JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Music Awards Discussion 2009 Just Plain Folks Music Awards Genres/Categories Defined

Common Questions:

Q. How do I pick which genre of music to judge? I have no idea what most of these are!
Q. What in the world were you thinking? That song doesn't belong there!!!!
Q. I like all kinds of music, so give me whatever you want! Okay?

A. JPF approaches genres as a tool to help people find music they might like. We are NOT genre "purists." In fact, we are the opposite. We use genres to INCLUDE music, not to EXCLUDE it. That means that we put music where many experts on a genre never would. We don't worry about violating the rules of any genre. We're interested in bringing music that moves us forward and genres are nothing more than a helpful tool to do so. We apologize in advance to any genre purists who may be offended by our choices. We also take full responsibility for where music has been placed. Please do NOT blame the artists involved. They had no say in the matter. That said, we've used and refined these genre guidelines over the years and we feel they work very well for our purposes. No two people ever agree on all genre definitions, let alone 1000's or 10,000's. Whenever we had something that moved us but that didn't really fit into a genre very well, we just expanded the genre to include it. That won't please purists, but we never had to worry for a moment that we'd have to eliminate something simply because it didn't fit well into a genre definition. In the end, genres don't matter. Just music that moves us.

So we hope these simple descriptions will help you find music that you'll love as much as our volunteer screeners have.

Genres Defined!

A Cappella: This is all vocal performances of original and cover songs. We feature everything from solo to large choir vocals. We are voting on performance and arrangement only even though you'll hear a mix of original music and covers.

African: This is music made by artists from Africa that feature an African ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in a native language of the country represented. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles. English is not excluded as long as the artist(s) originates and lives in a African country.

Alternative: This includes both edgy/aggressive Pop and Rock music.

Ambient: This is instrumental atmospheric both mellow and aggressive. It also include recordings of real life environments.

Americana: This is always a tricky genre to define. It includes a mixture of Country, Rock, Folk & Blues and often features lyrics that tell stories of life in North America.

Asian: This is music made by artists from Asian that feature an Asian ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in a native language of the country represented. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles. English is not excluded as long as the artist(s) originates and lives in a Asian country.

Bluegrass: We use the traditional definitions of Bluegrass music.

Blues: This is a variety of straight forward blues music with a representation of blues rock band styles.

Cabaret: This is a mix of both traditional cabaret and quirky theatrical songs in a variety of styles.

Cajun: This is a mix of Cajun, Zydeco, Swamp Rock and Louisiana focused songs.

Caribbean: This is music made by artists from the Caribbean that feature a Caribbean ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in a native language of the country represented. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles. English is not excluded as long as the artist(s) originates and lives in a Carribean country.

CCM: This is an abbreviation for Contemporary Christian music. This is a range of current music styles featuring Christian or religious neutral lyrical content. You'll find pop, rock and contemporary arrangements.

Celtic: This is both traditional and contemporary original Celtic music.

Celtic Inst.: This is both traditional and contemporary original instrumental Celtic music.

Childrens: These are songs geared towards children or parents of young children in all styles.

Class Chamber: These are Classical albums featuring Chamber ensembles.

Class Contemp: These are Classical albums that feature original compositions as well as songs that are original compositions written or performed by our members.

Class Orchestral: These are Classical and Contemporary Classical Orchestra albums.

Class Solo: These are classical albums featuring solo instrument performances.

Class Vocal/Opera Choral: These are Classical Vocal and Opera Choral Albums.

Class Vocal Solo: These are Classical Vocal and Opera albums that feature solo voices.

College Rock: This is mainstream radio friendly pop-rock songs and albums.

Comedy: These are stand up comedians. Please note that there is adult content and potentially offensive languages and jokes. If you are easily offended by adult stand-comedy, skip this category.

Compilation: These are albums that feature multiple artists in a wide variety of styles.

Contemporary: These are primarily ballads in lite Rock, Pop, Country, R&B and Folk songs and albums.

Country: This is primarily mainstream contemporary country music

Cover: These are cover versions of popular music which include new arrangements and performance approaches as well as genuine true to the original styles of a wide variety of genres. These should be judged on arrangement and performance only.

Dance: This is straightforward music you can dance to. We include house, club and vocal songs.

Death Metal: This is also known as Screamo. Maximum aggression musically and vocally.

Educational: These are albums that offer educational topics or represent the results of educational programs.

Electronica: These are primarily electronic pop songs mostly featuring vocals or vocal samples.

European: This is music made by artists from Europe that feature a European ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in a native language of the country represented. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles. English is not excluded as long as the artist(s) originates and lives in a European country.

Experimental: This is a wide variety of experimental songs and albums in all styles (and some that never existed before). If you're up for a musical adventure, this can be a fun category.

F S/S: These are songs and albums by female singer-songwriters lead singing songs they wrote or co-wrote in their own name. Approaches primarily fall into a mix of Pop, Rock, Folk and Contemporary styles.

Flamenco: These are songs and albums with music that features intricate rapid guitar performances in a traditional and contemporary Flamenco styles. We gave wide berth to what could qualify here.

Funk: This is a category with a wide array of styles and approaches from classic R&B/Soul flavored grooves and lyrics to acoustic approaches with a funky undertone. This is a new category and we intentionally included some less traditional flavors of Funk.

Gospel: We included mostly traditional church choirs, praise and worship style performances and some traditional country gospel approaches as well.

Hard Rock: This is what many in the industry currently call "Modern Rock." These songs often have a pop style hook or chorus with straight forward rock vocals and hard rock music production.

Hawaiian: This is music primarily made by artists from Hawaii that feature a Hawaiian ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in both native Hawaiian and English. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles.

Historical: These are albums that have historical significance often featuring artists early work or archival content. Often these recordings vary widely in quality due to era of recording or original sources such as demos and field recordings.

Horizon: These are albums made by artists who are under 21 years old at the time of the recording who we feel show tremendous growth potential and a very bright future with the right encouragement and opportunities.

Holiday: These are original Holiday songs that can include any recognized Holiday as well as albums that feature both original and traditional Holiday songs of any style.

Indian: These are Indian songs that feature original compositions as well as albums that feature all styles of contemporary Indian music.

Indian Classical: These are albums that feature Classical Indian ragas and traditional Indian folk music.

Industrial: This is a wide ranging array of electronic and electric music that tends toward the dark side lyrically and sonically. Styles range from the dark and mellow to maximum aggression often combining both searing electric guitars and samples or electronic elements.

Inst. Jazz: All varieties of Instrumental Jazz.

Inst. Rock: This is primarily rock music with featured lead guitar solos or organ grooves.

Instrumental: This is a very wide array of instrumental music compositions and performances that do not exclude synthesizers or programmed music.

Jam Band: This is a mix of country rock, grateful dead jam band styles. We gave a wide berth to what qualified for this first time category.

Jewish: This category includes both Hebrew and Yiddish language songs and albums as well as music with a Jewish theme in any style in any other language.

Klezmer: This is traditional and secular Jewish music known for it's expressive musical passages.

Latin: There are Spanish language songs in mostly contemporary styles.

Latin Jazz: Instrumental Jazz featuring latin influenced styles of jazz.

Live: Any style live performance albums are eligible.

M S/S: These are songs and albums by male singer-songwriters lead singing songs they wrote or co-wrote in their own name. Approaches primarily fall into a mix of Pop, Rock, Folk and Contemporary styles.

Metal: This is hard edge music featuring aggressive guitars and ranging more often to heavy metal, theatrical metal and glam metal than modern death metal/screamo.

Middle Eastern: This is music primarily made by artists from the Middle East that feature a Middle Eastern ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in Arabic or other middle eastern languages. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles and for our purposes we include parts of Northern Africa, Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia.

Modern Rock: This differs greatly from many current definitions of Modern Rock. We include here Creative Rock music which mixes quirky, humorous approaches and dreamy ethereal soundscapes. This is NOT Modern Hard Rock. See Hard Rock for that style of music.

Native American: This features primarily traditional Native American singing, drum and flute music.

New Age: This is both electronic and acoustic new age instrumental and vocal music.

New Folk: These are contemporary production style folk music songs and albums.

Novelty: These are musical comedy songs and albums ranging from offbeat to bizarre. Warning: Some songs and albums contain adult language and humor so if you are easily offended, please avoid this category.

Political: We've long had requests to have a political music category. Inside we've included protest songs, observational and opinion songs and some pointed political partisanship. Warning: Most of the entries were slanted hard in one direction so the resulting nominations are the same.

Polka: This is both traditional and contemporary style original Polka songs and albums.

Pop: These are radio friendly mainstream Pop songs and albums.

Prog Rock: This new category has a variety of progressive styles including an acoustic guitar/violin song that had the right vibe for this category while breaking every rule for progressive music. Our apologies to the purists out there.

Punk: We have a variety of punk styles represented from old school to new wave to modern.

R&B: These songs and albums vary from old school R&B to pop R&B to crossover.

Rap: We saw a lot of rap music crossing into other genres, but here we focus mostly on songs where Rap is the primary approach. Warning: There is adult language and topics throughout this category so please avoid if you are easily offended!

Reggae: This category primarily features straight forward Reggae and Dub music.

Remix: This is a new test category for us and features mostly dance music that was remixed for club use. In the future we plan to expand this to recognize a much wider array of remixed music.

Rock: With over a dozen variations of Rock represented what we find here are a lot of radio friendly Rock songs that didn't quite fit in the other sub-genres but work together nicely as a collection.

Rockabilly: Mostly traditional style Rockabilly music with a few punk and modern versions.

Roots: This is Appalachian/Old Time Mountain music performed on acoustic instruments and often featuring vocal harmonies.

Roots Inst.: This is instrumental Appalachian, Folk and Bluegrass music.

Salsa: Straight forward Salsa and Salsa flavored Latin music.

Self Help: These are meditation type albums usually with vocal guidance and instruction.

Ska: This new category for us features a range of Ska styles and approaches including an acoustic no horn version.

Smooth Jazz: This is a mix of vocal and instrumental smooth jazz in a wide array of approaches from R&B crossover to funk and blues influences.

Solo Guitar: This includes original solo guitar or music that features a solo guitarist.

Solo Inst.: This represent solo performances using instruments other than piano or acoustic guitar which have their own categories. Included are Flute, Violin, Bass, Chapman Stick, Kalimba, Accordion and others.

Solo Piano: This includes original solo piano or music that features a solo pianist.

Soundtrack: These are actual original score recordings used in films and other multimedia projects. We include both original compositions and complete soundtrack recording albums this year.

South & Central American: This is music made by artists from South & Central America that feature a South and Central American ethnic style of music and/or vocals performed in a native language of the country represented. There is a mixture of contemporary and traditional music styles. English is not excluded as long as the artist(s) originates and lives in a South or Central American country.

Spoken Word: These are spoken word pieces with and without musical backing and occasionally with a mix of music, spoken word and singing. Warning: Adult language and topics are included so please do not screen if you are easily offended.

Storytelling: These are stories told for an adult audience. Subject matter varies widely from characters to short stories to full length dramas and radio plays. Play length varies up to multiple hours for some nominees. Some adult content and language so please avoid if you are easily offended.

Storytelling Child: These are children's stories and range from short pieces to a full length children's book.

Surf: Mostly traditional style instrumental surf music.

Techno: This is primarily up tempo electronic instrumental music but can also include trance, house and other popular variations.

Theater: These are original songs written for and used in theatrical productions and complete cast recordings.

Trad. Folk: This is a bit misleading for purists. These are original songs, done in a more traditional production style than New Folk. Most of the lyrical content tells stories or laments the human condition and circumstances we all face.

Trad. Holiday: These are cover versions of well known Holiday classics and should be judged on performance and arrangement only.

Urban Gospel: This is Christian music performed in Urban styles such as R&B, Rap and Soul.

Vocal Jazz: These are original vocal jazz songs in an array of styles and eras.

World: This is original music that mixes multiple ethnic styles with other ethnic styles as well as contemporary styles.

We hope these simple definitions will help guide you to find the music you want. If you're still confused, feel free to ask us a question on our message boards or emails us using the form below!

Enjoy!

Brian