History GenreMashup / Music

* Hideki Naganuma's peculiar musical style heard in ''VideoGame/JetSetRadio'' and ''[[VideoGame/SonicRushSeries Sonic Rush]]'' incorporates funk, rock, house, drum 'n bass, hip hop, techno and other styles to create an awesomely unique sound.

* Singer-songwriter Michael Gira's second (and current[[note]]Reformed with a new line-up in early 2010[[/note]]) band Music/{{Swans}}. Each album essentially has its own genre distinction, the most inexplicable being their first (1982's ''Filth'') and "last" (1997's ''Soundtracks For The Blind''). The latter, in particular, has no sense of genre distinction whatsoever and is best described as a 150-minute sonic MindScrew (see HellIsThatNoise, LastNoteNightmare, LyricalDissonance...). To many, proof that TrueArtIsIncomprehensible; [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome proof that Michael Gira is God]]. Whichever.

* Music/YokoKanno. All forms of music are mixed together at her whim. Music/TheSeatbelts were a dream band fronted by Kanno, formed for the express purpose of making the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' soundtrack, and they lived and breathed this trope.

* Music/SufjanStevens' first album, ''A Sun Came'', mixed rock with American and Middle-Eastern folk music. His breakout hit albums, ''Michigan'' and ''Illinois'', mixed rock and folk with neoclassical orchestrations of varying levels of bombast. ''The Age of Adz'' was a mix of orchestral music and SynthPop.

* Rock 'n' roll originated as a mixture of rhythm & blues and country with some blues, gospel, and folk music thrown in for good measure.

** Gogol Bordello is a self-described "Gypsy punk" band that plays a mixture of punk, cabaret, dub, and Gypsy folk music.

* ProgressiveRock, to a tee. Progressive rock started (arguably) when Music/KingCrimson tried to create rock music from classical influences rather than blues ones. After 30-plus years of experimentation by many bands combining all the musical genres known to mankind under the 'Progressive Rock' banner and coming up with wildly varying results, Many prog fans think that if you're in a prog band and not invoking this trope, then you're just not doing it ''properly''.

* Firewater mixes Klezmer, Punk, Gypsy music, Jazz, and just about anything else Tod A can think of in pretty much every song. [[OlderThanTheyThink And they were one of the first.]]

* In an instance of [[FollowTheLeader following the leader]], so-called "Kawaiicore" group Music/{{Ladybaby}} took Babymetal's concept and cranked it [[UpToEleven far beyond eleven]] by upping the J-Pop elements and having the HarshVocals be live. Its original 2015 incarnation consisted of two teenage pinup models, Rie Kaneko and Rei Kuromiya (the latter had already formed an all-girl rock band with her older sister) singing cute & perky high-pitched vocals alongside Australian pro wrestler Richard "Ladybeard" Magarey… and HE was the one wearing a maid outfit and pigtails while death-screaming like something out of ''Music/NapalmDeath''. It's a strange mix best experienced for oneself, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhT2-oX5kzk so here's a link to one of their songs on their official Youtube channel.]]

* Music/{{Babymetal}}, one of those acts that could ''only'' have come from Japan, blend Japanese pop music, pretty much every genre of metal in existence from PowerMetal to BlackMetal, and several forms of electronic music, amongst other genres. They very well may have created their own genre.

** Japanese kawaii metal band LADYBABY defies easy classification, as it's a band that wholeheartedly embraces kawaii culture and blurs grindcore and its screaming vocals and lightning riffs, J-pop and its upbeat, heavily electronic beats and hooks, lyrics that are safe for fairly young children, and an aesthetic that has the band dressing like Sailor Moon knock-offs. The three fronts for the band wear supremely cute lolli-inspired outfits. Two of them, Rie Kaneko and Rei Kuromiya, are 19 and 16 year old Japanese females (as of 2016), while the third, Rick Magarey, is a bearded Australian cross-dressing professional wrestler in his early thirties - and he's the one with pig tails. Kaneko and Kuromiya deliver their vocals with the perky, high, very feminine sound you expect from the poppiest of J-pop while Magarey delivers his vocals with a scream you might expect from grindcore bands like ''Music/NapalmDeath'' or Brutal Truth. It's a strange mix best experienced for oneself, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhT2-oX5kzk so here's a link to one of their songs on their official Youtube channel]].

* Music/TheDamned: Late 70s British {{Punk}} band turned ProgressiveRock/[[GothicMetal ProtoGothic]] (before it was even known as "gothic") in the early to mid-80s, with use of early electronic instruments. Cites influence from many different genres, and has a singer who dresses like a vampire and sings like a pub crooner.

* Another Canadian band, going by the name Unexpect, is a great example of this trope. Here's what Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} has to say about them:

* Music/{{Ludo}} is, well... something like this. There really is no way to describe it. Wiki/TheOtherWiki has them down as PowerPop, Pop Rock, and AlternativeRock; Wiki/TVTropes lists them as AlternativeRock, Geek Rock, and RockOpera.

* Zdob si Zdub. Wiki/TheOtherWiki lists them as "Ska-punk rapcore" which they may very well be. Let's just say there's a lot of guitar riffs, rapping, trumpets, sampling and Moldovan folk music. Just...just go [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0DP-EeV8oc listen]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ig8m5uxRvhk to]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbqr4D7kCaE them]].

* Shinobi Ninja is essentially rock + hip-hop + funk + punk + metal + reggae + electronic = their own style that Wiki/TheOtherWiki simply refers to as "Rock".

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witch_house_%28music_genre%29 Take a look at]] Wiki/{{Wikipedia}}'s list of stylistic origins of WitchHouse. Bear in mind that the list has been dramatically ''cut down'' over time as well. While the genre tends to be a highly variegated MindScrew-y hodgepodge of influences in general, Salem's ''King Night'' (arguably one of the better-known releases within the genre) exemplifies what we're dealing with pretty accurately: the first three tracks consist of dark, hazy, dramatic electronic music, with reverb-heavy synth soundscapes and distant vocals seeming to simultaneously take influence from {{Shoegaze}}, {{Trance}} and {{Industrial}} music, backed by [[UncommonTime skipping, somewhat arrhythmic]] beats with heavy HipHop and {{Dubstep}} influence. Think that's an unusual melting pot of influences? By track four, "Sick," we get ''Dirty South-influenced rapping'' over ominous soft synths and operatic vocal inflections. The album only gets weirder from there, with two straight up HipHop tracks, slightly more stripped down SynthPop[=/=]Shoegaze numbers, fuzzed-out power chords and just about everything else in between. Other artists purported as examples of Witch House range from ethereal dub to HipHop beats with a nihilistic edge and noisy, cracked-out pop. The only constants among these bands seem to be a dark (sometimes [[StylisticSuck intentionally campy]]) quasi-occult aesthetic, vocals processed to the point of being incomprehensible, loving spoonfuls of reverb, and this trope.

* Music/{{TNT|Band}}: Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} classifies them as HeavyMetal, HardRock, [[ArenaRock AOR]], and HairMetal while some of their fans think their earlier albums have touches of ProgressiveRock.

* Music/InThisMoment's sound is hard to describe, especially their later material. Their music is loud, dirty, and abrasive, but are still able to get airplay on rock radio. Genres like AlternativeMetal, IndustrialMetal, {{Metalcore}}, ElectronicMusic, GothicMetal, and NuMetal come together in a blender, and fuse in such a way that it creates a genre that hasn't been classed. It's to the point where Wiki/TheOtherWiki can't agree on what genre to put them in.

* Les Claypool's (bassist and vocalist of Primus) solo career is made of this trope. [[UpToEleven Only weirder.]]

** To the extent that punk was a "return to roots" movement for rock and roll (see above), psychobilly is pretty much just standard rockabilly with the volume and tempo turned UpToEleven.

** The entire VisualKei movement. HeavyMetal meets {{Goth}} meets GenreMashup taken UpToEleven meets {{Bishonen}} meets ElegantGothicLolita meets badass clothing meets UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. [[MindScrew There's no easier way to describe it]].

*** The one-song album, ''Art of Life'' takes GenreRoulette UpToEleven.

* In a similar case, Music/FearAndLoathingInLasVegas are one of those Japanese bands that can't be easily defined. While often called "{{Electronicore}}" or "[[HardcoreTechno Digital Hardcore]]" on the surface, they mix together genres completely at random such as DeathMetal, {{Jazz}}, {{Funk}}, SymphonicMetal, J-pop, PostHardcore, RapRock, and... whatever else. Seriously. They even define their style as "chaos".

* Music/{{Eminem}} is undoubtedly a HipHop artist, but has a unique SignatureStyle due to fusing it with 'white' musical influences like mainstream {{Pop}}, GenreMotif/{{Classical}} Music (in a style his producers the Bass Brothers called "clap"), [[PopRap teen pop]], [[CountryRap country]], and especially ClassicRock.

* Music/{{Deerhunter}} call themselves "ambient punk" (?) and sound like neo-[[{{Shoegazing}} Shoegaze]]/indie rock/trippy weirdness ([[GenreRoulette varying wildly]] from one track to the next).

* Music/{{TNT}}: Wiki/{{Wikipedia}} classifies them as HeavyMetal, HardRock, [[ArenaRock AOR]], and HairMetal while some of their fans think their earlier albums have touches of ProgressiveRock.

** Music/{{Pendulum}}, in particular, is one notable example. Two parts band members and one part DJ, they formed together to produce mostly aggressive drum and bass music. Over time, their sound became more commercial and developed into a rock-electronic fusion group with live performances.

** And that's before getting into the new release, ''Chinese Democracy'', where Axl [[IAmTheBand is the only member of the original lineup left]], and a rotating cast of musicians contributed to the album. The album has more of an IndustrialRock feel, helped by the fact that Music/NineInchNails guitarist Robin Finck is one of the few to perform in all songs.

* SymphonicMetal, heavy metal mixed with symphonic classical music. Music/{{Therion}}, the leader of the genre, takes their genre-blending quite seriously, as their recent live album "The Miskolc Experience" featured about a dozen classical compositions rewritten from the ground up to incorporate modern heavy-metal instruments along with the original orchestras, choirs, and opera soloists.

* Music/{{Justice}} started out as a French house act, but take a lot of influence from genres as diverse as disco, punk, indie rock, alternative metal, industrial and, especially on their second album ''Audio, Video, Disco,'' progressive rock.

** Fusion jazz started out in the 1960s as the incorporation of rock into jazz. It's since grown to include any genre imaginable, incorporated into jazz.
*** The term 'fusion' used by itself usually refers specifically to the fusion of jazz and rock, however. See Music/SteelyDan and Music/{{Chicago}} for two prominent examples.
* Rock'n'roll originated as a mixture of rhythm & blues and country with some blues, gospel, and folk music thrown in for good measure.

** The entire VisualKei movement. HeavyMetal meets {{Goth}} meets NeoclassicalPunkZydecorockabilly taken UpToEleven meets {{Bishonen}} meets ElegantGothicLolita meets badass clothing meets UsefulNotes/{{Japan}}. [[MindScrew There's no easier way to describe it]].

*** Other bands have independently achieved the same level of weirdness (such as Music/{{Sigh}}, see below), but very few have achieved considerable success (they are often labeled as one of the most successful cult bands in the modern metal scene). This is ''the '''band''''' that took NeoclassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly way too far and eventually set standards for CrazyIsCool music in the Japanese rock/metal scene.