Music Genre Finder

How to use the music genre finder

To find a song's genre, answer as many questions as you can and press Find my genre. Start with tempo if you know it: tempo is the single strongest clue, because genres cluster around different speeds. House sits near 128 BPM, hip-hop near 90, drum and bass near 174. If you do not know the number, drop the file into the BPM finder, which measures it in your browser, then type the result here.

Then add what you hear. Pick the instruments that stand out, from guitars and piano to programmed drums and sub-bass, and the moods that fit. The tool scores each genre on the questions you answered and ignores the rest, so a partial description still works. Each result shows a percentage, the reasons it matched, and a few artists to listen to as a check.

The finder does not listen to audio. It works from your description, which means it is only as good as your ear. That is deliberate. Genre is a judgement about culture as much as sound, and no tool, ours included, can settle it from a waveform with certainty. What the finder gives you is the right vocabulary and a place to start looking.

What actually defines a genre

Five things do most of the work, and they are the five questions above. Tempo and rhythm set the feel: a steady kick on every beat reads as dance music, a backbeat on two and four reads as rock or pop, a swung ride cymbal reads as jazz. Instrumentation sets the palette. Vocal style separates rap from singing from screaming. Mood and energy cover how it makes you feel. Production sets the era, from a dry live room to a wall of compressed synths.

Genres are also social. A band and a label decide where they want to be shelved, and a scene decides whether to accept them. That is why the same song can be called indie by a blog, pop by a radio station and alternative by a streaming service. Use the genre as a way to be found by people who will like it, not as a verdict.

Tempo ranges overlap on purpose. A song at 100 BPM could be pop, hip-hop, afrobeats or R&B, and it is the other answers that separate them. Trap and dubstep add a wrinkle: they are counted at double the speed they feel, so a tool may report 70 where the producer says 140. The finder accounts for this for those two genres.

Pick the right genre when you release

Distributors and streaming services ask for a primary genre and sometimes a secondary one. The primary tag decides which editorial teams and algorithms see the song first, so pick the genre a first-time listener would give after thirty seconds, not the one you aspire to. Use the second field for the nearest neighbour, such as indie pop beside pop, and describe the rest in your pitch.

If you are unsure between two, look at the artists the finder lists for each. Whose fans would you most like to reach, and do you sound like their records? Listening to two or three tracks from each is a faster test than any questionnaire.

Genre reference: tempo, sound and where to start

Pop (100 to 130 BPM). Built around a hook that arrives early and returns often. The widest tempo range of any genre here, with a clean vocal at the front and production that borrows from whatever is current. Listen for: A chorus you can hum after one listen, a short intro, and a vocal that sits above everything else. Start with: Dua Lipa, Ariana Grande, Harry Styles. Origin: Mid-20th-century popular song; modern pop is a production style more than a sound.

Rock (110 to 140 BPM). Guitar, bass and a live drum kit, with the backbeat on two and four. Recordings breathe, so the tempo drifts a little rather than sitting on a perfect grid. Listen for: Distorted or overdriven guitar riffs, a snare that cracks on the backbeat and a bass line that follows the guitar. Start with: Led Zeppelin, Foo Fighters, Queen. Origin: 1950s United States, grown out of rhythm and blues, country and gospel.

Indie / alternative (90 to 140 BPM). A loose label for guitar-led music that sits outside the pop mainstream. It favours a personal voice and a slightly rough finish over polish, and it spans jangle, bedroom pop and shoegaze. Listen for: Close, unshowy vocals, clean or chorus-washed guitars and arrangements that stay small. Start with: Phoebe Bridgers, The Strokes, Vampire Weekend. Origin: 1980s independent labels; now a sound as much as a business model.

Punk (160 to 200 BPM). Short, fast and stripped back: three chords, a driving eighth-note bass and songs that rarely pass three minutes. Energy matters more than precision. Listen for: Down-stroked power chords, a drummer pushing the tempo and vocals that are chanted rather than crafted. Start with: Ramones, The Clash, Green Day. Origin: Mid-1970s New York and London.

Metal (110 to 190 BPM). Heavy, high-gain guitar played with palm-muted riffs, fast double-kick drumming and a low, thick bass. The tempo range is huge, from doom crawl to thrash sprint. Listen for: Down-tuned guitars, double bass drum, riffs that repeat and change in tight blocks and often shouted or growled vocals. Start with: Black Sabbath, Metallica, Iron Maiden. Origin: Late 1960s and 1970s Britain.

Hip-hop (80 to 100 BPM). A beat built from drums and samples with the vocal delivered in rhythm. Boom-bap leans on chopped records; newer styles use synthetic sounds. Often felt in half-time against a doubled hi-hat. Listen for: A heavy kick and snare loop, a sampled or sparse melody and a voice treated as a rhythm instrument. Start with: Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Kendrick Lamar. Origin: 1970s Bronx, New York.

Trap (130 to 160 BPM, usually felt at half that). Rolling hi-hats, hard-hitting kicks and long 808 bass notes. It is usually counted at about 130 to 160 but felt at half of that, which is why detectors often report two different numbers. Listen for: Fast hi-hat rolls over a slow snare, a sustained sub-bass and sparse, eerie synth lines. Start with: Future, Migos, Travis Scott. Origin: Early 2000s Atlanta, Georgia.

R&B (60 to 105 BPM). Vocal-led and groove-based, with melismatic singing, layered harmonies and a warm low end. Slow jams sit near 60 to 80 BPM; up-tempo tracks reach the high nineties. Listen for: Smooth vocal runs, stacked backing vocals, soft keys and a bass line that carries the groove. Start with: SZA, Usher, Alicia Keys. Origin: 1940s African American communities; modern R&B grew from soul and hip-hop.

Soul / funk (90 to 125 BPM). Gospel-rooted singing over a tight live band. Funk pushes the first beat of the bar and leans on interlocking bass, guitar and horn parts; soul puts the voice first. Listen for: A horn section, a bass line you can dance to and a vocal that is shouted, pleaded or sung with real grit. Start with: Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Earth, Wind & Fire. Origin: 1950s and 1960s United States.

House (120 to 130 BPM). A steady four-on-the-floor kick, an off-beat open hi-hat and looped chords or vocal hooks. 128 BPM is the near-universal club default. Listen for: A kick on every beat, a hi-hat on the off-beats and a bassline that locks to the kick. Start with: Daft Punk, Frankie Knuckles, Disclosure. Origin: Early 1980s Chicago.

Techno (125 to 150 BPM). Faster, straighter and more mechanical than house: repetitive, hypnotic and almost always instrumental. Tracks build through small changes rather than songs and choruses. Listen for: A relentless kick, metallic percussion, filtered synth stabs and very little melody. Start with: Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, Adam Beyer. Origin: Mid-1980s Detroit.

Drum and bass (165 to 180 BPM). Fast, syncopated breakbeats over a heavy sub-bass. 174 BPM is the centre of gravity. The bass often plays half as fast as the drums, which gives it a double feel. Listen for: Chopped breakbeats, a rolling sub-bass and a half-time snare on the third beat. Start with: Pendulum, Goldie, Chase & Status. Origin: Early 1990s United Kingdom, from jungle.

Dubstep (136 to 145 BPM, usually felt at half that). Sparse half-time drums at about 140 BPM, with the snare landing on the third beat so it feels like 70. Wobbling, modulated bass is the signature, from deep sub in the original UK sound to harsher mid-range growls. Listen for: A heavy snare once per bar, wobbling bass and a lot of space between hits. Start with: Skream, Burial, Skrillex. Origin: Early 2000s south London.

Synthwave (80 to 120 BPM). Analogue-style synths, gated-reverb drums and arpeggiated basslines that sound like a 1980s film soundtrack. Moods range from neon-lit romance to menace. Listen for: Pulsing arpeggios, big gated snares, lush pad chords and a retro-futurist feel. Start with: Kavinsky, The Midnight, Carpenter Brut. Origin: 2000s, inspired by 1980s film scores and electronic pop.

Lo-fi hip-hop (60 to 90 BPM). Slow, dusty beats built from jazzy chords, with vinyl crackle, tape wobble and a drum pattern that lands slightly off the grid on purpose. Made to sit in the background. Listen for: Muted piano or guitar loops, soft drums, vinyl noise and no lead vocal. Start with: Nujabes, Jinsang, Tomppabeats. Origin: 2000s, rooted in instrumental hip-hop; popularised by streams in the late 2010s.

Ambient (50 to 100 BPM). Music about texture and atmosphere rather than rhythm. Often beatless, so a tempo reading is unreliable. Long evolving pads, field recordings and space. Listen for: Slowly moving pads, no clear pulse and silence treated as part of the piece. Start with: Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Stars of the Lid. Origin: 1970s; named by Brian Eno.

Country (70 to 140 BPM). Story-led songs with a clear vocal, acoustic guitar, pedal steel or fiddle and a plain chorus. Tempos are wide: slow weepers near 70 BPM, shuffles and two-steps at 120 and above. Listen for: A twang in the vocal and guitar, pedal steel or fiddle and lyrics that tell a story with specifics. Start with: Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Luke Combs. Origin: 1920s rural southern United States.

Folk (70 to 130 BPM). Voice and acoustic instruments in the foreground, songs that read like stories and arrangements that leave room. Harmonies and fingerpicked guitar are common. Listen for: Fingerpicked or strummed acoustic guitar, close vocals and little or no drum kit. Start with: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Fleet Foxes. Origin: Traditional music of many countries; the modern singer-songwriter strand dates to the 1940s and 1960s.

Jazz (70 to 200 BPM). Improvisation over chord changes, with swung rhythm and a walking bass. Ballads sit near 60 to 80 BPM and bebop can pass 200, so tempo alone says little. Listen for: Swung eighth notes, a walking bass line, solos that depart from the melody and drums played with brushes or a light ride cymbal. Start with: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald. Origin: Early 1900s New Orleans.

Blues (60 to 120 BPM). Built on the twelve-bar form and bent notes. Lyrics are personal and often wry, and the guitar answers the voice line for line. Listen for: A repeating twelve-bar progression, bent guitar notes and a call-and-response between voice and instrument. Start with: B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson. Origin: Late 19th-century Mississippi Delta.

Reggae (60 to 90 BPM). A slow, bouncing groove with the guitar chopping on the off-beats and a deep melodic bass leading. The drummer often puts the main hit on beat three, the one-drop. Listen for: A skank guitar on the off-beat, a bass that carries the melody and a lot of space. Start with: Bob Marley, Peter Tosh, Toots and the Maytals. Origin: Late 1960s Jamaica.

Reggaeton (90 to 100 BPM). Defined by the dembow rhythm: a repeating kick-and-snare figure that is syncopated rather than four-on-the-floor. Vocals mix rapping and singing, mostly in Spanish. Listen for: The dembow pattern (boom-ch-boom-chick), deep bass and catchy chanted hooks. Start with: Daddy Yankee, Bad Bunny, Karol G. Origin: 1990s Puerto Rico and Panama.

Afrobeats (100 to 115 BPM). Polyrhythmic percussion, a relaxed mid-tempo bounce and sung hooks that mix English, Pidgin and local languages. Detectors can lock onto the wrong rhythmic layer. Listen for: Layered log-drum and shaker patterns, a bouncing bass and melodic vocals. Start with: Burna Boy, Wizkid, Tems. Origin: 2000s West Africa, mainly Nigeria and Ghana. Not the same as Fela Kuti's 1970s Afrobeat.

Classical / cinematic (40 to 180 BPM). Acoustic instruments playing composed parts. Tempo is given as Italian words (Adagio, Allegro) and changes within a piece, so one BPM rarely describes it. Listen for: String sections, written dynamics from very soft to very loud and tempo that stretches and relaxes. Start with: Johann Sebastian Bach, Claude Debussy, Ludwig van Beethoven. Origin: Western art music, roughly 1600 onwards; film music continues the tradition.

Disco (110 to 130 BPM). Four-on-the-floor drums with open hi-hats, an octave-jumping bassline, lush strings and a soaring vocal. The direct ancestor of house. Listen for: A steady kick, a bouncing octave bass, string swells and funky rhythm guitar. Start with: Donna Summer, Chic, Bee Gees. Origin: Early 1970s New York dance clubs.

From genre to a music video

Genre also decides how a video looks. A house track suits fast cuts and light; a folk song suits a slow, natural scene; a punk song suits raw, handheld energy. Melodious plans the shots around your song's structure and tempo. Upload the track, answer a short brief and an AI director proposes a storyboard with a drawn keyframe for every shot. The brief and a first storyboard are free for new accounts, and rendering takes a paid plan.