You will see listed below the genre of each musical selection on the Music Library Page as well as a brief description of the category.
Blues—Music of African American folk (rural) origin originating out of the Deep South.
Classical—Conventional music following long-established principles rather than a folk, jazz, or popular tradition.
Country—A form of popular music originating in the rural South that features a mixture of ballads and dance tunes played on fiddle, guitar, drums, and keyboard.
Disco—A style of club or party music influenced by pop and R&B but meant mainly for dancing.
Folk—Music that originates in traditional popular culture. It is typically of unknown origin and transmitted orally from generation to generation.
Gospel—Christian music performed for both religious and aesthetic pleasure. It has dominant voices with Christian lyrics and strong use of harmony.
Hip Hop/Rap–Stylized rhythmic music created by DJs isolating the percussion breaks of popular songs. It was developed by inner-city African Americans and Latinos in the 1970s.
Jazz—Music of 20th Century black American origin characterized by improvisation, syncopation, and regular forceful rhythm.
Pop/Popular—This category is a combination of two broad categories. Popular music is music which had wide appeal across multiple audiences. Pop emerged in the 1950s in the U.S. and United Kingdom as rock and roll influenced by R&B, Latin, and Country.
R&B (Rhythm and Blues)—Popular music of African American origin that rose from a mixture of blues and jazz. It is the precursor to rock and roll.
Ragtime—Specific type of syncopation in which melodic accents occur between metrical beats. A forerunner of jazz, the music was created by urban African Americans in midwestern cities and was popular between 1899 and 1919.
Reggae—Music that originated in Jamaica in the 1960 that incorporates elements of calypso, blues, jazz, and mento (Jamaican rural folk music).
Rock & Roll\Rock—A broad range of music usually played on electronically amplified instruments. Its origins are in R&B, blues, folk, jazz, and country music.
Sacred—Religious, though not exclusively Christian, music that reflects deeply held religious beliefs and is performed almost exclusively in religious settings.
Spoken Word—An oral presentation of poetry or prose usually set against a musical background.
World—Traditional music from outside the U.S. and Europe but incorporating elements of western popular music.