411 genres

Random Genre Generator for Music, Film, Books and Games

Press Pick 5 new genres for five genres of music, film, TV, books or games, each with a one-line definition.

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MariachiMusic. Regional Mexican music from western Mexico, at least 18th century; violins, trumpets, guitars.
Beat 'em upVideo games. Hand-to-hand combat against many opponents, traditionally in scrolling 2D levels.
DubstepMusic. A South London sound from the early 2000s; syncopated rhythms, big basslines, a dark tone.
Tile-based gameTabletop games. Tiles are a fundamental element of play, as pieces or as the board; dominoes are one.
Cinéma véritéFilm. A documentary style from Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin; improvisation meets the camera.

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All 411 genres

Music 157

A cappella Music. Singing, solo or in a group, with no instruments behind it.
Acid house Music. Developed by Chicago DJs around the mid-1980s; defined by the squelch of the Roland TB-303.
Afrobeat Music. West African fusion of Yoruba music and highlife with funk and jazz; pioneered by Fela Kuti.
Afrobeats Music. An umbrella term for West African pop developed in Nigeria, Ghana and the UK since the 2000s.
Alternative rock Music. Grew from the independent underground of the 1970s; mainstream success came in the 1990s.
Amapiano Music. From South Africa, popular since the early 2020s; the name means pianos in IsiZulu.
Ambient Music. Tone and atmosphere come before rhythm or melody; layers of texture for calm listening.
Americana Music. A general term for American roots music, with the emphasis on the music of the South.
Bachata Music. A 20th-century Dominican style; guitar and maracas were its first instruments.
Barbershop Music. Unaccompanied four-part close harmony: lead, tenor, bass and baritone.
Baroque Music. The Western classical period that ran from roughly 1600 to 1750.
Bebop Music. Jazz of the early to mid 1940s; fast tempos, complex chord changes and virtuoso improvisation.

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Music, continued

Bhangra Music. From the Punjab region; the dhol, a two-headed drum hit with a pair of sticks, drives it.
Black metal Music. Fast tempos, shrieked vocals and raw recording; named after a 1982 album by Venom.
Bluegrass Music. Developed in 1940s Appalachia on acoustic instruments; named after Bill Monroe's band.
Blues Music. An 1860s creation of the American Deep South; most songs follow the twelve-bar form.
Boom bap Music. East Coast hip-hop, late 1980s to early 1990s; the name imitates a kick drum and a snare.
Bossa nova Music. A laid-back take on samba from Rio de Janeiro, late 1950s into the 1960s.
Britpop Music. A British movement of the 1990s; bright, catchy guitar rock drawing on 1960s British pop.
Calypso Music. From Trinidad and Tobago, going back to the early to mid 19th century.
Cantopop Music. Pop sung in Cantonese, tied to Hong Kong; a 1970s style with a name from 1978.
Carnatic Music. The classical music of South India; Telugu and Sanskrit are the main languages of its songs.
Celtic Music. Music grown from the folk traditions of the Celtic peoples of Northwestern Europe.
Chanson Music. Lyric-driven French song, from medieval polyphony to the French pop of the 1950s and 1960s.
Chicago blues Music. Urban blues built on Delta blues; electric guitar, amplification and distortion.
Chiptune Music. Electronic music made with the sound chips of old consoles, home computers and arcade machines.
City pop Music. Japanese pop that emerged in the mid-1970s and peaked in the 1980s; funk, disco and soft rock.
Classical Music. The Western art music tradition, notated from the ninth century or earlier.
Cool jazz Music. A post-war American jazz style; tempos are relaxed and the tone is lighter than bebop.
Country Music. From the American South; ballads and dance tunes on fiddle, banjo, harmonica and guitar.
Cumbia Music. Latin American rhythms and folk dances with Indigenous, European and African elements.
Dancehall Music. Jamaican popular music that began in the late 1970s as a sparser version of reggae.
Death metal Music. Extreme metal with low-tuned guitars, deep growled vocals and blast beat drumming.
Delta blues Music. Among the oldest blues styles, from the Mississippi Delta; listen for slide guitar.
Disco Music. Dance music from late 1960s American nightlife; four-on-the-floor beats and string sections.
Dixieland Music. Traditional jazz in the early New Orleans style; 1917 recordings spread awareness of it.
Doo-wop Music. A late-1940s sound from big American cities; vocal group harmony with little or no backing.
Doom metal Music. Slow tempos, guitars tuned low and a thick, heavy sound meant to evoke dread.
Dream pop Music. Atmosphere counts as much as melody: breathy vocals, reverb, echo. Prominent in the 1980s.
Drone Music. Minimalist music built on sustained tones; La Monte Young was among its 1960s originators.
Drum and bass Music. British, early 1990s; breakbeats at 165 to 185 BPM over heavy bass.
Dub Music. A reggae offshoot, late 1960s onward; producers remix tracks and pull the vocals out.
Dubstep Music. A South London sound from the early 2000s; syncopated rhythms, big basslines, a dark tone.
Electro swing Music. Old swing and jazz records reworked with house and hip-hop beats for dancing.
Electronic dance music Music. A broad family of percussive electronic styles built for clubs, raves and festivals.
Emo Music. Out of the hardcore scene of Washington, D.C.; punk with emotional, confessional lyrics.
Enka Music. Japanese sentimental ballads in a traditional vocal style; the modern form is postwar.
Eurodance Music. Dance music from late 1980s Western Europe; rich vocals, rapped verses and melodic hooks.
Exotica Music. Popular from the 1950s to the mid-1960s; the name comes from a 1957 Martin Denny album.
Fado Music. Portuguese song traced to 1820s Lisbon; the name means destiny or fate.
Film score Music. Original music composed for a film, in timed pieces called cues.
Filmi Music. Songs from Indian cinema; Hindi film songs are a predominant part of Indian pop music.
Flamenco Music. An art form built on southern Spanish folk music, above all that of Andalusia.
Folk Music. Traditional music passed on by ear, plus the style that grew from the 20th-century folk revival.
Folk metal Music. Heavy metal fused with traditional folk music; a European development of the 1990s.
Folk rock Music. Arose in the mid-1960s when folk performers took up electric instruments and drums.
Funk Music. Mid-1960s; the groove of electric bass and drums matters more than melody or chords.
Gamelan Music. Ensembles of metallophones and hand drums from Java, Sunda and Bali.
Garage rock Music. Raw, energetic 1960s rock and roll, at its height mid-decade in Canada and the United States.
Glam metal Music. Pop hooks, upbeat anthems and slow power ballads, in the look of 1970s glam rock.
Glam rock Music. British, early 1970s; platform shoes, glitter and makeup on stage.
Gospel Music. Traditional Christian music with dominant vocals, often in strong harmony.
Gregorian chant Music. Latin sacred song with no accompaniment; most of its development came in the 800s and 900s.
Grime Music. A London style of the early 2000s that came from UK garage; rapid breakbeats near 140 BPM.
Grunge Music. First called the Seattle Sound; emerged in the mid-1980s as a fusion of punk rock and metal.
Hard rock Music. Began in the mid-1960s; aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars.
Hardcore punk Music. Late 1970s punk rock pushed faster, harder and angrier.
Heavy metal Music. Took shape around 1970; distorted guitars, long solos and sheer volume.
Highlife Music. Ghanaian music from the 19th century; traditional African rhythms played on Western instruments.
Hindustani classical Music. Classical music of northern India on sitar, sarod and veena; split from Carnatic in the 12th century.
Hip-hop Music. Emerged in New York City in the early 1970s; rapping, DJing, scratching and beatboxing.
Honky-tonk Music. Country music named after the bars where it is played, across the South and Southwest.
House Music. Created in Chicago in the early to mid 1980s; a four-on-the-floor beat at 115 to 130 BPM.
Hyperpop Music. British in origin, early 2010s; an exaggerated, maximalist take on pop.
Indie rock Music. Began in the early to mid 1980s in three places: Britain, New Zealand and the United States.
Industrial Music. Experimental music of the later 1970s; Monte Cazazza came up with the name in 1976.
Italo disco Music. Italian, early 1980s; drum machines, synthesizers and mostly English lyrics.
J-pop Music. Japanese popular music, mainstream since the 1990s; at home people just say pops.
Jazz Music. Born in New Orleans between the late 1800s and the early 1900s; swing, blue notes and improvising.
Jazz fusion Music. Late 1960s; jazz harmony and improvisation met rock, funk and R&B.
K-pop Music. Popular music from South Korea; the modern form emerged in the 1990s.
Klezmer Music. Instrumental music of Ashkenazi Jewish communities in Central and Eastern Europe; a wedding staple.
Krautrock Music. Experimental West German rock from around 1970; hypnotic rhythms, early synths.
Latin jazz Music. Jazz over Latin American rhythms, in an Afro-Cuban branch and an Afro-Brazilian one.
Lo-fi Music. Recording flaws left in on purpose; by the 1990s it counted as a pop style of its own.
March Music. A strong, regular rhythm first written for soldiers marching in step; a military band staple.
Mariachi Music. Regional Mexican music from western Mexico, at least 18th century; violins, trumpets, guitars.
Math rock Music. Indie rock built on odd time signatures, counterpoint and stop-start rhythms.
Merengue Music. Music and dance of the Dominican Republic, from the mid 19th century; UNESCO listed it in 2016.
Metalcore Music. Heavy metal crossed with hardcore punk; American, 1990s, and known for breakdowns.
Minimalism Music. Art music made from limited materials: repeated patterns, steady pulses and drones.
Musique concrète Music. Composition with recorded sounds as its raw material, often assembled into sound collage.
Neo soul Music. A term coined by Kedar Massenburg in the late 1990s; soul with funk, jazz and hip-hop elements.
New jack swing Music. Hip-hop rhythms under R&B; its peak ran from the late 1980s into the early 1990s.
New wave Music. Pop-leaning styles that branched off from punk rock in the mid to late 1970s.
New-age Music. Music meant for relaxation and optimism; used for yoga, massage, meditation and reading.
Norteño Music. Regional Mexican music led by an accordion and a bajo sexto.
Northern soul Music. An early 1970s dance movement in England's north and Midlands; rare, fast soul records.
Nu metal Music. Heavy metal mixed with hip-hop, funk and industrial; down-tuned guitars and few solos.
Opera Music. Western theatre in which the dramatic roles are sung; a composer works with a librettist.
Outlaw country Music. 1970s and early 1980s artists who won creative freedom from the Nashville establishment.
Polka Music. Dance music from 19th-century Bohemia, which is in today's Czech Republic.
Pop Music. Took its modern form in the mid-1950s; shortish songs with hooks and repeated choruses.
Pop-punk Music. Fast, energetic punk tempos joined to classic pop songcraft.
Post-punk Music. Late 1970s; bands left punk's raw simplicity to experiment more widely.
Post-rock Music. Experimental rock that puts texture and atmosphere ahead of conventional song structure.
Power metal Music. Fast, light, uplifting metal, with anthemic choruses and fantasy subject matter.
Progressive rock Music. Developed in the mid to late 1960s; rock instruments, with jazz, folk and classical technique.
Psychedelic rock Music. Emerged in the mid-1960s; new studio effects, long instrumental solos and improvisation.
Punk rock Music. Emerged in the mid-1970s; short, fast, stripped-down songs and a do-it-yourself ethic.
Qawwali Music. Sufi devotional singing of South Asia, by tradition heard at shrines.
Ragtime Music. Syncopated, ragged rhythm; popular from the 1890s to the 1910s, with Scott Joplin its star.
Raï Music. Algerian popular music from Oran, with origins going back to the 1920s.
Ranchera Music. Traditional Mexican song that dates to before the Mexican Revolution; rooted in rural folk music.
Reggae Music. Jamaican, late 1960s; a 1968 Toots and the Maytals single gave it the name.
Reggaeton Music. A late-1980s Puerto Rican style with roots in Panama's Spanish-language reggae.
Rhythm and blues Music. Began in African American communities in the 1940s; usually shortened to R&B.
Riot grrrl Music. Feminist punk from the underground of Olympia, Washington, starting in the early 1990s.
Rock Music. Started in the United States around 1950, first called rock and roll; many styles by the mid-1960s.
Rock and roll Music. An American style that evolved around 1950 and got its name in 1954.
Rockabilly Music. One of the earliest rock and roll styles, early 1950s; the name blends rock and hillbilly.
Rocksteady Music. Jamaica, around 1966; it followed ska, led to reggae and was dominant for nearly two years.
Romantic era Music. 19th-century classical music that set out to be individual, emotional and dramatic.
Salsa Music. Latin dance music based mainly on two Cuban styles, son cubano and son montuno.
Samba Music. Brazilian rhythms with Afro-Brazilian roots in Bahia, from around the turn of the 20th century.
Schlager Music. European pop with catchy tunes and simple, sentimental lyrics; the German word means hit.
Sea shanty Music. Work songs once sung to keep time during labour aboard large merchant sailing ships.
Shoegaze Music. Late 1980s, mainly British; dreamy walls of sound, buried vocals and heavy guitar effects.
Show tunes Music. Songs written for the score of a stage or film musical that live on outside the show.
Ska Music. Jamaican, late 1950s; a walking bass line with accents on the off beat.
Skiffle Music. Folk with blues and jazz influences on homemade instruments; hugely popular in 1950s Britain.
Soca Music. The "soul of calypso", which Lord Shorty created in 1970s Trinidad and Tobago.
Son cubano Music. Music and dance from eastern Cuba's highlands, late 19th century; Spanish and African roots.
Soukous Music. Congolese dance music, a 1960s outgrowth of Congolese rumba; bright, intricate guitar.
Soul Music. American, from around 1960; catchy rhythms, handclaps and call and response.
Southern rock Music. Bands from the American South blending blues, country and rock and roll.
Spirituals Music. Christian songs created by enslaved African Americans; they fed into the blues and gospel.
Surf rock Music. Southern California, at its height 1958 to 1964; reverb-heavy guitars like crashing waves.
Swing Music. Big band jazz from the late 1920s; it ruled American pop between 1935 and 1946.
Symphonic metal Music. Heavy metal with orchestral elements: choirs, symphonic instruments or a full orchestra.
Synth-pop Music. Prominent from the late 1970s; the synthesizer is the dominant instrument.
Synthwave Music. A style of the later 2000s, modelled on 1970s and 1980s film soundtracks.
Tango Music. From Argentina and Uruguay around the turn of the 20th century; ensembles include bandoneóns.
Techno Music. From Detroit in the mid-1980s; made for continuous DJ sets at 120 to 150 BPM.
Tejano Music. Also called Tex-Mex; a fusion of American and Mexican influences that grew out of norteño.
Thrash metal Music. Fast, aggressive metal: percussive beats, low riffs and shredding lead guitar.
Trance Music. From Frankfurt around 1990; 120 to 150 BPM, with tracks that build to a peak.
Trap Music. A hip-hop style from the Southern United States; synthesized drums and complex hi-hats.
Trip hop Music. Slow, atmospheric hip-hop and electronica from Bristol; Mixmag coined the name in 1994.
Tropicália Music. A Brazilian movement of the late 1960s; Brazilian and African rhythms met psychedelia and pop.
Tuvan throat singing Music. Overtone singing practised in Tuva and Mongolia; added to a UNESCO heritage list in 2009.
Two-tone Music. British ska revival of the late 1970s and early 1980s; named after a label founded in 1979.
UK garage Music. English, early to mid 1990s; shuffled rhythms and chopped vocals at around 130 BPM.
Vaporwave Music. An internet microgenre of the early 2010s; slowed, chopped samples of smooth jazz and lounge.
Western swing Music. Country music crossed with jazz; hot string bands with fiddles and steel guitar.
Yacht rock Music. Smooth soft rock, mid-1970s to mid-1980s; named in 2005 by an online comedy series.
Zydeco Music. Made by French-speaking Creoles in the countryside of Southwest Louisiana; accordion and rubboard.

Film and TV 82

Action film Film. Stunts, chases, fights and explosions take priority over everything else.
Adventure film Film. A hero tries to put things right in a setting remote from the audience in time and place.
Animation Film. Drawn or computer-made pictures shown one after another so that they seem to move.
Anthology film Film. Several shorter films, three at least, in one, often tied together by a theme or premise.
Art film Film. An independent film for a niche audience; serious, often experimental, not made for mass appeal.
Biopic Film. Dramatises a real person's life and keeps that person's real name.
Black comedy Film. Jokes about subjects usually treated as serious, painful or taboo.
Buddy cop Film. Two very different partners, usually police officers, have to crack a case together.
Buddy film Film. Two mismatched people share a mission, an adventure or a long drive.
Children's film Film. Made specifically for children; the wider family film aims at a general audience too.
Cinéma vérité Film. A documentary style from Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin; improvisation meets the camera.
Comedy film Film. Made to get laughs; one of the oldest film genres, going back to silent slapstick.
Coming-of-age Film. A protagonist grows from childhood to adulthood; emotional change matters more than action.
Concert film Film. A live music performance filmed from the point of view of a concert goer.
Crime film Film. A genre in which crime is the key element of the plot.
Disaster film Film. A disaster, looming or under way, drives the plot: natural, accidental or global.
Docudrama Film. Dramatised re-enactments of actual events; a hybrid of documentary and drama.
Documentary Film. Nonfiction film meant to document reality for instruction, education or the historical record.
Drama Film. Fiction with a serious tone, as opposed to a comic one.
Epic film Film. Big scale, wide scope and plenty of spectacle, often centred on a heroic character.
Fantasy film Film. Stories of magic, myth, folklore and invented worlds.
Film noir Film. Cynical Hollywood crime dramas in low-key black and white; classic period, the 1940s and 1950s.
Folk horror Film. Folklore turned frightening: rural settings, isolation, superstition and the dark side of nature.
Found footage Film. Presented as recordings made by the characters and found later, shaky camera work included.
Game show TV. A host runs a game and contestants play for prizes; the form dates to the late 1930s.
Gangster film Film. A crime subgenre about gangs and organised crime, from big organisations to small crews.
Giallo Film. Italian-made murder mystery thrillers that blend suspense with elements of horror.
Heist film Film. A big robbery, planned, carried out and then unravelling; The Asphalt Jungle (1950) defined it.
Historical drama Film. Drama with a past setting; also called a period drama or period piece.
Horror film Film. Sets out to frighten; monsters, apocalyptic events and folk beliefs are common elements.
Jukebox musical Film. A musical built from existing hit songs, not an original score.
Kaiju Film. Japanese monster films, a branch of tokusatsu; creatures attack cities and battle each other.
Kung fu film Film. Hong Kong action films with realistic unarmed combat and none of the fantasy of wuxia.
Legal drama Film. Also called courtroom drama; stories about lawyers, trials and how justice works.
Martial arts film Film. Action films in which the fights between characters are the primary appeal.
Masala film Film. Indian films from the 1970s on that mix romance, action, drama and comedy, often with songs.
Medical drama TV. Events centre on a hospital, a clinic or another medical setting, and on the staff's lives.
Melodrama Film. A sensational plot and strong emotional appeal take precedence over detailed characters.
Miniseries TV. One story told in a fixed, small run of episodes, usually between 2 and 12.
Mockumentary Film. Fictional events presented as a documentary; the word is from the 1960s.
Monster movie Film. One or more monsters attack and the characters try to stay alive; also called a creature feature.
Mumblecore Film. Low-budget independent film with naturalistic acting and dialogue put ahead of plot.
Musical film Film. Songs sung by the characters are woven into the story, sometimes with dancing.
Mystery film Film. A detective or amateur sleuth solves a crime through clues, investigation and deduction.
Nature documentary Film. A documentary about animals, plants and other living things, mostly in their natural habitat.
Neo-noir Film. From the 1970s; classic noir themes adapted for contemporary audiences, often in vibrant colour.
Parody film Film. A comedy that lampoons other films or whole genres by imitating their style.
Police procedural TV. Crime drama that stresses the accurate depiction of police investigation.
Political thriller Film. A thriller set against a political power struggle, often with a country's fate at stake.
Psychological horror Film. Fear comes from mental and emotional states, often through unstable or unreliable characters.
Reality television TV. Unscripted situations, often with ordinary people; a distinct genre since the early 1990s.
Road movie Film. The leads set off by road, and the trip changes how they look at life back home.
Romance film Film. Finding love is the main plot, through courtship and obstacles.
Romantic comedy Film. Light, humorous plots about love overcoming obstacles; the meet-cute is a common convention.
Samurai cinema Film. Known in Japan as chanbara, meaning sword fighting; a branch of jidaigeki period drama.
Science fiction film Film. Speculative science on screen: aliens, spacecraft, robots, time travel.
Screwball comedy Film. Early 1930s to early 1950s; satirises the love story with a comic battle of the sexes.
Silent comedy Film. Visual comedy from the silent film era of the 1900s to 1920s, with techniques from vaudeville.
Sitcom TV. Short for situation comedy; a recurring cast meets funny situations in one consistent setting.
Sketch comedy TV. A run of short comic scenes, most lasting from one to ten minutes.
Slapstick Film. Physical comedy: pratfalls, trips, falls and practical jokes, all goofy and harmless.
Slasher Film. A horror subgenre in which a killer stalks a group of people.
Soap opera TV. Long-running serial drama; the name comes from the soap makers who sponsored radio dramas.
Spaghetti Western Film. Westerns produced in Europe from the mid-1960s, mostly Italian and Spanish co-productions.
Sports film Film. A sport is central to the plot, and it usually stands for something bigger.
Spy film Film. Fictional espionage, realistic or fantastical; a significant part of British cinema.
Stop motion Film. Objects are moved in small steps between photographed frames; puppets and clay are common.
Superhero film Film. Characters with extraordinary abilities fight crime, save the world or help the innocent.
Supernatural horror Film. Ghosts, demons and the afterlife; possession is a common theme.
Swashbuckler Film. Sword fights and adventurous heroes who usually follow a code of honour.
Sword-and-sandal Film. Largely Italian epics, mostly set in Greco-Roman antiquity; a craze from 1958 to 1965.
Talk show TV. Built around spontaneous conversation between a host and guests; called a chat show in Britain.
Teen film Film. Aimed at teenagers, with plots about fitting in, first love, rebellion and conflict with parents.
Telenovela TV. Serial drama produced mainly by Latin American studios; the word joins tele and novela.
Thriller film Film. Built on suspense; the tension comes from putting off an outcome the audience expects.
Tokusatsu Film. Japanese live-action film and TV with heavy use of practical effects; credited to Eiji Tsuburaya.
Tragicomedy Film. Blends tragic and comic forms: a tragedy lightened by comedy, or a serious story that ends well.
Vampire film Film. A staple since the silent era; the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker is the most adapted source.
War film Film. Warfare on land, at sea or in the air; the battle scenes carry the drama.
Western film Film. Set on the American frontier, most often during the westward expansion of the 19th century.
Wuxia Film. Chinese tales about martial artists of ancient times; a literary genre adapted for film, TV and games.
Zombie film Film. Reanimated corpses or infected humans; mostly horror, with comedy and apocalypse offshoots.

Books 90

Absurdist fiction Books. Characters search for a purpose in life and find none; a product of the 1950s and 1960s.
Adventure fiction Books. Danger on the page and excitement for the reader.
Afrofuturism Books. Explores where African diaspora culture meets science and technology; imagines Black futures.
Alternate history Books. History takes a different turn at some point, and the story explores the what if.
Autobiography Books. A life story written by the person who lived it; the word dates from 1797.
Bildungsroman Books. Follows the protagonist's moral and psychological growth from childhood to adulthood.
Biography Books. Someone's life in detail, past the basic facts to how the person lived them.
Campus novel Books. Set at a university and around it; the current form dates to the early 1950s.
Children's literature Books. Stories, books and poems made for children, from picture books up to young adult fiction.
Climate fiction Books. Fiction about climate change; often shortened to cli-fi.
Cosmic horror Books. Dread of the unknowable in place of gore; also named Lovecraftian after H. P. Lovecraft.
Cozy mystery Books. An amateur sleuth, a small close community, and the violence kept offstage.
Creative nonfiction Books. Factually accurate narratives told with the techniques of literature.
Crime fiction Books. Centres on a crime, murder more often than not, and the amateur or professional who investigates.
Cyberpunk Books. Dystopian-future science fiction, summed up as "lowlife and high tech".
Dark fantasy Books. Fantasy with horror mixed in.
Dystopian fiction Books. Speculative fiction about a society that is the opposite of the author's ideals.
Epic poetry Books. A lengthy poem that tells of larger-than-life figures doing remarkable deeds.
Epistolary novel Books. A story told through letters, and sometimes diary pages and newspaper cuttings.
Essay Books. Short nonfiction in which the writer argues a personal view; can be formal or informal.
Fable Books. A short story with talking animals, plants or objects that leads to a moral lesson.
Fairy tale Books. A short folklore story with magic, enchantments and mythical beings.
Family saga Books. Follows one family, or several linked ones, across the years.
Fan fiction Books. Amateur stories by fans that borrow the world or characters of a published work.
Fantasy fiction Books. Set in an imaginary universe, usually with magic and magical creatures.
Flash fiction Books. A story of very few words that still hints at a bigger one and lets a character change.
Folk tale Books. A tale handed down by word of mouth as part of a people's folklore.
Ghost story Books. Fiction with a ghost in it, or built on the chance that ghosts are real.
Gothic fiction Books. Fear and haunting as an aesthetic; Horace Walpole began it in 1764 with The Castle of Otranto.
Graphic novel Books. A self-contained, book-length work of comics; fiction, nonfiction or anthology.
Grimdark Books. Dystopian, amoral and violent in tone; the name comes from a tabletop strategy game's tagline.
Hard science fiction Books. Cares about getting the science and the logic right; the term first appeared in print in 1957.
Hardboiled Books. A cynical detective battles organised crime and a corrupt legal system, often in Prohibition America.
High fantasy Books. Also called epic fantasy; set in a secondary world with its own consistent rules.
Historical fiction Books. An invented plot set among real historical events, with attention to the manners of the time.
Historical romance Books. Mass-market love stories set in past periods.
Horror fiction Books. Speculative fiction meant to frighten or disturb; psychological or supernatural.
Isekai Books. Japanese fantasy in which a person is transported to another world and has to survive there.
Legal thriller Books. Crime fiction that turns on an investigation and its effect on courtroom proceedings.
Light novel Books. Popular Japanese novels for teens and twenties, usually with manga-style illustrations.
Literary fiction Books. More character-driven than plot-driven; usually contrasted with genre fiction.
LitRPG Books. Novels that follow computer RPG conventions, visible stats included; the term is from 2013.
Locked-room mystery Books. A crime that seems impossible, such as a body behind a door bolted from within.
Lost world Books. Explorers find an unknown land or civilisation; began as late-Victorian adventure romance.
Low fantasy Books. Magic breaks into a world that is otherwise ordinary.
Magical realism Books. Magical elements turn up in a realistic, mundane setting.
Memoir Books. Nonfiction drawn from the author's own memories, usually about one phase of a life or career.
Military science fiction Books. Science fiction technology put to military use; the main characters usually serve in a military.
Mystery fiction Books. Something, often a murder, stays unexplained until the end; the suspects are usually a closed circle.
Myth Books. Folklore stories that a society treats as foundational, true or not.
Nature writing Books. Prose on the natural world that mixes scientific fact with personal observation.
Nautical fiction Books. Stories set at sea or beside it, about people, ships and voyages.
Noir fiction Books. Dark crime fiction, dark in subject too; the French name roman noir means black novel.
Nordic noir Books. Police-led crime fiction set in the Nordic countries; plain language, bleak land.
Paranormal romance Books. Romantic love with elements beyond scientific explanation, from fantasy, sci-fi or horror.
Penny dreadful Books. Cheap 19th-century British serials sold in weekly parts at a penny each.
Philosophical fiction Books. Fiction that spends much of its length on the questions philosophy asks.
Picaresque Books. A likeable rogue lives by his wits; began with Lazarillo de Tormes (1554).
Picture book Books. Combines visual and verbal storytelling in book form, most often for young children.
Planetary romance Books. Adventure set on a single exotic alien planet; also called sword and planet.
Poetry Books. Literary art that uses the sound and rhythm of language to evoke meaning beyond the literal.
Popular science Books. Science presented for a general audience; scientists write it, and so do journalists.
Post-apocalyptic fiction Books. Speculative fiction in which civilisation is collapsing or has already collapsed.
Psychological thriller Books. A thriller seen from inside the heads of characters under mental strain.
Pulp fiction Books. Stories from cheap magazines printed on wood pulp paper, published from 1896 to around 1955.
Regency romance Books. Set during the British Regency of 1811 to 1820; shaped by Georgette Heyer's novels from 1935.
Robinsonade Books. Castaways improvise survival far from civilisation; named after Robinson Crusoe (1719).
Roman à clef Books. A novel about real events with a fictional surface; a 17th-century creation.
Romance fiction Books. Follows a romantic relationship and usually ends on an emotionally satisfying note.
Romantasy Books. Romantic fantasy: a fantasy whose plot depends on the romance.
Satire Books. Holds vices, follies and shortcomings up to ridicule, often as constructive social criticism.
Science fiction Books. Speculative fiction about advanced science and technology: space, time travel, robots.
Self-help Books. Books on solving personal problems; the name comes from Samuel Smiles's Self-Help (1859).
Solarpunk Books. Speculative fiction about ecologically sustainable futures; often called cyberpunk's inverse.
Southern Gothic Books. Gothic-tinged fiction whose setting is the American South.
Space opera Books. Epic adventures in outer space, with space warfare, alien civilisations and galactic empires.
Spy fiction Books. Espionage as the plot device; it arose in the early 1900s alongside modern spy agencies.
Steampunk Books. Retro-futuristic technology inspired by 19th-century steam-powered machinery.
Sword and sorcery Books. Sword-wielding heroes in personal battles; began with Robert E. Howard's early 1930s stories.
Tall tale Books. An impossible story delivered with a straight face, as though every word happened.
Techno-thriller Books. A thriller packed with technical detail, typically military technology.
Thriller fiction Books. Defined by mood: anxiety, anticipation, surprise and above all suspense.
Time travel fiction Books. A fixture from the late 1800s on; H. G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895) popularised the idea.
Travel writing Books. Travelogues, guide books, outdoor literature and travel memoirs.
True crime Books. Nonfiction about a real crime and the people connected with it.
Urban fantasy Books. The supernatural in a present-day city; the label goes back to the 1970s.
Weird fiction Books. Took shape around 1900; it avoids or reinvents ghosts, vampires and werewolves.
Western fiction Books. Set on the frontier of the American Old West; its popularity peaked near the early 1960s.
Whodunit Books. A plot-driven puzzle; the reader gets the clues and can deduce the culprit before the reveal.
Young adult fiction Books. Aimed at ages 12 to 18; the term has been traced back to 1942.

Games 82

4X Video games. Explore, expand, exploit, exterminate: empire-building strategy on computer or board.
Abstract strategy game Tabletop games. Little or no theme, luck or hidden information; chess, checkers and Go are the classics.
Action game Video games. Physical challenges that test reaction time and hand-eye coordination.
Action role-playing game Video games. Combines core elements of the action game and the role-playing game.
Adventure game Video games. You play the lead in a story that moves forward through exploring and solving puzzles.
Artillery game Video games. Usually turn-based duels in which cannons fire along a ballistic trajectory.
Auto battler Video games. Place characters on a grid, then watch them fight with no more input; also auto chess.
Battle royale Video games. Up to hundreds of players, a shrinking safe area, and the last one alive wins.
Beat 'em up Video games. Hand-to-hand combat against many opponents, traditionally in scrolling 2D levels.
Board game Tabletop games. Pieces are placed and moved on a patterned board; the term dates from the 1840s or 1850s.
Bullet hell Video games. A shoot 'em up that fills the screen with projectiles to avoid; introduced in 1993.
Business simulation Video games. Tycoon games; the player manages economic processes, usually a business.
Card game Tabletop games. Cards are the main device, whether a traditional deck or a custom one.
City-building game Video games. You plan and run a town from an overhead view.
Collectible card game Tabletop games. Strategic deck building with tradable cards; the first one appeared in 1993.
Cooperative board game Tabletop games. Players work together towards a common goal, and win or lose as a group.
Cozy game Video games. Non-violence and relaxation: gathering, gardening and caring for other characters.
Dating sim Video games. A simulation subgenre with romantic elements, a calendar and a time management layer.
Deck-building game Tabletop games. Each player builds a deck of cards during the game itself, not before it.
Digital collectible card game Video games. A computer version of collectible card games, typically played online.
Dungeon crawl Video games. Heroes work through a labyrinth, battling monsters, avoiding traps and looting treasure.
Educational game Video games. A video game that provides learning or training value; also known as edutainment.
Endless runner Video games. A platformer in which the character runs on and on while avoiding obstacles.
Eurogame Tabletop games. The German-style board game; indirect interaction and no player elimination.
Exergame Video games. A game that doubles as a workout by tracking how the body moves.
Fighting game Video games. Combat between characters, often one on one, with blocks, counters and chained combos.
First-person shooter Video games. Gun combat seen from the hero's own point of view.
Flight simulator Video games. Simulates aspects of flight for purposes other than pilot training.
God game Video games. The player controls the game on a large scale, guarding and influencing autonomous characters.
Grand strategy Video games. Wargames in which you direct all the resources of a nation or an empire.
Hack and slash Video games. Combat with melee weapons such as swords; the term began in tabletop role-playing.
Hero shooter Video games. A shooter built on hero characters with distinctive abilities; teamwork matters.
Hidden object game Video games. Spot every listed item tucked into a busy scene; a casual gaming favourite.
Idle game Video games. Also called incremental or clicker games; resources build up through repetition or automation.
Immersive sim Video games. Simulated systems respond to many player actions, so problems have varied, creative solutions.
Kart racing Video games. Simplified driving, unusual tracks, obstacles and vehicular combat; popularised in 1992.
Legacy game Tabletop games. A board game designed to change permanently over a series of sessions.
Life simulation Video games. You live as, or look after, virtual characters, or even a whole ecosystem.
Light-gun shooter Video games. The player aims a gun-shaped controller at the screen, as in a shooting gallery.
Match-three Video games. A tile-matching puzzle; place three or more of the same tile together to clear them.
Maze game Video games. Find a way through a maze, often while being chased; the label is from 1980.
Metroidvania Video games. Nonlinear exploration gated by key items; the name joins two game series of the 1980s.
Miniature wargame Tabletop games. Small painted figures stand in for armies on a modelled battlefield.
MMORPG Video games. Role-playing in a persistent online world shared by very large numbers of players.
MOBA Video games. Multiplayer online battle arena: two teams, one character each, an enemy base to destroy.
Party game Tabletop games. Played at social gatherings; easy to learn, and players are rarely eliminated.
Party video game Video games. Simple controls and short minigames built around player-to-player interaction.
Platformer Video games. Jump and climb between platforms and over rough ground; also called a jump 'n' run.
Point-and-click adventure Video games. A graphic adventure played by clicking on scenes; hunting for small items is part of it.
Programming game Video games. The player writes commands, often in a visual language, to direct autonomous units.
Puzzle game Video games. Logic, pattern recognition, sequence solving and word puzzles, sometimes in real time.
Racing game Video games. The player takes part in a race, anywhere from realistic simulation to arcade style.
Rail shooter Video games. The player is locked to a set path, like a theme park ride; began in 1985 arcades.
Real-time strategy Video games. Gather resources and direct units continuously, not in turns; an early 1990s term.
Rhythm game Video games. Music-themed action; press buttons in a set sequence in time with the music.
Roguelike Video games. Procedurally generated dungeons, turn-based play and permanent death; named after a 1980 game.
Roguelike deck-builder Video games. A hybrid of deck-building card games and the procedural randomness of roguelikes.
Role-playing game Video games. A detailed story and character advancement, often through levels and skills.
Sandbox game Video games. Great freedom to create, usually with no set goal, or one the players choose.
Shoot 'em up Video games. An action subgenre with roots in mid-20th-century shooting games; fans call them shmups.
Shooter Video games. An action subgenre about defeating enemies with ranged weapons.
Sim racing Video games. Racing games that simulate fuel use, damage, tyre wear, grip and suspension settings.
Simulation game Video games. Built to copy real-world activities closely, usually with no strict goal.
Social deduction game Tabletop games. Work out who holds which secret role while the others bluff.
Soulslike Video games. Action role-playing in large, enemy-filled worlds; the subgenre was pioneered in 2009.
Sports game Video games. Simulates sports, from team games to track and field; some focus on management.
Stealth game Video games. Hide, sneak or wear a disguise to get past opponents or take them down.
Strategy game Video games. Planning and decision-making with many units and limited resources, not quick reflexes.
Survival game Video games. Start with minimal equipment in a hostile open world and manage hunger, thirst and health.
Survival horror Video games. Horror themes with limited ammunition, health and vision, so the player feels less in control.
Tabletop role-playing game Tabletop games. Players say what their characters do; rules and dice decide the outcome.
Tactical role-playing game Video games. Role-playing combined with tactical strategy, paced like a tabletop game.
Text adventure Video games. Interactive fiction; you type commands and the characters carry them out.
Third-person shooter Video games. A 3D shooter in which you can see your character on screen.
Tile-based game Tabletop games. Tiles are a fundamental element of play, as pieces or as the board; dominoes are one.
Tower defense Video games. Place defensive structures along the enemy's path to stop attackers reaching the exit.
Trick-taking game Tabletop games. Card play in rounds called tricks; bridge, whist and spades are examples.
Turn-based strategy Video games. Strategy in which each player moves in turn.
Turn-based tactics Video games. Turn-based simulations of small-scale battles, fought with only the forces provided.
Visual novel Video games. A story-first genre of Japanese origin told with text boxes and static character art.
Walking simulator Video games. An adventure game of movement and exploring, generally with no combat or win and lose states.
Wargame Tabletop games. A simulated conflict in which each player commands one of the opposing forces.

How this list was compiled: Genre names taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_music_genres_and_styles and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genres, then each genre's place, decade and definition read from its own English Wikipedia article (for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_music and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike), checked 2026-09-18. Rule: a genre is listed only if it has its own article with a sourced definition; a date or place is printed only where the article gives one plainly. Every line is written in our own words: on 2026-09-18 each line was compared with the full text of its article, and every line that shared five or more consecutive words with it was rewritten. Left out: genres defined by adult content, genres whose article is a redirect to a parent genre, and microgenres with no article. Next check within 12 months. Licence: own work

How it works

This random genre generator holds 411 genres from music, film and television, books and games, from Blues to Cozy game. Each line opens with the medium, then says what the genre is and, where known, when and where it began.

Read the full guide

Blend two genres into a brief

Take two genres from a list of five and treat the pair as a brief: a song, a story or a game pitch that belongs to both. Folk metal joined heavy metal to traditional folk music in 1990s Europe, and Romantasy is a fantasy whose plot depends on the romance. To keep one and, take the others away with × and press again.

How the list is sorted and checked

Choose Music in the Any medium menu and it works as a random music genre generator, with 157 genres; Books has 90, Film and TV 82 and Games 82, tabletop included. Under More filters, Broad genres keeps the 86 such as Jazz and Subgenres the 325 such as Shoegaze. A genre is listed only if it has its own encyclopedia article with a sourced definition, and a date or place is printed only where that article states one.

A genre in two media is listed twice, medium in the name: Horror film and Horror fiction are separate draws.
Teen movie night: choose Film and TV in the Any medium menu, take the first genre and agree on a film in it.
For a guessing round, press Hide all definitions and name the medium before you press Show definition.

Questions and answers

Which medium does the genre randomizer draw from?

All four at once unless you choose one. With nothing chosen, nearly four draws in ten are music, which has the most named genres. Choose Music, Film and TV, Books or Games in the Any medium menu to stay in one medium.

Can it just give me a random genre to watch or read tonight?

Yes. Choose a medium, then press Pick 5 new genres. A subgenre you have never met comes with an era or a country to search for. For a named title, use the random TV show generator or the random book generator.

Is every genre with an encyclopedia article in the draw?

No. Three kinds of name are out: those that only redirect to a parent genre's article, microgenres with no article, and genres defined by adult content. The list is checked every 12 months, and newer styles such as Amapiano and Hyperpop are in.