Curated category
African-American music
- 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…
- BebopThe word bebop first appeared in a 1928 recording by McKinney's Cotton Pickers titled Four or Five Times. Nonsense syllables like bebop and rebop were used…
- Neo soulKedar Massenburg coined the term neo soul in the late 1990s to market and describe a style of music emerging from traditional R&B.
- Soul musicRay Charles released the single I Got a Woman in 1954, marking a pivotal moment where gospel fervor met secular lyrics. This recording combined blues, rhythm…
- Swing musicIn 1924, Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York. This move shifted how jazz bands played rhythm forever.
- DiscoIn the late 1960s, a new sound emerged from the urban nightlife of New York City and Philadelphia. This music grew from African-American, Latino…
- JazzIn the late 1800s, enslaved people gathered in Congo Square, New Orleans, to dance and play drums. These gatherings preserved African rhythmic traditions…
- 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…
- Hip-hopOn the 11th of August 1973, a back-to-school party took place in the recreation room at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue. DJ Kool Herc used two turntables to extend the…
- Contemporary R&BIn 1973, Marvin Gaye released the album What's Going On. This record introduced jazz influences that loosened the rigid structures of earlier rhythm and…
- 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…
- Rock and rollIn the late 1940s, a new sound began to take shape in the United States. It emerged from a blending of black musical genres like rhythm and blues with…
- Rhythm and bluesIn 1948, Jerry Wexler of Billboard magazine coined the term rhythm and blues to describe recordings marketed predominantly to African Americans.
- Hip-hop cultureOn the 11th of August 1973, a high-rise apartment at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the South Bronx hosted an indoor party that would ignite a global cultural…