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Music

Definition: Music

Music

Noun

1. An artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured and continuous manner.

2. Any agreeable (pleasing and harmonious) sounds; "he fell asleep to the music of the wind chimes".

3. A musical diversion; "his music was his central interest".

4. A musical composition in printed or written form; "she turned the pages of the music as he played".

5. The sounds produced by singers or musical instruments (or reproductions of such sounds).

6. Punishment for one's actions; "you have to face the music"; "take your medicine".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "music" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

 

Specialty Definition: Music

DomainDefinition

Computing

Music n. A common extracurricular interest of hackers (compare {science-fiction fandom, {oriental food; see also filk). Hackish folklore has long claimed that musical and programming abilities are closely related, and there has been at least one large-scale statistical study that supports this. Hackers, as a rule, like music and often develop musical appreciation in unusual and interesting directions. Folk music is very big in hacker circles; so is electronic music, and the sort of elaborate instrumental jazz/rock that used to be called `progressive' and isn't recorded much any more. The hacker's musical range tends to be wide; many can listen with equal appreciation to (say) Talking Heads, Yes, Gentle Giant, Pat Metheny, Scott Joplin, Tangerine Dream, Dream Theater, King Sunny Ade, The Pretenders, Screaming Trees, or the Brandenburg Concerti. It is also apparently true that hackerdom includes a much higher concentration of talented amateur musicians than one would expect from a similar-sized control group of mundane types. Source: Jargon File.

Bible

Music Jubal was the inventor of musical instruments (Gen. 4:21). The Hebrews were much given to the cultivation of music. Their whole history and literature afford abundant evidence of this. After the Deluge, the first mention of music is in the account of Laban's interview with Jacob (Gen. 31:27). After their triumphal passage of the Red Sea, Moses and the children of Israel sang their song of deliverance (Ex. 15). But the period of Samuel, David, and Solomon was the golden age of Hebrew music, as it was of Hebrew poetry. Music was now for the first time systematically cultivated. It was an essential part of training in the schools of the prophets (1 Sam. 10:5; 19:19-24; 2 Kings 3:15; 1 Chr. 25:6). There now arose also a class of professional singers (2 Sam. 19:35; Eccl. 2:8). The temple, however, was the great school of music. In the conducting of its services large bands of trained singers and players on instruments were constantly employed (2 Sam. 6:5; 1 Chr. 15; 16; 23;5; 25:1-6). In private life also music seems to have held an important place among the Hebrews (Eccl. 2:8; Amos 6:4-6; Isa. 5:11, 12; 24:8, 9; Ps. 137; Jer. 48:33; Luke 15:25). Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary.

Dream Interpretation

To dream of hearing harmonious music, omens pleasure and prosperity.
Discordant music foretells troubles with unruly children, and unhappiness in the household. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....

Literature

Music Father of music. Giovanni Battista Pietro Aloisio da Palestrina. Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was "the prince of musicians." (1529-1594.)
Father of Greek music. Terpander. (Flourished B.C. 676.)
The prince of music. G. Pietro A. da Palestrina (1529-1594).
Music hath charms, etc.; from Congreve's Mourning Bride, i. l.
Music Men of genius averse to music. The following men of genius were actually averse to music: Edmund Burke; Byron had no ear for music, and neither vocal nor instrumental music afforded him the slightest pleasure. Charles Fox, Hume, Dr. Johnson, Daniel O'Connell, Robert Peel, William Pitt; Pope preferred a street organ to Handel's oratorios; the poet Rogers felt actual discomfort at the sounds of music; Sir Walter Scott, the poet Southey, and Tennyson. Seven of these twelve were actually poets, and five were orators. The Princess Mathilde (Demidoff), an excellent artist, with a veritable passion for art, may be added to those who have had a real antipathy to music. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Slang in 1811

MUSIC. The watch-word among highwaymen, signifying the person is a friend, and must pass unmolested. Music is also an Irish term, in tossing up, to express the harp side, or reverse, of a farthing or halfpenny, opposed to the head. Source: 1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Celtic music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The term "Celtic music" encompasses Irish traditional music and traditional musics of Scotland and the Shetland Islands; Cape Breton Island and Maritime Canada; Wales; the Isle of Man; Northumberland (northern England); Brittany (northwestern France); Cornwall; and Galicia (northwestern Spain). The term, though widely used, is eschewed by many traditionalists.

Common characteristic musical forms include jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, strathspeys (Scotland) and slow airs. Much of the music is typified by strong, repeating melodies in a set rhythm, which reflects a background as music to dance to. Ballads are also common. Largely through the immigration of the so-called "Scotch-Irish", Celtic music was the foundation for traditional "folk" music in the U.S., especially that of Appalachia. An earlier version of the above article was posted on Nupedia. This article is Open Content.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Celtic music."

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Esperanto music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Musicians and bands
Akordo - Akvo - Anjo Amika - Amplifiki - Asorti - Torsten Bendias - Morice Benin - Miĥael Bronŝtejn - Blera Brothers - Bretona Esperanto-Koruso - Ken Clinger - Ĵ. Dan' kaj B. Hor' - DJ Kunar - DJ Njokki - DJ Nucki - Dolchamar - John Douglas - Esperanto Desperado - Ekvinokso - Fantom' - Thierry Faverial - Feri Floro - Flávio Fonseca - Freundeskreis - David Gaines - Ralph Glomp - Georgo Handzlik - Lou Harrison - JoMo - JoMo kaj Liberecanoj - Ĵomart kaj Nataŝa - Kajto - Kaj tiel plu - La Kompanoj - Aaron Koenig - Kore - Kredo - Krio de Morto - La Kuracistoj - Daphne Lawless - Ĵak Lepŭil' - Tarcísio Lima - Lunatiko - Magnus - Massimo MANCA - Marĉela - Merlin - La Mevo - Klára Mikola kaj László Garamvölgyi - Ĝanfranko Mole' - La Mondanoj - Nikolin' - Persone - Piĉismo - La Porkoj - Miĥail Povorin - Qexteto Esperanto - Radikulo - Dennis Rocktamba - Jan Schröder - Solotronik - Vladimir Soroka - Suzana - Team' - Duncan C. Thomson - Trattbandet - Tutmonda muziko - Olivier Tzaut - Johán Valano - Jacques Yvart

Songs
La Espero - Ĉu vi pretas - Liza pentras bildojn

Music companies and publishers
Vinilkosmo - Floréal Martorell

Events and projects
EoLA - KEF - ARKONES - KAFE - Vinilkosmo kompil' - Kolekto 2000 - Esperanto Subgrunde kompil' - Elektronika kompilo

Organizations and Magazines
EUROKKA - Vinilkosmo - Rok-Gazet'

External Links

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Filmi music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Elaborate song and dance sequences interspersed in Indian movies are generally referred to as filmi music (a desi word). Indian films (in particular Hindi films) have typically been picturised as a musical, even when the theme is not romantic. A typical Indian film has around six songs.

The origins of this tradition can be traced back to the ballets in Indian dance-drama. Traditionally, these song-dance sequences are considered to be an outlet of the intense expressions of the lead characters of the movie. So they are picturised on the lead characters.

During the 1940s, the camera was more or less immobile, focussing only on the facial expressions of the artists, while the music was heavily based on Indian Classical Music.

During the 1950s and 1960s, when technology facilitated mobility of the camera, Indian filmmakers shot musical sequences on location at scenic spots such as Kashmir. The score and lyrics were still inspired from folk and traditional music.

During 1970s, the visual media was dominated by movers and shakers kind of dance. The auditory media was also more western with instruments like guitar taking a dominant role.

The music is typically seen as a safeguard by Indian movie producers that adds value to the movie. Some movies are known to have earned money solely because of their music.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Filmi music."

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Flamenco music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Flamenco music was a form of expression used by the peasants and the oppressed, in much the same way that the Blues was used by American slaves. It was, and is, part of the culture of the Gypsies of Andalusia in Southern Spain. In fact the musical aspects of flamenco (principally singing and guitar playing) cannot really be separated from other aspects of this culture.

History

The exact origins of Flamenco music are unknown. While the Gypsies are generally credited with the creation of Flamenco music, its roots can also be found in Arabic, early Christian and Judaic music.

Flamenco music gained much of its notoriety in the 19th century, where it was performed professionally in drinking spots know as Cafés cantantes.

Ramón Montoya is credited with being the first performer to introduce classical guitar techniques into Flamenco music.

Rhythmic form

The basic rhythm of Flamenco music is known as compás. A compás is characterised by a recurring pattern of beats and accents. These recurring patterns make up a number of different rhythmic and musical forms known as toques.

Each toque has a distinct rhythmic signature which provides Flamenco music with its great richness. These toques are usually identified in their plural forms such as Soleares, Seguiriyas, Alegrías and Sevillanas.

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Flamenco music."

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List of cultural and regional genres of music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Cultural genres

Regional, national and geographic genres

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List of popular music performers

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

This is an alphabetical list of popular music performers from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The list includes also performers of other countries who have become widely known in North America, Great Britain or Ireland.

See also:


List of popular music performers

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Music

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Broadly speaking, music is the eloquent arrangement of sound and silence. The actual definition of music is hotly contested, and sounds accepted as music vary according to historical era and culture, but it is usually held that the sounds must at least be consciously organized, either by an individual or a group.

Most music is made of tones (symbolized by musical notes) with definite pitcheses. Different tones played one after the other constitute a melody, while tones played simultaneously make chordss and harmony. Unpitched sounds are often provided by percussion. The temporal organisation of these elements is rhythm.

Writing music

Music can be written in advance of a performance by a composer or songwriter. In such cases, the musician or musicians playing the piece (who may or may not also be the people who wrote it) broadly follow the instructions the composer has given them, which may be written down using musical notation in the form of sheet music. Alternatively, the music may be more-or-less made up by the performers as they go along (improvisation).

Performing music

Music can be performed by a single musician, or several may band together to form a musical ensemble such as a rock band or orchestra. The music they make can be heard through several media; the most traditional way is to hear it live, in the presence of the musicians. Live music can also be broadcast over the radio or television, although this experience is closer to playing back a sound recording or watching a music video. Sometimes, live performances incorporate prerecorded sounds; for example, a DJ uses records for scratching. Of course, you can also create music yourself, by singing, playing a musical instrument, or composing. Modern beginners usually try the guitar or the piano as a first instrument.

Deaf people can experience music by feeling the vibrations in their body; the most famous example of a deaf musician is the composer Ludwig van Beethoven, who composed many famous works even after he had completely lost his hearing. In more modern times, Evelyn Glennie, who has been deaf since the age of twelve, is a highly acclaimed percussionist.

Education

People take music lessons when they want to learn to play music. Musicology is a broad field charged with the historical and scientific study of music, including music theory and music history.

Genres

Since music is an ancient art, an extremely large number of musical genres have evolved. Among the larger genres are classical music, popular music (including rock and roll) and folk music. The term world music is applied to a wide range of music with an "ethnic" element. Ethnomusicology is the study of these genres in an anthropological context.

See also

nds:Musik simple:Music

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Music."

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Music of India

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The music of India includes multiples varieties of folk and pop music, along with Karnatic and Hindustani classical music.

Pop music

The biggest form of Indian pop music is filmi, or music originated in films. Other forms of pop musicians include Alisha Chinai and rock bands like Bally Sagoo.

Filmi

The capital of filmi is Mumbai (Bombay), which is a cinematic capital referred to as Bollywood. Popular composers include Ilayaraja, Rajesh Roshan, A.R. Rahman and Raamlaxman. The films tend be idealized visions of Indian life, and the music is similarly jolly and romantic. Many of the stars play similar, stereotyped roles in multiple films and lip-synch to the singing of vocal stars like Lata Mangeshkar and S.P. Balasurahmaniam. Filmi's Golden Age occurred in the 1950s to the mid-1960s.

Cinema began taking shape in India in the late 19th century, and silent films soon became very popular. In 1931, Ardeshir M. Irani's Alam Ara was adapted from a piece of Parsi theater and launched Indian talkies. The music became extremely popular, and was soon heavily advertised. One reason for the push was that India's linguistic diversity meant dialogue would be incomprehensible for a large portion of the audience, no matter what language it was made in. Music provided a neutral option.

A form of filmi based on ghazal (see below) is called filmi-ghazal and was introduced by Talat Mahmood; it was eventually modernized into ghazal-song.

Western fusions

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, rock and roll fusions with Indian music were well-known throughout Europe and North America. Ali Akbar Khan's 1955 performance in the United States was perhaps the beginning of this trend, which was soon centered around Ravi Shankar.

In 1962, Shankar and Bud Shank, a jazz musician, released Improvisations and Theme From Pather Pachali and began fusing jazz with Indian traditions. Future pioneers like John Coltrane continued this fusion, called indo jazz. George Harrison (of The Beatles) played the sitar, which he had learned from Shankar, on the song "Norwegian Wood" in 1965. Other Western artists like the Grateful Dead, Incredible String Band, Rolling Stones, The Move and Traffic soon incorporated Indian influences and instruments, and added Indian performers.

Though the Indian music craze soon died down among mainstream audiences, diehard fans and immigrants continued the fusion. In the late 1980s, Indian-British artists fused Indian and Western traditions to make the Asian Underground.

Folk music

The arrival of movies and pop music weakened folk music's popularity, but cheaply recordable music has made it easier to find and helped revive the traditions. Folk music (desi) has been influential on classical music, which is viewed as a higher art form. Instruments and styles have impacted classical ragas.

Brass bands

Brass bands, descended from English traditions, are now very popular especially at weddings and other special occasions.

Bhangra

Bhangra is a form of dance-oriented folk music that has become a pop sensation in the United Kingdom. The present musical style is derived from the traditional musical accompaniment to the folk dance of Punjab called by the same name, Bhangra.

Dandiya

A form of folk music adapted for clubs is called dandiya. It is based on Gujarati folk music, and includes best-selling artists like Falguni Pathak.

Rajasthan

Rajasthani has a diverse collection of musician castes, including langas, sapera, bhopa, jogi and manganiyar.

Baul

The Bauls of India and Bangladesh are a mystical order of musicians and played a form of music using a khamak, ektara and dotara.

Classical music

Hindustani

see: Indian classical music

Karnatic

see: Carnatic music.

Vocal music

Hindustani vocal music can be divided into several sorts, including bhajan and ghazal, while Karnatic vocal music is typically a hymn called kriti.

Dhrupad

Dhrupad is a sacred style of singing traditionally performed by men with a tampura and pakhawaj accompanying. The lyrics are in a midieval form of Hindi and typically heroic in theme, or else praising a particular deity. A more ornamented form is called dhamar.

Bhajan

Religious vocal music, bhajan is the most popular form in northern India. Famous performers include Kabir, Tulsidas and Mirabi. It arose out of the Alvar bhakti movement of the 9th and 10th century.

Ghazal

Ghazals are an originally Persian form of vocal music that is popular with multiple variations across Iran, Central Asia, Turkey and India. Ghazal exists in multiple variations, including folk and pop forms.

Khyal

An informal form of vocal music, khyal is partially improvised and very emotional in nature. Though its origins are shrouded in mystery, the 15th century rule of Hussain Shah Sharqi and was popular by the 18th century rule of Mohammed Shah. The best-known composer of the period was Sadarang, a pen name for Niamat Khan. Later performers include Faiyaz Khan, Abdul Karim Khan, Bhimsen Joshi, Shweta Jhaveri, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Amir Khan.

Kriti

Kritis are a form of Hindu hymn especially popular in southern India. It is commonly composed in Telugu, Tamil or Sanskrit.

Tarana

Tarana, and its southern equivalent Tillana, are rhymic songs with nonsense lyrics.

Thumri

Thumri is an accessible and informal vocal form said to have begun with the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, 1847-1856. There are two types of thumri: Punjabi and Lucknavi. The lyrics are typically in a language called braj bhasha, and are usually romantic. Performers include Shobha Gurtu, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and Girija Devi.

References

See also Indian musical instruments, History of Indian music, Natya Shastra, Dattilam, Brihaddeshi, Sangita-Ratnakara , List of regional genres of music

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Music of India."

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Music of Japan

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

For many outsiders, Japanese music is associated entirely with cheap, disposable bubblegum pop, of which there is plenty of. However, many distinct styles and innovative artists play folk and classical music, much of it very intense, and others play distinct forms of rock, electronica, hip hop, punk rock and country music.

Classical music

There are two types of classical music in Japan. Shomyo, or Buddhist chanting, and gagaku, or orchestral court music.

Gagaku

Gagaku is a type of classical music that has been performed at the Imperial court for several centuries. It consists of three primary bodies: native Shintoist religious music and folk songs, saibara, as well as a Korean form, komagaku, and a Chinese form, togaku. By the 7th century, the shakuhachi (an end-blown flute), the koto (a zither) and the biwa (a short-necked lute) had been introduced in Japan from China. These three instruments were the earliest used to play gagaku.

Komagaku and togaku arrived in Japan during the Nara period (710-794), and settled into the basic modern divisions during the Heian period (794-1185). Gagaku performances were played by musicians who belonged to hereditary guilds. During the Kamakura period (1185-1333), military rule was imposed and gagaku was performed in the homes of the aristocracy, but rarely at court. At this time, there were three guilds based out of Osaka, Nara and Kyoto.

After the Meiji Restoration of 1868, musicians from all three guilds came to Tokyo and their descendants make up most of the current Imperial Palace Music Department. By this time, the traditional instruments, the biwa, koto and shakuhachi, had been supplemented by various drums, shamisen (a three-stringed lute, modified from a native Okinawan instrument) and shinobue (a transverse flute).

Related to gagaku is court theater, which developed in parallel. Noh was developed in the 14th century, and soon evolved into bunraki and, eventually, the lively and popular kabuki; kabuki, in turn, helped invent the popular nagauta style of playing th shamisen.

Biwa hoshi

The biwa, a form of short-necked lute, was played by a group of intinerant performers (biwa hoshi) who used it to accompany stories. The most famous of these stories is The Tale of the Heike, a 13th century history of the triumph of the Minamoto clan over the Taira.

Yukar

Among the minority Ainu of the north, yukar (mimicry) is a form of epic poetry. The stories typically involve Kamui, the god of nature, and Pojaumpe, an orphan-warrior.

Folk music

There are four main kinds of Japanese folk songs (min'yo): work songs, religious songs (such as sato kagura, a form of Shintoist music), songs used for gatherings such as weddings and funerals, and children's songs (warabe uta). Many of these songs include extra stress on certain syllables, as well as pitched shouts (kakegoe), especially in northern Honshu.

In min'yo, singers are typically accompanied by shamisen, taiko and shakuhachi. A guild-based system exists for min'yo; it is called iemoto. Education is passed on in a family, and long apprenticeships are common.

A unique form of drumming from Sado island has become internationally famous through the groups Ondekoza and Kodo.

Okinawan folk music

Okinawa has been under the control of Japan since 1609, except for a brief period of US domination during and after World War 2. Umui, religious songs, shima uta, dance songs, and, especially katcharsee, lively celebratory music, were all popular.

The arrival of Western music

After the Meiji Restoration introduced Western musical instruction, a bureaucrat named Izawa Shuji compiled songs like "Auld Lang Syne" and commissioned songs using a pentatonic melody. Western music, especially military marches, soon became popular in Japan. Two major forms of music that developed during this period were shoka, which was composed to bring western music to schools, and gunka, which are military marches with some Japanese elements.

As Japan moved towards representative democracy in the late 19th century, leaders hired singers to sell copies of songs that aired their messages, since the leaders themselves were usually prohibited from speaking in public. This developed into a form of ballad called enka, which became quite popular in the 20th century, though its popularity has waned since the 1970s and enjoys little favour with contemporary youth. Famous enka singers include Misora Hibari and Ikuzo Yoshi. Also at the end of the 19th century, an Osakan form of streetcorner singing became popular; this was called ryukoka. This included the first two Japanese stars, Yoshida Naramura and Tochuken Kumoemon.

Westernized pop music is called kayokyoku, which is said to have begun with "Kachusha no uta" (1914; see 1914 in music). This song was composed by Nakayama Shimpei and first appeared in a dramatization of Resurrection by Tolstoy, sung by Matsui Samako. The song became a hit among enka singers, and was one of the first major best-selling records in Japan. Kayokyoku became a major industry, especially after the arrival of superstar Misora Hibari.

Later, in the 1950s, tango and other kinds of Latin music, especially Cuban music, became very popular in Japan. A distinctively Japanese form of tango called dodompa also developed. Kayokyoku became associated entirely with traditional Japanese structures, while more Western-style music was called Japanese pops. In the 1960s, Japanese bands imitated The Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones, along with other Appalachian folk music, psychedelic rock, mod and similar genres; this was called Group Sounds.

Since then, bubblegum pop and J-Pop has become one of the best-selling forms of music, and is often used in films and television, especially in Japanese animation. The rise of disposable pop has been linked with the popularity of karaoke, leading to much criticism that both trends are consumerist and shallow. For example, Kazafumi Miyazawa of The Boom, claims "I hate that buy, listen and throw away and sing at a karoake bar mentality".

Japanese rock

Homegrown Japanese rock had developed by the late 1960s. Artists like Happy End are considered to have virtually developed the genre. During the 1970s, it grew more popular. The Okinawan Champluse, along with Carol, RC Succession and Harada Shinji were especially famous and helped define the genre's sound. In the 1980s, the Southern All Stars became the biggest band in Japanese rock's history, and inspired alternative rock bands like Shonen Knife & the Boredoms and Tama & Little Creatures. Most influentially, the 1980s spawned Yellow Magic Orchestra, which was inspired by developing electronica, led by Hosono Haruomi.

In 1980, Huruoma and Ry Cooder, an American musician, collaborated on a rock album heavily influenced by Okinawan music for Shoukichi Kina. They were followed by Sandii & the Sunsetz, who further mixed Japanese and Okinawan influences. At the same time, singer-songwriters like Yuming became extremely popular. Other forms of music, from Indonesia, Jamaica and elsewhere, were assimilated. Soukous and Latin music was popular as was Jamaican reggae and ska, exemplified by Rankin' Taxi and Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra.

Roots music

In the late 1980s, roots bands like Shang Shang Typhoon and The Boom became popular. Okinawan roots bands like Nenes and Kina were also commercially and critically successful. This led to the second wave of Okinawan music, led by the sudden success of Rinkenband. A new wave of bands followed, including the comebacks of Champluse and Kina, as well as new acts like Soul Flower Union. An updated form of Okinawan folk called kawachi ondo became popular, led by Kikusuimaru Kawachiya; very similar to kawachi ondo is Tademaru Sakuragawa's goshu ondo.

Western classical music

Western classical music has a strong presence in Japan and the country is one of the most important markets for classical music. A number of Japanese composers have written in the western classical music tradition, with Toru Takemitsu (famous as well for his avant-garde works and movie scoring) being the best known. Also famous is the conductor Seiji Ozawa.

List of Japanese popular artists (including some J-Pop)

Traditional instruments

See also

References

External link

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Music of Japan."

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Music of Poland

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Polish folk music was collected in the 19th century by Oskar Kolberg, as part of a wave of Polish nationalist thought. With the coming of the world wars and then the Communist state, folk traditions were oppressed or subsumed into state-approved folk ensembles.

Polish dance music, especially the mazurka and polonaise, were popularized by Chopin, and they soon spread across Europe and elsewhere. These are triple time dances, while five-beat forms are more common in the northeast and duple-time dances like the polka and krakowiak come from the south.

While folk music has largely died out in Poland, especially in urban areas, the tourist destination of Podhale has retained its traditions. The regional capital, Zakopane, has been a center for art since the late 19th century, when people like composer Karol Szymanowski made the area chic among Europe's intellectuals. Local ensembles use string instruments like violins and a cello to play a distinctive scale called the Lydian mode. Duple-time dances like the krzesany, zbójnicki and ozwodna are popular. Folk songs typically focus on heroes like Janosik.

Contemporary Polish musicians and bands (in alphabetic order):

Classical music

Composers

Pop music

Female Vocalists

Hip-Hop/Rap

Rock

Sung Poetry

Black Metal Scene

See also: Poland, List of famous Poles

References

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Music of the United States

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The music of the United States includes forms derived from multiple ethnic groups. The original inhabitants of the United States included hundreds of Native American tribes, as well as native Hawaiians played the first music in the area, eventually augmented by immigrants from England, Spain, Sweden and France. Africans imported as slaves provided the musical underpinnings of much of modern American music, while other influences include Spanish-native mestizos from Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, Cajuns, descended from French-Canadians and Eastern European Jews.

Information about the roots of modern American music can be found at American roots music. This article will discuss developments since approximately 1940, when folk-based styles like blues, jazz, gospel, Tejano, Cajun and Creole, klezmer and country music evolved into pop music.

1940s and 1950s

In the 1940s, the major strands of American music combined to form rock and roll. Based most strongly off an electric guitar-based version of the Chicago blues, rock also incorporated jazz, country, folk, swing and other types of music; in particular, bebop jazz and boogie woogie blues were in vogue and greatly influenced the music's style. It had developed by 1949, and quickly became popular among blacks nationwide (see 1949 in music). Mainstream success was slow to develop, though (in spite of early success with Bill Haley & the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock"), and didn't begin in earnest until Elvis Presley ("Hound Dog"), a white man, began singing rock, R&B and rockabilly songs in a devoted black style. He quickly became the most famous and best-selling artist in American history, and a watershed point in the development of music.

Country, bluegrass and folk music

In 1938, Bill Monroe formed the Blue Grass Boys (named after his native state of Kentucky, the blue grass state) and combined diverse influences into Appalachian folk music. These include Scottish, Irish and Eastern European folk, as well as blues, jazz and gospel. Monroe became the father of bluegrass music, and his band was a training ground for most of bluegrass' future stars, especially Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. Scruggs and Flatt popularized bluegrass as part of the Foggy Mountain Boys, which they formed in 1948. Though bluegrass never quite achieved mainstream status, it did become well-known through its use in several soundtracks, including the T.V. theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies and the movies Bonnie and Clyde and Deliverance. In the 1950s, bluegrass artists included Stanley Brothers, Osborne Brothers and Jimmy Martin's Sunny Mountain Boys.

Close harmony duets had grown popular in the 1940s, and were made mainstream in the mid-1950s by the Louvin Brothers. This inspired Pete Seeger's brother, Mike Seeker, who formed the New Lost City Ramblers who played traditional Appalachian folk music and helped popularize it. This became known as old-time music, and paralleled the rise of "folk singers", singer-songwriters who played updated versions of the same music. The old-time phenomenon also led to the rediscovery of musicians like Doc Watson, Dock Boggs, Roscoe Holcomb and Clarence Ashley. Some, including Watson, got their career revitalized after the 1961 Newport Folk Festival.

The 1950s also saw the popular dominance of the Nashville sound in country music, and the beginning of popular folk music with groups like The Weavers. Country's Nashville sound was slick and soulful, and a movement of rough honky tonk developed in a reaction against the mainstream orientation of Nashville. This movement was centered in Bakersfield, California with musicians like Buck Owens ("Act Naturally"), Merle Haggard ("Sing a Sad Song") and Wynn Stewart ("It's Such a Pretty World Today") helping to define the sound among the community, made up primarily of Oklahoman immigrants to California, who had fled unemployment and drought. A similarly hard-edged sound also arose in Lubbock, Texas (Lubbock sound).

By the late 1950s, a revival of Appalachian folk music was taking place across the country, and bands like The Weavers were paving the way for future mainstream stars like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Bluegrass was similarly revitalized and updated by artists including Tony Rice, Clarence White, Richard Green, Bill Keith and David Grisman. The Dillards, however, were the ones to break bluegrass into mainstream markets in the early 1960s.

Gospel and doo wop

Following World War 2, gospel began its golden age. Artists like the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, The Swan Silvertones, Clara Ward Singers and Sensational Nightingales became stars across the country; other early artists like Sam Cooke, Dionne Warwick, Dinah Washington, Johnny Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston and Wilson Pickett began their career in gospel quartets during this period, only to achieve even greater fame in the 60s as the pioneers of soul music, itself a secularized, R&B-influenced form of gospel. Mahalia Jackson and The Staple Singers were undoubtedly the most successful of the golden age gospel artists.

In addition, doo wop achieved widespread popularity in the 1950s. Doo wop was a harmonically complex style of choral singing that developed in cities like Chicago, New York, and, most importantly, Baltimore. Groups like The Crows ("Gee"), The Ventures ("Walk-Don't Run"), The Orioles ("It's Too Soon to Know") and Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers ("Why Do Fools Fall in Love") had a string of hit songs that brought the genre to chart domination by 1958 (see [1958 in music]]).

Latin music

Cuban mambo, chachachá and charanga bands enjoyed brief periods of popularity, and helped establish a viable Latin-American music industry, which led the way to the invention of salsa music among Cubans and Puerto Ricans in New York City in the 1970s. The 50s also saw success for Mexican ranchera divas, while a Mexican-American mariachi scene was developing on the West Coast], and Puerto Rican plena, Brazilian bossa nova and other Latin genres became popular.

Mexican-Texans had been playing conjunto music for decades by the end of World War 2, female duos created the first popular style of Mexican-American music, música norteña. Mexican romantic ballads called bolero were also popular, especially singers like the Queen of the Bolero, Chelo Silva. In the mid-1950s, when Mexican ranchera was used in Hollywood film soundtracks and the upper-class enjoyed stately orquestas Tejanas and conjunto evolved into a distinctively Mexican-American genre called Tejano. Artists of this era include Esteban Jordan, Tony de la Rosa and El Conjunto Bernal.

Cajun and Creole music

The 1940s saw a return to the roots of Cajun music, led by Irvy LeJeune, Nathan Abshire and other artists, alongside musicians who incorporated rock and roll, including Laurence Walker and Aldus Roger. In the late 1940s, Clifton Chenier, a Creole, began playing an updated form of la la called zydeco. Zydeco was briefly popular among some mainstream listeners during the 1950s. Artists like Boozoo Chavis, Queen Ida, Rockin' Dopsie and Rockin' Sidney have continued to bring zydeco to national audiences in the following decades. Zydeco shows major influences from rock, and artists lke Beau Jocque have combined other influences, including hip hop.

Diversification of pop music

In the early to mid-1960s, soul music and R&B dominated American audiences. Girl groups (The Angels ("My Boyfriend's Back"), The Shirelles ("Dedicated to the One I Love")) and blue eyed soul (The Righteous Brothers ("You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling"), Mitch Ryder ("Devil With a Blue Dress On")) helped to popularize the music as mainstream, as well as polishing it and removing the grit of gospel. With the popularity of Elvis and other white singers (like Gene Vincent ("Be-Bop-A-Lula"), Roy Acuff ("The Wreck on the Highway"), Jerry Lee Lewis ("Great Balls of Fire") and Chet Atkins ("Mr. Sandman")), as well as black vocalists like Little Richard ("Tutti Frutti"), Chuck Berry ("Johnny B. Goode"), Fats Domino ("The Fat Man") and Chubby Checker ("The Twist"), a new generation of teens began playing in their own rock bands. The 60s also saw the arrival of Mexican-American pop, rock and soul acts that drew upon Tejano and other influences. These include Sunny Ozuna ("Talk to Me", "Reina de mi Amor"), Roberto Pulido y Los Clasicos and Latin Breed.

White rock music developed primarily in two places: southern California, where musicians like Dick Dale (Let's Go Surfing) invented surf rock, and Britain, where mod and merseybeat bands (such as The Who (The Who Sings My Generation) and The Rolling Stones) (The Rolling Stones (England's Newest Hitmakers)) began playing their own version of rock that drew more heavily upon American blues pioneers like Howlin' Wolf ("Evil"), Muddy Waters ("I Be's Troubled") and Jimmy Yancey ("The Fives") than their American counterparts, who mostly played a polished form of pop.

The early 1960s saw four centers of American musical innovation

Invention of psychedelia

In addition, Britain's new generation of blues rock gained popularity in parts of their homeland, especially cities like Liverpool, and cult fame in the States. The popularity of folk singers like Peter, Paul & Mary ("Puff the Magic Dragon") and Bob Dylan (The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan) influenced all of these groups as they became more closely aligned with the counterculture and drugs. The national sound was moving towards an electric, psychedelic version of rock. In 1962 (see 1962 in music), The Beatles (Please Please Me) emerged from England and popularized British rock, while The Beach Boys' success brought harmony-laden surf music to the forefront of the American scene. With country and soul musicians unable to maintain their hipness, both faded from mass consciousness. The mid-1960s saw the collapse of The Beach Boys as a result of singer and songwriter Brian Wilson's mental problems after releasing one of the most influential rock albums in history, Pet Sounds. The Beatles went on to lead the psychedelic revolution of the end of the decade, with few Americans able to challenge them, exceptions including The Mamas & the Papas ("California Dreaming") and Jimi Hendrix (Are You Experienced). The most hard-edged psychedelic bands, like Americans Jefferson Airplane (Surrealistic Pillow) and The Grateful Dead (American Beauty), achieved limited success; the Grateful Dead, the first jam band, could also be considered the first cult act.

In the late 1960s, popular music underwent a sea change. Psychedelia-inflected rock dominated black and white audiences. During this period, most of American musical styles for the next forty years began in one form or another, including heavy metal, punk rock, electronic music and hip hop. Perhaps most importantly were two developments. First was the popularization of the LP as a distinct artistic statement. Prior to the early 1960s (and later in most cases), an LP was nothing more than a collection of singles bound together with filler. As the psychedelic revolution progressed, however, lyrics grew more complex and LPs developed to enable the artists to make a more in depth statement than a single song could allow. In addition, rules as to what could be allowed in popular music were lessened -- singles lasted longer than three minutes (Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" was the first of these); singing could be gruff, guttural and not classically beautiful and lyrics could focus on more than simple tales of youth, love songs and ballads to include politically and socially aware lyrics. The idea that popular music could and should change the way one feels and lead social change largely developed during this period, though it was certainly not unheard of before.

Funk, gospel and album-oriented soul

Black music in the late 1960s diversified. Soul music had arisen as a secularized form of gospel music. With the rise of psychedelia and folk, however, artists that had previously been best-sellers found themselves unpopular with the new sound. Many, such as The Temptations and The Supremes, never fully recovered, unable to adjust to the changes in music. Soul music, led at the time by singers like James Brown ("Sex Machine"), developed into psychedelia-influenced funk. Bands like Parliament (The Mothership Connection), War (All Day Music) and Funkadelic (One Nation Under a Groove) merged soul with psychedelic rock to cult acclaim but little popular success. Meanwhile, Sly Stone (Stand) and other similar artists achieved popular success with their mixture of soul and psychedelia. Pure soul adapted to the new face of popular music by expanding beyond the simple lyricism of singles to more cohesive and socially-aware, album-oriented soul. This is usually said to have begun with the success of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Curtis Mayfield's Superfly. They both described the gritty realities of ghetto life with funky, danceable beats and led to the dominant sounds of soul in the 1970s, such as Philadelphia soul.

Nonsecularized gospel was still popular, though not near the levels of the 1950s boom. Reverend James Cleveland was the most influential artist of the period; he introduced choirs to gospel with 1962's Peace Be Still, recorded with the Angelic Choir of Nutley from New Jersey. Six years later he founded the annual Gospel Music Workshop of America, which have spread across the world. Edwin Hawkins ("Oh Happy Day") was another major artist of the period. Beginning with artists like Ray Repp in 1964, a slick soft rock and gospel fusion called Christian Contemporary Music (or CCM) became popular, which helped lead the way for future rock Christian artists including light country star Amy Grant and Christian heavy metal pioneers Stryper.

Progressive, punk and heavy metal

A few bands popular among only a small crowd of devoted followers emerged in the late 1960s. The Nice (The Nice) and The Moody Blues (Days of Future Passed) (both British) began releasing a series of complex, classical tinged concept albums that began a sound known as progressive rock. Other British bands like Led Zeppelin (Led Zeppelin I) and Black Sabbath (Paranoid) emerged with a form of hard-edged electric blues that came to be known as heavy metal music. American bands like the Velvet Underground (White Light/White Heat), Blue Cheer (Vincebus Eruptum) and The Stooges (Raw Power) also emerged with fatalistic, artsy lyrics and a fast-driving energetic sound; this was the beginning of punk rock.

Country and newgrass

In the 1960s, the Bakersfield Sound began its rise to mainstream, led by Merle Haggard. Bands like Muleskinner and Old And In the Way invented a progressive form of bluegrass that came to be known as newgrass. Though this never achieved much mainstream success, newgrass has become a major part of the American country scene. New forms, incuding spacegrass and supergrass, arose in the 80s, and remained low-key. Other artists, including Alison Krauss, achieved some mainstream success and helped pave the way for the surprise success of the traditional old-time music soundtrack O Brother, Where Are Thou.

The rise of the Bakersfield Sound was a popular example of a roots revival in folk music, in which artists and audiences revitalize the traditional music forms of their ancestors, generally as a reaction against dilution of the original culture for mainstream acceptance. In the 1960s and 70s, roots revivals occurred across the globe. The United States saw Appalachian folk music, blues and jazz adapt to rock and roll, forming heavy metal, psychedelia and progressive rock. Other folk forms were also popularized as part of a 1960s roots revival, including Cajun and Hawaiian folk. Cajun music entered the national mainstream for the first time (mostly in the form of cover songs called swamp pop), becoming a fixture at the influential Newport Folk Festival. CoDoFiL (Council for the Development of French in Louisiana), founded in 1968, helped to lead this trend, establishing the Festivals Acadiens and Zydeco Festival, for example. Cajun artists during this period included the Balfa Brothers, D. L. Menard, Eddie LeJeune, Michael Doucet's Beausoleil and Barry Ancelet.

1970s

In the early 1970s, singer-songwriters like James Taylor ("Fire and Rain") and Carol King (Tapestry) topped the charts while prog rock, heavy metal and punk began to differentiate themselves from mainstream music. While most singer-songwriters drew on Anglo folk roots, some, like XIT (Plight of the Redman) drew on their Native American origins, following in the path of pioneers like Buffy Sainte-Marie ("Now That the Buffalo's Gone"); other Native American bands like Redbone fused Native American and rock influences. The mid-1970s saw the development of power pop, the marriage of glam and heavy metal to form hair metal and the emergence of disco. By the late 1970s, disco, an electronically-based dance music, dominated the sound of the US, aided by the breakthrough success of Saturday Night Fever. Originally associated with urban blacks and gay white males, disco spent a few years at the top of the charts just as country rock and prog rock achieved their greatest mainstream success. Country rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd (Second Helping) and pop-prog bands like Chicago (Chicago II) and Styx (Kilroy Was Here) dominated the portion of the market not listening to disco with long, bizarre progressive pieces and electric blues based southern rock. Country rock had developed primarily from British blues, and added an element of popular country. At the time, outlaw country artists like Willie Nelson (The Red Headed Stranger) and David Allan Coe ("You Never Even Called Me By Name") dominated the country music charts with tales of cowboys and rebels.

Underground trends

Heavy metal bands like Blue Oyster Cult (Agents of Fortune) began to attract some mainstream attention, while punk influenced the developing glam rock scene. Taking its cue from the energetic, dirty psychedelia of The Doors, glam musicians like David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars) rose to prominence among segments of the population in the early 1970s.

Jamaican immigrants, most notably including DJ Kool Herc, moved to New York City and brought with them the practice of speaking over isolated percussion breaks from popular songs during long dance parties called block parties; this was the beginning of hip hop. Meanwhile, Cuban and Puerto Rican musicians drew on mambo and other Cuban genres to form salsa music. Early artists included Hector Lavoe and Willie Colón.

Jewish-American musicians launched a revival of klezmer music in the mid-1970s, led by Berkeley, California's The Klezmorim, whose frontman, Henry Sapoznik, formed the Archive of Recorded Sound at the Institute for Jewish Research in New York City. This led to the founding of the KlezKamp festival, where stars like Howie Lees, Max Epstein and Sid Beckerman.

The roots of world music, a fusion of rock, pop and other Western music with traditional folk from around the world, arose in the 1970s. Taj Mahal's Happy to Be Just Like I Am (1972), Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975) and Ry Cooder's 1976 Chicken Skin Music (with Flaco Jiménez and Gabby Pahinui) helped to launch the genre, which was solidified in 1981 with David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

The late 1970s also saw the coalescence of what eventually became known as punk music. Arty singers like Patti Smith (Horses) and grungy bands like The Ramones (The Ramones) emerged from New York, based out of the popular club CBGB's. Just as The Clash (The Clash) and the Sex Pistols (Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols) defined and popularized the sound of punk in the UK, a similar scene was developing throughout the US. In the early 1980s, disco died a quick death. The popular reaction against disco was swift and final, and the music had ended its reign of commercial influence by 1982 (see 1982 in music). New Wave filled in as the dominant American sound. It had developed out of arty punk bands like the Talking Heads (More Songs About Buildings and Food), and was popularized by Depeche Mode (Speak and Spell), Duran Duran (Rio) and others.

1980s

New Wave's mainstream popularity was brief. By 1984 (1984 in music), hair metal, long a dormant part of the Los Angeles music scene, started its reign on the charts. Led by hypermasculine bands like Quiet Riot (Metal Health), Van Halen (Van Halen) and Mötley Crüe (Shout at the Devil), hair metal reached its popular peak in the late 1980s with Guns 'n' Roses' Appetite for Destruction and Def Leppard's Pyromania.

Black music in the