A music genre is a conventional category that identifies some pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. It is to be distinguished from "musical form" and "musical style", although in practice these terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Recently, academics have argued that categorizing music by genre is inaccurate and outdated. 

Music can be divided into different genres in many different ways. The artistic nature of music means that these classifications are often subjective and controversial, and some genres may overlap. There are even varying academic definitions of the term "genre "itself. In his book "Form in Tonal Music", Douglass M. Green distinguishes between genre and form. He lists madrigal, motet, canzona, ricercar, and dance as examples of genres from the Renaissance period. To further clarify the meaning of "genre", Green writes, "Beethoven's Op. 61 and Mendelssohn's Op. 64 are identical in genre – both are violin concertos – but different in form. However, Mozart's Rondo for Piano, K. 511, and the "Agnus Dei" from his Mass, K. 317 are quite different in genre but happen to be similar in form." Some, like Peter van der Merwe, treat the terms "genre" and "style" as the same, saying that "genre" should be defined as pieces of music that share a certain style or "basic musical language." Others, such as Allan F. Moore, state that "genre" and "style" are two separate terms, and that secondary characteristics such as subject matter can also differentiate between genres. A music genre or subgenre may also be defined by the musical techniques, the style, the cultural context, and the content and spirit of the themes. Geographical origin is sometimes used to identify a music genre, though a single geographical category will often include a wide variety of subgenres. Timothy Laurie argues that since the early 1980s, "genre has graduated from being a subset of popular music studies to being an almost ubiquitous framework for constituting and evaluating musical research objects". QUESTIONS:

Q1:
1. How are musical categories often distinguished?
2. What kinds of categories is music often divided into?
3. What is a common way of dividing musical categories?
Q2:
1. Is genre an objective way of categorizing music?
2. Is categorization by genre done on a factual, non-subjective basis?
3. Is genre a fixed and standardized way of categorizing music?
Q3:
1. Are there rigid boundaries between musical genres?
2. Can songs only belong to one genre of music?
3. Can there only one musical genre be distinguished per song?
Q4:
1. What book did Douglass M. Green publish?
2. What is the name of Douglass M. Green's book?
3. What is the title of Douglass M. Green's volume?
Q5:
1. How many categories of Renaissance music does Douglass M. Green identify?
2. How many categories of Renaissance music are identified in Douglass M. Green's book?
3. What number of categories of Renaissance music are listed in Douglass Green's book?
Q6:
1. Does Douglass M. Green list dance as a category of Renaissance music?
2. Is dance recognized as a category of Renaissance music in Douglass M. Green's book?
3. In Douglass Green's book, is dance recognized as a form of Renaissance music?
Q7:
1. Does Douglass M. Green believe genre and form to be the same thing?
2. Does Douglass M. Green argue that there is little difference between genre and form?
3. Does Douglass Green's book argue for a lack of distinction between categories of genre and form?
Q8:
1. According to Douglass Green, what pieces of music had the same genre of different forms?
2. What pieces of music does Douglass Green point to as being of the same genre, but having different forms?
3. What does Douglass Green use as examples of songs from the same genre, but with different forms?
Q9:
1. According to Douglass Green, what pieces of music had the same form and different genres?
2. What pieces of music does Douglass Green point to as having the same form, but belonging to different genres?
3. What does Douglass Green use as examples of songs that share a form, but have different genres?
Q10:
1. According to Douglass Green, what songs by Beethoven and Mendelssohn share a genre?
2. What pieces by Beethoven and Mendelssohn does Douglass Green believe to be of the same genre?
3. From what genre of music are the pieces by Beethoven and Mendelssohn, according to Douglass Green's analysis?
Q11:
1. Do all scholars agree with the analysis of Douglass Green?
2. Do van der Merwe and Moore give the same arguments as Douglass Green?
3. Do van der Merwe and Moore share Douglass Green's exact same point of view?
Q12:
1. Which scholar believes genre and style to be the same thing?
2. Which scholar argues against distinguishing between genre and style?
3. Who does not believe there is a distinction between genre and style?
Q13:
1. How does Peter van der Merwe define genre?
2. What definition of genre does Peter van der Merwe give?
3. How does van der Merwe believe genre should be defined?
Q14:
1. Can musical technique be used to define genre?
2. Can musical technique be a criterium for defining musical genre?
3. Might one use musical technique to define genre?
Q15:
1. Besides musical technique, how else can genre be defined?
2. What can be used in addition to musical technique to define genre?
3. What elements can be used beyond music technique to define genre?
Q16:
1. Can geographical origin help to define genre?
2. Does geographical origin ever count when defining genre?
3. Can a song's geographical origin have an impact on its genre?
Q17:
1. What is an issue that arises when using geographical origin to define genre?
2. What is one complication of using geogrpahical origin to define genre?
3. How can using geographical origin as a way of defining genre lead to complications?
Q18:
1. Who argued that genre has graduated from being a subset of music studies?
2. Who viewed genre as something that has graduated from being a just a subset of music studies?
3. Since the 1980s, musical genre has grown from just being a subset, according to what scholar?
Q19:
1. How does Timothy Laurie view genre's role today?
2. According to Timothy Laurie, what kind of framework has genre become?
3. What does Timothy Laurie believe genre serves as today?
Q20:
1. What does recent scholarship have to say about categorizing music by genre?
2. How has the categorization of music according to genre been approached in recent scholarship?
3. What are academics saying about using genre as a form of musical categorization now?
