Curated category
20th-century music genres
- House musicIn 1977, a dimly lit basement club named the Warehouse opened its doors on South Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Frankie Knuckles stood behind the turntables…
- Nu metalIn 1987, the thrash metal band Anthrax released an EP titled I'm the Man that combined hip hop and metal. This record laid groundwork for a genre that would…
- Punk rockThe Kingsmen released "Louie, Louie" in 1963, a song that later became known as punk rock's defining ur-text. This garage band from Portland, Oregon, played…
- Hip houseThe year 1986 marked the pressing of a vinyl record titled Rok da House by a British group called Beatmasters. This track featured a rap duo named Cookie…
- Miami bassIn 1986, DJ Kurtis Mantronik released a single called Bass Machine that changed the trajectory of South Florida music. The track featured rap vocals by T La…
- Rap metalIn 1987, the heavy metal band Anthrax released their extended play I'm the Man. This record fused hip hop with heavy metal for the first time on a major…
- Rock musicIn 1951, Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed began playing rhythm and blues music for a multi-racial audience. He is credited with first using the phrase rock…
- EmoIn 1983, a band called Rites of Spring formed in Washington, D.C., playing music that sounded like hardcore punk but felt different.
- New wave musicSeymour Stein launched a campaign in October 1977 to replace the word punk with new wave. He was the founder of Sire Records and believed that calling bands…
- DancehallIn the late 1970s, a sparse new form of music emerged from Kingston's inner-city neighborhoods. This sound grew out of political turbulence when Michael…
- FunkThe word funk initially referred to a strong odor. It is originally derived from Latin via Old French, and in this sense it was first documented in English…
- Trap musicIn 1991, the word trap first appeared in hip-hop lyrics to describe a place where drugs were sold. By 1999, producers in Atlanta began crafting a sound that…
- French houseIn the late 1970s, Parisian discothèques played a specific blend of music that would eventually birth French house. Space disco artists like Cerrone and…
- Electronic musicAt the turn of the 20th century, a massive machine called the Telharmonium filled concert halls with sound generated entirely by electricity.
- A cappellaA cuneiform tablet from around 2000 BC contains the earliest known instructions for performing music. This artifact predates the Seikilos epitaph, a Greek…
- Beat musicThe term beat music emerged from the fading waves of late 1950s rock and roll. Ernest Borneman, a German anthropologist living in England between 1933 and…
- City popA 2015 article in The Japan Times by Ryotaro Aoki described city pop as music made by city people for city people. Yutaka Kimura, an author of numerous books…