American culture

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 17th 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, hip hop, disco, funk, soul music, doo-wop, reggae, ragtime, and certain dance/electronic genres such as house music, techno, and electro.

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. Most of this popular music ultimately stems from African American music, especially the blues and African American gospel music.

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, bringing 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. Most cities, and even many smaller towns, have local 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.