Split into several sections, this initial post is laid out to be a starting point if you want to read up on a specific genre that you're not familiar with. The first area being "Music Maps", the second being "BPM Charts", and the last being links to articles Wikipedia from which you can branch out even further.
MUSIC MAPSmusicmap
A fairly new project which offers an interactive "music map" of genres that connect music from 1880s until the 2020s. Very detailed and factually written. Zooming the map is essential to get to the intricate details.
Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music
This map covers a variety of Electronic Music Genres, starting in the early 1950s and ranging until mid 2010s. The articles are written fairly sarcastic for the sake of entertainment. Despite all that, this place has been a staple of information since early 2000s and does offer a lot of audio examples.
Map of Metal
The focus of this map is the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal genre, with the timeline starting in the early 1960s and ranging until the 2000s. This one was heavily inspired by "Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music v2.x", but is more informative than sarcastic.
Every Noise At Once
A (sadly) fairly chaotic listing of "every genre/noise" out there. Clicking on any of the genres in the "cloud of noises" results in one random audio demo. If you highlight that "genre" and then click on the showing arrows, you're forwarded to a genre-specific page with plenty of additional audio examples. This doesn't always work though. I highly recommend any of the upper mentioned maps as alternative.
ASSORTED:
Technical Genre Guide (on reddit)
Rate Your Music - Genre Listing (fairly simplistic)
Genre Spreadsheet (an open source Google Spreadsheet with many listed genres and up to four different examples: conventional, popular, fundamental and unconventional)
BPM CHARTSInfographic: Tempo in Electronic Music (article and visuals on Accusonus blog, great starting point)
Tempo (Wikipedia Article on "Tempo" in general, rather than BPM charts)
Tempo of Electronic Music (as described by a former club DJ on StackExchange)
WIKIPEDIA ARTICLES (Starting Points)Popular Music (vast information about the type of music we consume on a daily basis)
Music Genre (overall definition)
List of Popular Music Genres (the "root folder")
List of Electronic Music Genres
If you know of any further "interactive music maps" or better BPM charts, please mention that in the General Gossip thread for the Songwriting Competition, and I'll update this thread.
I hope this post has been helpful to you. Thank you for reading.
