Aztec Records, Inc

Pop is a broad, hook-driven style of popular music designed for wide appeal. It emphasizes memorable melodies, concise song structures, polished vocals, and production intended for radio, charts, and mass media. While pop continually absorbs elements from other styles, its core remains singable choruses, accessible harmonies, and rhythmic clarity. Typical forms include verse–pre-chorus–chorus, frequent use of bridges and middle-eights, and ear-catching intros and outros. Pop is not defined by a single instrumentation. It flexibly incorporates acoustic and electric instruments, drum machines, synthesizers, and increasingly digital production techniques, always in service of the song and the hook.

Reggae is a popular music genre from Jamaica characterized by a laid-back, syncopated groove, prominent bass lines, and steady offbeat “skank” guitar or keyboard chords. The rhythmic core often emphasizes the third beat in a bar (the “one drop”), creating a spacious, rolling feel that foregrounds bass and drums. Typical instrumentation includes drum kit, electric bass, rhythm and lead guitars, keyboards/organ (notably the Hammond and the percussive "bubble"), and often horn sections. Tempos generally sit around 70–80 BPM (or 140–160 BPM felt in half-time), allowing vocals to breathe and messages to be clearly delivered. Lyrically, reggae ranges from love songs and everyday storytelling to incisive social commentary, resistance, and spirituality, with Rastafarian culture and language (e.g., “I and I”) playing a central role in many classic recordings. Studio production techniques—spring reverbs, tape delays, and creative mixing—became signature elements, especially through dub versions that strip down and reimagine tracks.

Reggae-pop blends the offbeat rhythms, skanking guitar, and bass-forward grooves of reggae with the hooks, song structures, and polished production of mainstream pop. It typically features bright, catchy choruses, romantic or feel-good lyrics, and accessible arrangements that keep the reggae pulse while smoothing edges for radio play. Drum patterns often sit in the 75–100 BPM range and may alternate between a laid-back one-drop feel and a straighter pop backbeat, while keyboards and guitars accent the offbeats to preserve the genre’s Caribbean character.

Synthwave is a retro-futurist electronic genre that revives and reimagines the sound, texture, and visual culture of 1980s film scores, television themes, arcade games, and synth-pop. Characterized by analog-style synthesizers, arpeggiated basslines, neon-soaked melodies, and gated-reverb drums, it blends nostalgia with cinematic drama. Substyles include the uplifting, driving "outrun" sound, the softer and romantic "dreamwave/chillsynth," and the heavier, horror-tinged "darksynth." Typical sound palettes reference instruments like the Roland Juno series, Yamaha DX7, Oberheim and Prophet polysynths, with drum machines such as the LinnDrum, TR-707, and 909 (or their modern emulations).

Traditional country is a roots-oriented branch of country music that preserves the acoustic timbres, plainspoken storytelling, and danceable rhythms of early "hillbilly" and honky-tonk styles. It favors fiddles, acoustic and steel guitars, upright bass, and modest percussion, with melodies and harmonies grounded in Anglo-American folk, gospel, and blues. Songs typically revolve around everyday life—love, heartbreak, faith, work, and small-town or rural experience—delivered with an unadorned, emotive vocal style. As a practice and ethos, traditional country resists pop sheen and elaborate production, emphasizing live ensemble interplay, two-step and waltz feels, and concise verse–chorus forms. Its sound is closely associated with the Grand Ole Opry era, barn-dance radio, and mid‑century jukebox honky-tonks.