What comes to your mind when you think of rap? A bunch of lyrics in a short amount of time with a whole lot of base in the background? And what about country? Is there always a dude with a cowboy hat and a guitar singing about trucks and booze? There is a lot of controversy regarding the definition of different genres. Some songs are even a blend of genres.
The first genre I will talk about is rap. In short, the definition of rap music is rhyming lyrics which are chanted to a musical accompaniment. This explains why the very different music of rapper Eminem and formerly deceased rapper Juice WRLD are, in theory, in the same genre. So basically the only thing that truly makes a song a rap song is the use of rhyming lyrics with a melody. This is contrary to the widely accepted belief that rap music must have large amounts of bass and drug or love references.
The image below shows rappers Juice WRLD and The Kid LAROI doing a collaboration on the hit song GO.
Traditionally, country music was the mixture of ballads and dance tunes played on a fiddle, guitar, steel guitar, drums, and keyboard. Country music has obviously evolved a bit from where it was, but the instruments have continued to stay true throughout the years. Today, country music is another genre that can take many different forms.
Popular music or better known as pop music is not as concrete as the others. The only definition I could find was that pop music must contain a good rhythm and a catchy melody. Once again, the requirements for this genre are very vague, leading to many different songs and types of songs being labeled as pop songs. Some artists, many of whose songs fall into this category are: Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift, and even some of The Kid LAROI's songs fall into the pop music genre.
Finally I will cover a few genres that are often grouped together or even just considered the same. The one concept that links R&B, soul, and many other types of music together is the idea of singing through the lyrics of the song.This is partly why types of music are often confused. They are extremely similar, and are really only differentiated by small details like the instruments used and the tempo. Another group of songs is defined simply by the idea of rapping through lyrics instead of singing through them. Genres like these include Rap obviously and hip hop.
So hopefully now you all understand my confusion about different genres about music and understand the extremely simple details that differentiate them.