| Once long ago in a country far, far away there existed just a handful of music genres;: classical, country & western, rock 'n' roll, and 'pretty much everything else'. And no one knew any better and since ignorance is bliss everyone was relatively happy.
We can't pinpoint exactly when things started to go wrong -- maybe it was the fact that rock 'n' roll had roots in black music -- so to distance white rock from African American music it was decided that some people listened to rhythm and blues, some to soul and others to rock. And about the same time others were complaining that they weren't c&w because they didn't sing about mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or getting drunk. Thus was folk music born.
Now 'pretty much everything else' -- besides being a mouthful -- wasn't conducive to ad campaigns by record labels, so someone arbitrarily started calling this easy listening. George Orwell would have been proud of that one. And just to be safe, they threw jazz and swing out there too. Oh, but the floodgates were just beginning to open.
All those people lumped under a rock started throwing stones at each other. Beach music, surfer music, bubblegum rock, psychedelic rock, acid rock -- if you didn't have a specific name for your music you just weren't trying.
Then they started combining names; folk rock, country rock, acid jazz. Words like fusion started to be seen and plain old anarchy was just around the corner.
If this were a fable or parable perhaps some hero would arrive to restore order to a world gone awry, but it isn't. Things got worse. Sane people tried to ignore the whole mess. This is what they're trying to ignore:
Note: The following come from www.mp3.com; there are many more sub-genres below these.
Alternative
Adult Alternative
Alternative Country
Alternative General
Brit Pop
Experimental/Post Rock
Goth
Grunge
Indie
Industrial
Leftfield
New Wave
Power Pop
Punk Sub-genre example:
Emo
Folk Punk
Garage
Hardcore Punk
Pop Punk
Skate Punk
Surf Punk
Ska
Blues
Acoustic Blues
Blues Rock
Blues Vocals
Electric Blues
General Blues
Jump Blues
Spiritual Blues
Children's Music
General Children's Music
Spiritual Children's
Classical
Baroque
Chamber Music
Classical General
Contemporary
Crossover
Electronic Classical
Experimental Classical
Film Music
Guitar
Medieval
Minimalist
Opera
Percussion
Piano
Renaissance
Romantic
Solo Instruments
Strings
Symphonic
Vocals
Woodwinds
Country
Adult Country
Bluegrass
Country Blues
Country General
New Country
Spiritual Country
Traditional Country
Western Swing
Easy Listening
Crooners/Vocals
Lounge
Love Songs
Mood Music
Musicals/Broadway
New Age
Soft Rock
Spiritual Easy Listening
Electronic
Ambient
Breakbeat/Breaks
Dance
Down Tempo
Drum N' Bass
Electronica
Experimental
Game Soundtracks
House
Industrial Electronic
Techno
Trance
Hip Hop/Rap
Alternative Hip Hop
Bass
Beats
Dirty South
East Coast
Freestyles
Hip Hop
Horrorcore
New School
Old School
Rap
Spiritual Rap
West Coast
Hardcore Rap
Jazz
Acid Jazz
Bebop
Bossa Nova
General Jazz
Jazz Fusion
Jazz Vocals
Latin Jazz
Smooth Jazz
Swing/Big Band
Traditional Jazz
Latin
Cuban
General Latin
Mambo
Mariachi
Merengue
Pop/Balada
Ranchero
Regional Mexicado
Rock En Espanol
Salsa
South/Central American
Tejano
Tex/Mex
Tropical
Metal
Alternative Metal
Black Metal
Dark Ambient/Noise
Death Metal
Doom/Stoner Metal
Gothic Metal
Grindcore
Heavy Metal
Industrial Metal
Instrumental Metal
Metalcore
Power Metal
Progressive Metal
Rapcore
Spiritual Metal
Thrash/Speed Metal
Pop & Rock
Classic Rock
Oldies
Pop
Rock
Seasonal/Holiday
Adult Pop & Rock
Urban/R&B
Contemporary Urban
Funk
Gospel
Rhythm & Blues
Soul
World/Folk
Folk
Reggae
World Fusion
World Traditions
Adult World Music
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