlani, and SZA. R&B is considered one of the more flexible genres to me because of how many subgenres it has, besides being a subgenre, you can still tell it’s R&B. One of these subgenres include 2000s pop-R&B, it was one of the more popular genres in the 2000s.