762 articles
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the fifth studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers (Warner Bros., September 24, 1991), also called BSSM. Produced by Rick Rubin at his Laurel Canyon Mansion, it yielded Give It Away and Under the Bridge, reached number three on the Billboard 200, and went 7x Platinum in the US.
Blue-eyed soul
Blue-eyed soul, or white soul, is rhythm and blues and soul music performed by white artists. Coined in the 1960s for The Righteous Brothers, it sparked radio airplay and authenticity debates.
Bobby Byrd
Bobby Byrd (Bobby Howard Byrd, 1934–2007), Toccoa, Georgia soul singer, pianist and songwriter who founded the Famous Flames, launched James Brown, co-wrote "Sex Machine", and recorded the much-sampled "I Know You Got Soul"; distinct from Bobby Day.
Bobby Kimball
Bobby Kimball (Robert Troy Kimball, born 1947, Orange, Texas) is an American rock singer, original lead vocalist of Toto on "Hold the Line," "Rosanna," and "Africa," winner of six Grammys with Toto IV, later a solo artist in Germany, Toto frontman again 1998–2008.
Bolero
Bolero: slow romantic Latin American song genre born in Santiago de Cuba's trova tradition (Pepe Sánchez's 'Tristezas', 1883); distinct from the Spanish dance and Ravel's Boléro; UNESCO-inscribed in 2023.
Booker T. & the M.G.'s
Booker T. & the M.G.'s, also called Booker T and the MGs, were the interracial Stax Records house band formed in Memphis in 1962, known for "Green Onions" (R&B No. 1), backing Otis Redding and Sam & Dave, and 1992 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
Boom bap
Boom bap: New York hip-hop production style and subgenre of the late 1980s-1990s golden age, named for its kick (boom) and snare (bap), built on sampled vinyl loops, MPC swing, and 85-95 BPM grooves.
Bossa nova
Bossa nova is a Brazilian popular-music movement that emerged in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s. It combines rhythmic elements derived from samba with jazz-related harmony and is particularly associated with.
Boston hardcore
Boston hardcore: the hardcore punk scene of Boston, Massachusetts, erupting 1981-1984 with SSD, DYS, Negative FX, and the Boston Crew; known for militant straight edge, crews, This Is Boston Not L.A., and later Converge.
Brad Delp
Brad Delp (Bradley Edward Delp, 1951-2007), American rock singer and original lead vocalist of Boston, sang on three albums selling over 20 million copies, including the 17-million-selling 1976 debut; he died by suicide in Atkinson, New Hampshire.
Break (music)
Break (music): a drum break or breakbeat, the percussion-only passage in funk, soul, and R&B records. DJ Kool Herc extended it with two turntables, founding hip-hop; sampled breaks (Amen, Funky Drummer, Apache) underpin jungle and drum & bass.
Brian Fallon
Brian Fallon (born 1980, Red Bank, New Jersey) is the Gaslight Anthem's frontman and a solo artist fusing punk and heartland rock; albums include The '59 Sound, Handwritten, Painkillers, and Not Bad for New Jersey.
Bridges to Babylon
Bridges to Babylon is the Rolling Stones' 1997 Virgin studio album, successor to Voodoo Lounge, recorded at Ocean Way in Los Angeles with Don Was, the Dust Brothers, Danny Saber, and Rob Fraboni producing, and supported by the 1997-98 Bridges to Babylon Tour.
British rock music
British rock music: rock by UK artists, from 1950s skiffle and the British Invasion to punk, metal, indie, and Britpop; 22.2% of 2025 UK singles consumption, its highest share since 2016.
Bro-country
Bro-country: pejorative term for the male-dominated, truck-and-party themed country subgenre of the early 2010s, coined by Jody Rosen in 2013; defined by Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise" and undone by backlash and 2015-2016 decline.
Brutal death metal
Brutal death metal is a death metal subgenre that prioritizes heaviness, speed, and rhythmic complexity over melody, which emerged on Long Island, New York, in the early 1990s.
Bubblegrunge
Bubblegrunge is a music genre blending bubblegum pop catchiness with grunge's guitar fuzz, known as a derisive 1990s critics' term and a Spotify micro-genre since 2021.
Bubblegum music
Bubblegum music (bubblegum pop) is a lightweight, producer-manufactured pop style of the late 1960s and early 1970s aimed at preteens, built on session musicians under fake band names, with hits like the Archies' "Sugar, Sugar."
Cabaret Voltaire (band)
Cabaret Voltaire was an English experimental electronic band formed in Sheffield by Richard H. Kirk, Stephen Mallinder, and Chris Watson, pioneers of industrial music who later moved toward house and techno.
Californication (album)
Californication, released June 8, 1999, is the seventh studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers, produced by Rick Rubin at Cello Studios. It marked John Frusciante's return, sold over 15 million copies, won a Best Rock Song Grammy for "Scar Tissue," and is infamous for its loudness-war mastering.
Cantopop
Cantopop is Cantonese-language popular music from Hong Kong, named by Hans Ebert in 1978. It rose in 1974, peaked in the 1980s and 1990s as a voice of Hong Kong identity, declined after 1997, and saw a 2020s revival.
Carl Barât
Carl Barât (Carlos Ashley Raphael Barât), English musician born 1978 in Basingstoke, co-frontman of The Libertines, founder of Dirty Pretty Things and Carl Barât and the Jackals, solo artist and author of Threepenny Memoir.
Chamber pop
Chamber pop, sometimes called ork-pop, is a style of pop music with ornate orchestral arrangements of strings, horns, piano, and vocal harmonies, revived in the 1990s by acts like Belle and Sebastian.
Chanson
Chanson: the French-language popular song tradition, defined by the priority of text over music, verse-refrain and AABA forms, the 1960s yé-yé and adaptations waves, and the post-2000 Nouvelle Scène française.
Cheap Trick at Budokan
Cheap Trick at Budokan (Japanese release October 1978, US February 1979) is the Rockford, Illinois band's live album, recorded April 28 and 30, 1978 at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan; a Japan-only release whose US import demand made it a triple-platinum, number-four Billboard breakthrough.
Chicano rock
Chicano rock: rock and roll by Mexican Americans, centered in East Los Angeles, from Ritchie Valens and the Eastside Sound through El Chicano, Tierra, Chicano punk at the Vex, Los Lobos, and Chicano Batman.
Chill-out music
Chill-out music, also called chillout, is a relaxed, slow-paced genre spanning lounge, downtempo, ambient, and lo-fi styles. It arose in late-1980s British rave chill-out rooms and grew through Ibiza's Café del Mar compilations.
Chinese Democracy
Chinese Democracy, Guns N' Roses album released November 23, 2008 on Geffen/Black Frog; recorded from 1994 by Axl Rose alone of the original lineup, cost about $13 million, 14 tracks, Metacritic 64.
Chinese rock (中国摇滚)
Chinese rock (中国摇滚, yaogun yinyue) is mainland China's rock music, born with Cui Jian's 1986 "Nothing to My Name" and first album in 1989, defined by independence from official pop and shaped by censorship, dakou CDs, and live scenes.
Chris Barron
Chris Barron (born 1968) is the American lead singer and lyricist of the Spin Doctors, whose 1991 album Pocket Full of Kryptonite and hit "Two Princes" made him famous; also a solo artist and member of the Canoes.