Mr Applegate's performances cross the divide between a niche musical genre and mainstream.

BBC: How computer games are creating new art and music

All participants were asked to name their favourite three new acts, who could be performers from any country and any musical genre.

BBC: Sound of 2011 list revealed

Scruggs rose to prominence when Bill Monroe hired him to play in the Blue Grass Boys, one of the defining groups in the bluegrass musical genre.

BBC: Banjo musician Earl Scruggs dies aged 88

But today, thanks to an aging population and the accessibility of digital music, there has been a gradual decline in the number of Japanese jazz kissa, and the musical genre has found new life in live venues and bars throughout Tokyo.

BBC: Tokyo��s jazz kissa survive

Every band has its faults, and O'Brother's might be that it plays a variety of musical styles within the genre's frame.

WSJ: O'Brother | A Garden Full of Axes | By Jim Fusilli

Its best artists and intellectuals are as capable of stepping back and critiquing its flows and flaws as the most astute observers and participants in any other genre of musical or critical endeavor.

NPR: Author Comes to Hip-Hop Music's Defense

When the war ended in 1865, all of these musical styles blended to form a new genre called ragtime, which syncopated the rhythms of previous genres and made songs that everyone wanted to dance to.

BBC: The birthplace of jazz

You have mastered every medium -- stage, film, television and concert hall -- and every theatrical genre: comedy, drama and musical.

CNN: Showbuzz

The dreamlike atmospheres, elaborate settings and chilling musical score combine to make The Wolf Man a masterpiece of the genre.

ENGADGET: Dracula, The Mummy and six other horror classics coming in a Blu-ray set October 2nd (video)

Vincent, and Bon Iver represent different facets of the genre, but they share a tendency to foreground melody and to present an accessible version of musical beauty.

NEWYORKER: Pretty Simple