Curated category
Popular music
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- HyperpopIn 2013, A. G. Cook launched the record label and art collective known as PC Music in London. This small group of artists laid the groundwork for what would…
- 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.
- Popular musicScholars have classified music as popular based on whether a song becomes known to listeners mainly from hearing it rather than reading sheet music.
- 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…
- Music videoIn 1894, sheet music publishers Edward B. Marks and Joe Stern hired electrician George Thomas to project still images on a screen during live performances of…
- 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…