Knowra American popular music American popular music American popular music is music created and performed in the United States for broad public circulation, especially through commercial recording and broadcast. It encompasses styles shaped by the country’s diverse communities and changing technologies.
African-American music : Music traditions created and developed by African Americans, including spirituals, blues, jazz, and hip-hop. Its forms and innovations have shaped much of the sound and history of U.S. popular music.
Phonograph record : A sound recording format in which grooves on a disc reproduce audio when played by a stylus. Records let performances circulate beyond live venues and helped turn songs into mass-market products.
Rhythm and blues : A genre of African American popular music that developed from blues and jazz and influenced rock and soul. It carried Black musical innovations into a major postwar commercial genre.
Teenage culture : Shared practices, tastes, and identities associated with adolescence as a distinct social stage. Postwar rock and roll helped make young people a visible market and cultural force.
American folk music : Traditional and revival music in the United States, often transmitted through oral practice and associated with community or political expression. Folk traditions overlap with commercial popular music but often emphasize communal transmission over the hit market.
Blues : A music tradition rooted in African American communities, characterized by expressive vocal phrasing and recurring harmonic patterns. Blues phrasing and harmony became foundations for jazz, rock, rhythm and blues, and country.
Radio in the United States : The development and operation of radio broadcasting in the United States, including commercial stations and networks. Radio made songs national hits and gave broadcasters power over popular taste.
Rock and roll : A popular music genre that emerged in the United States in the 1950s, combining rhythm and blues with country and other styles. Its rise made youth-oriented music a central force in the U.S. record business.
Civil rights movement : A U.S. movement, especially prominent from the 1950s through the 1960s, that challenged racial segregation and discrimination. Songs supported organizing and expressed the movement’s demands and hopes.
Classical music in the United States : Art music composed and performed in the United States within classical traditions and institutions. Its concert institutions and conventions provide a useful contrast to music shaped by mass-market circulation.
Show all 28