Genre is a crucial piece of metadata. It’s not the only way to label musical entities, but it’s a useful and broadly applicable classification system.
Genre information comes to us as metadata attached to recordings, products and artists. It’s a required field for ISRC, ICPN and artist submission. Ideally, every artist, song and release in CONNECT can be assigned a Main Genre.
Many musical entities are tagged with two or more genres. But every item has one designated Main Genre, regardless of how many genres apply. The main genre dictates overall genre classification for an entity (i.e. for charting or industry analysis purposes).
Alternate genres can add depth and nuance to a Dashboard or enable more precise filtering and analysis. We sometimes receive alternate genre information as metadata for a song, artist or album.
The top Details pane of any Dashboard displays the Main Genre for an item. Click MORE DETAILS > to see a list of all genres. Sometimes, there’s only one (when that’s the case, the genre listed = Main Genre).
We recognize three genre levels: Core Genre, Genre and Subgenre.
Legacy Music Connect users might be familiar with the "Core Genre" label. But core genre and main genre are different concepts. A core genre is a higher-level or umbrella genre category that can contain multiple genres and subgenres. But the main genre for an artist, album or song is always the genre that best applies to that entity.
Main genre can be a core genre, like Country, but it can also be a subgenre within a Core genre, like Bluegrass or Folk.
We use two different genre lists: Billboard and Luminate. While many entities have the same genre tag in both databases, we sometimes classify music differently than Billboard does.
Billboard’s genre system is an industry standard that helps determine chart eligibility. These genres are assigned by Billboard according to their genre groupings and rules. Ultimately, Billboard has final say in genre assignments that affect charts.
Billboard genres can provide more generalized, less-segmented classification. They’re recognized and understood throughout the broader music industry. And they’re used to create widely-referenced genre charts.
Our genre list includes categories not found on the Billboard charts. We also place some genres under different Core genres and segment global subgenres with more specificity. (For example: to us, K-Pop and J-Pop fall under Pop, not World Music). We also update our genre definitions more frequently and have the flexibility to add new subgenres and subgenre breakouts as needed. See below for Luminate genre definitions.
Luminate genres provide more groupings and options. They’re useful for regional analysis, A&R and uncovering subgenre or subculture trends.
CONNECT Dashboard genre tagging is based on Luminate genres.
Both the Billboard and Luminate genre lists are organized by Core Genre (left column). A Core Genre may comprise several Genres, listed to the right.
The Luminate list includes a third level, Subgenre, that segments certain genres into regional or cultural subcategories (ex. Pop ↳ Arabic Pop ↳ Egyptian Pop).
NEARS stands for Nature, Noise, Effects, Ambient, Relaxation, and Sounds (think white noise, shushing, whale sounds, rain effects, etc). NEARS can be consumed through music distribution channels, but NEARS titles do not share the rich characteristics of composed music.
Composed music is publicly performable, able to be interpreted and translated, created at the ISRC level within a specific country and authored by a composer responsible for a tangible form of expression. NEARS is none of these.
The upshot: tracks, albums, and artists in the NEARS genre are not chart eligible. NEARS activity is also excluded from Market Share.
Core Genre | Genre | Subgenre |
Alternative | - | |
| Blues | - | |
| Children | - | |
| Classical | ||
| Classical > Baroque Era | ||
| Classical > Classical Crossover | ||
| Classical > Contemporary Era | ||
Classical > Modern Era | ||
Classical > Opera | ||
Classical > Romantic Era | ||
| Country & Folk | ||
| Country & Folk > Bluegrass | ||
| Country & Folk > Country | ||
| Country & Folk > Folk | ||
| EDM | ||
| EDM > Arabic EDM | ||
| EDM > Dance & House | ||
| EDM > Electronica | ||
| Easy Listening | - | |
| Holiday/Seasonal | - | |
| Jazz | - | |
| Latin | - | |
| Latin > Latin Pop | ||
| Latin > Reggaeton | ||
| NEARS | - | |
| New Age | - | |
| Others | - | |
| Pop | ||
| Pop > Afrobeats | ||
| Pop > Arabic Pop | Egyptian Pop Levantine Pop Maghreb Pop Mahraganat Traditional Arabic Pop | |
| Pop > Bollywood | ||
| Pop > Euro Pop | ||
| Pop > J-Pop | ||
| Pop > K-Pop | ||
Punk | - | |
R&B/Hip-Hop | ||
R&B/Hip-Hop > Arabic Hip-Hop/Rap | Egyptian Hip-Hop/Rap Khaleeji Hip-Hop/Rap Levantine Hip-Hop/Rap Maghreb Hip-Hop/Rap | |
R&B/Hip-Hop > Euro Hip-Hop | ||
R&B/Hip-Hop > Rap | ||
Reggae | - | |
Religious | - | |
Religious > Christian | ||
Religious > Gospel | ||
Rock | ||
Rock > Indie Rock | ||
Rock > Arabic Indie | Arabic Indie Egyptian Indie Levantine Indie Maghreb Indie | |
Rock > Metal | ||
Soundtrack | ||
| Soundtrack > Arabic Soundtrack | ||
Soundtrack > Original Film/TV Music | ||
Soundtrack > Stage Musicals | ||
Spoken & Audio | ||
Spoken & Audio > Comedy | ||
Traditional | ||
Traditional > Middle Eastern | Egyptian Traditional Khaleeji Levantine Traditional Maghreb Traditional Shelat |
Core Genre | Genre |
Blues | - |
Children | - |
Christian/Gospel | - |
Christian | |
Gospel | |
Classical | - |
Comedy | - |
Country | - |
Bluegrass | |
Folk | |
Dance/Electronic | - |
Holiday/Seasonal | - |
Jazz | - |
Contemporary Jazz | |
Traditional Jazz | |
Latin | - |
Latin - Pop | |
Latin - Rhythm | |
Latin Regional Mexican | |
Latin Tropical | |
New Age | - |
Others | - |
Broadway | |
Contemporary Classics | |
Soundtrack | |
Traditional Classics | |
Pop | - |
R&B/Hip-Hop | - |
R&B | |
Rap | |
Rock | - |
Alt. Rock | |
Hard Rock | |
World Music | - |
Afrobeats | |
K-Pop | |
Reggae |
Every entity in CONNECT is assigned at least one genre, called the Main Genre.
Genre information comes to us as metadata attached to recordings, products and artists. Genre is a required field for ISRC, ICPN and artist submission. If needed, we can edit Main Genres or add additional genres to reflect Billboard or Luminate genre definitions.
There are two genre databases: Billboard and Luminate. While many entities are given the same genre label in both databases, we sometimes classify music differently than Billboard does.
Billboard genres are assigned by Billboard according to their genre groupings and rules. These genre designations are reflected on the Billboard genre charts. Ultimately, Billboard has final say in genre assignments that affect their chart eligibility.
The Luminate genre database includes more subgenres and slightly different definitions. (For example, to us, K-Pop and J-Pop are subgenres of Pop, not World Music). We also update our genre definitions more frequently and have the flexibility to add new subgenres and subgenre breakouts.
Review both genre lists and definitions here.
Genres listed on CONNECT Dashboards are Luminate genres by default. However, you may use Settings to change all default displays to Billboard genres.
Some features, like Analysis, Charts and Report Builder, allow for toggling between Billboard and Luminate genre lists.
Many entities have more than one applicable genre. But there can be only one designated Main genre. We try to be as granular and specific as possible in assigning Main genres.
Go to MORE DETAILS > to see all genres (Main Genre and others) for a Dashboard entry.
Genre lists are hierarchical. A Core genre is a broad category, like Pop or Rock, that includes multiple genres and subgenres. Some Core genres don’t have extra segmentation, like Blues or Children.
Sometimes, a Billboard Core genre contains multiple genres while the Luminate version does not—or vice versa. For example, Luminate segments Classical into different genres but doesn’t break out Jazz; Billboard does the reverse.
It should go without saying that any lower-level genre or subgenre still falls within the highest-level Core genre that applies.
No. The Main Genre for an artist, song or album is simply the genre (or subgenre) that best applies. This means that sometimes, the Main genre that makes the most sense is K-Pop (as opposed to the Core genre Pop), Indie Rock (versus Rock) or Reggaeton (versus Latin).
Go to MORE DETAILS > to see all genres (Main Genre and others) for a Dashboard entry.
Genre tagging is the same in every country. If a Song’s Main Genre is Latin in the U.S, it’ll still be Latin in Brazil, even if it’s part of the Pop genre there. However, we can add multiple genres to every title, so Pop can be included as a secondary genre.
Yes, this means that CONNECT classifies K-Pop as K-Pop in Korea — or as World Music, if you use Billboard’s genre list.