Tag Archive for: genre

Google’s Research Group has put together this “Big Picture” interactive exploration of musical genres over time. With this tool you can see the rise and fall of genre popularity over time, break down each genre into smaller sub-genres, and even explore the bands, musicians, and albums that make up that musical era.

It is a really fun way to explore musical genre and allows you to actually see how different styles have lead into and adapted into new sounds. It’s interesting to see how jazz and blues lead to the rise of rock and roll, which then brought about other genres like metal and punk.

In the New Artist Model courses, we really emphasize the importance of finding your unique place in the music industry, and this interactive tools will definitely help give you some perspective where genre is concerned.

Google's big picture of musicOnce you’ve checked out the over-arching landscape of music, you can drill down into a particular genre to see the various sub-genres. It’s interesting to see when they became popular in comparison to the main genre. Drill into Hip-Hop/Rap and you will see its rise and component, east coast, west coast, etc.

Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 11.22.45 PMOn top of that, you can go even deeper within a genre to get down to specific artists and how they relate to others in their genre. Once you get down to this level you really get a sense of how each musician’s creativity affects the progression of the genre, and ultimately the big picture we saw at the beginning. Music isn’t just strictly “rock” or “hip-hop.” It’s an ever-evolving, ever-adapting liquid fueled by every single musician’s creativity. Everything you do as an artist is having an impact on this big picture.

Screen Shot 2014-10-28 at 11.23.06 PMSee what is happening right now in musical trends and developing genres. Where do you think these newer genres will be in a few years?

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The Music Timeline uses aggregated data from Google Play Music to show the changes in music genres over the decades. This visualization shows which albums from past eras are still in our music libraries today. Dig deeper into the chart to highlight key artists in each genre and read their stories, and navigate to Google Play to hear their music.  You can even search for a particular artist to see the trajectory of their career, their releases and their popularity. Happy exploring.

One of the most amazing things about music is that it is always evolving. You can alway push the boundaries of a genre or even mash two together to create something completely new. All the genres we have today are a result of this creative evolution and new genres will continue popping up as we move towards the future.

Especially today, it’s easy to feel like everything has been done. With so many creative people out there, developing a unique style can seem almost impossible. But isn’t that challenge one of the reasons we became musicians in the first place? If there wasn’t always some way to improve or grow, would we be as drawn to making music? Maybe you won’t invent a completely new genre, but by continuing to push yourself creatively you’re adding to the infographic below one song at a time.

Today, remember this infographic. We’ve come from classical and ragtime to grunge, post rock, and EDM. Just like the evolution of music, your creative journey as a musician has no final end where you know and have done everything. And that’s a good thing.

Here’s the static version of the infographic. Be sure to check out the interactive version here.

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