Music of immigrant communities in the United States
Encyclopedia
The vast majority of the inhabitants of the United States
are immigrants
or descendents of immigrants. This article will focus on the music of these communities and discuss its roots in countries across Africa
, Europe
and Asia
, excluding only Native American music
, indigenous and immigrant Latinos
, Puerto Rican music
, Hawaiian music
and African American music
. The music of Irish- and Scottish-Americans will be a special focus, due to their extreme influence on Appalachian folk music and other genres.
These sorts of music are often sustained and promoted by a variety of ethnic organizations.
Following the Armenian Genocide
of 1915 perpetrated by the Young Turk government in Turkey
, large numbers of Armenians settled in the Central Valley area of California
, especially around Fresno
. Of the second- and third-generation musicians from this community, Richard Hagopian
became a minor star in the Armenian-American community. Alan Hovhaness
used traditional Armenian music in his compositions. Daja Yavasharian is a solo violinist who performs classical music.
The ethnically Armenian heavy metal
band System of a Down
features Armenian melodic elements in many of their songs and has written songs dedicated to the Armenian genocide
. The group is very active in promoting genocide awareness and recognition.
There are more Cape Verde
ans outside of their homeland than there are in the island chain itself. In the United States, California
and Hawaii
are home to large Cape Verdean populations, but the largest concentration is in New England
, especially Rhode Island
and Southeastern Massachusetts
. Many of these immigrants came via whaling
ships in the 19th century. Cape Verdean music is most famously morna, but other genres exist and the Cape Verdean community has produced string bands like The B-29s, Notias, Augusto Abrio and the Cape Verdean Serenaders. There were also Cape Verdean big band
s, including the Creole Vagabonds and the Don Verdi Orchestra. More modern musicians include Frank de Pina, Mendes Brothers (and their influential record label
, MB Records), Saozinha, Creole Sextet and Rui Pina.
Chinese-American bands include Say Bok Gwai http://www.monkeykingrecords.com/sbg. The pop-rapper Jin
has lately gained some national renown as well. The electronic group Shanghai Restoration Project
has been rising through the charts in online downloadable music stores.
Though associated with Slovenia
, Germany
and Poland
as well, the Czech Republic includes Bohemia
, the ancestral home of polka
music. Polka has a long history in the United States, and the city of Chicago
, among others, had produced numerous innovations in the genre.
, Eastern European music, Secular Jewish culture
Early in the 20th century, Eastern European immigrants settled across the United States. Many were Ashkenazi Jews, who brought with them their swift, eminently dance-able klezmer
music. Harry Kandel
, a clarinet
ist, stood out in the field, alongside Abe Schwartz
, Naftule Brandwein
and Dave Tarras
.
Later, in the 1980s, a new generation of klezmer roots revival
ists made innovative fusion
s of klezmer with punk rock
and other influences. These bands include the Flying Klezmer Bulgar Band and The Klezmatics
.
's musical traditions are closely tied to those of the United States, especially Appalachian folk music. In the 1850s, there was a thriving brass band
tradition in the United States, drawing on British bands formed around factory workers.
There is an organization that gives out Filipino American Music Entertainment Awards.
External links:
The most well-known kind of French music in the United States is that of the Cajun
s of Louisiana
. Cajun and Creole music
has spawned many popular artists in the zydeco
genre, including Clifton Chenier
.
German immigrants brought with them a variety of music, waltz
es, polka
s and oom-pah
bands among them. A German musical society of the mid-19th century formed the Seventh Regiment Band, the only exclusively regimental band of the Civil War
-era and one of the most popular brass band
s of the time. German bandleader Friendrich Wilhelm Wieprecht was also influential, collecting full scores for his compilation of instrumentations of popular works, für die jetzige Stimmenbesetzung. Instruments included the bassoon
, contrabassoon
, bass tuba
, trumpet
, trombone
, clarinet
, piccolo
, oboe
, French horn, saxhorn
, drum
s and cymbal
. Wieprecht was recognized at the time as a key figure in the reorganization of the Prussian military bands.
The music of the Amish
, a Midwestern religious community descended from German and Swiss settlers who eschew modern technology in favor of simplicity, is entirely religious, and is sung in a style that has not been widely performed in Europe for centuries.
The songs of the Pennsylvania German culture, a mixture of British, South German and other elements, are primarily German, with many based on British tunes. Pennsylvania spirituals are a well-known kind of folk hymn, most of which date to the early 19th century.
Greek-American music includes styles like rebetiko
. Performers include Annabouboula
, Johnny Otis
, Tatiana Troyanos
and Dimitrius Mahlis.
or Persian Music
After the 1979 revolution, the new Iran
ian government banned all pop music
and many other genres. Numerous Iranians, including musicians, entered into exile, many settling in the Los Angeles
-area. The Iranian-American
scene produced several stars in the Iranian-in-exile community, including Dariush
, Ebi
, Homeira, Hayedeh
, Mahasti
, Moein
, Farzin and more.
There are also many newcomers in Persian/Iranian Music who have made huge impression. Below are a list of them:
Andy Madadian
, Mansour, Leila Forouhar
, Farshid Amin, Shahrzad Sepanlou
, Kamran Delan, Arash
, Shadmehr Aghili
, Jamshid
, Cameron Cartio
, Muhammad
, Kamran & Hooman, Fereydoun, Hi-5, Shaghayegh
, Shahriar and much more
in 1810. While not a technical innovation (the keyed trumpet was already known), it did become extremely popular in the burgeoning brass band
tradition and inspired a whole family of instruments, the ophicleides. In the middle of the 19th century, Irish bandleader Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was very influential, having introduced a wide range of reed instruments as well as developing instrumentation that allowed a large wind ensemble to approximate the effects of a full orchestra.
The 1960s saw the Clancy Brothers (with Tommy Makem) become minor celebrities in the United States, especially in the Irish-American community. They appeared at Carnegie Hall
and on the Ed Sullivan Show. Mick Moloney’s Irish-American Music and Dance Festival has existed for over twenty years and remains an important part of the Irish-American scene.
In the eighties several high-profile Irish artists emigrated to the USA, including Mary Black, Dolores Keane and Maura O'Connell. At the same time groups sprang up in America to play Irish music at a professional level. Mick Moloney
founded Green Fields of America in 1977 to bring together immigrant Irish and native-born players of Irish music. Although they did not record an album until 1989, they created a ripple. The band contained several people who went on achieve international fame - Seamus Egan
, Eileen Ivers
and Jerry O'Sullivan
. Another early Irish-American band was Cherish the Ladies
formed in 1985.
The rules of the All-Ireland championships allow non Irish residents to complete and thanks to Irish cultural centres in New York and Chicago, young US citizens began to win in dancing and fiddling. Chicago-born Liz Carroll
came second in 1974 with her fiddling. In 1992 she was a member of Trian, who recorded two highly regarded albums of strictly traditional no-frills Irish instrumentals. Some films gave exposure to Irish music - "Barry Lyndon" (1975 - The Chieftains), "The Brothers McMullen" (1984 - Seamus Egan), "Dancing at Lughnasa" (1998 - Arty McGlynn) and "Titanic" (1997). The touring stage show "Riverdance" (1995) was probably the biggest single publicity blaze in the cause of Irish-American music. The New York "Kips Bay Ceilidh Band" recorded an admired album of dance tunes (1993).
Celtic new age music from Clannad (Ireland), harpist Loreena McKennitt (Canada) and Nightnoise (Ireland) were popular in a low-key way in the USA. Tríona and Mícheál O Dhomhnaill from Nightnoise had emigrated to the US in the 70s and started recording in 1984. There were pop hits for Enya (originally from Clannad). Among the immigrants from Ireland was Susan McKeown
. She had been recording since 1990 but won international praise for "Lowlands" (2000). In 1996 the Irish-American supergroup Solas
was formed. The group contained multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan
and a powerful new singer Karan Casey
. The Chieftains had been visiting America since the 70s but by 2003 the audience was big enough to justify a DVD, live from Nashville. You can now confidently say that no Celtic musician has made the grade until he has performed in America.
Italian
-Americans are concentrated on the Eastern Seaboard
, especially in New York City
. Their music includes square dance
s, tarantella
s, mazurka
s, waltz
es and polka
s, and music for mandolin
, banjo
, guitar
and accordion
.
Italian folk traditions have had a lasting influence of barbershop
singing and doo wop. Neapolitan bandleader Francis Scala was bandleader of the U.S. Marine Band after immigrating in 1840; as is common in Naples, he placed the clarinet (which he played himself) in a prominent place in his performances.
Undoubtedly the most influential Jamaica
n-American entertainer is DJ Kool Herc
, who is often credited as the inventor of hip hop
. He immigrated to New York City
and brought with him the roots of hip hop—a DJ isolating and repeating a percussion break while an MC
spoke over the beats.
Second generation Jamaican Busta Rhymes
was later an important gangsta rap
per during the 1990s; his style is similar to that found in Jamaican dub
and dancehall
.
For more information about Caribbean cultural influence in the United States, see Holger Henke's, The West Indian Americans, Westport: Greenwood Press 2001.baton rouge la. kevin gates has also put reggie to use in his music with his rasta background
and Hawaii
were two of the biggest destinations for these immigrants. The first North America
n taiko
group was Seiichi Tanaka
's San Francisco Taiko Dojo in San Francisco, which was founded in 1968.
and surrounding states. Reinlenders, polka
s and waltz
es are played; of these, waltzes are by far the most common http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/music/e1-old-time.html. Instruments include the psalmodikon, fiddle
and accordion
. Celebrations like Syttende Mai
have become an important outlet for traditional Norwegian music.
musicians and bands. The Kominas
are an American-Pakistani taqwacore band from Boston. Mauj is a popular Pakistani-American pop/rock band founded in 2004.
There are have been a number of successful American musicians of Pakistani origin; they include Nadia Ali
, rappers Bohemia
and Mr. Capone-E
, Junoon member Salman Ahmad
, the Qaiyum brothers (MCs GQ
and JAQ
), DJ Aphlatoon
as well as Explosions in the Sky
guitarist Munaf Rayani
. Much of the works contributed by Pakistani musicians in the U.S. are often inspired by a fusion of contemporary and traditional American and Pakistani musical genres.
While Polish folk music still exists in its "old country" form, the most prevalent form of music evolved from traditional polkas, obereks, waltzes and Krakowiaks into what is common among the community today. This music form was pioneered by such musicians as Bernie Witkowski, Frank Wojnarowski, AmPol Aires, and Eddie Ziema. Royal Polish music, such as the polonaise (polonez), and folk music, mazur
, oberek
, krakowiak
, kujawiak
, and regional music, are celebrated by various Polish folk groups around the country.
The Polish
community is strongest in the area around Chicago
, Illinois
. Chicago's Orkiestra Makowska, led by George Dzialowy, defined that city's unique sound for many years.
The city's Polish-American community spawned a wave of musicians that are usually considered polka
players, though their actual output is quite varied. Chicago-style polka music has a distinctive sound from that found in other parts of the country. New England
, Buffalo, NY, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis also have Polish-American musical traditions and each has its own distinctive sound.
More than 50,000 Polish-Americans live in the area around Houston, Texas
. There is a rich tradition of Polish fiddling from Texas that had declined into obscurity until a recent revitalization by performers like Brian Marshall
. Polish settlers arrived beginning in the middle of the 19th century, settling in Panna Maria
, a village just south of San Antonio
. A few decades later, a new wave of Polish migrants settled in Chappell Hill, Stoneham
, Brenham, Bremond, Anderson
, Carlos
and New Waverly. These people's folk music
consisted of bowed bass
, fiddle
and sometimes a clarinet
, with the later additions of drum
s, accordion
s and guitar
s. Within Texas, Polish music was diverse, with a rhythmic style predominant in the Chappell Hill/Brenham area, and a melodic sound in Bremond. The group, Brave Combo
is an example of what is commonly called within the industry Tex-Mex polka music. The Czech and Polish settlers in Texas had a major influence on the traditional Mexican folk music forming what we now know as Tejano music
.
In the United States
there are Portuguese American singers and bands known such as Jorge Ferreira, Arlindo Andrade, Marc Dennis, Jack Sebastião (R.I.P.
), Nélia, Sergio Royal, Mauricio Morais, Alcides Machado, Chico Avila, José Norberto, Ana Lisa, Nelson, Michelle Romeiro, José Lobo, Jorge Pereira, Eratoxica, Young Fire
, etc. also perform world music
, rock
, dance
or pimba music. Fado
is also popular in the U.S., and there, Ramana Vieira
is one of the representers of this music genre. Portuguese American
musicians are usually based in New England
, New Jersey
and California
. Nowadays, about 5,000 000 Portuguese Americans live in the United States
. The majority of them comes from Madeira
and Azores Islands.
There is a Serbian rock
scene in the Greater Cleveland
area.
Slovenia
n-American polka
musician Frankie Yankovic
is by far the most famous musician of that genre. He began his career in the 1930s, beginning with some regional hits in the Detroit and Cleveland
areas, followed by mainstream success in the later 1940s.
Ukrainian
-Americans in the Cleveland
and Detroit area have kept a folk scene alive, also producing a minor crossover star in the 1920s and 30s, Pawlo Humeniuk
, the King of the Ukrainian Fiddlers.
Recently, the Ukrainian immigrant band Gogol Bordello
have emerged into the mainstream.
There is a Vietnamese American Philharmonic orchestra. Popular musicians in the Vietnamese-American community include Thanh Lan.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
are immigrants
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...
or descendents of immigrants. This article will focus on the music of these communities and discuss its roots in countries across Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, excluding only Native American music
Native American music
American Indian music is the music that is used, created or performed by Native North Americans, specifically traditional tribal music. In addition to the traditional music of the Native American groups, there now exist pan-tribal and inter-tribal genres as well as distinct Indian subgenres of...
, indigenous and immigrant Latinos
Latin American music
Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...
, Puerto Rican music
Music of Puerto Rico
The music of Puerto Rico has been influenced by the Spanish, African, Taíno Indians, France, and the United States, and has become very popular across the Caribbean and across the globe...
, Hawaiian music
Music of Hawaii
The music of Hawaii includes an array of traditional and popular styles, ranging from native Hawaiian folk music to modern rock and hip hop. Hawaii's musical contributions to the music of the United States are out of proportion to the state's small size. Styles like slack-key guitar are well-known...
and African American music
African American music
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musics and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States...
. The music of Irish- and Scottish-Americans will be a special focus, due to their extreme influence on Appalachian folk music and other genres.
These sorts of music are often sustained and promoted by a variety of ethnic organizations.
Armenia
See: Music of ArmeniaMusic of Armenia
Armenia is situated close to the Caucasus Mountains, and its music is a mix of indigenous folk music, perhaps best-represented by Djivan Gasparyan's well-known duduk music, as well as light pop, and extensive Christian music, due to Armenia's status as the oldest Christian nation in the...
Following the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
of 1915 perpetrated by the Young Turk government in Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
, large numbers of Armenians settled in the Central Valley area of California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, especially around Fresno
Fresno, California
Fresno is a city in central California, United States, the county seat of Fresno County. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 510,365, making it the fifth largest city in California, the largest inland city in California, and the 34th largest in the nation...
. Of the second- and third-generation musicians from this community, Richard Hagopian
Richard Hagopian
Richard Avedis Hagopian is an American Oriental-style oud player and traditional Armenian musician.Hagopian was born in Fowler, California. He has been a musician since childhood, learning to play the violin and clarinet at nine years old. He started playing the oud at age of 11...
became a minor star in the Armenian-American community. Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
used traditional Armenian music in his compositions. Daja Yavasharian is a solo violinist who performs classical music.
The ethnically Armenian heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band System of a Down
System of a Down
System of a Down, also known by the acronym SOAD and often shortened to System, is a rock band from Southern California. The band was formed in 1994. It consists of Serj Tankian , Daron Malakian , Shavo Odadjian and John Dolmayan...
features Armenian melodic elements in many of their songs and has written songs dedicated to the Armenian genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
. The group is very active in promoting genocide awareness and recognition.
Cape Verde
See: Music of Cape VerdeMusic of Cape Verde
Cape Verde is known internationally for morna, a form of folk music usually sung in the Cape Verdean Creole, accompanied by clarinet, violin, guitar and cavaquinho. The islands also boast funaná, coladeira, batuque and zouk music.-History:...
There are more Cape Verde
Cape Verde
The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...
ans outside of their homeland than there are in the island chain itself. In the United States, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
are home to large Cape Verdean populations, but the largest concentration is in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, especially Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
and Southeastern Massachusetts
Southeastern Massachusetts
Southeastern Massachusetts is a term that refers to those portions of Massachusetts which are, by their proximity, economically and culturally linked to Providence, Rhode Island as well as Boston.-Definition:...
. Many of these immigrants came via whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
ships in the 19th century. Cape Verdean music is most famously morna, but other genres exist and the Cape Verdean community has produced string bands like The B-29s, Notias, Augusto Abrio and the Cape Verdean Serenaders. There were also Cape Verdean big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s, including the Creole Vagabonds and the Don Verdi Orchestra. More modern musicians include Frank de Pina, Mendes Brothers (and their influential record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
, MB Records), Saozinha, Creole Sextet and Rui Pina.
China
See: Music of ChinaMusic of China
Chinese Music has been made since the dawn of Chinese civilization with documents and artifacts providing evidence of a well-developed musical culture as early as the Zhou Dynasty...
Chinese-American bands include Say Bok Gwai http://www.monkeykingrecords.com/sbg. The pop-rapper Jin
Jin (rapper)
Jin Au-Yeung , who performs under the stage name MC Jin, is a Hong Kong hip hop rapper, songwriter, and actor. Growing up in the Miami, Florida area, and later living in New York City, he decided to reside permanently in his motherland, Hong Kong...
has lately gained some national renown as well. The electronic group Shanghai Restoration Project
Shanghai Restoration Project
The Shanghai Restoration Project is a contemporary electronic music group formed by Chinese American producer Dave Liang. The group's first eponymous release, inspired by the Shanghai jazz bands of the 1930s, combines traditional Chinese instruments with modern hip-hop and...
has been rising through the charts in online downloadable music stores.
Czech lands
See: Music of the Czech RepublicMusic of the Czech Republic
- Traditional and Classical :The traditional music of Bohemia and Moravia has been well documented and influenced the work of composers like Leoš Janáček, Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, and Bohuslav Martinů. Janáček made his recordings at an auspicious time...
Though associated with Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
as well, the Czech Republic includes Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
, the ancestral home of polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
music. Polka has a long history in the United States, and the city of Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, among others, had produced numerous innovations in the genre.
Eastern European Jews
See: Jewish musicJewish music
Jewish music is the music and melodies of the Jewish People which have evolved over time throughout the long course of Jewish History. In some instances Jewish Music is of a religious nature, spiritual songs and refrains are common in Jewish Services throughout the world, while other times, it is...
, Eastern European music, Secular Jewish culture
Early in the 20th century, Eastern European immigrants settled across the United States. Many were Ashkenazi Jews, who brought with them their swift, eminently dance-able klezmer
Klezmer
Klezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
music. Harry Kandel
Harry Kandel
Harry Kandel was an American clarinetist and bandleader, one of the pioneers of modern klezmer music. He ran an orchestra which consisted of a variety of instruments, including himself on clarinet, trombone, tuba, xylophone, cornet, violin, flute, viola and piano...
, a clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
ist, stood out in the field, alongside Abe Schwartz
Abe Schwartz
Abe Schwartz was a well-known klezmer musician of the 1920s.Abe was born outside of Bucharest, Romania, and moved to the United States in 1899...
, Naftule Brandwein
Naftule Brandwein
Naftule Brandwein, or Naftuli Brandwine, was a Jewish clarinetist and influential klezmer musician.- Early life :Brandwein was born in Przemyslany, Poland-Galicia , into a family of klezmer musicians, part of the Stretiner Hasidic dynasty founded by Rabbi Yehuda Hirsch Brandwein of Stratin...
and Dave Tarras
Dave Tarras
Dave Tarras was possibly the most famous 20th century klezmer musician. He is known for his long career and his very skilled clarinet playing.-Biography:...
.
Later, in the 1980s, a new generation of klezmer roots revival
Roots revival
A roots revival is a trend which includes young performers popularizing the traditional musical styles of their ancestors. Often, roots revivals include an addition of newly-composed songs with socially and politically aware lyrics, as well as a general modernization of the folk sound.After an...
ists made innovative fusion
Fusion Music
Fusion Music is a sub genre of Reggaeton. Calle 13 helped introduce this genre, and are the most famous artists to sing it. It's also known as Alternative Reggaeton. Danny Fornaris is the most famous producer in this sub-genre, known as its Luny Tunes...
s of klezmer with punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
and other influences. These bands include the Flying Klezmer Bulgar Band and The Klezmatics
The Klezmatics
The Klezmatics are a Grammy Award-winning American klezmer music group based in New York City, who have achieved fame singing in several languages, most notably mixing older Yiddish tunes with other types of more contemporary music of differing origins...
.
England
As the homeland of many of the settlers of the original 13 Colonies, and a major source of immigration thereafter, EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
's musical traditions are closely tied to those of the United States, especially Appalachian folk music. In the 1850s, there was a thriving brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
tradition in the United States, drawing on British bands formed around factory workers.
Philippines
See: Music of the PhilippinesMusic of the Philippines
Music of the Philippines are performance arts composed in various genre and styles. The music of the Philippines is a mixture of indigenous, other Asian, European, Latin American, and American influences.- Traditional music :...
There is an organization that gives out Filipino American Music Entertainment Awards.
External links:
France
See: Music of FranceMusic of France
France has a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French hip hop, techno/funk,...
The most well-known kind of French music in the United States is that of the Cajun
Cajun
Cajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
s of Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. Cajun and Creole music
Music of Louisiana
The music of Louisiana can be divided into four general regions. Southwest Louisiana, , Southern Louisiana, west of New Orleans the southeast, the region in and around Greater New Orleans has a unique musical heritage tied to Dixieland jazz, blues and Afro-Caribbean rhythms...
has spawned many popular artists in the zydeco
Zydeco
Zydeco is a form of uniquely American roots or folk music. It evolved in southwest Louisiana in the early 19th century from forms of "la la" Creole music...
genre, including Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier
Clifton Chenier , a Creole French-speaking native of Opelousas, Louisiana, was an eminent performer and recording artist of Zydeco, which arose from Cajun and Creole music, with R&B, jazz, and blues influences. He played the accordion and won a Grammy Award in 1983...
.
Germany
See: Music of GermanyMusic of Germany
Forms of German-language music include Neue Deutsche Welle , Krautrock, Hamburger Schule, Volksmusik, Classical, German hip hop, trance, Schlager, Neue Deutsche Härte and diverse varieties of folk music, such as Waltz and Medieval metal....
German immigrants brought with them a variety of music, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es, polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
s and oom-pah
Oom-pah
Oom-pah, Oompah or Umpapa is the rhythmical sound of a deep brass instrument in a band, a form of background ostinato.The oom-pah sound is usually made by the tuba alternating between the root of the chord and the 5th — this sound is said to be the oom...
bands among them. A German musical society of the mid-19th century formed the Seventh Regiment Band, the only exclusively regimental band of the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
-era and one of the most popular brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
s of the time. German bandleader Friendrich Wilhelm Wieprecht was also influential, collecting full scores for his compilation of instrumentations of popular works, für die jetzige Stimmenbesetzung. Instruments included the bassoon
Bassoon
The bassoon is a woodwind instrument in the double reed family that typically plays music written in the bass and tenor registers, and occasionally higher. Appearing in its modern form in the 19th century, the bassoon figures prominently in orchestral, concert band and chamber music literature...
, contrabassoon
Contrabassoon
The contrabassoon, also known as the double bassoon or double-bassoon, is a larger version of the bassoon, sounding an octave lower...
, bass tuba
Tuba
The tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
, trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
, trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
, clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, piccolo
Piccolo
The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The piccolo has the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written...
, oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
, French horn, saxhorn
Saxhorn
The saxhorn is a valved brass instrument with a conical bore and deep cup-shaped mouthpiece. The sound has a characteristic mellow quality, and blends well with other brass.-The saxhorn family:...
, drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s and cymbal
Cymbal
Cymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
. Wieprecht was recognized at the time as a key figure in the reorganization of the Prussian military bands.
The music of the Amish
Amish music
Amish music is primarily German in origin, and includes ancient singing styles not found anywhere in Europe, as well as modern hymns derived from the Pennsylvania German culture....
, a Midwestern religious community descended from German and Swiss settlers who eschew modern technology in favor of simplicity, is entirely religious, and is sung in a style that has not been widely performed in Europe for centuries.
The songs of the Pennsylvania German culture, a mixture of British, South German and other elements, are primarily German, with many based on British tunes. Pennsylvania spirituals are a well-known kind of folk hymn, most of which date to the early 19th century.
Greece
See: Music of GreeceMusic of Greece
The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds...
Greek-American music includes styles like rebetiko
Rebetiko
Rebetiko, plural rebetika, , occasionally transliterated as Rembetiko, is a term used today to designate originally disparate kinds of urban Greek folk music which have come to be grouped together since the so-called rebetika revival, which started in the 1960s and developed further from the early...
. Performers include Annabouboula
Annabouboula
Annabouboula was a Greek-American musical trio that flourished in the 1980s and 1990s. Its members were Anna Paidoussi, George Sempepos, and Chris Lawrence, who are based in New York, New York and in Athens, Greece...
, Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
, Tatiana Troyanos
Tatiana Troyanos
Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano of Greek and German descent.-Early life:...
and Dimitrius Mahlis.
Iran
See: Music of IranMusic of Iran
The music of Iran has thousands of years of history, as seen in the archeological documents of Elam, one of the earliest world cultures,which was located in southwestern Iran...
or Persian Music
Persian music
Persian traditional music is the traditional and indigenous music of Iran: mūsīqī, the science and art of music, and moosiqi, the sound and performance of music .-Origins:Archeological evidence reveals musical instruments that were...
After the 1979 revolution, the new Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ian government banned all pop music
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
and many other genres. Numerous Iranians, including musicians, entered into exile, many settling in the Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
-area. The Iranian-American
Iranian-American
Iranian-Americans are Americans of Iranian ancestry or people possessing Iranian and American dual citizenship.Iranian-Americans are amongst the most highly educated groups in the United States...
scene produced several stars in the Iranian-in-exile community, including Dariush
Dariush
Dariush is a common Persian male given name. People with this name include:*Dariush Ashoori, Iranian intellectual*Dariush Eghbali, Iranian pop singer...
, Ebi
Ebi
Ebi is a Persian Singer-songwriter and performer currently living in Marbella, Spain. He has combined musical influences from traditional Persian music, western pop and sometimes Latino style rhythms and is a major name in Persian music...
, Homeira, Hayedeh
Hayedeh
Hayedeh born Ma'soumeh Dadehbala , was a Persian classical and Pop singer with a contralto vocal range. In a career spanning more than 20 years, she had many hits...
, Mahasti
Mahasti
Mahasti bornEftekhar Dadehbala was a legendary Persian Pop and classical singer and diva and the younger sister of singer Hayedeh.- Background :...
, Moein
Moein
Nasrollah Moein known as Moein is an Iranian singer known for his love songs. Born in 1951 in Najaf Abad in Esfahan, he has played lots of concerts across the world...
, Farzin and more.
There are also many newcomers in Persian/Iranian Music who have made huge impression. Below are a list of them:
Andy Madadian
Andy Madadian
Andranik Madadian , better known by his stage name, Andy , is a famous Iranian-Armenian singer-songwriter. He is a naturalized American and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.-Early life:...
, Mansour, Leila Forouhar
Leila Forouhar
Leila Forouhar is a singer and actress from Iran. She relocated to Los Angeles after the Iranian Revolution.-Career:Leila is the daughter of the late Iranian actor Jahangir Forouhar, who had already established a solid background in the Iranian entertainment industry by the early 1970s. She speaks...
, Farshid Amin, Shahrzad Sepanlou
Shahrzad Sepanlou
Shahrzad Sepanlou is a Persian-Iranian singer.Shahrzad Sepanlou is daughter of Mohammad-Ali Sepanlou and Partow Nori ala.- Discography :Shahrzad Sepanlou has recorded 5 albums.#Earth, Wind and Fire #Our Story#1001 Nights#TŌ...
, Kamran Delan, Arash
Arash (artist)
Arash Labaf is an Iranian-Swedish singer, dancer, entertainer and producer.- Early life :Arash Labaf was born in Tehran, Iran. At age ten, he and his family moved to Sweden, where he still resides. In an interview with BBC Persian Television, he has mentioned that his mother and father are from...
, Shadmehr Aghili
Shadmehr Aghili
Shadmehr Aghili born 27 January 1973 in Tehran, Iran) is the most favorite Iranian pop singer, musician, composer, music arranger, producer and song-writer, and formerly an actor. He emigrated to Canada first, but currently resides in Los Angeles, California.-Career:Shadmehr was a child prodigy...
, Jamshid
Jamshid
Jamshid is a mythological figure of Greater Iranian culture and tradition.In tradition and folklore, Jamshid is described as having been the fourth and greatest king of the epigraphically unattested Pishdadian dynasty . This role is already alluded to in Zoroastrian scripture Jamshid (Middle-...
, Cameron Cartio
Cameron Cartio
Kamran Sabahi better known by his stage name Cameron Cartio , born on 9 April 1978) is an Iranian-born Swedish pop singer and songwriter....
, Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, Kamran & Hooman, Fereydoun, Hi-5, Shaghayegh
Shaghayegh
Shaghayegh means corn poppy in Persian.Shaghayegh may also refer to:* Shaghayegh Farahani, Persian actress; daughter of actor Behzad Farahani* Shaghayegh Dehghan, Persian actress and writer...
, Shahriar and much more
Ireland
Joseph Halliday, a Dubliner, is notable for having introduced the keyed bugleBugle (instrument)
The bugle is one of the simplest brass instruments, having no valves or other pitch-altering devices. All pitch control is done by varying the player's embouchure, since the bugle has no other mechanism for controlling pitch. Consequently, the bugle is limited to notes within the harmonic series...
in 1810. While not a technical innovation (the keyed trumpet was already known), it did become extremely popular in the burgeoning brass band
Brass band
A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...
tradition and inspired a whole family of instruments, the ophicleides. In the middle of the 19th century, Irish bandleader Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore was very influential, having introduced a wide range of reed instruments as well as developing instrumentation that allowed a large wind ensemble to approximate the effects of a full orchestra.
The 1960s saw the Clancy Brothers (with Tommy Makem) become minor celebrities in the United States, especially in the Irish-American community. They appeared at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and on the Ed Sullivan Show. Mick Moloney’s Irish-American Music and Dance Festival has existed for over twenty years and remains an important part of the Irish-American scene.
In the eighties several high-profile Irish artists emigrated to the USA, including Mary Black, Dolores Keane and Maura O'Connell. At the same time groups sprang up in America to play Irish music at a professional level. Mick Moloney
Mick Moloney
Michael "Mick" Moloney is a traditional Irish musician and scholar. Born in Limerick, County Limerick, he was an important figure on the Dublin folk-song revival in the 1960s. In 1973, he moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania...
founded Green Fields of America in 1977 to bring together immigrant Irish and native-born players of Irish music. Although they did not record an album until 1989, they created a ripple. The band contained several people who went on achieve international fame - Seamus Egan
Séamus Egan
Séamus Egan is an Irish musician.-Early days:Séamus Egan was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania to Irish émigrés Jack and Ann Egan. At the age of three his parents moved the family back home to County Mayo, Ireland....
, Eileen Ivers
Eileen Ivers
Eileen Ivers is an Irish-American musician.Eileen Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents and grew up in the Bronx. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of nine. Her teacher was the Irish fiddler Martin Mulvihill. She toured with Mick Moloney's band The...
and Jerry O'Sullivan
Jerry O'Sullivan
Jerry O'Sullivan is a contemporary Irish-American musician.Jerry was born in New York. As a youngster he learned Scottish highland bagpipes. Following a visit to his cousins in Dublin he took up uilleann pipes....
. Another early Irish-American band was Cherish the Ladies
Cherish the Ladies
Cherish the Ladies is an American all-female Irish-American super group. The band began as a concert series in New York in January 1985, the brainchild of Mick Moloney who wanted to showcase the brightest female musicians in America in what had been a male-dominated scene...
formed in 1985.
The rules of the All-Ireland championships allow non Irish residents to complete and thanks to Irish cultural centres in New York and Chicago, young US citizens began to win in dancing and fiddling. Chicago-born Liz Carroll
Liz Carroll
Liz Carroll is an Irish-American musician. She was born in Chicago of Irish parents. In 1974 she won the All-Ireland under 18 fiddle championship. The next year she won the All-Ireland Senior Fiddle Championship....
came second in 1974 with her fiddling. In 1992 she was a member of Trian, who recorded two highly regarded albums of strictly traditional no-frills Irish instrumentals. Some films gave exposure to Irish music - "Barry Lyndon" (1975 - The Chieftains), "The Brothers McMullen" (1984 - Seamus Egan), "Dancing at Lughnasa" (1998 - Arty McGlynn) and "Titanic" (1997). The touring stage show "Riverdance" (1995) was probably the biggest single publicity blaze in the cause of Irish-American music. The New York "Kips Bay Ceilidh Band" recorded an admired album of dance tunes (1993).
Celtic new age music from Clannad (Ireland), harpist Loreena McKennitt (Canada) and Nightnoise (Ireland) were popular in a low-key way in the USA. Tríona and Mícheál O Dhomhnaill from Nightnoise had emigrated to the US in the 70s and started recording in 1984. There were pop hits for Enya (originally from Clannad). Among the immigrants from Ireland was Susan McKeown
Susan McKeown
Susan McKeown is an Irish songwriter, folk singer and producer.-Early years:Susan McKeown was born on February 6, 1967 to John Ryan and Jane Ann McKeown in Terenure, Dublin, Ireland. She was greatly influenced by her mother, an organist and composer who died in 1982...
. She had been recording since 1990 but won international praise for "Lowlands" (2000). In 1996 the Irish-American supergroup Solas
Solas
Solas is an Irish-American musical group formed in 1994, playing Irish traditional music as well as original compositions, sometimes demonstrating an inclination towards Country music in recent albums....
was formed. The group contained multi-instrumentalist Seamus Egan
Séamus Egan
Séamus Egan is an Irish musician.-Early days:Séamus Egan was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania to Irish émigrés Jack and Ann Egan. At the age of three his parents moved the family back home to County Mayo, Ireland....
and a powerful new singer Karan Casey
Karan Casey
Karan Casey is an Irish folk singer, and a former member of the Irish band Solas.-Early years:Casey was born in Ballyduff Lower, Kilmeaden, County Waterford, Ireland. Her family encouraged her to sing in the house, in a church choir and at school. At Waterford Regional Technical College she...
. The Chieftains had been visiting America since the 70s but by 2003 the audience was big enough to justify a DVD, live from Nashville. You can now confidently say that no Celtic musician has made the grade until he has performed in America.
Italy
See: Music of ItalyMusic of Italy
The music of Italy ranges across a broad spectrum of opera and instrumental classical music and a body of popular music drawn from both native and imported sources. Music has traditionally been one of the cultural markers of Italian national and ethnic identity and holds an important position in...
Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
-Americans are concentrated on the Eastern Seaboard
Eastern seaboard
An Eastern seaboard can mean any easternmost part of a continent, or its countries, states and/or cities.Eastern seaboard may also refer to:* East Coast of Australia* East Coast of the United States* Eastern Seaboard of Thailand-See also:...
, especially in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Their music includes square dance
Square dance
Square dance is a folk dance with four couples arranged in a square, with one couple on each side, beginning with Couple 1 facing away from the music and going counter-clockwise until getting to Couple 4. Couples 1 and 3 are known as the head couples, while Couples 2 and 4 are the side couples...
s, tarantella
Tarantella
The term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
s, mazurka
Mazurka
The mazurka is a Polish folk dance in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, and with accent on the third or second beat.-History:The folk origins of the mazurek are two other Polish musical forms—the slow machine...
s, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es and polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
s, and music for mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
.
Italian folk traditions have had a lasting influence of barbershop
Barbershop music
Barbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...
singing and doo wop. Neapolitan bandleader Francis Scala was bandleader of the U.S. Marine Band after immigrating in 1840; as is common in Naples, he placed the clarinet (which he played himself) in a prominent place in his performances.
Jamaica
See: Music of JamaicaMusic of Jamaica
The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles. Jamaica's music culture is a fusion of elements from the United States , Africa, and neighboring Caribbean islands such as...
Undoubtedly the most influential Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n-American entertainer is DJ Kool Herc
DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell , also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in The Bronx, New York City...
, who is often credited as the inventor of hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
. He immigrated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and brought with him the roots of hip hop—a DJ isolating and repeating a percussion break while an MC
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
spoke over the beats.
Second generation Jamaican Busta Rhymes
Busta Rhymes
Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr., better known by his stage name Busta Rhymes ,Smith is an American rapper, producer and actor. Chuck D of Public Enemy gave him the alias Busta Rhymes after NFL wide receiver George "Buster" Rhymes...
was later an important gangsta rap
Gangsta rap
Gangsta Rap is a subgenre of hip hop music that evolved from hardcore hip hop and purports to reflect urban crime and the violent lifestyles of inner-city youths. Lyrics in gangsta rap have varied from accurate reflections to fictionalized accounts. Gangsta is a non-rhotic pronunciation of the word...
per during the 1990s; his style is similar to that found in Jamaican dub
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
and dancehall
Dancehall
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably,...
.
For more information about Caribbean cultural influence in the United States, see Holger Henke's, The West Indian Americans, Westport: Greenwood Press 2001.baton rouge la. kevin gates has also put reggie to use in his music with his rasta background
Japan
Large-scale Japanese immigration to the United States began early in the 20th century, and traditional music came with them. CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
were two of the biggest destinations for these immigrants. The first North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n taiko
Taiko
means "drum" in Japanese . Outside Japan, the word is often used to refer to any of the various Japanese drums and to the relatively recent art-form of ensemble taiko drumming...
group was Seiichi Tanaka
Seiichi Tanaka
Seiichi Tanaka is the first Japan-trained teacher of kumidaiko, or taiko, in the United States and largely regarded as the father of the art form in North America...
's San Francisco Taiko Dojo in San Francisco, which was founded in 1968.
Norway
Norwegian-American folk music in the United States is mostly found in MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
and surrounding states. Reinlenders, polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
s and waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es are played; of these, waltzes are by far the most common http://www.pbs.org/riverofsong/music/e1-old-time.html. Instruments include the psalmodikon, fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
. Celebrations like Syttende Mai
Norwegian Constitution Day
Norwegian Constitution Day is the National Day of Norway and is an official national holiday observed on May 17 each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to simply as syttende mai or syttande mai , Nasjonaldagen or Grunnlovsdagen , although the latter is less frequent.- Historical...
have become an important outlet for traditional Norwegian music.
Pakistan
Pakistani music in the United States is largely influenced by homegrown Pakistani AmericanPakistani American
A Pakistani American is any citizen or resident of the United States who has Pakistani heritage.- History in the United States :Muslim immigrants from areas that are now part of Pakistan have been migrating to America and first entered the United States as early as the eighteenth century, working...
musicians and bands. The Kominas
The Kominas
The Kominas are a Pakistani-American Desi punk rock band from New York City. The band currently includes Basim Usmani , Imran Ali Malik , Hassan Ali Malik and Abdullah Saeed .- History :...
are an American-Pakistani taqwacore band from Boston. Mauj is a popular Pakistani-American pop/rock band founded in 2004.
There are have been a number of successful American musicians of Pakistani origin; they include Nadia Ali
Nadia Ali
Nadia Ali is a Pakistani-American singer-songwriter, born in Libya and raised in Queens, New York. She gained attention as the frontwoman and songwriter of the band iiO, after their 2001 hit "Rapture" reached No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted across several countries in Europe...
, rappers Bohemia
Bohemia (musician)
Bohemia is an Pakistani American Punjabi rapper and a music producer from California, Bohemia quickly gained popularity in 2003 with his independent debut album, ‘Vich Pardesan De ’ which hit the Top 10 on BBC Radio 1 UK. The following album, ‘Pesa Nasha Pyar’, became the first full-length...
and Mr. Capone-E
Mr. Capone-E
Mr. Capone-E is an American Latino rapper.A former gang member, Mr. Capone-E was released from prison in 1998 and decided to become a rapper. Mr. Capone- E established his own record label, Hi-Power Entertainment...
, Junoon member Salman Ahmad
Salman Ahmad
Salman Ahmad is a Pakistani musician and former actor, who used to be a member of Vital Signs but left after their debut album due to creative differences. He went on to form Junoon, South Asia's biggest and longest-lasting rock band. While still enjoying the success of Junoon, he was involved in...
, the Qaiyum brothers (MCs GQ
GQ (actor)
Gregory J. Qaiyum , better known by his initials GQ, is an American actor, writer and MC.The son of a Caucasian American mother of German and English descent and a Pakistani father. GQ was raised in Chicago, where he attended Loyola Academy , and later studied at New York University's Tisch School...
and JAQ
JAQ
Jeffery Allen Qaiyum redirects here. For the name Jeffery Allen Qaiyum see Jacques.Jeffery Allen Qaiyum is an American professional b-boy, writer and MC. He has a brother, GQ, who is also a B-Boy professional.-Biography:...
), DJ Aphlatoon
DJ Aphlatoon
DJ Aphlatoon is known as the first Pakistani remix producer. He was the first DJ to release two albums containing only Pakistani songs remixed with hip hop, reggae and techno beats....
as well as Explosions in the Sky
Explosions in the Sky
Explosions in the Sky is an American post-rock band from Texas. The band has garnered popularity beyond the post-rock scene for their elaborately developed guitar work, narratively styled instrumentals, what they refer to as "cathartic mini-symphonies," and their enthusiastic and emotional live shows...
guitarist Munaf Rayani
Munaf Rayani
Munaf Rayani is a guitarist for the Texan post-rock band Explosions in the Sky. He is the youngest member of the band at age 31. He is of Indian and Pakistani descent. His mother grew up in Pakistan, and he was raised an Ismaili Muslim...
. Much of the works contributed by Pakistani musicians in the U.S. are often inspired by a fusion of contemporary and traditional American and Pakistani musical genres.
Poland
See: Music of PolandMusic of Poland
Artists from Poland, including famous composers like Chopin or Lutosławski and traditional, regionalized folk musicians, create a lively and diverse music scene, which even recognizes its own music genres, such as poezja śpiewana.- Beginning :...
While Polish folk music still exists in its "old country" form, the most prevalent form of music evolved from traditional polkas, obereks, waltzes and Krakowiaks into what is common among the community today. This music form was pioneered by such musicians as Bernie Witkowski, Frank Wojnarowski, AmPol Aires, and Eddie Ziema. Royal Polish music, such as the polonaise (polonez), and folk music, mazur
Mazur
Mazur can refer to:* Masurians or Mazurs, a Slavic ethnic group with historic origins in the Polish region of Masovia* Mazur , including a list of people so named* Mazur , a traditional Polish folk dance...
, oberek
Oberek
The oberek, also called obertas or ober, is a lively Polish dance. The name "Oberek" is derived from "obracać się" which in Polish means "to spin". This dance consists of many lifts and jumps. . It is performed at a much quicker pace than the Polish waltz and is one of the national dances of Poland...
, krakowiak
Krakowiak
The Krakowiak, sometimes referred to as the Pecker Dance, is a fast, syncopated Polish dance in duple time from the region of Krakow and Little Poland. This dance is known to imitate horses, the steps mimic their movement, for horses were well loved in the Krakow region of Poland for their civilian...
, kujawiak
Kujawiak
The Kujawiak is a Polish folk dance from the region of Kujawy in central Poland . It is one of the five national dances of Poland, the others being the krakowiak, mazur, oberek, and polonaise.The music is in triple meter and fairly slow...
, and regional music, are celebrated by various Polish folk groups around the country.
The Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
community is strongest in the area around Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Chicago's Orkiestra Makowska, led by George Dzialowy, defined that city's unique sound for many years.
The city's Polish-American community spawned a wave of musicians that are usually considered polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
players, though their actual output is quite varied. Chicago-style polka music has a distinctive sound from that found in other parts of the country. New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, Buffalo, NY, Detroit, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis also have Polish-American musical traditions and each has its own distinctive sound.
More than 50,000 Polish-Americans live in the area around Houston, Texas
Houston, Texas
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ...
. There is a rich tradition of Polish fiddling from Texas that had declined into obscurity until a recent revitalization by performers like Brian Marshall
Brian Marshall
Brian Aubrey Marshall is an American musician and songwriter best known as the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Creed and Alter Bridge. He also co-owns a bed and breakfast called Mango Moon in Costa Rica.-Early life:...
. Polish settlers arrived beginning in the middle of the 19th century, settling in Panna Maria
Panna Maria, Texas
Panna Maria is a small unincorporated community in Karnes County, Texas, United States. It is the oldest Polish settlement in the United States. A Franciscan missionary, Father Leopold Moczygemba, started recruiting Upper Silesians in 1852, when Silesia was part of the Kingdom of Prussia. The...
, a village just south of San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
. A few decades later, a new wave of Polish migrants settled in Chappell Hill, Stoneham
Stoneham, Texas
Stoneham is an unincorporated community in Grimes County, Texas, United States. The town was once a part of a colony operated by Stephen F. Austin and by 1900, the population grew to 250. Although a ghost town by 1970, the town has since grown in population....
, Brenham, Bremond, Anderson
Anderson, Texas
Anderson is a city in Grimes County, Texas, United States. The population was 280 in 2009. It is the county seat. The city and its surroundings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Anderson Historic District.-Geography:...
, Carlos
Carlos
Carlos is a masculine given name. It is a Portuguese and Spanish form of Charles. It may refer to:- Royalty :* Carlos I of Portugal , second to last King of Portugal* Carlos V , Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain...
and New Waverly. These people's folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
consisted of bowed bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, fiddle
Fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and sometimes a clarinet
Clarinet
The clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, with the later additions of drum
Drum
The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments, which is technically classified as the membranophones. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with the player's hands, or with a...
s, accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
s and guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s. Within Texas, Polish music was diverse, with a rhythmic style predominant in the Chappell Hill/Brenham area, and a melodic sound in Bremond. The group, Brave Combo
Brave Combo
Brave Combo is a polka/rock band based in Denton, Texas. Founded in 1979 by guitarist/keyboardist/accordionist Carl Finch, they have been a prominent fixture in the Texas music scene for more than twenty-five years...
is an example of what is commonly called within the industry Tex-Mex polka music. The Czech and Polish settlers in Texas had a major influence on the traditional Mexican folk music forming what we now know as Tejano music
Tejano music
Tejano music or Tex-Mex music is the name given to various forms of folk and popular music originating among the Mexican-American populations of Central and Southern Texas...
.
Portugal
See: Music of PortugalMusic of Portugal
Portugal is internationally known in the music scene for its traditions of fado, but the country has seen a recent expansion in musical styles, with modern acts from rock to hip hop becoming popular...
In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
there are Portuguese American singers and bands known such as Jorge Ferreira, Arlindo Andrade, Marc Dennis, Jack Sebastião (R.I.P.
Rest in peace
"Rest in peace" is a short epitaph or idiomatic expression wishing eternal rest and peace to someone who has died. The expression typically appears on headstones, often abbreviated as "RIP"...
), Nélia, Sergio Royal, Mauricio Morais, Alcides Machado, Chico Avila, José Norberto, Ana Lisa, Nelson, Michelle Romeiro, José Lobo, Jorge Pereira, Eratoxica, Young Fire
Young Fire
Young Fire is a Eurodance/dance-pop music duo based in Rhode Island, United States, born in Portugal. They do all their own material as well as production and writing for other artists. The duo is composed of Ricardo, who is the singer, and Evaldo, who is the keyboardist, whereas both of them are...
, etc. also perform world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
or pimba music. Fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
is also popular in the U.S., and there, Ramana Vieira
Ramana Vieira
Ramana Vieira is a contemporary American singer of the traditional Portuguese Fado.-Early life:Vieira was born to Portuguese immigrants who settled in San Leandro, just east of San Francisco, California. She attended local San Leandro schools, then studied the performing arts at the American...
is one of the representers of this music genre. Portuguese American
Portuguese American
Portuguese Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates in the southwest European nation of Portugal, including the offshore island groups of the Azores and Madeira....
musicians are usually based in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. Nowadays, about 5,000 000 Portuguese Americans live in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The majority of them comes from Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...
and Azores Islands.
Serbia and Montenegro
See: Music of Serbia and MontenegroThere is a Serbian rock
Serbian rock
Serbian rock is the rock music scene of Serbia. During the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s, while Serbia was a constituent republic of Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Serbian rock scene was a part of the SFR Yugoslav rock scene....
scene in the Greater Cleveland
Greater Cleveland
Greater Cleveland is a nickname for the metropolitan area surrounding Cleveland, Ohio and is part of what used to be the Connecticut Western Reserve.Northeast Ohio refers to a similar but substantially larger area as described below...
area.
Slovenia
See: Music of SloveniaMusic of Slovenia
The music of Slovenia is closely related to Austrian and Northern Italian music because of its common history and Alpine and littoral culture, and in some southern regions to Croatian . In the minds of many foreigners, Slovenian folk music means a form of polka that is still popular today,...
Slovenia
Slovenia
Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
n-American polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
musician Frankie Yankovic
Frankie Yankovic
Frankie Yankovic was a Grammy Award-winning polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King," Yankovic was the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during a long and successful career.-Background:Of Slovene descent, he was raised in South Euclid, Ohio...
is by far the most famous musician of that genre. He began his career in the 1930s, beginning with some regional hits in the Detroit and Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
areas, followed by mainstream success in the later 1940s.
Ukraine
See: Music of UkraineMusic of Ukraine
Ukraine is a multi-ethnic Eastern European state situated north of the Black Sea, previously part of the Soviet Union. Many of its ethnic groups living within Ukraine have their own unique musical traditions and some have developed specific musical traditions in association with the land in which...
Ukrainian
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
-Americans in the Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
and Detroit area have kept a folk scene alive, also producing a minor crossover star in the 1920s and 30s, Pawlo Humeniuk
Pawlo Humeniuk
Pawlo Humeniuk was a Ukrainian-American fiddler from the early 20th century, one of the biggest stars of the era's ethnic music.-Biography:...
, the King of the Ukrainian Fiddlers.
Recently, the Ukrainian immigrant band Gogol Bordello
Gogol Bordello
Gogol Bordello is a Gypsy punk band from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, formed in 1999 and known for theatrical stage shows and persistent touring.Much of the band's sound is inspired by Gypsy music...
have emerged into the mainstream.
Vietnam
See: Music of VietnamMusic of Vietnam
Traditional Vietnamese music is highly diverse and syncretistic, combining native and foreign influences. Throughout its history, Vietnam has been heavily impacted by the Chinese musical tradition, as an integral part, along with Korea, Mongolia and Japan....
There is a Vietnamese American Philharmonic orchestra. Popular musicians in the Vietnamese-American community include Thanh Lan.