Rock
Alternative, pop rock, classic, hard rock, country rock, grunge, blues rock, prog, psych, garage, shoegaze, industrial, etc. Cross-lists Metal & Punk.
1Alternative / Indie Rock
Alternative / Indie Rock
The strongest modern "default" rock bucket. If a listener says "rock" today but not classic, metal, punk, or country rock, they often mean some form of alternative or indie rock.
Pop Rock / Soft Rock
The broadest radio-friendly rock bucket. Many casual listeners recognize rock through polished choruses, softer guitars, and pop structure.
Classic Rock / Album Rock
The biggest catalog-recognition bucket. Not always current, but one of the most important browsing categories because rock has unusually strong catalog listening.
Hard Rock / Heavy Rock
The main home for loud, riff-forward rock that is not necessarily metal. One of the clearest sound-homes for listeners.
Country Rock / Americana / Roots Rock
Very important for modern discovery because country-rock and Americana-adjacent rock are heavily cross-listed with Country, Folk, and Singer-Songwriter music.
Folk Rock / Acoustic Rock
A major modern and catalog bridge between rock, folk, Americana, singer-songwriter, and adult alternative.
Punk Rock
A huge recognition bucket. Punk may eventually be its own Level 1, but inside Rock it absolutely needs a major branch.
Emo / Scene / Pop-Punk-Adjacent Rock
A strong listener-recognition category, especially for 2000s nostalgia, younger discovery, and pop-punk overlap.
Metal-Adjacent Rock / Heavy Metal Crossover
Metal can be its own Level 1, but many listeners browse heavy metal through rock. This branch is for rock-site discoverability and cross-linking.
Grunge / Post-Grunge
A very recognizable 90s-forward rock bucket. Grunge connects strongly to Alternative, Hard Rock, Punk, and Metal.
Arena / Anthem Rock
A useful listener-facing category because people know this sound even when they do not know the subgenre: big drums, big chorus, big feelings.
Blues Rock
A foundational and still very recognizable bucket. A core ancestor of Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Southern Rock, and Jam Rock.
Southern Rock / Swamp Rock
Popular as both a rock category and a Country/Americana crossover.
Singer-Songwriter / Story Rock
A strong cross-genre discovery bucket. Connects Rock to Folk, Country, Americana, Pop, and Christian music.
Heartland / Working-Class Rock
A good browsing category for Springsteen-lane, Midwest-lane, road-lane, small-town, blue-collar rock.
Post-Punk / New Wave / Synth Rock
Popular enough to be high because it feeds Alternative, Indie, Gothic, Dance Rock, Synth Pop, and 80s revival sounds.
Britpop / UK Indie / Madchester
Somewhat regional, but recognizable enough to keep above more niche experimental branches.
Progressive / Art Rock
High cultural importance, moderate mainstream browsing. Good for users who care about albums, musicianship, and concept records.
Psychedelic / Acid / Space Rock
A major historical and modern indie/stoner/shoegaze crossover branch.
Garage Rock / Revival Rock
High usefulness for raw, fuzzy, indie-adjacent rock.
Shoegaze / Dream Rock
A strong modern discovery bucket because shoegaze, dream pop, and noise pop have active listener communities.
Hardcore / Post-Hardcore
Less mainstream than Punk or Emo, but extremely important for classification. Cross-links heavily with Metal.
Industrial / Electronic / Dance Rock
Important because many users will hear "rock plus machines" and need somewhere to put it.
Christian / Worship Rock
Deserves a real branch because it can be a theme, a market, a production style, and a listener-intent category.
Funk Rock / Soul Rock / Dance-Funk Rock
Important as a bridge to R&B, Soul, Funk, Hip-Hop, and Dance.
Early Rock & Roll / Roots Rock
Historically huge, but for a modern website usually a deeper browse category unless the catalog focus is strong.
Glam / Sleaze / Theatrical Rock
Strong catalog and image recognition, especially for 70s glam and 80s hair metal overlap.
Power Pop / Jangle / College Rock
Important but usually better as a secondary discovery path under Indie, Pop Rock, or Alternative.
Doom / Stoner / Sludge Rock
A niche but important heavy branch. Cross-lists with Metal and Psychedelic Rock.
Surf / Instrumental Rock
Recognizable, useful, and historically important, but usually a narrower browsing lane.
Jazz Rock / Fusion Rock
Important musicianly branch, but more niche for general listener browsing.
Jam Rock / Improvisational Rock
Very important in live/festival contexts. Less important for casual genre browsing, but crucial for tagging.
Experimental / Noise / Post-Rock
Vital for accuracy, lower for mainstream popularity. Available but not high in the UI unless your audience is very music-nerdy.
Gothic / Dark / Deathrock
A distinct aesthetic and scene branch. Often cross-lists with Post-Punk, Punk, Metal, and Darkwave/Electronic.
Global / Regional Rock
Broad and important, but many of these should eventually live under dedicated regional/global Level 1 trees too.
Political / Conscious / Protest Rock
More of a theme layer than a sound-home, but useful for classification and search.
Novelty / Comedy / Character Rock
Sits low because it is usually a theme/persona tag rather than the main sound of the song.
Era / Scene Labels
Best treated as tags, not primary sound-homes. Last in the tree, but highly usable as filters.