I am fine with the basics (e.g. classical vs rock/punk vs pop based on instruments) but there’s loads of other terms that aren’t very intuitive.
What is the difference between “alternate” rock and I guess “regular” rock? What is the difference between rock and punk? What is post-(insert subgenre here, like punk)? What is pop rock (the music subgenre, not the fizzy candy rocks), and how is it different from rock pop? What makes music “progressive”? What on earth are the “blues”? What is the difference between rock, metal, hard metal, heavy metal, etc. aside from an increasing level of angriness and decreasing level of clarity? etc etc
Think of them not as means of differentiating musical style for you, but as historical ways of explaining how a band or musical movement differed from the norm.
Take a band like The Beach Boys. In the 70s, what they were doing was alternative rock — that is, they took the dance/music genre of classic rock and roll, and re-imagined how it would sound on a sandy beach at a surf party instead of in a dance hall.
Enter the 80s, and their music became part of the cultural norm, so they were popular/“pop” music.
And yet, as a band, they kept adding new techniques and writing new music right into the 2000s, often drifting back out of popular culture while doing so.
The point of this is, see what the subgenre tells you about the musicians; it isn’t really a useful way to clearly divide musical works themselves into subcategories.