Timeline of trends in music from the United States (1970-Present)
1970s
- Simon & Garfunkel release Bridge Over Troubled Water; this, along with
releases from James Taylor (Sweet Baby James), Cat Stevens (Tea for the Tillerman) and Joni Mitchell (Ladies of the
Canyon) help define the singer-songwriter tradition
- Taj Mahal releases Happy to Be Just
Like I Am, a pioneering fusion of blues and African music, setting the stage for the development of rock-based world music
- Important country-influenced albums are released by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (Déjà Vu, Merle Haggard (Okie from Muskogee),
Creedence Clearwater Revival (Cosmo's Factory) and The Grateful Dead (American Beauty, Workingman's
Dead) -- the beginning of a distinctly country rock sound
- The beginning of the success of a group of Afrocentric poets and musicians, including The Last Poets (The Last Poets) and Gil
Scott-Heron (Small Talk at 125th and Lennox); this is an early forerunner of hip hop
- ZZ Top and the Allman Brothers Band invent southern rock out
of country rock and folk-rock influences
- Smokey Robinson's The Tears of a Clown
is an influential soft-pop album that mixes elements of vaudeville and classical music
| American art |
| Architecture - Comics - Cuisine - Dance - Folklore - Literature - Movies - Painting - Poetry - Sculpture - Television - Theater - Visual arts |
| Music of the United States |
| History (Timeline) |
Ethnicities |
| Before 1900 |
African American |
| 1900-1940 |
Native American (Inuit and Hawaiian) |
| 40s and
50s |
Latin (Tejano and Puerto Rican) |
| 60s and
70s |
Cajun and Creole |
| 80s to the present |
Other immigrants (Jewish, European, South and East Asian, modern
African and Middle-Eastern) |
| Genres (Samples):
Classical - Hip hop - Rock - Pop - Folk |
| Awards |
Grammy Awards, Country Music
Awards |
| Charts |
Billboard Music Chart |
| Festivals |
New Orleans Jazz Festival, Lollapalooza,
Lilith Fair, Ozz Fest, Woodstock Festival, Monterey Jazz
Festival |
| Media |
Spin, Rolling Stone, Vibe, Downbeat, Source, MTV, VH-1 |
| National anthem |
"The Star-Spangled Banner" and
forty-nine state songs |
| Local music |
| AK - AL - AR -
AS - AZ - CA - CO - CT - DC - DE - FL -
GA - GU - HI - IA - ID - IL - IN - KS - KY -
LA - MA - MD - ME - MI -
MN - MO - MP - MS -
MT - NC - ND - NE - NH - NM - NV - NJ -
NY - OH -
OK - OR - PA - PR - RI - SC - SD - TN - TX - UT - VA - VI - VT - WA - WI - WV - WY |
- Singer-songwriters like John Denver (Poems, Prayers and Promises), Van
Morrison (Tupelo Honey), Joni Mitchell (Blue, Don McLean (American Pie), Elton John (Tumbleweed Connection, Madman Across the Water), Billy Joel (Cold Spring Harbor),
Cat Stevens (Teaser and the
Firecat) and Carole King (Tapestry) release influential and popular albums
- Maranatha! and Love Song release The Everlastin' Livin' Jesus Concert and Love Song; this is the
beginning of the popularization of Christian
Contemporary Music (CCM)
- Funkadelic releases Maggot Brain, an early fusion of soul, funk and heavy metal; releases from
Roberta Flack (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway), Isaac Hayes (Black Moses) and Sly
& the Family Stone (There's a Riot Goin'
On) similarly influence the development of a more pop-oriented funk and soul
- Alice Cooper creates a distinctive kind of glam and heavy
metal-influenced shock rock
- Salsa comes to be used to describe any kind of Cuban dance music
in the country
- Singer-songwriters like Jackson Browne (Late for the Sky),
Elton John (Caribou), Joni Mitchell (Court and Spark), Randy
Newman (Good Old
Boys), Billy Joel (Piano
Man), Harry Chapin (Verities and
Balderdash) and Van Morrison (Veedon Fleece) are extremely
popular
- Brian Eno's Taking Tiger Mountain by Strategy is an electronic-pop fusion influenced by post-modernism
- Patti Smith's "Hey Joe" is released; it is commonly considered the first
punk single, while her "Piss Factory" is the foundation for New Wave; legendary punk band The Ramones begin
performing
- Outlaw country's domination of the country music scene is
exemplified by the chart success of Waylon Jennings (The Rambling Man, This Time), David Allan Coe (Once Upon a Rhyme, Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy), Merle Haggard ("Things Aren't Funny Anymore", "Old Man from the Mountain"), Kris Kristofferson (Spooky Lady's
Sideshow) and Willie Nelson (Phases and Stages) this
year
- Bruce Springsteen makes the cover of Time and Newsweek on the
same week, releases Born to Run, and breaks into the mainstream
- 1970s-style funk is at the height of its
popularity with important releases from Parliament
(Chocolate City),
War (Why Can't We Be Friends?) and The Meters
(Fire on the
Bayou)
- The first radio stations with a Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) format begin
broadcasting
- Country-oriented songs are popular, including releases from Linda Ronstadt (Prisoner in Disguise),
John Denver ("Calypso", "Thank God I'm a Country Boy", "I'm Sorry", "Sweet
Surrender", "Sunshine on My Shoulders"), The Eagles (One of These Nights), Lynyrd Skynyrd (Nuthin' Fancy), Glen Campbell ("Rhinestone
Cowboy") and B.J. Thomas ("(Hey Won't You Play) Another Somebody Done
Somebody Wrong Song")
- Fusion jazz's golden age ends and contemporary jazz emerges
- Smokey Robinson's Quiet Storm is released, defining what comes to be known as easy listening
- Hercules Campbell
revolutionizes the breakbeat and the developing hip hop genre
- Rainbow's "Stargazer" is the first power metal recording
- Hard rock and heavy metal bands like Aerosmith (Rocks), AC/DC (High Voltage), Blue Öyster Cult (Agents of
Fortune) and Judas Priest (Sin After Sin) release landmark
albums that gain unprecedented success for heavy metal
- Philip Glass' Einstein on the Beach is an early example of minimalism
- William Ackerman
founds Windham Hill Records and helps invent New Age
- Ry Cooder's Chicken Skin Music
(featuring Gabby Pahinui and Flaco Jiménez) is an early and innovative world music
album
- The Eagles release Hotel California, one of the best-selling albums of the year and all time; this is the commercial peak
of southern rock
- Blondie's debut, Blondie and Pere Ubu's Modern
Dance solidify the New Wave sound in punk music, centered in New York City
- Soft, disco-oriented ballads by The
Bee Gees (Children of the World, "You Should Be Dancing"), Bay City Rollers ("Saturday Night", "Money Honey"), Orleans ("Still the One"), The Doobie
Brothers (Takin' It to the Streets),
Starland Vocal Band ("Afternoon Delight"), Peter Frampton (Frampton Comes Alive) and Paul Simon ("50 Ways
to Leave Your Lover", "Still Crazy After All These Years") are popular
- David Grisman invents the term newgrass
- Wanted: The
Outlaws by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jessi Colter is first country album to go platinum
- Grandmaster Flash begins DJing, soon adding new techniques like phasing and cutting to hip hop
- DIY fanzines like Sniffin' Glue arise alongside punk rock
- The Sex Pistols release Never Mind The
Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols, kickstarting the punk rock movement in the UK,
while the Ramones' Rocket to Russia helps break in punk in the US - art-punk bands like Television (Marquee Moon), Elvis Costello (My Aim Is True), The
Damned (Machine Gun Etiquette), Richard Hell & the Voidoids (Blank Generation), UFO (Lights Out) and Talking Heads (Talking Heads:
77) also emerge
- The soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever (largely by the Bee
Gees) is the dominant album of the year and helps cement disco as the most popular
genre; Chic also releases a pivotal disco album, Risque
- Pop and prog rock bands like Chicago (Chicago XI), Electric Light Orchestra (Out of the Blue), Jethro Tull (Songs from the Wood), Journey
(Next), Kansas (Point of Know Return),
Rush (A Farewell to Kings), Pink Floyd (Animals) and Steely
Dan (Aja) release important and popular albums
- Hip hop DJ Grandwizard Theodore invents scratching
- Suicide's Suicide influentially mixes
electronic music, rockabilly and punk rock
1980s
- Alternative rock and post punk artists like Joy Division
(Closer), The Specials (More Specials) and U2 (Boy) achieve some popularity with
influential releases; they are accompanied by popular punk and New Wave releases from Devo
(Freedom of Choice), Talking Heads (Remain in Light), The Pretenders (Pretenders), The Clash (London Calling) and The Jam
(Sound Affects)
- Hank Sapoznik, The Klezmorim, Kapelye, Andy Statman and the Klezmer Conservatory
Band emerge at the forefront of a klezmer revival among Jews in Israel, the US and UK.
- Artists like Wilfrido Vargas help popularize merengue, drawing on a large Dominican minority internationally in cities like New York
- Talking Heads' Remain in Light is the beginning of worldbeat
music
- Casper's "Groovy
Ghost Show" is the beginning of recorded hip hop from Chicago
- Hardcore punk rock begins its golden age, centered in California and
Washington DC, while hardcore fusion genres are created by The Cramps'
Songs the
Lord Taught Us (voodoobilly)
and Bad Brains' Pay to Cum (reggae-punk)
- Aerosmith begins its return to popular acceptance with Done with Mirrors
- Chart success helps to jumpstart the careers of Sting
(The Dream of the Blue Turtles), Wham!
(Make It Big) and Prince (Around the World in
a Day)
- Live Aid starts the trend for charity festivals and records, and catapults a
number of notable acts to prominence, such as U2, Simple Minds and Phil
Collins
- Releases by Bruce Springsteen (Born in the U.S.A.), John Fogerty (Centerfield), Rick Springfield (Tao) and John Cougar Mellencamp (Scarecrow) reflect a
popular emphasis on heartland roots rock and roll
- European New Wave
pop musicians European like a-ha (Hunting High and Low) and Simple Minds
(Once Upon a Time,
"Don't You (Forget About Me)") achieve their greatest success in the United
States
- The end of the golden age of hardcore punk rock
- Releases by Hüsker Dü (New Day Rising), The Replacements
(Tim), R.E.M. (Fables of the Reconstruction) and Talking Heads (Little Creatures) help define alternative
rock
- Rappers like LL Cool J (Radio) and Kurtis Blow (America) help bring rap
closer to the mainstream than ever before; LL Cool J is especially known for organizing rap into traditional song structures
- Zydeco musicians like Rockin' Sidney (My Zydeco Shoes Got the Zydeco Blues, "My Toot Toot") and Buckwheat Zydeco (Waitin' for My
Ya-Ya) engender a brief surge in zydeco's popularity
- The mainstream success of Amy Grant (Straight Ahead, Unguarded) begins, marking the peak of
popularity for Contemporary Christian Music
(CCM)
- Green River begins to define the burgeoning Seattle
grunge music scene
- Operation Ivy fuses hardcore punk and ska
- Ice-T's "6N' Da Mornin'" is the first nationally successful West Coast rap single, and is often considered the beginning of modern gangsta rap
1990s
- Codeine's Frigid Stars is the beginning of
Slowcore
- Releases by Melvins (Bullhead), Nirvana (Nevermind), Pearl Jam (Ten), Soundgarden (Badmotorfinger), Smashing Pumpkins (Gish) and Temple of the Dog (Temple of the Dog) solidify the sound of grunge in pop music
- Garth Brooks' mainstream success with his third LP, Ropin' the Wind, sets the
stage for the pop-country of the rest of the decade; it is the first country album to debut at #1 on the pop charts
- A group of jam bands inspired by the Grateful Dead and Allman Brothers Band
start to become popular, drawing upon rock-oriented predecessors like Spin
Doctors, Widespread Panic and Blues Traveler, mixing their sound with worldbeat and
other influences; these include Phish (A Picture of Nectar), Dave Matthews
Band, Rusted Root and Ben
Harper, among others.
- A Tribe Called Quest's Low-End Theory revolutionizes alternative rap, paving the way for its diversification of styles in the late 1990s
- Kyuss (Blues
for the Red Sun) and Monster Magnet (Spine of God) help invent stoner metal
- Dr. Dre releases The
Chronic, setting the tone and pace for gangsta rap in the rest of the
decade, a slow, stoned West Coast rap called G Funk; Ice T's band Body Count loses their record deal with Warner
Brothers after the song "Cop Killer" ignites controversy
- The success of Arrested Development's
3
Years, 5 Months and Two Days in the Life of... paves the way for the mainstream acceptance of southern rap, such as OutKast and
Goodie Mob, and, eventually Master
P and Juvenile
- The hip hop crew WithOut Rezervation found the WOR festival in order to help Native
American music reach younger audiences; Robby Bee & the Boyz From the Rez' Reservation of
Education is an influential Native American hip hop album. The same year, the Joaquin Brothers played at
Carnegie Hall, which is the high point in popularity for waila (a Tohono O'odham genre also
known as chicken scratch)
- Rage Against the Machine debuts an energetic
fusion of heavy metal, punk rock and hip hop
- Atari Teenage Riot create digital hardcore by fusing techno and hardcore punk
- Beck's "Loser" is a wildly popular folk-hip hop and indie rock fusion
- The Supreme Court legalizes
animal sacrifice in Santería, sparking a revival of religious music among Cubans in New York City, Miami and elsewhere
- Canadian female singer/songwriter Alanis Morissette achieves international success with her 'debut' album Jagged Little Pill. The record achieves platinum sales and renews
interest in female songwriters, affording the success of Sheryl Crow and
Shania Twain
- Beck (Odelay), Tool (Aenima), Sepultura (Roots) and
Korn (Life Is Peachy)
release metal-influenced albums that dominate the year's sound in popular music
- Punk-inflected ska becomes popular, especially by
bands like No Doubt (Tragic Kingdom), Rancid (And Out Come the Wolves), The Mighty, Mighty Bosstones (Question the Answers), Reel Big Fish (Everything Sucks) and Sublime (40 Oz. to Freedom)
- Mafioso rap, a largely underground phenomenon, peaks with Raekwon's Only
Built 4 Cuban Linx, Mobb Deep's The Infamous and AZ's Do or Die
2000s
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