styles of American music

styles of American music

Is it possible to include all of the dozens of American musical styles created in the last couple of hundred years into a few broad categories of style defined by the theoretical components used in their creation? Well, we can try eh? Again the idea emerges of reshaping identical components into different artistic applications. Interesting perhaps is that in creating this process of stylistic categories, the theoretical resource used to create these American sounds has not really changed a bit over the past four hundred years or so, the gear has changed dramatically, but folks back then and those here now have been making American music using the same set of unique of musical elements. Really? Pretty much. Equal temper and the blues? Yep, equal temper and the blues. Cool with this? So, why doesn't the music sound the same now as it did then?

As America is said to be a "melting pot" of numerous cultures, the various styles of American music often show these cultural combinations of elements. At the theoretical core of the American sound is a mixing of the mostly rural blues colors and the more urban sophistication of musical color as created by the European equal temperament system. As succeeding generations of musicians passed along and aspects of their music was carried over from one generation to the next, historical traditions evolved for creating the American sounds, with each new generation building upon the existing music of their day. Today, we often recognize these traditions in broad classifications as the various "styles" of American music.

Is it possible to correlate theoretical complexity with the different styles of American music? Well, we can try right? But, does this mean that one style is more artistically complex than another? Why would we want to do this? Well, for a number of reasons. First and foremost perhaps is that we gain a sense of what is important in learning to create the sounds of a style. We can define the scope of our own learning. Having a theoretical perspective of the styles creates paths of exploration, so that as an artist evolves over the years, they can redefine the scope of their learning as they evolve artistically. That in helping other players along, we can help them advance in their chosen style and direction by having a sense of the theory / style dynamic, i.e., be able to help them define theoretically the sounds of their style. And for those that choose to pursue a career in music, this basic theoretical understanding of style often allows for immediate success when creating music with new players. Also help us to know when we might be getting a bit over our heads etc.

So where does knowledge of the theory come to help the emerging artist of any style? Knowledge of the theory of any style of music helps to prompt the search for new elements to historically advance the art. If a folk player who usually uses the One, Four and Five chords to tell their stories discovers the diatonic Two, Three, Six and Seven chords in between, chances are they will try to add them to one of their songs, expanding their palette of colors for creating their work. If the blues player discovers the relationship between the 12 keys, as say in the cycle of fifths, might they not try to modulate the tune during one of their arrangements? If the rocker understands the ideas of intonation will they begin to experiment with different tunings? Does theoretical knowledge of the upper color tones of the chord, the 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, encourage the jazz player to perhaps begin to explore towards the polytonal world?

Historically, the development of American music has a rich, aural tradition of passing along the magic of a style. This oral / aural tradition dates to the dawn of civilization. We can enrich this powerful learning component by understanding the theoretical organization of whatever style of music we desire to play and share. How? Well, learning the theory eventually translates into "hearing" the theory, the ability to hear the music and know what is happening theoretically. So when we hear something we dig and understand what it is, chances are better we will remember it. Make a note, jot the idea down? Could be ours forever. As this ability improves, our sources for new ideas expands dramatically. Our modern day technology can surround us with a limitless choice of music to listen too, who knows where the next cool idea will come from to possibly advance our own style?

Perhaps the coolest thing, at least from an educational aspect, about the various styles of the American sounds and the history of their evolution, is that today, thanks to our modern wizardry of technology, we can hear it all, any style from any era, with a bit of research and motivation. The beauty of our market type economics system makes it all available and with the advent of the internet and e commerce, the whole sound of the history of American music are often just a few clicks away. Crazy huh? And perhaps even cooler, is that by having all of this historical aural resource available, younger players are still coming up passionately playing music from days gone by. Does that mean if we play bebop that we are in a bebop "tribute" band? I wonder if other civilizations from other era's did this sort of thing?

So, with this in mind, the following menu of choices contains broad categories of various styles of American music. Be creative in defining your style and explore the possible genres within your style, i.e., bluegrass and country from folk, rhythm and blues from the blues, heavy metal from rock, cool jazz from jazz etc. Each of these pages contain a brief discussion of the theoretical elements followed by a historical listing of important players in the development of that style. The key word here is development I think, each generation of new players building upon the work of their musical ancestors. A list of titles of songs in each genre are included, which when combined with the theory and players, will hopefully provide the beginning learner with a place to start exploring, and once this learning and exploring process has started, it's up to each of us to try and figure it out right? Click the curriculum link in the following table for a beginning pedagogical format for study for each of the styles and links back into the text.