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Genre
This page attempts to describe the concept of genre as it applies to artistic creations: literary, musical, cinematic and so forth.
"Genre" is originally a French word meaning "kind", "sort" or "type"; in grammatical terminology, it refers to the artificial concept of masculine or feminine grammatical gender (the noun "genre" itself belongs to the masculine gender in French, for example).
In the arts, it refers to the traditional divisions of art forms from a single field of activity (e.g. literature, film, music, painting, sculpture, performance) into various kinds according to criteria particular to that form.
In the field of painting, there exists a hierarchy of genres associated with the Académie française which held a central role in Academic art. These genres in hierarchical order are:
These categories played an important role between the 17th century and the modern era, when painters and critics began to rebel against the many rules of the Académie française, including the preference for history painting.
In the field of literary endeavour, we often refer to the "poetic genres" and the "prose genress"; poetry might thus be subdivided into epic, lyric and dramatic, while prose might be divided into fiction and non-fiction. Obviously these can be further subdivided ad libitum: thus, dramatic poetry can be divided into comedy, tragedy, melodrama and so forth. This division can continue more or less as far as one likes: "comedy" has its own genres (farce, comedy of manners, burlesque, satire, etc.).
The divisions called "genres" may be made on the basis of formal, thematic or other criteria. The distinction between fiction and non-fiction thus depends on the use of invention; that between prose and poetry on the use of verse; that between comedy and tragedy on the selection and treatment of a protagonist and situation that are noble or vulgar, and of a point of view that is sympathetic or not to the protagonist's plight. For this reason, "genre" is such a flexible and mutable term that it has been applied to almost every possible subdivision of artistic endeavour.
Quite clearly, sub-genre might well be more appropriate than "genre" in many, perhaps most cases.
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All Music Guide: Music Styles
Brief articles by professional music journalists describing popular music styles as divided into subgenres organized under rock and roll, blues, country, jazz, and roots.
http://allmusic.com/mus_Styles.html
Wikipedia: Musical Genre
Brief explanation of the way styles can be defined by region, chronology, technical requirements, marketing trends, or the ideas of critics. Extensively linked to sub-genres and examples of significant artists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_genre
American Music Center: Musical Genres
Links to articles and representative artists of styles such as pop, rock, blues, folk, classical, theater, jazz, and world music.
http://www.amc.net/links/genres.html
Duke University Library: Women in Music By Musical Genre
Text lists and links to library resources such as books, periodicals and recordings on women performers and composers by musical genre.
http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/women/mugenre.html
InfoUSA: Musical Genres
Links organized by genre such as blues and jazz, classical and opera, folk and country, and early American music.
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/arts/genres.htm
Audiogalaxy: Glossary of Musical Styles
Hundreds of sub-genres defined in non-technical language mentioning sample artists. Organized under headings such as pop, hip-hop, jazz, blues, classical, Latin, modern rock, rock, and heavy metal.
http://www.audiogalaxy.com/list/glossary.php
Ectophiles Guide by Genre
Self-described "Guide to Good Music" from a group founded in 1991 to support the music of singer Happy Rhodes. Links to artists, almost entirely female vocalists, sorted by genre such as pop, blues, experimental, performance art, beautiful and fierce, and traditional.
http://ectoguide.org/genre
Music Classification by Genre: System Performance
Research project completed in 2003 by Mitali Banerjee at Rice University used automatic process to determine musical genre of audio samples.
http://cnx.rice.edu/content/m11690/latest/
DataDragon: Music Genre Sampler
Children's site with simple definitions of a few genres including rock, Celtic, and classical with artist and site links.
http://datadragon.com/education/genres/
Christian Music Place: Artists by Genre
About two dozen musical genres including blues, a capella, dance/techno, and Southern gospel, with as many as several hundred links to Christian music artists in each.
http://www.christianmusic.org/cmp/artists/index.cgi?command=Display_Genre
Music Web Hunter: Styles & Genres
Ken Davies has grouped resources in five categories: classical, folk/ethnic/world, jazz, musicals/operas/theater, and pop/rock/country.
http://www.kendavies.net/musicwebhunter/stylegenre.html
Indiana University School of Music: Genres
Categorized links organized by researchers at the William and Gayle Cook Music Library. Unusual categories include 20th-Century music, ancient music, band music, tango, flamenco, ragtime, and choral music.
http://www.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/genres.html
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