Portland, Oregon
The music of Oregon reflects the diverse array of styles present in the music of the United States, from Native American music to the contemporary genres of rock and roll, country, rhythm and blues, jazz, pop, electronic music, and hip hop. However, throughout most of its history, the state has been relatively isolated from the cultural forces shaping American music. Much of modern popular music traces its roots to the emergence in the late 19th century of African Americanblues and the growth of gospel music in the 1920s. African American musicians borrowed elements of European and Indigenous music to create new American forms. As Oregon's population was more homogeneous and more white than the United States as a whole, the state did not play a significant role in this history.
The state's main contributions to American popular music began in the 1960s, when The Kingsmen and Paul Revere & the Raiders established Oregon as a minor center of frat rock and garage rock. This led in one direction to the blues rock tradition of the Robert Cray Band and Curtis Salgado, and in another direction to the hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s Pacific Northwest, led by the Wipers in Portland and like-minded bands in Seattle and Vancouver, BC.
Memphis, TN, USA
Memphis is American music. In no other city in the country can you find the very roots of the rhythms that move us so completely, from the funky sounds of soul to the finger-snapping beat of rock.
Start at the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, adjacent to the FedExForum downtown, where you can get a crash course in Memphis music, then peruse artifacts and exhibits showcasing the names, big and small, that put Memphis music on the map. Then head across the street the the Memphis Music Hall of Fame. Learn how some of the greatest American music artists of all time got their start in Memphis and how they inspired generations of musicians to come. Find fun, fascinating and educational exhibits featuring never-before-seen memorabilia, rare video performances and interviews, and discover new music coming out of Memphis today.
On a quiet street south of downtown, American soul music was born at Stax, the record label that recorded the songs of neighborhood kids – and what a neighborhood! Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding and Booker T. and his M.G.’s all found their groove at Stax. Visitors are always amazed at those who have recorded at this one-time movie theatre converted to a studio – Aretha Franklin and Richard Pryor, just to name a few.
Today, the Stax story is told through the sounds and photos of the label’s original recording artists, with a hall of records that dazzles, the tripped-out Caddy that was Isaac Hayes’ ride and special exhibits honoring all the pioneers of American soul music.
Memphis, TN, USA
Los Angeles, California, United States
As well as being one of the most important cities in the world in the film industry, Los Angeles, California, is also one of the most important places in the world for the recorded music industry. Many landmarks in Los Angeles - such as Capitol Records, which resembles a stack of albums - are representative of this. A&M Records long occupied a studio off Sunset Boulevard built by Charlie Chaplin (who wrote the music for his own films). The Warner Bros. built a major recording business in addition to their film business. At the other end of the business, local Rhino Records began a reissue boom by digging through archives of old recordings and repackaging them for modern audiences.
Seattle, Washington
Heavy rain, majestic mountain vistas and technology companies; these are the things that come to mind when most people imagine Seattle. However, a fourth image can just as easily join the others: the Seattle music industry. In past decades, the dark skies and close-knit community of Seattle have helped to make it the birthplace for many pivotal moments in American music, including the careers of Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, the formation of punk rock bands like Alice in Chains and Nirvana and the grunge movement that dominated popular culture in the 1990s.
Rock and roll wouldn't be the same today without the contributions of Seattle bands, which may be surprising when you realize how small the city actually is. The caliber of music that has come out of Seattle far surpasses what similarly-sized cities have been able to produce, and even today new bands are forming out of this blustery city that are leaving their own mark on the entire industry.
Is there something in the water? How can one city make such an enormous impact on the entire music industry and change its direction for decades at a time? To better understand the global impacts of the Seattle music scene, we need to look far before the start of the grunge movement to the city's early music roots.
New Orleans, Louisiana
The music of New Orleans assumes various styles of music which have often borrowed from earlier traditions. New Orleans, Louisiana, is especially known for its strong association with jazz music, universally considered to be the birthplace of the genre. The earliest form was dixieland, which has sometimes been called traditional jazz, 'New Orleans', and 'New Orleans jazz'. However, the tradition of jazz in New Orleans has taken on various forms that have either branched out from original dixieland or taken entirely different paths altogether. New Orleans has also been a prominent center of funk, home to some of the earliest funk bands such as The Meters
Chicago, Illinois
Muddy Waters, a major originator of postwar Chicago blues
Chicago, Illinois is a major center for music in the midwestern United States where distinctive forms of blues (greatly responsible for the future creation of rock and roll), and house music, a genre of electronic dance music, were developed.
The "Great Migration" of poor black workers from the South into the industrial cities brought traditional jazz and blues music to the city, resulting in Chicago blues and "Chicago-style" Dixielandjazz. Notable blues artists included Muddy Waters, Junior Wells, Howlin' Wolf and both Sonny Boy Williamsons; jazz greats included Nat King Cole, Gene Ammons, Benny Goodman and Bud Freeman. Chicago is also well known for its soul music.
In the early 1930s, Gospel music began to gain popularity in Chicago due to Thomas A. Dorsey's contributions at Pilgrim Baptist Church.
In the 1980s and 1990s, heavy rock, punk and hip hop also became popular in Chicago. Orchestras in Chicago include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Chicago Sinfonietta.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
The music of Minnesota began with the native rhythms and songs of Indigenous peoples, the first inhabitants of the lands which later became the U.S. state of Minnesota. Their relatives, the half-breed Métis fur-trading voyageurs, introduced the chansons of their French ancestors in the late eighteenth century. As the territory was opened up to white settlement in the 19th century, each group of immigrants brought with them the folk music of their European homelands. Celtic, German, Scandinavian, and Central and Eastern European song and dance remain part of the vernacular music of the state today.
Ethnic music has influenced and developed into modern folk music, and American musical genres such as gospel music, blues and jazz also are part of the state's musical fabric. Musicians, such as the Andrews Sisters and Bob Dylan, often started in Minnesota but left the state for the cultural capitals of the east and west coasts, but in recent years the development of an active music industry in Minneapolis has encouraged local talent to produce and record at home. The city's most influential contributions to American popular music happened in the 1980s, when the city's music scene "expanded the state's cultural identity" and launched the careers of acclaimed performers like the multi-platinum soul singer Prince. The Replacements and Hüsker Dü set off the national alternative rock boom of the 1990s. In the 1990s and 2000s, the Twin Cities played a role in the national hip hop scene with artists such as Atmosphere and Brother Ali.
The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra was founded in the early 1900s, and by the 1930s it had attained international stature in performance and recording. Since renamed the Minnesota Orchestra, it regained much of its former renown in the first decade of the 21st century. Classical music aficianados also enjoy and support the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the only full-time chamber orchestra in the nation. Choral groups and community ensembles are located in many communities. The state's educational system provides comprehensive programs in music education. The nation's largest public radio network provides classical and other music programming regionally and to the nation, and independent public stations program a variety of college, folk, and new music.
Austin, Texas
Music of Austin, Texas: Austin's official motto is the "Live Music Capital of the World" because on any given night, one can find over one hundred venues showcasing a wide variety of free - live music performances. Austin is also famed for the SXSW and the Austin City Limits (ACL) Music Festivals which showcase an eclectic array of live musical talent from across the globe. The greatest concentration of music venues in Austin are located around 6th Street, the Warehouse District, Downtown, Central East Austin, South Congress, the Red River District, the University of Texas, South Lamar, and South Austin.
The modern definition of "Austin music" emerged in 1972 when "a new form of country music exploded on the scene that turned its back on Nashville and embraced the counterculture.". Eddie Wilson had opened the Armadillo World Headquarters music venue in 1970, which drew large crowds to alternating country and rock music shows.But it was 1972 when a minimally successful Willie Nelson left Nashville once and for all and moved to Austin, joining several other talented nonconformists and recent transplants including Michael (Martin) Murphey, Marcia Ball, Steve Earle, Gary P. Nunn, Jerry Jeff Walker, Ray Wiley Hubbard, Waylon Jennings and others. Willie grew his hair long and "figured out how to bring the hippies and the rednecks together." His audiences at the Armadillo began to cross-pollinate and "what resulted was a scene that no one had ever seen before" On New Year’s Eve, Austin’s local KOKE.FM radio station switched to a new format geared to the mixed crowds first called “country rock,” and later “progressive country.” By November of that year, the first pilot for the iconic Austin City Limits was being filmed with Willie....Billboard Magazine named KOKE “the most innovative radio station in the country;" and Austin had a national reputation thanks largely to the reporting of Rolling Stone stringer Chet Flippo, who seemed to get a dispatch from the Armadillo into every issue.
Austin became renowned for nurturing talented musicians who did not fit the mold anywhere else,[citation needed] and were drawn in by the creative vibe, liberal politics, and the low cost-of-living in what was then a laid back Capital city whose largest employers were the University of Texas and State government. Austin's reputation continued to grow and become celebrated for its folk, blues, jazz, bluegrass, tejano, zydeco, new wave, punk, and indie music scenes.
The City also supports two orchestras: the Austin Symphony and Austin Civic Orchestras, as well as the Austin Opera and the Austin Baroque Orchestra and La Follia Austin Baroque.
Athens, Georgia
The music of Athens, Georgia, includes a wide variety of popular music and was an important part of the early evolution of alternative rock and new wave. The city is well known as the home of chart-topping bands like R.E.M. and The B-52s, and several long-time indie /rock hip-hop groups. Athens hosts the Athens Symphony Orchestra and other music institutions, as well as prominent local music media, such as the college radio station WUOG. Much of the modern Athens music scene relies on students from the large University of Georgia campus in the city. The University sponsors Western classical performances and groups specializing in other styles.
Athens became a center for music in the region during the Civil War and gained further fame in the early twentieth century with the founding of the Morton Theatre, which was a major touring destination for African American performers. The city's local rock music scene can be traced to the 1950s, with live music at Allen's Hamburgers in Normaltown. International attention came in the 1970s when the B-52's began releasing the first of several best-selling recordings. Athens-based rock bands have performed in a wide array of styles, and the city has never had a characteristic style of rock; most of the bands have been united only in their quirky and iconoclastic image.
Music author Richie Unterberger describes the town as an unlikely center for musical development, as a "sleepy [place where] it's difficult to imagine anyone working up a sweat, let alone playing rock music." The contributions of Athens to rock, country music, and bluegrass have earned it the nickname "the Liverpool of the South", and the city is known as one of the American birthplaces for both modern alternative rock and new wave music. Athens was home to the first and most famous college music scene in the country, beginning in the 1970s.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., has been home to many prominent musicians and is particularly known for the musical genres of Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, bluegrass, and a local funk genre called go-go. The first major musical figure from D.C. was John Philip Sousa, a military brass band composer. Later figures include jazz musicians, such as Duke Ellington, Charlie Rouse, Buck Hill, Ron Holloway, Davey Yarborough, Michael A. Thomas, Butch Warren, and DeAndrey Howard; soul musicians, including Billy Stewart, Roberta Flack, Mary Jefferson, R&BJimj Smooth, Lady Mary, Charles Pitts, Gregory Gaskins and Sir Joe Quarterman.
The city is home to the Washington Symphony Orchestra, the Washington National Opera, the National Symphony Orchestra (founded in 1931 by Hans Kindler), the DC Legendary Musicians Inc. a nonprofit founded by Rev. Dr. Sandra Butler Truesdale (founded in 2002) dclmusicians and the DC Youth Orchestra Program (founded in 1960). The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a nationally important venue for a variety of musical performances, many of which are presented by Washington Performing Arts Society, an independent, non-profit organization founded by impresario Patrick Hayes. Washingtonian magazine maintains a Washington Music Hall of Fame.
The United States Marine Band, and United States Navy Band are both based in Washington, D.C. The Marine Band is the oldest musical group in the United States (formed in 1798, before the city's founding). The U.S. Marine Band's most famous conductor is John Philip Sousa, who composed many of the most famous American marches, as well as several musical comedies. The U.S. Navy Band's director throughout the 1960s was LCDR Anthony A. Mitchell who composed the march "Our Nation's Capital", the official march of Washington, D.C., as well as the "John F. Kennedy Cultural Center March", and the "National Capitol Parks March".
New York
Carnegie Hall, a major music venue in New York
The music of New York City is a diverse and important field in the world of music. It has long been a thriving home for popular genres such as jazz, rock, and the blues, as well as classical and art music. It is the birthplace of hip hop, Latin freestyle, doo wop, bebop, disco, punk rock, and new wave. It's also the birthplace of salsa music, born from a fusion of Cuban and Puerto Rican influences that came together in New York's Latino neighborhoods in the 1960s. The city's culture, a melting pot of nations from around the world, has produced vital folk music scenes such as Irish-American music and Jewish klezmer. Beginning with the rise of popular sheet music in the early 20th century, New York's Broadwaymusical theater, and Tin Pan Alley's songcraft, New York has been a major part of the American music industry.
Music author Richie Unterberger has described the New York music scene, and the city itself, as "(i)mmense, richly diverse, flashy, polyethnic, and engaged in a never-ending race for artistic and cosmopolitan supremacy." Despite the city's historic importance in the development of American music, Blue Man Group there are those[by whom?] who feel that its status has declined in recent years, due to a combination of increased corporate control over music media, an increase in the cost of living, and the rise of local music scenes whose success is facilitated by the cheap communication provided by the Internet.
Nashville, Tennessee
Ryman Auditorium, opened in 1892, is a world-famous music venue in downtown Nashville, known for hosting the Grand Ole Opry from 1943-1974 and The Johnny Cash Show from 1969-1971.
WSM (AM) signed on in 1925, the same year launching WSM Barndance soon known as Grand Ole Opry. The weekly stage show and broadcast would play an important role in the popularization of country music and is today the longest running radio program in the world.
By the late 1950s, the city's record labels dominated the country music genre with slick pop-country (Nashville sound), overtaking honky-tonk in the charts. Performers reacting against the Nashville sound formed their own scenes in Lubbock, Texas and Bakersfield, California, the latter of which (Bakersfield sound) became the most popular type of country by the late 1960s, led by Merle Haggard. Progressive country and outlaw country emerged to challenge the prevailing Nashville sound. Nashville's predominance in country music was regained by the early 1980s, when Dwight Yoakam and other neo-traditionalists entered the charts.
As well as being one of the most important cities in the world in the film industry, Los Angeles, California, is also one of the most important places in the world for the recorded music industry. Many landmarks in Los Angeles - such as Capitol Records, which resembles a stack of albums - are representative of this. A&M Records long occupied a studio off Sunset Boulevard built by Charlie Chaplin (who wrote the music for his own films). The Warner Bros. built a major recording business in addition to their film business. At the other end of the business, local Rhino Records began a reissue boom by digging through archives of old recordings and repackaging them for modern audiences.
Heavy rain, majestic mountain vistas and technology companies; these are the things that come to mind when most people imagine Seattle. However, a fourth image can just as easily join the others: the Seattle music industry. In past decades, the dark skies and close-knit community of Seattle have helped to make it the birthplace for many pivotal moments in American music, including the careers of Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain, the formation of punk rock bands like Alice in Chains and Nirvana and the grunge movement that dominated popular culture in the 1990s.
The music of New Orleans assumes various styles of music which have often borrowed from earlier traditions. New Orleans, Louisiana, is especially known for its strong association with jazz music, universally considered to be the birthplace of the genre. The earliest form was dixieland, which has sometimes been called traditional jazz, 'New Orleans', and 'New Orleans jazz'. However, the tradition of jazz in New Orleans has taken on various forms that have either branched out from original dixieland or taken entirely different paths altogether. New Orleans has also been a prominent center of funk, home to some of the earliest funk bands such as The Meters
Muddy Waters, a major originator of postwar Chicago blues
The music of Minnesota began with the native rhythms and songs of Indigenous peoples, the first inhabitants of the lands which later became the U.S. state of Minnesota. Their relatives, the half-breed Métis fur-trading voyageurs, introduced the chansons of their French ancestors in the late eighteenth century. As the territory was opened up to white settlement in the 19th century, each group of immigrants brought with them the folk music of their European homelands. Celtic, German, Scandinavian, and Central and Eastern European song and dance remain part of the vernacular music of the state today.
Carnegie Hall, a major music venue in New York
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