Popular Music Genres and Their Temporal Dimension: State of the Art and Proposals for Analysis

The historical dimension of music genres has been seldomly treated in popular music studies. Besides some references to the dynamic character of music genres, few scholars have proposed a systematic approach to understanding their development through history. This paper makes a critical overview of ideas by Franco Fabbri, Fabian Holt, Jennifer C. Lena, and David Brackett. Its main objective is to reflect upon the common elements, gaps, and disagreements among these authors to approach this subject. This will lead us to revise certain relevant concepts related to the historical dimension of music genres, such as convention and community.