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4000 BCE
Indigenous Music
Indigenous people use drums, flutes, rattles and pipes to make pentatonic music -
1492
Andalusian Music
Spaniards and Portuguese begin to colonize the Americas, bringing with the assorted string instruments of Europe such as the lyre and lute, and snare drums. -
African Influence
The Transatlantic slave trade introduces call-and-response styles of music to the Americas. Work songs, field hollers, and spirituals become popular. African Drums, integral to African music, are outlawed in US because of their ability to communicate messages, but remain popular in the Caribbean and South America -
Eastern European Influence
Eastern Europeans begin to settle the Americas, bringing with them dulcimers, the accordian, and various keyboard instruments. -
Minstrel Music
The popular music of the 1800s, minstrel music employed instruments from Europe and Africa and a uniquely American instrument, the banjo. First starting as an imitation of Afro-American music, it became its own genre -
Country-Western
As the United States territory expanded towards the Pacific Ocean, cattle herding became an important job. Herders, called cowboys ("caballeros" en espanol), wrote music chronicling their experiences. Most popular instruments are harmonica and fiddle -
Blues,
a type of Afro-American music that is similar to country western music in its storytelling nature, begins to become popular. The guitar and harmonica are the most popular instruments because of portability. -
Bluegrass
A form of folk music in Appalachia, bluegrass is a more Western European style of composition. It utilizes the banjo, accordian, cajon drum, and dulcimer, a hammered string instrument -
Jazz
The most reknown form of American music, jazz is an improvisational form of music that utilizes many instruments of the traditional Western European orchestra set to West African rhythms.
