Music in Popular Culture

Music in the US came from our immigrants who brought their music with them. Those who composed and played music expanded their music by combining it with other music they heard. We got our music from the English, Irish, Germans and others who brought their fiddles, banjos, guitars, pianos and other instruments. They played folk tunes, classical music, polkas and ballads. Communities built gazebos in their parks and formed bands to play concerts in the 1800s.

The folk tunes and ballads grew out of Appalachia and became Hillbilly, Country and Bluegrass music. In New Orleans, guitarists played the blues, piano players invented Rag Time and church bands invented Dixie Land.  Polka bands sprang up in German communities in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Then there were the Big Bands of the 1940s, like Count Basie, Glen Miller, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Dorsey and Bennie Goodman.  Music was composed to dance to and often included humor. Spike Jones made fun of the big bands.

Music ranged from Polka Bands to Jazz to Dixie Land to Rag Time to Country to Bluegrass to Big Band.  Each type of music had its fans and many had a regional identity.

The US experienced more population shifts after 1945 and this ended regionalization. The 1950s and 1960s introduced Blues and Rock & Roll music to the mix.

1950s Rock & Roll with Bill Haley and Elvis Presley was joined by Rhythm and Blues in the 1960s. Blues mixed with Rock to create music by Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, BB King and others that inspired the Beatles.

Beatnik and Modern Jazz developed in the 1940s and 1950s. Coffee House protest music began in the 1960s.

The “Twist” was a short-lived dance in 1961 that morphed into go-go dancing by yourself doing the “mashed potato”. Most couple dancing derived from the “jitter-bug”.  Later in the 1970s, we did “disco dancing”.

Music improved in the 1970s with complex chords and harmonies from Quincy Jones, the 5^th Dimensions, Carpenters, Burt Bacharach, Brazil 66, Bossa Rio, Mommas & Poppas, Ramsey Lewis and others. This was the “golden age” for music in the US, but it ended abruptly in the 1980s.

Pop music had its own sound by Beetles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Doobie Brothers, Bee Gees and others in the 1960s and 1970s. Heavy Metal developed in the 1970s. Rock Groups like Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Metallica and Guns N Roses played in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1980s saw the beginning of Rap Music,

Classical Music composed from the 1600s to 1900s had its own radio stations that included Symphony and Opera music by Mozart, Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Grieg, Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky and others.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader