Five American styles that most of the music on this site grew out of. All five came from the United States, and they borrowed from one another from the start.
| Style | Where and when | Tempo | Core instruments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blues | Deep South, around the 1860s | Not fixed: slow laments to up-tempo jump blues | Voice, guitar, harmonica, piano, bass |
| Jazz | New Orleans, late 19th and early 20th century | Not fixed; bebop fast, smooth jazz 90–105 BPM | Piano or guitar, double bass, drums, horns |
| Gospel | Southern United States | Not fixed | Lead voice, choir, piano, guitar |
| Country | United States, recorded from 1922 | Not fixed | Fiddle, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, acoustic, electric and steel guitar |
| Soul | United States, late 1950s to early 1960s | Not fixed | Voice, horns, bass, drums, organ, handclaps |
Blues
The blues came out of African-American communities in the Deep South around the 1860s, drawing on spirituals, work songs, field hollers and narrative ballads. Its signature is the form as much as the sound: call and response, the blues scale and, most often, the twelve-bar progression. Blue notes, a third, fifth or seventh bent flat, give it the "worried" sound.
Defining records. Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" (1920) sold 75,000 copies in its first month. Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Rising High Water Blues" (1927) told of the Mississippi flood that year. Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied" (1948) made Chicago the centre of electric blues. Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Texas Flood" (1983) took Texas blues to the world.
Production notes. The groove is a shuffle or a walking bass line repeated until it becomes hypnotic. Chicago players pushed the harmonica through a microphone and a PA, or overdrove the guitar amplifier: distortion was part of the style, not a fault. Kentucky's Sylvester Weaver first recorded slide guitar in 1923, fretting with a knife blade or a bottle neck.
Jazz
Jazz began in the African-American communities of New Orleans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, out of blues, ragtime, European harmony, marches and dance music. In most forms a soloist improvises over a rhythm section: piano or guitar for the chords, double bass and drums.
Defining records. The Original Dixieland Jass Band's "Livery Stable Blues" (1917) was the earliest released jazz record. "Tanga" (1943), by Mario Bauzá for Machito and his Afro-Cubans, is taken as the first jazz piece built on clave, and "Manteca" (1947) the first jazz standard built on it. "A Blowin' Session" (1957), with John Coltrane and Johnny Griffin, is counted among the high points of hard bop.
Production notes. Tempo depends on the school. Bebop in the 1940s was made for listening, not dancing, and so could run at faster tempos; smooth jazz sits downtempo, with its most played tracks at 90 to 105 beats per minute and a lead line on soprano or tenor saxophone or a clean electric guitar. Fusion in the late 1960s brought electric instruments and loud amplified stage sound.
Gospel
Gospel is Christian music built on dominant lead vocals, strong harmonies and lyrics of faith, with its roots in hymns and spirituals of the Southern United States. The gospel choir grew in Black churches in the north as Southern migrants brought the music with them.
Defining records. Arizona Dranes was the first to bring ragtime to gospel and the first to play piano on a gospel recording. Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Willie Mae Ford Smith are named as the first great gospel recording artists. The Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day" (1969) opened urban contemporary gospel and is still sung worldwide.
Production notes. The voice leads and the choir answers: record the harmony as a body of singers, not as stacked copies of one voice. Urban contemporary gospel takes its rhythms and instruments from the secular music of its day, electronic beats included.
Country
Country grew from the folk music settlers carried into the southern Appalachians, mixed with blues, old-time music and Southern gospel. It is known for ballads and dance tunes on banjo, mandolin, fiddle, harmonica and many kinds of guitar: acoustic, electric, steel and resonator.
Defining records. Fiddlers Henry Gilliland and Eck Robertson recorded "Arkansas Traveler" and "Turkey in the Straw" for Victor on 30 June 1922, the first commercial recordings of traditional country instrumentals. Fiddlin' John Carson's "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" (Okeh, 14 June 1923) is widely taken as the first country song with vocals. The Bristol sessions of 1 August 1927, with Ralph Peer behind the machine, are remembered as a historic session. Uncle Tupelo's "No Depression" (1990) is credited as the first alt-country album.
Production notes. The steel guitar has been in country since 1922, learned from Hawaiian players, and Bob Wills was among the first to add an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. A country mix is built around the vocal and the story; the instruments answer the singer between lines.
Soul
Soul came out of African-American communities in the late 1950s and early 1960s, joining gospel and rhythm and blues, sacred and secular. Catchy rhythms stressed by handclaps, call and response between lead and backing voices, and strong horns are its hallmarks.
Defining records. Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home to Me" (1962) has been called perhaps the first record to define the soul experience. Labels became styles: Motown in Detroit, Stax in Memphis, Hi Records with Al Green, and Philadelphia International's lush Philly soul.
Production notes. The labels are a lesson in mixing. Motown used handclaps, a powerful bass line, strings, brass and vibraphone. Stax put the vocal further back in the mix than most R&B of its day, used horns where others used backing vocals, and leaned on the low end. Philly soul added lush strings and horn arrangements.
Sources
Every date, name, tempo and origin on this page comes from these pages, read on 2026-10-24.