If one says music was the greatest thing to have ever been invented, it won’t be going overboard. No other medium has the power to invoke the kind of emotions that music does. Everyone’s choice of music varies, which is why there are so many genres that thrive in this world. But today we’ve decided to give some of the lesser known genres some limelight. So join us as we take you through 5 music genres that you’ve probably never even heard of.
Glitch
Electronic music is all about sounds produced electronically, but harnessing the malfunctions of these sounds to create music is what the glitch genre is all about. So sounds like those of CD skipping, digital or analog distortion, bit-rate reduction, hardware noise, software bugs, crashes, vinyl record hiss and more form a major part of the composition of such music. Ryoji Ikeda, Alva Noto, Kim Cascone and Farmers Manual are some of the artists to follow.
Acid Jazz
Also known as club jazz, this is the genre made popular by the likes the Brand New Heavies, Incognito, Us3 and others. It has its origins set in the London club scene of the mid-1980s. Technically, it’s an amalgam of elements from jazz, soul, funk and disco. The result is the most unique sounding electronic music that you’ll ever listen to.
Lowercase
Lowercase is what happens when someone is not quite satisfied with regular ambient music. On a serious note, Lowercase features very quiet, usually unheard, sounds that are amplified to extreme levels. The most popular album from this genre is Forms of Paper by Roden in which he made recordings of himself handling paper in various ways.
Zouk
While the Caribbean islands are known for their export of reggae music, Zouk is also a genre they have given us. It has a fast jump-up carnival beat, and was popularised by French Antillean band Kassav’ in the 1980s. Alana Cave, Francky Vincent and Jaynee are some of the artists you should be looking for if you want to experience Zouk.
Neurofunk
Neurofunk is actually a progression of techstep. It emerged in London between 1997 and 1998, and over the years, grabbed influences from techno, house and jazz. To put it simply, Neurofunk is a subgenre of drum and bass. The main artists to look for if you want to explore this genre include Noisia, Commix and Culture Shock.
You can find playlists of all these genres on Spotify, so better sign up for the service if you haven’t done that yet.
