World Music Genres and Song Styles

Here you will find information about most World Music genres and song styles. If you see any styles missing or would like to comment on the current ones, please e-mail us to info@worldmusiccentral.org

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A

A cappella - vocal music without instrumental accompaniment. It is sometimes spelled a capella (Latin).

Acid - An electronic music style. It evolved from house music and it is characterized by its repetitve and crackly sounds.

Afrobeat - Term used to describe the fusion of West African and black American music.

Afroxê - A rhythm from Bahia (Brazil) used in the street parades by the bloco afros and in ceremonies for the orixas. The instrumentation is like a reduced samba batucada, and the rhythm is somewhat similar to samba.

Afro Latin

Aguinaldo - Christmas songs from Spain and Spanish America. In Puerto Rico, traveling amateur musicians would perform aguinaldos from house to house.

Alabanzas - religious praise songs in Spain and Spanish America.

Alalás- traditional Galician song.

Alboraes - Asturian dawn tunes (Spain).

Alboreá - 1. Spanish Gypsy wedding song. 2. Flamenco style.

Amarg - 1. Poetry sung by women from the Atlas region of Morocco. 2. Poetry sung by Chleuhs wandering minstrels.

Amazigh - music performed by natives of Northwestern Africa, also known as Berbers.

    Amazigh Web sites: 

•         Azawan.

Ambient - An electronic music style. It is characterized by evocative synthesized sounds. It rarely includes rhythms. Ambient music is also known as gliding and floating music.

American Indian - See Native American.

Anthem - A choral or vocal composition, often with a religious or political lyric, with or without accompaniment, written either for performance in a church, or another place with significance to the song itself.

Añada - Spanish lullaby.

Arabesk - popular Turkish music of Arabic origin, rather than Turkish origin.

Arrolo - Spanish lullaby.

Arrorro - Spanish lullaby.

Ator-ator - the name given to Christmas songs in the Spanish Basque Country.

Avaz - Iranian modal system. It’s made up of twelve modes, divided into seven principal and five secondary ones.

Axe - A percussive Brazilian pop music style from Bahia in northern Brazil that is African rooted. It is derived from the Yoruba word meaning "life force."

Last Updated 07/10/2005 12:37PM; 120,330 Hits