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The vast majority of the inhabitants of the United States are immigrants or descendants 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.
American music is, like most of its hemispheric neighbors, a mixture of African, European and a little bit of native influences. Still later in the country's history, ethnic and musical diversity grew as the United States grew into a melting pot of different peoples.
The United States' multi-ethnic population is reflected through a diverse array of styles of music.It is a mixture of music influenced by the music of Europe, Indigenous peoples, West Africa, Latin America, Middle East, North Africa, amongst many other places.
European Americans on average are: "98.6 percent Native European, 0.19 percent Native African and 0.18 percent Native American." Inferred British/Irish ancestry is found in European Americans from all states at mean proportions of above 20%, and represents a majority of ancestry, above 50% mean proportion, in states such as Mississippi ...
A distinctly American musical style, ragtime may be considered a synthesis of African syncopation and European classical music, especially the marches made popular by John Philip Sousa. Some early piano rags were classified as "jig", "rag", and "coon songs".
African-American music at this time was classed as "race music". [38] Ralph Peer , musical director at Okeh Records , put records made by "foreign" groups under that label. At the time "race" was a term commonly used by the African-American press to speak of the community as a whole with an empowering point of view, as a person of "race" was ...
American popular music, as part of the wider U.S. pop culture, has a worldwide influence and following. [95] Mid-20th-century American pop stars such as Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, [96] and Elvis Presley became global celebrities, [89] as have artists of the late 20th century such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, and Whitney Houston.
The First New England School is usually considered the first uniquely American invention in music. The most characteristic feature was that the voices, male and female respectively, doubled their parts in any octave in order to fill out the harmony; this generated a texture of close-position chords that was unknown in European traditions.