Music comes in many different shapes and forms. Everyone loves listening to RNB, Rock, Metal, Jazz, Pop, Rap; but where did these genres/sub-genres come from and how did they come to be? We’re all familiar with the term genre; it’s a type of category for certain interests. Everything has a genre, even music. These Genres also have sub-genres which are part of a larger category, an example is Grunge which is a subgenre part of Rock.
Starting off with Jazz or Blues, in the 1920’s Jazz was a very famous genre, having over 30+ sub genres, noir jazz, free jazz, progressive jazz, and more. It continued to be a famous and a well known genre for the next 20 years until the 1940’s, this era was known as ‘The Roaring Twenties.’ Very well known Jazz and Blues artists in this era were, Frank Sinatra, Chet Baker, Louis Armstrong, and Duke Ellington. Jazz came to be when African-American musical traditions were mixed with other genres, the four main influencers being ragtime, military brass bands, the blues, and gospel music. Jazz was very rhythmic and has a momentum called swing and uses blues notes so you can see how blues was a big influence to Jazz. Jazz will continue to be popular as many generations and future generations will continue to listen to and enjoy this music. During the late 1950’s Jazz continued to be well known but died a bit as another famous genre took its place, Rock N Roll.
Rock N Roll originated from Jazz, and it’s true that most Rock N Roll artists did take lots of inspiration from Jazz like Elvis Presely, “Elvis was a big deal,” senior Sarah Tadesse said. “Mainly because he was doing everything that former black artists were already doing. He was fun and white and that was something that caught everyone’s attention.”
Rock N Roll is still its own genre which is mixed with many different kinds of genres that were really popular in the 40’s. Rock N Roll was a very big thing in the 50’s as it had been exposed to places around the world that took inspiration from it, especially Britain since a very famous band known as The Beatles started getting recognition and are known for having to experiment with all kinds of genres one of them being Rock N Roll. This genre was so popular it continued to be one of the biggest genres until the 90’s. It was such an influential genre, influencing fashion, social, and cultural change.
All that changed in the 1960’s. Although Rock N Roll is still a pretty famous and a well known genre during this time period, it was taken over by the people in Britain.
This era was known as the ‘British Invasion’ as many popular bands from Britain were being formed and taking a toll on Rock N Roll. The Beatles were one of these bands along with other bands like The Rolling Stones, The Hollies and American artists like Jimi Hendrix. Another genre was formed during this time, Soul. This genre originated from the African-american gospel music. A very famous soul singer during this era was Aretha Franklin, who is also known as ‘The Queen of Soul.’ “Arethra had such a beautiful voice,” Tadesse said. “She was such a big influence for soul and gospel music.”
Soul would also use rhythm and blues which was later referred to as R&B. R&B and Soul was a big influence to many bands and singers.
Rock took over the 1970’s and really rock had always been a thing since the 50’s when Rock N Roll came around, but rock wasn’t a big genre until the 1970’s forming bands like Queen, Aerosmith, and many more. Rock was also an upcoming genre in the late 60’s with famous bands like Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, and Led Zeppelin. Rock was single handedly the most influential genre, influencing fashion, rebellious attitudes and such. Rock is still alive to this day with multiple sub genres coming from it like; Alternative Rock, Shoegaze, Grunge, Indie Rock, Math Rock and so much more. Rock is said to be one of the greatest and most listened to genres of all time, influencing things like sub cultural change and really gave a connection to everyone from race, religion and cultures, rock was just a genre that could bring everyone together. Rock is also one of the most experimented genres there is, hence why it has multiple sub genres. In case rock got repetitive people would find ways to make music and just try to find ways to experiment with their guitars.
Even though rock continues to be popular doesn’t mean other genres can be formed. In the 1980’s, Pop came to be. Two very famous artists during this time were Micheal Jackson and Madonna, who both later dawned the ‘King and Queen of Pop’ title. “Micheal Jasckson influenced a lot of artists,” Senior Daniel Redon said. “There’s lots of artists now that just try to follow in his footsteps.” Many popular pop artists like Justin Timberlake and Beyonce really took this inspiration from Micheal Jackson, which is why pop is still one of many genres that are still popular to this day. Artists like Tame Impala, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, Rihana, Bruno Mars and Micheal Jackson are listened to a lot and really pop is a genre anyone can listen to and love. “Micheal Jackson is a very well known pop artist,” Tadesse said. “His voice and what he talks about is just something that brings everyone together.”
Pop also is a genre with multiple sub genres, a very popular one being K-Pop, with a huge fan base and many popular bands like, BTS, Blackpink, Twice, New Jeans and so much more.
Speaking of HipHop and Rap, these genres had subgenres that really took control of the 90’s being Alternative Rap, Gangster Rap, and Conscious Rap. This era consisted of famous rappers and artists groups like 2pac, N.W.A, Snoop Dogg, Notorious B.I.G. and many more artists. Rap and HipHop began to be characterized as violent, explicit, and aggressive, as it talked alot about inner city violence although many would say that it wasn’t their intention to promote violence. “They did talk about gang violence a lot and their gang life,” Tadesse said. “But they were just talking about their lives and how they grew up, people misinterpreted that.”
A very well known Rapper and Producer, Dr.Dre, took advantage of this to make Rap bigger and better in the west coast. He later formed Death Row Records along with Suge Knight The D.O.C and it became a sensation by releasing multiple platinum hip hop albums by artists like Snoop Dogg, 2Pac, Dr.Dre himself and many other artists who were signed under the label.
This era was definitely one of the most diverse eras for music, although Hip Hop and Pop dominated this era as they did in the 90’s with very popular artists like Eminem, Britney Spears, Jay-Z, Kanye West, 50 Cent, Shakira and so many inspirational artists. Remember how we talked about multiple genres being revived? Well this era consisted of that, like post-punk revival, Nu-Metal, Emo and such. Most of these genres being revived were under the category of alternative rock. Lots of bands like Limp Bizkit, Slipknot, The Killers, My Chemical Romance, Deftones, Arctic Monkeys, Linkin Park, Paramore, and so many other bands were formed reviving these old genres. The 2000’s influenced lots of subcultures, including clothing style which influenced people going for a y2k or emo aesthetic,
From the 2010’s to the 2020’s were pretty much the same genres going back and forth, those being Pop,R&B, Hip Hop, Rap, and Rock. Which does make sense since these genres were, and still are very popular to many generations. We had bands and artists like Lana Del Rey, Frank Ocean, Kali Uchis, SZA, The Weeknd, who were some of the few mainstream artists that were really popular in the 2010’s. This era was also a time when Pop, Rap, and R&B were dominating the music industry. Rap has surpassed lots of genres in the 2010’s, ASAP Rocky, Tyler the Creator, Playboi Carti, Travis Scott, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, and Drake who declared as artist of the decade in the 2010’s.
2020’s we finally land on a decade that’s a little more familiar, although during this era was the time Covid hit and delayed lots of music events, it didn’t stop multiple artists and bands from dominating 2020, thanks to the rise of social media platforms like tiktok. There were highlights in the 2020-2022 that changed the music industry like the passing of some singers, or controversy behind most singers and bands and was definitely a time that music struggled in.
Pop was big this time with singers like Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and Billie Eilish, getting so much recognition and later on pop combined with other cultures like Latin-Pop and Kpop which are currently one of the biggest genres ever right now. You can thank artists and groups like Peso Pluma, BTS, TXT, BlackPink, New Jeans, Anitta, Karol G and more upcoming artists.
Many popular trends use hit songs from certain artists causing them to be popular, such as Alex G, Tame Impala, Arctic Monkeys, TV Girl, Joji, Steve Lacy, and Faye Webster. You can definitely see how this decade will influence Gen Z. We can only wait and see what else the music industry has to offer us.
