Curated category
American styles of music
- Punk rapThe year 2013 marked a turning point when the internet began connecting disparate sounds from Atlanta and Miami. Journalist Thomas Hobbs described this…
- Rage (music genre)The word rage first appeared in hip-hop through Kid Cudi's Mr. Rager alter ego during the 2010s. Travis Scott later adopted this term and made it a core part…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- Swing musicIn 1924, Louis Armstrong joined the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra in New York. This move shifted how jazz bands played rhythm forever.
- Cloud rapIn 2010, music blogger Walker Chambliss wrote a blog post that introduced the phrase cloud rap to describe the work of Squadda B.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- VaporwaveIn August 2010, a cassette tape titled Chuck Person's Eccojams Vol. 1 appeared on the internet under the name Daniel Lopatin.
- 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…
- Heavy metal musicIn 1968, three British bands named Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Deep Purple formed to create a sound that would define a new genre.
- Industrial musicIn 1913, Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo published The Art of Noises. This manifesto argued that the sounds of a modern industrial society should become music.
- Country musicIn the early 1920s, a young fiddler named Henry Gilliland stood in a small studio in Bristol, Tennessee. He held his instrument tight as he prepared to…
- 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.
- Tin Pan AlleyMonroe H. Rosenfeld wrote a column in the New York Herald that first used the phrase Tin Pan Alley in 1903. The article described the clashing sounds of many…