Music has changed a lot throughout the last hundred years, from jazz, opera, and blues to pop, R&B, and hip hop. They are all very different and many have become popular over the past few decades.
For example, the 1900s to 1920s, was full of music genres, but the most popular during this time were jazz, opera, and blues, with popular artists such as Mamie Smith, Duke Ellington, and Louis Armstrong. Blues was a genre that became popular around 1910, and was mostly lyrical and expressed feelings rather than stories. A popular blues artist was Mamie Smith who recorded the most significant blues recording in 1920 called “Crazy Blues.” Jazz was another popular genre that was an improvisational style made up of fast beats and earthy rhythms.
While jazz and blues were still popular in the 1930s to the 1950s, country, and rock and roll also became popular with artists like Hank Williams, The Mills Brothers, and Bill Haley & His Comets. Hank Williams was a country artist who made popular songs like “So Lonesome I Could Cry,” “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” and “I Saw the Light.” Chuck Berry was a rock artist from the 1950s who made songs like “Maybellene,” “Roll Over”, and “Rock and Roll Music”.
After rock and roll became popular around the 1950s, genres like garage rock, punk rock, and classic rock became popular. Some popular classic rock artists include Deep Purple, The Rolling Stones, Fleetwood Mac, and Led Zeppelin. They made songs that are still popular today such as “Smoke on the Water,” (Deep Purple), “The Chain” (Fleetwood Mac), and “Stairway to Heaven,” (Led Zeppelin). An anonymous student says, “My favorite band from the 1970s is Led Zeppelin, because I just think their music is really cool.”
Different rock genres like alternative rock and Grunge were still popular in the 1990s – 2020s; however, R&B, Hip Hop, and pop became popular with songs such as “No Scrubs” (TLC), “Roar” (Katy Perry), and “Paint the Town Red” (Doja Cat). “My favorite music artist is Doja Cat because she makes music that hypes you up and makes you really energetic” said freshman Kaylin Adkins.
Many different kinds of music were popular with some saying “I like the 2000-2010s because I think the pop music of the decade was very good.”
And others saying, “It (1980s) was the beginning of the big hair bands, rock music party’s and love.”
Not everyone can agree on which decade has the best music; however, it is good to have different genres for different people’s taste in music.
