WorldMusic
An editorial encyclopedia of the world's music genres. Built and written in Japan, with a growing English layer for the most-visited pages.
Three of today's genres
Latest articles
Long-form articles are currently Japanese-only. Each card below links to a translation-pending stub on /en that points to the original Japanese piece.
2026.05.17
Jersey Club and the 90-Second Song
2026.05.10
The Long Night Between Afrobeat and Afrobeats
2026.05.03
Why Techno Had to Come From Detroit
2026.04.26
Fifty Years on a Single Jamaican Downbeat
2026.04.19
K-Pop's Fourth Generation and the Economy of the Reference
2026.04.12
How Vocaloid Cracked Open Japan's Utaite Culture
Country trends
What 50 countries are listening to right now — a snapshot from each country's charts.
- United StatesCountry and Taylor Swift duel for #1, Latin rises
- United KingdomA new generation of women — Adele's heirs — leads
- JapanDomestic music dominates; foreign acts are rare
- South KoreaBTS-era K-pop conquering the global charts
- BrazilSertanejo and Brazilian funk are the national pulse
- NigeriaThe Afrobeats home base, exporting worldwide
Music capitals
North America
Blues, jazz, hip-hop, rock. The grammar of 20th-century popular music was written here.
125 genres
Caribbean
Reggae, dancehall, reggaetón, salsa. Small islands that exported a single beat to the world.
27 genres
West Africa
Afrobeat, Afrobeats, highlife. The rhythmic mother of world music.
15 genres
East Asia
K-pop, J-pop, Vocaloid. The 21st century's global pop manufacturing hub.
86 genres
South America
Bossa nova, samba, tango, reggaetón. A continent that holds melancholy and sensuality in the same breath.
28 genres
Western Europe
Classical, techno, post-punk. An old continent whose music spans both ends of history.
103 genres
What's here
- Country trends — what 50 countries are listening to right now, domestic vs. foreign, with citations.
- Genre encyclopedia — 700+ entries, organised by ten editorial groups. Currently Japanese- prose only; English names display where available.
- Eras timeline — genres arranged by origin year.
- Relations graph — influence and derivation between genres.
About translation
The site is Japanese-first. The English layer covers the country trend section in full and uses canonical English genre names elsewhere. Long-form genre essays and editorial articles remain in Japanese for now — translation is rolling out gradually.