Hype & thrill

1920s–'40s swing horns and vocals plugged into modern house beats.

House swing with techno's tough kicks and bass: one of the most-played sounds in clubs today.

Machine loops can hold soul, community and another kind of tomorrow.

Faster, harder, more distorted techno: the defining sound of the 2020s youth rave revival.

Builds emotion through repetition and finds transcendence in unfolding melody.

Italian-made, Japan-loved high-speed dance music, the soundtrack of drifting and para para.

The standard '90s European dance-floor formula: a female singer belting the chorus, a male rapper's verse, wall-to-wall synths, everyone's hands up.

Kicks distorted into a punchy snap and epic melodies, written for tens of thousands to jump at once.

Distorted kicks above 170 BPM, roared vocals and tracksuits: the ultra-fast rave of 1990s Rotterdam.

Russian hard bass: very fast bouncing bass, simple synths and chanted slogans, danced by tracksuited youths in a squat.

Beneath fast breakbeats, the low end keeps the city's breathing steady.

Chopped, sped-up Amen breaks over reggae bass, the wild forerunner of drum & bass.

Takes the few seconds a drummer left behind and rebuilds them into new paths for the body.

A bouncing triplet kick and chopped-up vocals: club music that jumped from Newark block parties to short-video feeds.

Skipping kicks at 160 BPM and chopped vocals: ultra-fast dance music made for Chicago footwork battles.

The low end becomes the lead, the room shaking between half-time hits.

Bright synth chords swell in the drop like a colourful emotional firework.

Chopped into tiny pieces, yet easy to move to: glitch editing meets hip-hop and funk grooves.

Every pop element turned up to max: candy tones, pitched voices and glitch noise screaming together.

Max out the hype in 89 seconds: fast guitars, a declarative chorus and a title you can shout.

Group unison, sparkling arrangements and gaps left for the crowd's chants, songs written for cheering.

Showa-style hero themes: brass fanfares, male voices shouting attack names, robots and heroes charging out.

Turns excessive cuteness, repetition and strange logic into a channel of its own.

Ultra-fast hardcore kicks, moe vocal samples and goofy effects, the frantic electronic music of Japan's doujin scene.

High-BPM electronic music designed for fingers and eyes: dense notes, sudden tempo shifts, the harder the better.

Tape hiss, eerie samples and slow, hazy rap: dark hip-hop grown from '90s Memphis underground rap.

Distorted cowbell melodies, blown-out 808s and relentless drive: the go-to soundtrack for drift edits and gym montages.

Brazilian funk's bouncing drums meet phonk's cowbell: hypnotic Portuguese vocal chops, dark yet danceable.

Chinese pop songs remixed into pounding slow-rock and car-stereo DJ edits, cheesy yet addictive.

Half-shouted, half-chanted bravado from livestream rooms: four syllables at a time, all swagger, so over-the-top it becomes addictive.

Speed a song up, raise its pitch, add an anime picture: an online remix culture that grew out of a Norwegian school project.

Swinging rhythm and blues plus country guitar, the first time teens screamed for music of their own.

Wet guitars drenched in spring reverb and fast tremolo picking, like riding into a wave.

The sound of a guitar band with the melody of a pop song: singable choruses and moderate energy, the most common kind of band pop.

Three chords, two minutes, hurling anger and jokes at the wall together.

Faster, shorter, harder: songs barely over a minute, shouted vocals and full-speed drums exploding in a basement.

Fast, sweet and loud: three-chord punk with instantly singable pop choruses.

Offbeat guitar "chk-chk" plus horns, bouncy joy you dance with bent knees.

Fast, intensely melodic and emotionally full, the sound behind countless anime openings.

Big hair, spandex and shout-along choruses, the shiniest party metal of the '80s.

Punk speed poured into metal weight, anger played as the fastest downpicking.

Fast double kick, soaring vocals and heroic sagas make metal bright and uplifting.

Fiddles, bagpipes and folk melodies plus distorted guitars, an epic feast that turns into a tavern brawl.

Down-tuned grooves, rap and turntables brought metal to late-'90s streets and MTV.

Screams tear the wound open; the clean-sung chorus pulls you back.

Metalcore breakdowns collide with EDM synths and drops, made for jumping on a rainy rooftop.

Heavy metal guitars and drums with sweet J-pop idol melodies and choreography: cute and violent, both turned up to the max.

Heavy low end slows time down while fine-grained rhythms keep speeding up between pressure and confidence.

A piercing synth loop, overdriven 808s and screamed vocals: trap written for the mosh pit.

Sliding 808s, syncopated hi-hats and cold delivery, the tense beat of dark estates.

London MCs spitting fast over cold 140 BPM electronic beats.

Everything on the one, every instrument turned into a drum.

Four-on-the-floor and shimmering strings, inviting everyone to be the star of the same night.

Pop built for both the dance floor and the charts: big hooks, four-on-the-floor and shiny production.

Rich chords, frequent key changes and fast, dense lyrics: modern Japanese pop built on piano and band, with choruses that soar.

Weaves melody, dance and vocal roles into a stage language the world can remember.

Guzheng, dizi and opera-style vocals meet electronic drums and drops: gufeng melodies sped up and bass-boosted into danceable C-style EDM.

Long-song melodies of the grasslands over a four-on-the-floor beat: high, wide open, all blue sky and galloping horses.

A whole horn section swinging together, so nobody on the dance floor can stay still.

Songs sailors roared while hauling rope: a lead line, a group answer, stomping as the beat.

Three-finger banjo rolls, mandolin and fiddle taking fast turns, joy on an Appalachian porch.

Horns, piano montuno and clave rhythm set the whole dance floor spinning.

The rolling rhythm of a full percussion corps, the heartbeat of the carnival parade.

Street parties in Rio's hillside communities: bouncing drum-machine beats, a wall of speakers and an MC's chants.

Trumpets and tubas racing in odd meters, like a street wedding that won't stop.

Balalaika and accordion getting faster and faster, clapping, stomping and squat-kicking: one song becomes a village party.