# American music

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [June 5, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228 "2013-06-05T18:15:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228/21 "2013-06-08T06:40:10Z")

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To paraphrase **Ranger Jeff** , my favorite melding of country and jazz, Texas Swing. ( Seriously, two days after the tread was started and beat by 40 lousy minutes?)

And well, we kinda stole it from the Krautrockers, but Noise Rock, a completely independent subsidiary wholly owned by both Avant-garde Classical and the Punk Rock Foundation.

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**Author:** ![Wolverine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba9def/32.png) [@Wolverine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolverine)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228/22 "2013-06-08T06:58:45Z")

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[Techno](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno) and [House music](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_music)

I know in America it’s mostly seen as European, but it started in Detroit and Chicago respectively.

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**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228/23 "2013-06-08T12:50:05Z")

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This Wikipedia entry talks about a lot of them:

> **[Music of the United States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_the_United_States)**
>
> Religious music
> Ethnic music

The map in it gives the names of dozens of such styles of such music. It helps a lot if you view the map at 200% zoom so you can read it better. The styles given in the map are very detailed and specific, but I don’t know how specific you want to get in your survey of American music:

[![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USmusicmap.png) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USmusicmap.png)

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**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228/24 "2013-06-08T13:37:03Z")

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> [@Wolverine](#):
>
> I know in America it’s mostly seen as European, but it started in Detroit and Chicago respectively.

And there’s a German influence. It all gets complicated quickly. It’s best just to like the cross-fertilisations.

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [June 8, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-music/660228/25 "2013-06-08T13:40:03Z")

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The important thing to realize here - and one that I think is being missed - is not so much that America loves to invent new forms of music but that America truly invented (and excelled at) _popularizing_ new forms of music.

America had new technologies that allowed for new forms of music to metastazise around the world at the time that an increased leisure class could derive entertainment from new music. I think it’s very likely that - prior to the popularization of phonographs and radio - other countries created new music but that music failed to find the crucial toehold to take it global.

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