Should names of styles or genres be capitalized? [duplicate]

I'm an arts journalist, so I read (and write) a lot of material which is relevant to this question. I would say: no, the overwhelming majority of writers don't capitalise the names of genres.

I admit that I do have an instinct to capitalise "blues" - I think that's because it's often referred to as "the blues", which makes it sound more like a proper noun than other genres do. But it would be very strange to capitalise "Rock", "Pop" or for that matter "Classical", so for consistency "blues" shouldn't have a capital either.

The obvious exception is when the genre is named after a person. So for example, "Brechtian" theatre gets a capital B, because it's named after Bertolt Brecht and acquires its capital from him.

This question is very similar to the Capitalization of Artistic Trends on ELU.

It seems there's no agreed answer, partly because we can equivocate over how to define artistic movements/styles/genres etc, particularly when many terms are also used more generally.

I'd say... do what you want. If you need an authority, though, here's one.

Don't capitalize genres (use opera, symphony, jazz-- not Opera, Symphony, Jazz). Remember this rule by thinking about genres in literature: you wouldn't capitalize Novel, Short Story, or Poem, either. - University of Richmond Writing Centre

I do like the point made by Morton (who posted while I was still typing this answer) about the seeming proper noun quality of The Blues, though.