Question

List and describe two styles of music composition that developed during the twentieth century.

Answer 1

Disco is a style of dance music that developed in the early 70s, mainly from funk and soul music. It was popularized and orginated by mainly gay and black audiences in larger cities in the U.S. and is derived from the French word discothèque meaning nightclub.

Blues was originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States in the beginning of the 20th century. It draws inspiration from roots in African-American work songs, spirituals, traditions, and folk music

Punk Rock developed in the early 70s inspired by 60s garage rock and proto-punk music. Punk bands were commonly stripped down, hard and fast melodies that were heavily political and anit-establishment while embracing a DIY ethic.

Answer 2

Soul music, which grew up alongside rock and roll, also developed out of African American gospel, and rhythm and blues traditions. As the century wore on, rhythm and blues boy bands such as New Edition (which could have stayed merely a bubblegum pop band of black youth created for a mainly white audience) took control of their music and helped create the new jack swing movement. A fusion of hip hop and R & B, new jack swing helped laid the groundwork for the next two decades of popular music.

The end of the century saw the birth of hip-hop music and culture. In the mid-1970s in the Bronx, New York DJs began isolating percussion rhythms from songs and talking over and between the songs.

Rap music, with its semi-autobiographical lyrics and deep rhythms were just one more evolution in the blues tradition that had started at the beginning of the century, and one further, enormous transformation in the world of music created and nurtured in the African American community.