Download The Sound of Music

The Sound of Music
20th Century Music
1900s
• Composers: Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Mahler,
Claude Debussy
• The London Symphony Orchestra is established
• Jazz is born in Congo Square – New Orleans,
LA. It stems from a blend of African-American
spirituals and European instruments
1910s
• Billboard magazine publishes a list of the most
popular vaudeville songs. It’s the predecessor to
their trademark charts
• After moving from its southern, rural roots, jazz
establishes Chicago as its capital. The city will
become home to such jazz greats as trumpeter
Louis Armstrong and pianist Jelly Roll Morton
1920s
• “Queen of the Blues” Bessie Smith records her
first song, “Down Hearted Blues,” which
becomes an immediate success
• The Julliard School opens in New York
• Maurice Ravel’s Bolero opens in Paris
• George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue premieres
in New York
1930s
• Jazz composer Duke Ellington writes “It Don’t
Mean a Thing, If it Ain’t Got That Sing”
• Electric guitars debut
• The Glenn Miller Band debuts in New York
• Roy Acuff joins the Grand Ole Opry
• Bill Monroe fathers Bluegrass Music
1940s
• Bing Crosby releases “White Christmas,” from
the film Holiday Inn
• RCA Victory sprays gold over Glenn Miller’s
million-copy-seller “Chattanooga Choo Choo”,
creating the first “gold record”
• Columbia Records introduces the 33 1/3 LP
record at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
• 45 rpm records are sold in the U.S.
1950s
• In an effort to introduce rhythm and blues to a
broader audience, disc jockey Alan Freed uses
the tern rock ‘n’ roll to describe R&B
• Ray Charles emerges
• Bill Haley and the Comets have a hit with “Rock
Around the Clock”
• Elvis comes on the scene
• The first Grammy’s are awarded in 1958
1960s
• Patsy Cline releases two crossover songs –”I Fall to
Pieces” and “Crazy”
• Beatle mania comes to America in 1964 via the Ed
Sullivan Show
• The Rolling Stones emerge as the anti-Beatles, with an
aggressive, blues-derived style
• Protest songs and folk music
• Psychedelic bands
• Woodstock Music Festival
1970s
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Women dominate the Grammy’s in 1971
Reggae becomes popular in the U.S.
Punk rock
Saturday Night Fever sparks the disco inferno
Elvis Presley dies at Graceland
Sony introduces the walkman
The Sugar Hill Gang releases the first
commercial rap album
1980s
• MTV goes on the air with “Video Killed the
Radio Star”
• CDs are introduced
• Madonna launches her first show
• Michael Jackson’s Thriller becomes the biggestselling album in history (and still is!)
• Heavy Metal
1990s
• Grunge Movement – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, “The
Seattle Sound”
• Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens in Cleveland
• Rap becomes one of the most important
commercial and artistic branches of pop music