GENRES & SUBGENRES

Avant-garde music is music that is considered to be at the forefront of experimentation or innovation in its field, with the term “avant-garde” implying a critique of existing aesthetic conventions, rejection of the status quo in favor of unique or original...

Cold wave was a music movement that emerged in France and Belgium in the late 1970s. Characterized by its irreverent, detached tone and minimal use of electronic instruments, the scene came as a result of punk bands who acquired affordable portable synthesizers such as...

Dark Ambient (especially in the 1980s referred to as ambient industrial) is a genre of post-industrial music that features an ominous, dark droning and often gloomy, monumental or catacombal atmosphere, partially with discordant overtones. It shows similarities towards...

Dark cabaret may be a simple description of the theme and mood of a cabaret performance, but more recently has come to define a particular musical genre which draws on the aesthetics of the decadent, risque German Weimar-era cabarets, burlesque and vaudeville...

Dark wave is a music genre that emerged from the new wave and post-punk movement of the late 1970s. Dark wave compositions are largely based on minor key tonality and introspective lyrics, and have been perceived as being dark, romantic, and bleak, with an undertone of...

Deathrock is a rock music subgenre incorporating horror elements and gothic theatrics. It emerged from punk rock on the West Coast of the United States in the early 1980s and overlaps with the gothic rock and horror punk genres. Notable deathrock acts include Christian...

Electro-industrial is a music genre that emerged from industrial music in the mid-1980s. While EBM (electronic body music) has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial has a deep, complex and layered sound. The style was pioneered by Skinny Puppy,...

Electronic body music (EBM) is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of industrial music and synth-punk with elements of disco and dance music. It developed in the early 1980s in Germany and Belgium and came to prominence in Belgium at the end of the...

Ethereal wave, also called ethereal darkwave,  ethereal goth  or simply ethereal, is a subgenre of dark wave music and is variously described as “gothic”, “romantic”, and “otherworldly”. Developed in the early 1980s, in the UK as...

Futurepop is an electronic music genre, an outgrowth of EBM, that evolved in the late 1990s with groups like VNV Nation, Covenant, and Apoptygma Berzerk. It is characterized by the heavy use of sampling and an absence of vocal modification that is popular in many other...

Gothic rock (alternately called goth-rock or goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted towards dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie and the Banshees,  Joy Division, Bauhaus and...

Industrial music is a genre of experimental music which draws on harsh, transgressive or provocative sounds and themes. AllMusic defines industrial music as the “most abrasive and aggressive fusion of rock and electronic music”; “initially a blend of...

Intelligent dance music (commonly abbreviated as IDM) is a form of electronic music originating in the early 1990s. Relative to electronic dance music IDM came to be characterized as better suited to home listening than dancing. Inspired by a variety of sources,...

Japanoise (ジャパノイズ Japanoizu), a portmanteau of “Japanese” and “noise”, is the noise music scene of Japan. Nick Cain of The Wire identifies the “primacy of Japanese Noise artists like Merzbow, Hijokaidanand Incapacitants as one...

Martial industrial is a syncretic offshoot of industrial music characterized by noise, dark ambient atmospheres, neofolk melodies, dark wave tunes and neoclassical orchestrations as well as the incorporation of audio from military marches, historical speeches and...

Minimal wave is a broad classification of music that comprises obscure, atypical examples of genres such as new wave, stripped-down electronic or synthesizer music, synth-pop, post-punk, and coldwave. Most of the music tends to focus on electronic, pre-MIDI...

Neofolk, also known as post-industrial or apocalyptic folk, is a form of experimental music blending elements of folk and industrial music, which emerged in punk rock circles in the 1980s. Neofolk may either be solely acoustic or combine acoustic folk instrumentation...

New wave is a genre of rock music popular in the late 1970s and the 1980s with ties to mid-1970s punk rock. New wave moved away from blues and rock and roll sounds to create rock music (early new wave) or pop music (later) that incorporated disco, mod, and electronic...

Noise music is a category of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music...

Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad type of rock music that emerged from the punk movement of the 1970s, in which artists departed from the simplicity and traditionalism of punk rock to adopt a variety of avant-garde sensibilities. Inspired by...

Southern Gothic  is a subgenre of Gothic fiction in American literature that takes place in the American South. Common themes in Southern Gothic literature include deeply flawed, disturbing or eccentric characters who may be involved in hoodoo, ambivalent gender...

Synth pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called Techno-pop) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s by the use of...

Synthwave (also called outrun, Retrowave and Futuresynth ) is a genre of electronic music influenced by 1980s film soundtracks and video games.] Beginning in the mid 2000s, the genre developed from various niche communities on the Internet, reaching wider popularity in...

Underground music comprises musical genres beyond mainstream culture. Any song that is not being legally commercialized is considered underground. Underground music may tend to express common ideas, such as high regard for sincerity and intimacy, freedom of creative...

Witch house is an occult-themed dark electronic music microgenre and visual aesthetic that emerged in the late 2000s and early 2010s.  The music is heavily influenced by chopped and screwed hip-hop soundscapes, industrial and noise experimentation, and features use of...