Music of the United States

The music of the United States includes a number of kinds of distinct folk and popular music, including some of the most widely-recognized styles in the world. The original inhabitants of the United States included hundreds of Native American tribes, who played the first music in the area. Beginning in the 15th century, immigrants from England, Spain and France began arriving in large numbers, bringing with them new styles and instruments. Africans imported as slaves provided the musical underpinnings of much of modern American music, including blues, jazz, country, rock and roll and hip hop. Other styles of music were brought by Hispanics from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, the Cajun descendants of French-Canadians, Jews, Eastern Europeans and Irish, Scottish and Italian immigrants.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, popular recorded music from the United States has become increasingly known across the world, to the point where some form of American popular music is listened to almost everywhere African American music, especially the blues. African American folk music is a part of the Afro-American tradition, which extends across most of the Western Hemisphere, where elements of African, European and indigenous music mixed in varying amounts to form a wide array of diverse styles. Celtic music, especially Irish and Scottish, also played an integral role in shaping modern American music, through massive immigration of Irish and Scottish people, brining with them folk music. Long a land of immigrants, the United States has also seen documented folk music and recorded popular music produced in the ethnic styles of Ukrainian, Polish, Mexican, Cuban, Spanish and Jewish communities.

The modern United States is divided into fifty states and the inhabited non-state territories of Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands and Guam music scenes, ranging from casual opportunities for amateur performers at bars and other establishments to large-scale orchestras, local indie record labels and community performing venues, all supporting a number of vibrant regional traditions in various styles. Though none doubt the importance of a handful of major cities, like New York, Nashville and Los Angeles, many smaller cities and regions have produced memorable and distinctive styles of music. The Cajun and Creole traditions in Louisianan music and the unique folk and popular styles of Hawaiian music are two notable exceptions, though other styles of distinct regional music range from the colonial First New England School to modern scenes like Memphis rap and the Omaha sound.

American art
Architecture - Comics - Cuisine - Dance - Folklore - Literature - Movies - Painting - Poetry - Sculpture - Television - Theater - Visual arts
Music of the United States
History (Timeline) Ethnicities
to 1900 African American
1900-1940 Native American: Inuit and Hawaiian
40s and 50s Latin: Tejano and Puerto Rican
60s and 70s Cajun and Creole
80s to the present Other immigrants: Irish and Scottish
Genres (Samples): Classical - Hip hop - Rock - Pop - Folk
Awards Grammy Awards, Country Music Awards
Charts Billboard Music Chart
Festivals New Orleans Jazz Festival, Lollapalooza, Lilith Fair, Ozzfest, Woodstock Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival
Media Spin, Rolling Stone, Vibe, Downbeat, Source, MTV, VH1
National anthem "The Star-Spangled Banner" and forty-nine state songs
Local music
AK - AL - AR - AS - AZ - CA - CO - CT - DC - DE - FL - GA - GU - HI - IA - ID - IL - IN - KS - KY - LA - MA - MD - ME - MI - MN - MO - MP - MS - MT - NC - ND - NE - NH - NM - NV - NJ - NY - OH - OK - OR - PA - PR - RI - SC - SD - TN - TX - UT - VA - VI - VT - WA - WI - WV - WY

Contents

Characteristics

The music of the United States can be characterized by the use of syncopation and asymmetrical rhythms, long, irregular melodies, which are said to "reflect the wide open geography of (the American landscape)" and the "sense of personal freedom characteristic of American life", and elements of distinctively American jazz, blues and Native American music Afro-American musical country, in that its music is a fusion of African, European and Native American styles. The African part of this fusion manifests in elements like the use of a call-and-response format, derived from African music but "not found too frequently in (African American folk music); but the original importance of this form... seems possibly to have led to the alternation of the various instruments for the 'choruses' in jazz", noted Bruno Nettl in 1965, predating the more widespread use of call-and-response form in popular funk and hip hop American Civil War, when people from across the country were brought together in army units, trading musical styles and practices. Indeed, with a few limited exceptions, such as New England hymns, the ballads of the Civil War were "the first American folk music with discernible features that can be considered uniqe to America: the first 'American' sounding music, as distinct from any regional style derived from another country" American art, literature and music. Amateur musical ensembles of this era can be seen as the birth of American popular music. "(these early amateur bands) combined the depth and drama of the classics with undemanding technique, eschewing complexity in favor of direct expression. If it was vocal music, the words would be in English, despite the snobs who declared English an unsingable language. In a way, it was part of the entire awakening of America that happened after the Civil War, a time in which American painters, writers and 'serious' composers addressed specifically American themes" American roots music

Folk music in the United States is varied across the country's numerous ethnic groups. The Native American tribes each play their own varieties of folk music, most of it spiritual in nature. African American music includes blues and gospel, descendents of West African music brought to the Americas by slaves and mixed with Western European music. During the colonial era, English, French and Spanish styles and instruments were brought to the Americas. By the early 20th century, the United States had become a major center for folk music from around the world, including polka, Ukrainian and Polish fiddling, Ashkenazi Jewish klezmer and several kinds of Latin music.

Native American music

Main article: Native American music

The Native Americans played the first folk music in what is now the United States, using a wide variety of styles and techniques. Some commonalities are near universal among Native American traditional music, however, including the lack of harmony and polyphony, the presence of choiral vocals, the use of vocables and the descending melodic figures. Traditional instruments include the flute and many kinds of percussion instruments like drums, rattles and shakers Waila, or chicken-scratch music, is a fusion of Mexican-Texan norteño and European dance music like the polka and mazurka. Modern Native American music may be best-known for powwow gatherings, pan-tribal gatherings at which traditionally-styled dances and music are performed; despite the traditional appearance of this music, powwows are a modern, syncretic invention, dating back to the early 20th century, though there are those who claim that the tradition goes back hundreds or thousands of years "in essence" info) This 1897 recording is of a traditional Omaha courtship song. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Hawaiian music

Main article: Music of Hawaii

The earliest known music of Hawaii was the hula, which featured a chant (mele) accompanied by ipu (a gourd) and 'ili'ili (stones used as clappers). Listeners danced in a highly ritualized manner. The older, formal kind of hula is called kahiko, while the modern version is auana. There are also religious chants called mele, which may be addressed to families or gods or chiefs. When a mele chant is accompanied by dancing and drums, it is called mele hula pahu. African American music

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A banjo, a string instrument that is an important part of African American music and can be directly traced back to the West African kora

The ancestors of today's African American population were brought to the United States as slaves, working primarily in the cotton plantations of the South. They were from hundreds of tribes across West Africa, and they brought with them certain traits of West African music including call and response vocals and complexly rhythmic music syncopated beats and shifting accents African musical focus on rhythmic singing and dancing was brought to the New World, and where it became part of a distinct folk music culture that helped Africans "retain continuity with their past through music"; these polyrhythmic percussive practices using clapping, foot-stamping and other techniques (this was called patting juba), spread because drums were outlawed by slaveowners who feared they would be used in slave rebellions work songs, field hollers Christianization, hymns. In the 19th century, a Great Awakening of religious fervor gripped both blacks and whites across much of the country, especially in the South. Protestant hymns written mostly by New England preachers became a feature of camp meetings held among devout Christians across the south. When blacks began singing sometimes adapted versions of these hymns, they were called Negro spirituals. It was from these roots, of spiritual songs, work songs and field hollers, that blues and gospel developed.

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"Dollar Mamie" (info)
This is a work song for hoeing from the Library of Congress' John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; performed by Judge "Bootmouth" Tucker and Alexander "Neighborhood" Williams on May 23, 1939 at a State Penitentiary in Parchman, Mississippi.
Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Spirituals

Main article: Spirituals

Originally monophonic and a cappella, spirituals are antecedents of the blues. Spirituals were often improvised and used call-and-response vocals, in which a leader and a chorus alternated lines and refrain responses Underground Railroad, instructing escapees to follow the Big Dipper (the "drinking gourd.") "Wade in the Water" was another such song that combined religious imagery and codified instructions for potential runaways Roll, Jordan Roll", published in Philadelphia in 1862. It was followed by a few other publications, and the first spiritual collection, Slave Songs of the United States (1867) abolitionists. In 1871, Fisk University became home to the Jubilee Singers, a pioneering group that popularized spirituals across the country. In imitation of this group, gospel quartets arose, followed by increasing diversification with the early 20th century rise of jackleg and singing preachers, from whence came the popular style of gospel music.

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"My Good Lord Done Been Here" (info)
This is a spiritual song from the Library of Congress' John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; performed by Aunt Florida Hampton on May 29, 1939 at the home of Mr. and Mrs. P.W. Tartt in Livingston, Alabama.
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Blues

Main article: Blues

Blues is a combination of African work songs, field hollers and shouts, chants and hymns and spirituals. It developed in the rural south in the first decade of the 20th century. The most important characteristics of the blues is its use of the blue scale, with a flatted or indeterminate third, as well as the typically lamenting lyrics; though both of these elements had existed in African American folk music prior to the 20th century, the codified form of modern blues (such as with the AAB structure) did not exist until the early 20th century info) This 1936-37 recording is by blues legend Robert Johnson. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Anglo-American music

Main article: Anglo-American music

The Thirteen Colonies of the original United States were all former English possessions, and Anglo culture became a major foundation for American folk and popular music.

Many American folk songs use the same music, but with new lyrics, often as parodies of the original material. American Anglo songs can also be distinguished from British songs by having fewer pentatonic tunes, less prominent accompaniment (but with heavier use of drones) and more melodies in major broadside ballads, humorous stories and tall tales, and disaster songs regarding mining, shipwrecks (especially in New England) and murder. Folk heroes like John Magarac, John Henry and Jesse James are also part of many songs. Folk dance of Anglo origin include the square dance, descended from the European high society quadrille, combined with the American innovation of a caller instructing the dancers. Folklorist Alan Lomax described regional differences among rural Anglo musicians as included the relaxed and open-voiced northern vocal style and the pinched and nasal southern style, with the west exhibiting a mix of the two. He attributed these differences to sexual relations, the presence of minorities and frontier life info) This is a British tune from the Library of Congress' Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections; performed by Bob Hall, Walter van Bass, Ned Hugh Bass and J. C. King with banjos, guitars and violin in Juli, 1940 in Kenansville, Florida. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Old-time music

Main article: Old-time music

Old-time music, a traditional style of American music, has roots in Irish, Scottish and African folk music. During the late 19th and early 20th century, minstrel, tin pan alley and other popular music also entered the genre. Practitioners play it with stringed instruments such as the fiddle, banjo, guitar, mandolin and bass.

Protestant Christian music was an important influence on old-time music, which was originally derisively labelled hillbilly music. The hillbillies who innovated old-time music were deeply religious, though not by and large devoted churchgoing people; they belonged to churches like the Holiness Pentecostal church, known for guitar and banjo-led happy clappy services, and the Old Regular Baptist church, which disapproved of instrumentation and allowed only a cappella and unharmonized singing info) This is old-time Appalachian folk music from the Library of Congress' Gordon Collection; performed by Bascam Lamar Lunsford in the Asheville, North Carolina area on October 19, 1925. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Bluegrass

Main article: Bluegrass music

Bluegrass developed in the 1930s, a fusion of old-time Appalachian folk music with blues, jazz and other styles. Bill Monroe is the most well-remembered pioneer of bluegrass' early days. At its root, bluegrass was originally acoustic country music played using a banjo, and drew on earlier country string band traditions; soon, Monroe began working with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. It was Scrugg's "unusual three-finger banjo-picking style" that fueld the development of modern bluegrass fiddle, banjo, acoustic guitar, mandolin, and upright bass are sometimes joined by the dobro (also known as a resophonic guitar or steel guitar), and a bass guitar, which is occasionally substituted for the upright bass. This instrumentation originated in rural black dance bands and was being abandonded by those groups (in favor of blues and jazz ensembles) when picked up by white musicians Music of immigrant communities in the United States

The United States is a melting pot consisting of numerous ethnic groups. Many of these peoples have kept alive the folk traditions of their homeland, often producing distinctively American styles of foreign music.

Some nationalities have produced local scenes in regions of the country where they have clustered, including Cape Verdean music in Rhode Island, Armenian music in Fresno, California, Norwegian music in Minnesota and Italian music in New York City. Some of these local scenes have produced performers with some mainstream appeal, such as Pawlo Humeniuk, a star of the Ukrainian fiddling scene info) This is Armenian folk music from the Library of Congress' California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collection; performed a cappella by Ruben J. Baboyan on April 16, 1939 in Fresno, California. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Cajun and Creole

Main article: Cajun and Creole music

The Cajuns are a group of Francophones who arrived in Louisiana after leaving Acadia in Canada Creoles are African Americans who combine elements of Cajun culture with their own. The city of New Orleans, Louisiana, being a major port, has acted as a melting pot for people from all over the Caribbean basin. Thus, many Caribbean music styles have left their mark on Cajun and Creole music, which has evolved into a popular style called zydeco, best-exemplified by the 1950s pop star Clifton Chenier.

In southwestern Louisiana in the 1800s, the fiddle was the most popular Cajun instrument and the music still carried clear influences from the Poiteu region of France and the Scottish/Canadian influences of their earlier homeland. In the late 19th century German immigrants spreading outward from central and eastern Texas and New Orleans soon brought the accordion as well. African American farmhands at the time sang a rhythmic type of work song called juré, which mixed with Cajun folk music to form la la, a central component of Creole music. La la was primarily rural, played at parties also known as la las.

Tex-Mex and Tejano

Main article: Tex-Mex and Tejano

Mexico controlled much of what is now the western United States until the Mexican War, including the entire state of Texas. After Texas joined the United States, the Mexicans living in the state (Tejanos) began culturally developing somewhat separately from their neighbors to the south, and also remained culturally distinct from other Texans.

Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of traditional Mexican forms such as the corrido, and Continental European styles introduced by German and Czech settlers in the late 19th century accordion was adopted by Tejano folk musicians at the turn of the 20th century, and it became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico. Small bands known as orquestas, featuring amateur musicians, became a staple at community dances.

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"Caminode San Antonio" (info)
This is a corrido from the Library of Congress' John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; performed by Jose Ararjo on April 27, 1939 at his school near Brownsville, Texas.
Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Klezmer

Main article: Klezmer

Klezmer is a style of Jewish music that came to the United States through Ashkenazi Jews immigrating from Eastern Europe. The United States soon became a major center for klezmer development. Klezmer remains rooted in the music of Eastern Europe, especially the Yiddish-speaking peoples of Romania, Ukraine, Poland and Russia.

The klezmorim were travelling musicians who played for weddings and other events in Eastern Europe. Their ensembles (kapelyes) were often based around families, and were usually based on string instruments, led by a violin. In the 19th century, the clarinet replaced the violin as the lead instrument, creating an important element of modern klezmer.

By the middle of the 1920s, more than three million Eastern European Jews arrived in New York City through Ellis Island. These included such legends as Dave Tarras. In 1917, Abe Schwartz signed to Columbia Records and Harry Kandel signed to Victor Records; this was the beginning of modern popular klezmer Polka

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"Jenny Lind" (info)
This is a polka from the Library of Congress' California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collection; performed by John Selleck (violin) on October 2, 1939 in Camino, California.
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Classical music

Main article: American classical music

The European classical music tradition was brought to the United States with some of the first colonists. European classical music is rooted in the traditions of European art, ecclesiastical and concert music. The central norms of this tradition developed between 1550 and 1825, centering on what is known as the common practice period. At the time the first Europeans arrived in North America, the prevailing view was that the only serious music worth considering was the European classical tradition; styles of folk music were denigrated as repulsive and proper only for the lower classes.

John Warthen Struble notes that early American music historians felt that the United States was "in effect, another European nation partaking of the same cultural values, traditions and artistic objectives" as European nations, ignoring the "vital traditions of rural folk music and the important musical subculture of African Americans". Indeed, American classical composers, until the 19th century, attempted to work within European models; Struble contends that these attempts were a "blind alley, a necessary period of experimentation, the result of which was to demonstrate that American classical music would never find itself by imitating European models" (emphasis in original). Antonin Dvorak, a prominent Czech composer, iterated this idea, that American classical music needed its own models instead of imitating European composers, when he visited the United States from 1892 to 1895 -- Struble also points out that Dvorak's visit predates "one of the first pieces of characteristically American-sounding classical music, music that could not have been written by any European composer (namely) Edward MacDowell's Woodland Sketches" old-time music, jazz, blues and Native American music were used in classical compositions.

Colonial music

During the colonial era, there were two distinct fields of what are now considered classical music. The First New England School was inarguably the more influential in the long-term, and was based around simple hymns that were performed with increasingly sophistication over time. The other colonial classical tradition was that of the mid-Atlantic cities like Philadelphia and Baltimore, which produced a number of prominent composers who worked almost entirely within the European model, and are little appreciated today; these composers were mostly English in origin, and worked specifically in the style of prominent English composers of the day, like Samuel Arnold and George Frideric Handel First New England School

European classical music was brought to the United States during the colonial era. Many American composers of this period worked exclusively with European models, while others, such as William Billings, Supply Belcher, Daniel Read, Oliver Holden, and Justin Morgan, also known as the First New England School, developed a native style almost entirely independently of European models Stoughton Musical Society, and was also influential "as the founder of the American church choir, as the first musician to use a pitch-pipe, and as the first to introduce a violoncello into church service" fuging tune, suitable for performance by amateurs, and often using harmonic methods which would have been considered bizarre by contemporary European standards Notre Dame school of Perotin or other examples of early polyphony, where such phenomena are accepted as legitimate elements of the style" Yankee pioneers (who were) untouched by the influence of their sophisticated European contemporaries" and who were not entirely aware of the development of "tonality (as) the major harmonic system" of European classical music. Ferris also notes that the First New England School based "their melodies upon modal or pentatonic scales" instead of using the European model, and that the "European rules harmony, that governed relationships between 'tense' and 'relaxed' (or dissonant and consonant) sounds were quite unfamiliar to the American pioneers Second New England School

During the mid to late 19th century, a vigorous tradition of home-grown classical music developed, especially in New England. The composers of the Second New England School included such figures as George Whitefield Chadwick, Amy Beach, Edward MacDowell, and Horatio Parker George Gershwin was greatly influenced by African American music; however, this was during an era of legally enforced "Jim Crow" segregation during which his music perhaps enjoyed undue fame owing to the refusal of white listeners to listen to music that formed Gershwin's sources. On the other hand, he created a convincing synthesis of music from several traditions once considered to be irreconcilable, and which continues to enjoy enormous popularity.

Many of the major classical composers of the 20th century were influenced by folk traditions, none more quintessentially, perhaps, than Aaron Copland. Other composers adopted features of folk music, from the Appalachians, the plains and elsewhere, including Roy Harris, William Schuman, David Diamond, and others. Yet other early to mid-20th century composers continued in the more experimental traditions, including such figures as Charles Ives, George Antheil, and Henry Cowell.

Popular music

Main article: American popular music

The United States has produced many of the most popular musicians and composers in the modern world. Beginning with the birth of recorded music, American performers have continued to lead the field of popular music, which, out of "all the contributions made by Americans to world culture... has been taken to heart by the entire world" ragtime or Tin Pan Alley; David Clarke, however, in The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, traces popular music back to the European Renaissance and through broadsheet ballads and other popular traditions spirituals, minstrel shows and vaudeville, or the patriotic songs of the American Civil War.

Of especial importance are a handful of performers who did more than anyone to create American popular music. Louis Armstrong's "virtuosity (which) inspired awe among his followers" helped make him a "giant figure" in the world of jazz, and a major foundation for later popular styles swing phase, a number of vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and the Ink Spots became very popular, especially among the youth. A number of Italian-American crooners also found a major youth audience, including Dean Martin, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Frankie Laine and, most famously, the "first pop vocalist to engender hysteria among his fans" Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, responsible for popularizing rock and roll, also deserve special note for changing the whole of popular music, both within and without the United States.

The era of the modern teen pop star, however, began in the 1960s. Bubblegum pop groups like The Monkees were chosen entirely for their appearance and ability to sell records, with no regard to musical ability. Pop groups like these remained popular into the 1970s, producing such acts as the Partridge Family and The Osmonds. By the 1990s, there were numerous varieties of teen pop, including boy bands like NSYNC and the Backstreet Boys, while female diva vocalists like Christinia Aguilera and Britney Spears also dominated the charts.

Early popular song

The first popular form of distinctively American music was the First New England School of classical choral singing, but it was the lay songs of the American Revolution that first arose as a mainstream kind of popular music, some few years after those New England composers. These songs were the first patriotic songs devoted to the fledgling nation, and included songs like "The Liberty Tree", written by Thomas Paine, and "The Liberty Song". Cheaply-printed as broadsheets, these songs were spread across the colonies and were performed at home and at public meetings Fife songs were especially celebrated, and performed commonly on fields of battle during the American Revolution. The longest-lasting of these fife songs is clearly "Yankee Doodle", which is still well-known today. The melody for "Yankee Doodle" dates back to 1755, and was sung by both American and British troops The American Hero", with words set to the melody of Andrew Law's "Bunker Hill". The song "Hail Columbia" was a major work, written by Joseph Hopkinson, and was set to the tune of "The President's March", composed by Philip Phile and published in Philadelphia in 1793 The Star-Spangled Banner".

Many songs from the early 19th century were sentimental ballads, like "Woodman Spare That Tree" and "Home, Sweet Home", the latter of which became an internationally famous song railroad industry and other technological developments that made travel and communication easier. Army units include individuals from across the country, and they rapidly traded tunes, instruments and techniques. The songs that arose from this fusion were "the first American folk music with discernible features that can be considered uniqe to America" Dixie", written by Daniel Decatur Emmett, who went on to become one of the most famous American composers of the 19th century. The song, originally titled "Dixie's Land", was made for a minstrel show, and specifically for the closing; it spread to New Orleans, first, where it was published and became "one of the great song successes of the pre-Civil War period" The Battle Hymn of the Republic", "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home", which is now more closely associated with the Spanish-American War. "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground" was one of many songs popularized by a concert group called the Hutchinson Family, and was written by George F. Root; Root was, along with Henry Clay Work, the "most prolific composers in writing Civil War songs" brass band pieces, from both the North and the South bugle call "Taps".

Minstrelsy

Main article: Minstrel show

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Stephen Foster

The minstrel show was an indigenous form of American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, usually performed by white people in blackface. The practice dates back to about 1843, when the full-fledged minstrel show was invented by the Dan Emmett and the Virginia Minstrels. Minstrel shows used African American elements in musical performances, but only in simplified ways; storylines in the shows depicted blacks as natural-born slaves and fools, before eventually becoming associated with abolitionism.

Minstrel shows produced the first well-remembered songwriters in American music history: Thomas Rice, Dan Emmett and, most famously, Stephen Foster.

Late 19th century music

Main articles: Military march and the cakewalk

The composer John Philips Sousa is closely associated with the most popular trend in American popular music just before the turn of the century. Formerly the bandmaster of the United States Marine Corps Band, Sousa wrote military marches like "The Stars and Stripes Forever" which reflected his "nostalgia for (his) home and country", giving the melody a "stirring virile character". His complete body of work, which includes "King Cotton", "Semper Fideles" and "Hands Across the Sea", are "an impressive library of marches without equal in American music", as well as ten serious and comic operas Ragtime

Tin Pan Alley

Main article: Tin Pan Alley

Musical theater

Main article: Theater of the United States

Blues

Main article: Blues

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Robert Johnson

Blues had been around a long time before it became a part of the first explosion of recorded popular music in American history. This came in the 1920s, when classic female blues singers like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey and Mamie Smith grew very popular; the first hit of this field was Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues". At the same time, record companies like Paramount Records and OKeh Records launched the field of race music, which was mostly blues targeted at African American audiences. The most famous of these acts went on to inspire much of the later popular development of the blues and blues-derived genres, including Charley Patton, Blind Lemmon Jefferson, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Lonnie Johnson, Blind Blake and the legendary Robert Johnson.

Country music

Main article: Country music

Country music is primarily a fusion of African American blues and spirituals with Appalachian folk music, adapted for pop audiences and popularized beginning in the 1920s. Rebee Garofalo cited country music historian Bill C. Malone as tracing the origins of country to rural Southern folk music, which "was a blending of cultural strains, British at its core, but overlain and intermingled with the (music of the) Germans of the Great Valley of Virginia, the Indians of the backcountry; Spanish, French and mixed-breed elements in the Mississippi Valley; the Mexicans of South Texas, and, of course, blacks everywhere" yodelers, Italian mandolin players, and Hawaiian string bands" Appalachian folk music, concluding that early hillbilly music was "primarily... Americanized interpretations of English, Irish, Scots, and Scots-Irish traditional music, shaped by African-American rhythms, and containing vestiges of nineteenth-century popular song, especially those of the minstrel tradition" sean-nós singing fiddle and the African-derived banjo, with the guitar being later added syncopated rhythms. According to Reebee Garofalo, the guitar entered country bands' repertoire through the interest of many white musicians in the fingerpicking style of African American playing, which was in turned based on West African techniques; Rolling Stone's Rock of Ages, however, attributes the guitar's rise entirely to its cheap availability, a factor that Garofalo considers as well, which facilitated the spread among the peoples of Appalachia, who adapted "their traditional melodies to fit the intonation of the readily available guitar, with its fixed frets" ukulele and steel guitar became commonplace due to the popularity of Hawaiian musical groups in the early 20th century Can the Circle Be Unbroken" album cover

The roots of country music are generally traced to August 1, 1927, when music talent scout Ralph Peer recorded Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family, both very different performers in style, though both are also considered the foundation of country. There had been popular music prior to 1927 that could be considered country, but, as Ace Collins points out, these recordings had "only marginal and very inconsistent" effects on the national music markets. In addition, "those like Vernon Dalhart who had made their name recording 'country music songs' were not from the hills and hollows or plains and valleys. These recording stars sang both rural music and city music, and most knew more about Broadway than they did about hillbillies. Their rural image was often manufactured for the moment and the dollar". In contrast, Collins later explains, both the Carter Family and Rodgers had rural folk credibility that helped make Peer's recording session such an influential success; "it was the Carter Family that was Ralk Peer's tie to the hills and hollows, to lost loves and found faith, but it took Jimmie Rodgers to connect the publisher with some of country music's other beloved symbols -- trains and saloons, jail and the blues" novelty acts like Tex Williams and performers like Frankie Laine, who mixed pop and country in the "melodramatic or sentimental modes of conventional popular" music Mercury Records, home of Frankie Laine, and MGM, which signed Hank Williams, a pioneering white country singer who had learned the blues from a black street musician named Tee-Tot, in northwest Alabama 1953, when he died; by that time, he had produced eleven singles that sold at least a million copies each. He remains renowned as one of country music's greatest songwriters, and a "folk poet", known for his "honest, straightforward lyrics, and catchy, well-crafted tunes" as well as a "honky-tonk swagger, working-class sympathies, use of (the) 'backbeat', (making) him one link in the music chain that joins Jimmie Rodgers, Texas hillbillies like Bob Wills and Ernest Tubb, and Elvis Presley" info) This is perhaps the best-known Hank Williams song, covered by numerous other stars. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Nashville sound

Main article: Nashville sound

The Nashville sound was a popular kind of country music that arose in the 1950s, a fusion of popular big band jazz and swing with the lyricism of honky tonk country Elvis Presley's rockabilly fusion of country and R&B) was to nurture artists who could cross between country and pop, leading to the birth of the Nashville sound" Chet Atkins, head of RCA's country music division, that did the most to innovate the Nashville sound. He "relied on country song structures but abandoned all of the hillbilly and honky tonk instrumentation... Similarly, Owen Bradley created productions ... that featured sophisticated productions and smooth, textured instrumentation. Eventually, most records from Nashville featured this style of production and the Nashville sound began to incorporate strings and vocal choirs" Lubbock sound and, most influentially, the Bakersfield sound.

Country music: 1960s and 70s

Main articles: Bakersfield sound, Lubbock sound and outlaw country

Country music: 1980s and 90s

Main articles: Alternative country and Urban Cowboy

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"Killin' Time" (info)
This song is by Clint Black and won more awards than almost any other, including six different categories of the Country Music Awards.
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Jazz

Main article: Jazz

Jazz is a kind of music characterized by blue notes, syncopation, swing, call and response, polyrhythms, and improvisation. Though originally a kind of dance music, jazz has now been "long considered a kind of popular or vernacular music (and has also) become a sophisticated art form that has interacted in significant ways with the music of the concert hall" New Orleans, Louisiana, population by Cajuns and black Creoles, who combined the French-Canadian culture of the Cajuns with their own styles of music in the 19th century. Black musicians took advantage of the cheap instruments available due to generally decreasing prices on such products as well as the end of the American Civil War and the subsequent availability of surplus instruments from military bands Buddy Bolden and the members of his band. Bolden is remembered as the first to take the blues — hitherto a folk music sung and self-accompanied on string instruments or blues harp (harmonica) — and arrange it for brass instruments. From New Orleans, jazz travelled first to Chicago, and then around the country.

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Louis Armstrong

Though jazz had long since achieved some limited popularity, it was Louis Armstrong, who became one of the first popular stars and major forces in the development of jazz. Armstrong was an extraordinary improviser, capable of creating endless variations on a single melody; he also popularized scat singing, an improvisational vocal technique in which nonsensical syllables or words are sung or otherwise vocalized, often as part of a call-and-response interaction with other musicians onstage. Both scat singing and musical variation remain an important part of jazz, with the improvised repetition of musical phrases possibly the most important, defining characteristic of the genre.

Swing

Main article: Swing

Swing is characterized by a strong rhythm section, usually consisting of double bass and drums, medium to fast tempo, and the distinctive swing common to all forms of jazz. Swing is primarily a kind of 1930s jazz fused with elements of the blues and the pop sensibility of Tin Pan Alley bigger bands than other kinds of jazz had, which led to the use of bandleaders that tightly arranged the material, discouraging improvisation, which had previously been an integral part of jazz.

A typical swing song featured a strong, anchoring rhythm section in support of more loosely tied wind, brass, string, and vocal sections. The level of improvisation varied depending on the arrangement, the band, the song, and the band-leader. The most common style consisted of having one soloist at a time taking center stage, and take up an improvised routine, with bandmates playing support. As a song progressed, multiple soloists might play for periods of various lengths; it was far from uncommon to have two or three band members improvising at any one time.

Swing became a major part of African American dance, and came to be accompanied by a popular dance called the swing dance. Swing, both the music and the dance, became very popular across the United States, among both white and black audiences. David Clarke called swing the first "jazz-oriented style (to be) at the centre of popular music... as opposed to merely giving it backbone" American Federation of Musicians strike, which made recording with a large band prohibitively expensive info) This is by Count Basie & His Orchestra, a popular swing song by a jazz legend. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Bebop

Main article: Bebop

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Charlie Parker

Bebop (or bop) is a form of jazz characterized by fast tempos, improvisation based on harmonic structure rather than melody and use of the flatted fifth, a technique long a part of the blues though not common elsewhere. Instead of using improvised solos over chord change, bebop compositions were based on existing chord progression from popular songs, requiring performers to "chart new harmonic paths and make them work" 1940s, later evolving into styles like hard bop and free jazz. Thelonius Monk, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie are generally considered the primary innovators of the style, which arose in small jazz clubs in New York City info) This is by by Charlie Parker from In a Soulful Mood, one of the historic recordings that launched the bebop revolution. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Gospel

Main article: Gospel

Christian spirituals and the rural blues music were the origin of what is now known as gospel. Beginning in about the 1920s, African American churches began to feature early gospel in the form of worshipers "testifyin'", or proclaiming one's religious devotion in an improvised, often musical or semi-musical manner. Modern gospel began with the work of composers, most importantly Thomas A. Dorsey, who "(composed) songs based on familiar spirituals and hrmns, fused to blues and jazz rhythms" Mahalia Jackson, a singer whose fame rivalled any other African American to that date. She was perhaps the first black musician to make black music that all kinds of Americans listened to. She also became associated with the Civil Rights Movement, meeting with Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy in 1955, then participating in the Montgomery bus boycott Sam Cooke. The result was called soul music. The secularization caused some protest among the gospel community, who viewed it as an appropriation of religion for personal profit and, in many minds, glorifying immoral behavior. Elements of gospel appropriated for rock included various "rhythms (and) vocal styles, from dance steps to stage-diving, were first conceived on the gospel circuit... Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis -- among many other American singers -- (learned) at the feet of gospel's own legends" R&B

R&B, an abbreviation for rhythm and blues, is a style of music that arose in the 1930s and 40s, which was, at the time, "huge rhythm units smashing away behind screaming blues singers", according to Amiri Baraka, who "had to shout to be heard above the clanging and strumming of the various electrified instruments and the churning rhythm sections Modern Records, Atlantic Records and Aladdin Records.

It was the bandleader Louis Jordan who did more than anyone to innovate the sound of early rhythm and blues. His band featured a small horn section and prominent rhythm instrumentation and used songs with bluesy lyrical themes. By the end of the 1940s, he had produced nineteen major hits, and helped pave the way for contemporaries like Wynonie Harris, John Lee Hooker and Roy Milton.

Many of the most popular R&B songs were not, however, performed in the rollicking style of Jordan and his contemporaries. They were instead performed by white musicians, in a more palatable, mainstream style, and turned into pop hits Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry Little Richard and Fats Domino.

Rock and roll

Main article: Rock and roll

Rock and roll is a kind of popular music, developed primarily out of country, blues and R&B. Easily the single most popular style of music, rock's exact origins and early development have been hotly debated. Rock historian Reebee Garofalo cites Robert Palmer as noting that the style's influences are quite diverse, and include the Afro-Caribbean "Bo Diddley beat", elements of "big band swing" and Latin music like the Cuban son and "Mexican rhythms" Rockabilly

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Elvis Presley

Rock and roll first entered popular music through a style called rockabilly, which fused the nascent rock sound with elements of country music. Black-performed rock and roll had previously had limited mainstream success, and some observers at the time were aware that a white performer who could credibly sing in an R&B and country style would be a success. Sam Phillips, of Memphis, Tennessee's Sun Records, was the one who found such a performer, in Elvis Presley, who became one of the best-selling musicians in history, and brought rock and roll to audiences across the world Bill Haley, a white performer whose "Rock Around the Clock" is sometimes pointed to as the start of the rock era. However, Haley's music was "more arranged" and "more calculated" than the "looser rhythms" of rockabilly, which also, unlike Haley, did not use saxophones or chorus singing info) This is by Elvis Presley and is one of the most popular songs of the rockabilly era. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Doo wop

Main article: Doo wop

Doo wop is a kind of vocal harmony music performed by groups who became wildly popular in the 1950s. The earliest hits during this decade were songs like "Earth Angel" by The Penguins and "Crying in the Chapel" by The Orioles, though there are examples in a similar style dating back to the late 1930s, including The Ink Spots and the Mills Brothers Jimmy Ricks of The Ravens Italian-American groups like Dion & the Belmonts and Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons, while others added female vocalists and even formed all-female groups in the nearly-universally male field; these included The Queens and The Chantels info) This was the first major hit for The Ink Spots, who were the first major pop doo wop group. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Rock music: 1960s

Main articles: Surf, psychedelia and folk-rock

The 1960s saw a tremendous change in rock music, as well as in popular music in general, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in the world singer-songwriter", as well as an understanding of the opular musician as an artist. These changes led to the rise of musical movements that were connected to politically activist goals, such as Civil Rights and the opposition to the Vietnam War. At the same time, rock music began diversifying greatly, spreading across the globe and mutating into numerous subgenres in the United States.

The first of the major new rock genres of the 1960s was surf, pioneered by Californian Dick Dale. Surf was largely instrumental and guitar-based rockwith a distorted and twanging sound, and was associated with the Southern California surfing-based youth culture. Dale had worked with Leo Fender, developing the "Showman amplifier and... the reverberation unit that would give surf music its distinctively fuzzy sound" The Beach Boys began their career in 1961, soon launching a string of hits like "Surfin' USA". Their sound was not instrumental, nor guitar-based, but was full of "rich, dense and unquestionably special" "floating vocals (with) Four Freshman-ish harmonies riding over a droned, propulsive burden" Brian Wilson grew gradually more eccentric, experimenting with new studio techniques as he became associated with the burgeoning counterculture.

The counterculture was a youth movement that included political activism, especially in opposition to the Vietnam War, and the promotion of various hippie ideals. The hippies were associated primarily with two kinds of music: the folk-rock and country rock of people like Bob Dylan and Gram Parsons, and the psychedelic rock of bands like Jefferson Airplane and The Doors. This movement was very closely connected to the British Invasion, a wave of bands from the United Kingdom who became very popular throughout much of the 1960s. The first wave of the British Invasion included bands like The Zombies and the Moody Blues, followed by the legendary hard-driving rock bands like the Rolling Stones, The Who and, most famously, The Beatles. The sound of these bands was "hard-driving rock and roll", with The Beatles' came coming from songs that were "essentially note-for-note reproductions of... African American rock 'n' roll classics" by Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, The Shirelles and the Isley Brothers Kingston Trio and the Almanac Singers, while Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger helped to politically radicalize rural white folk music Bob Dylan rose to prominence in the middle of the 1960s, fusing folk with rock and making the nascent scene closely connected to the Civil Rights Movement. He was followed by a number of country-rock bands like The Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers, folk-oriented singer-songwriters like Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell, who remained politically activist even after Dylan had begun focusing more on music; by the end of the decade, there was little political or social awareness evident in the lyrics of pop-singer-songwriters like James Taylor and Carol King.

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"Mr. Tambourine Man" (info)
This helped launch careers of both the performers, The Byrds, and the songwriter, Bob Dylan.
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Jerry Garcia, Grateful dead frontman

Psychedelic rock was a hard, driving kind of guitar-based rock, closely associated with the city of San Francisco, California, which also produced the pioneering blues-rock singer Janis Joplin, who was originally from Port Arthur, Texas 1967's "Somebody to Love" and "White Rabbit", the Grateful Dead, a folk, country and bluegrass-flavored jam band, "embodied all the elements of the San Francisco scene and came... to represent the counterculture to the rest of the country" Timothy Leary, especially the use of hallucinogenic drugs like LSD for spiritual and philosophical purposes info) This is by Jefferson Airplane and is one of the most legendary songs of the psychedelic rock genre. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Alternative and indie rock

Main articles: Alternative rock and indie rock

Alternative rock is a diverse grouping of rock subgenres that developed from the early 1980s anti-corporate rock of the tail end of the punk rock boom. More specifically, it is made up mostly of genres that appeared in the 1980s and became popular or well known by the 1990s, such as indie rock, post-punk, gothic rock, and college rock. Most alternative bands were unified by their collective debt to punk, which laid the groundwork for underground and alternative music in the 1970s. Though the genre is considered to be rock, some of its genres were influenced by folk music, reggae and jazz music among other genres.

In the United States, many cities developed their own alternative rock scenes, like Minneapolis, Minnesota, Athens, Georgia, Washington, D.C. and, most influentially, Seattle, Washington. The most prominent American bands of this era include Fugazi, Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth info) This song is by the Pixies, the biggest band of late 1980s alternative rock. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Grunge

Main article: Grunge

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Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain

Grunge music is an independent-rooted music genre that was inspired by hardcore punk, thrash metal, and alternative rock. Grunge has a "dark, brooding guitar-based sludge" sound Sonic Youth and their use of "unconventional tunings to bend otherwise standard pop songs completely out of shape" Nirvana, grunge became wildly popular across the United States 1980s and early 1990s, peaking in mainstream popularity between 1991 and 1994. Bands from cities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest such as Seattle, Washington, Olympia, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, were responsible for creating grunge music and later made it popular with mainstream audiences. The supposed Generation X, who had just reached adulthood as grunge's popularity peaked, were closely associated with grunge, the sound which helped "define the desperation of (that) generation" info) This song is by Nirvana, who did more than any other group to bring grunge into the mainstream. Problems listening to the file? See media help.


Soul

Main article: Soul

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"What'd I Say" (info)
This was the most well-known hit from Ray Charles, a noted R&B and soul singer.
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Soul music: 1960s

Main articles: Girl group, Motown and album-oriented soul

Soul music: 1970s

Main articles: Philly soul

Funk

Main article: Funk

Soul music: 1980s and 90s

Main articles: New Jack Swing and