Music That’s Not from the Blues

Looking for something different in your music? Check out our blog for music that’s not from the blues genre. We’ve got something for everyone, so take a look and see what you like!

Music from other cultures

The blues has been a major influence on Western music for centuries, but it’s not the only source of great music. other cultures have their own rich traditions of music that are just as deserving of attention. In this article, we’ll explore some of the best music from around the world.

African music

African music is a vast and varied subject, with many different styles and traditions. For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on the music of sub-Saharan Africa, which includes the countries of Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Kinshasa), Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon Gambia,, Ghana,, Guinea,, Guinea-Bissau,, Kenya,, Lesotho,, Liberia,, Libya,, Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Mozambique Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia and Zimbabwe.

This huge region is home to a staggeringly diverse range of musical traditions. Each region has its own unique sound, influenced by its history and culture. For example, the music of the coastal nations is often very different from the music of the interior. The music of thenomadic peoples is often quite different from that of the settled peoples.

One thing that all African music has in common is a strong emphasis on rhythm. This is partly due to the fact that many African languages are based on tones rather than words, so rhythm is used as a way of conveying meaning. This rhythmic sensibilities can be traced back to the earliest African percussion instruments such as drums and xylophones.

African music is also very community-oriented. It’s not just about entertainment; it’s also about bonding with others and communicating important messages. This is why many African songs are based around call-and-response patterns, where one person sings or plays a phrase and then everyone else responds in unison.

If you’re interested in exploring African music further, there are some great resources out there. The Smithsonian Folkways website has a good selection of African albums available for streaming or purchase, and World Music Central also has a comprehensive list of recommended African artists.

Asian music

Asian music covers a huge range of countries and cultures, so it’s impossible to generalize about it too much. However, there are some commonalities that run through a lot of Asian music. For one thing, many Asian cultures use pentatonic scales, which have five notes instead of the Western seven-note scale. This gives Asian music a very different sound from Western music.

Pentatonic scales are used in a lot of traditional Chinese music, for example. In Chinese opera, pentatonic scales are often used for comic or tragic scenes to create a sense of either levity or drama. Traditional Japanese music also uses pentatonic scales, and in fact the Japanese word for “pentatonic scale” (honchoshi) is derived from the Chinese word (gongshi).

Another common feature of Asian music is the use of microtones–notes that are intermediate between the standard tones of Western equal temperament tuning. This gives Asian music a very distinctive sound, and can be quite challenging for Western musicians to reproduce accurately.

European music

There are all sorts of music from different cultures around the world. Some of it is very similar to what we have here in the United States, and some of it is very different. One example of music from a culture that is very different from our own is European music.

European music has a long history that dates back thousands of years. It is very diverse, with many different genres and subgenres. Some of the most popular genres of European music include classical, jazz, rock, and pop.

Classical music is one of the oldest genres of European music, and it has been around for centuries. It is usually very formal and elegant, and it often tells a story or paints a picture with its sounds. Many famous composers such as Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart wrote classical pieces that are still popular today.

Jazz is another popular genre of European music. It originated in the United States, but it quickly spread to Europe where it became very popular. Jazz is usually upbeat and happy, and it often features improvisation (making up the music as you go). Some famous jazz musicians include Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Rock music is yet another popular genre of European music. It started in the 1950s with bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and it has since evolved into many different subgenres. Rock is usually very loud and energetic, and it often has a positive or rebellious message.

Pop music is also very popular in Europe. It started in the early 1900s with singers like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, but it has since evolved into many different subgenres. Pop is usually more lighthearted than other genres of music, and it often features catchy melodies and simple lyrics.

Music from other genres

While the blues is a great genre, there’s a whole world of music out there to explore. If you’re looking for something different, why not try checking out some music from other genres? You might be surprised at how much you enjoy it. In this article, we’ll be taking a look at some of the best music from genres other than the blues.

Classical music

Classical music is serious music for listening, composed by Western cultures in the European tradition. The roots of classical music can be traced back to the medieval era, and the first classical music compositions were created in the early Baroque period (1600-1750). Classical music is characterized by intricate melodies and harmonies, and it is often performed by orchestras or chamber ensembles. Some of the most famous classical composers include Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart.

Jazz

Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, United States. It emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries from West African cultural and musical influences via the transatlantic slave trade and African-American work songs and spirituals. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in West African cultural and musical expression, and in African-American music traditions including blues and ragtime.

As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to many distinctive styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. In the 1930s, heavily arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz started out as a fusion of earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. Chicago jazz took root during the 1920s thanks in part to the first widely available phonograph recordings by Louis Armstrong and other New Orleans players who migrated north along Highway 61 during the period known as the Great Migration. Latin American jazzIn Cuba there was a cross-fertilization of Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with Afro-Uruguayan candombe; these originally Praise music-derived percussion patterns were applied to European harmony by Cuban composers such as Alejandro Garcia Caturla (“Rumba Negra”, 1932) and Ernesto Lecuona (“La comparsa”, 1928), as well as Arsenio Rodriguez (“El son montuno”, 1943), Trío Matamoros (Habanera “La loma del Tamarindo”) and Miguel Matamoros (Soneando en ti). In Brazil samba developed from similar roots (plus elements from Maxixe), culminating later in bossa nova (literally “new trend”). Argentine tango evolved partly from aspects of Afro-Argentine candombe music brought to Buenos Aires via Cuba by black immigrants towards the end of 19th century Dancehall style Jamaican popular music that developed from mento (a Jamaican folk music) in late 1960s uniquely influenced international hip hop music culture.)
Jazz began developing separately from European classical music traditions during this same period; however some newer styles intermixed both genres beginning around 1900 when Louis Armstrong became one of the first important soloists within jazz along with other significant cornet players such as Joe “King” Oliver )and his student Bix Beiderbecke ).

Hip hop

Hip hop is a music genre that emerged in the United States in the 1970s. It is characterized by four key stylistic elements: MCing/rapping, DJing/scratching, break dancing, and graffiti writing. Hip hop began as a local, underground culture primarily among African American and Latino youth in New York City and Los Angeles. In the 1980s, it became a mainstream commercial genre with the advent of rap music.

DJing and turntablism are the practices of manipulating sounds by cueing up vinyl records on a turntable and mixing them together to create groundbreaking new rhythms and beats. This style of music is often accompanied by rapping, which is a vocal style in which rhyming lyrics are spoken or chanted over a beat. Break dancing is a physically demanding style of dance that involves acrobatic moves such as headspins, backspins, and windmills. Graffiti writing is an artistic form that developed alongside hip hop culture and includes tagging (Spray painting occupying public spaces with one’s moniker) and mural painting (large-scale paintings often created by several graffiti writers).

Music from other eras

The blues isn’t the only form of music that can be enjoyed. There are many other genres and styles of music that can be appreciated. This section will explore some of that music.

Medieval music

Medieval music isWestern music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century. Establishing the end of the medieval era and the beginning of the Renaissance is difficult; music historians have placed it variously at 1300, 1450, or 1500. The medieval era was characterized by an increase in musical activity and development due to a number of factors: improved transportation (leading to increased contact with other cultures), the rise of monasticism (with its emphasis on group singing), and increased literacy (both musical and otherwise).

One important type of medieval music was Gregorian chant, named after Pope Gregory I (590–604), who is traditionally credited with standardizing and codifying this type of chant. Although popular legend has it that he did so in order to combat heresy, modern scholars believe that his real motivation was to reduce some of the more excessive ornamentation that had crept into local variants of plainchant. In any case, his work did much to shape western musical notation, which would be developed further in the coming centuries.

Other important genres of medieval music include Ars Antiqua (“Old Art”), motets, conductus, clausulae, and organum.

Renaissance music

Renaissance music is Western music written during the Renaissance. Defining the beginning of the musical era is difficult, given that its defining characteristics were adopted only gradually throughout Europe. Generally, scholars trace the beginnings of the era to around 1400, though they reach different conclusions about when it ended. Template:Citation needed In the Middle Ages, traditions had developed in different parts of Europe in which groups of singers improvised on sacred texts in local languages, sometimes with musical accompaniment. This activity occurred extensively in Germany prior to 1400, and around that time began to develop more concertedly elsewhere as composers turned their attention to setting sacred texts to shaped note notation and began working in larger ensembles such as choirs and colla parte instrumental ensembles.

Baroque music

Baroque music is a style of Western art music composed from approximately 1600 to 1750. This era followed the Renaissance, and was followed in turn by the Classical era. The word “baroque” comes from the Portuguese word barroco, meaning “misshapen pearl”.

The instrumental music of the Baroque era was characterized by its grandiose, dramatic and expressive style. The typical instrumentation included strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion instruments such as the bassoon, oboe, trumpet and French horn. Harpsichord and organ were also commonly used.

Baroque music was often used to evoke a certain mood or atmosphere. It was frequently employed in religious settings and in works intended for the royal court. Many of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, such as Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi and George Frideric Handel, were employed by the Church or nobility.

The Baroque period saw the rise of vocal music as well. Opera, which began in Italy during the late 16th century, became increasingly popular during the Baroque era. Oratorios, which are large-scale musical works for chorus and orchestra with a religious or mythological narrative, also became popular during this time.