KnowSoda
Arts & CultureMusic
Music Genres: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
The Blues
The blues grew from African American communities in the southern US in the late 1800s, drawing on work songs and spirituals. It shaped jazz, rock and much more.
Key fact
The classic 12-bar blues repeats a 12-bar chord pattern.
Jazz
Jazz was born in New Orleans in the early 1900s, mixing blues, ragtime and brass bands. Improvisation, making music up on the spot, is at its heart.
Key fact
Louis Armstrong was one of jazz’s first great soloists.
Rock and Roll
Rock and roll exploded in the 1950s with Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Elvis Presley, then grew into rock with bands like the Beatles.
Key fact
The Beatles are often called the best-selling music act of all time.
Hip-Hop
Hip-hop began in the Bronx, New York, in 1973, when DJ Kool Herc stretched out the dance breaks at a party. It grew to include rapping, DJing, breakdancing and graffiti.
Key fact
By 2017, hip-hop was the most-listened-to genre in the US.
Reggae
Reggae came out of Jamaica in the late 1960s, with its offbeat rhythm. Bob Marley took it around the world.
Key fact
UNESCO added reggae to its cultural heritage list in 2018.
Electronic & Dance
Electronic music is made with synthesizers and computers. House music grew up in 1980s Chicago, and techno in Detroit.
Key fact
Germany’s Kraftwerk pioneered electronic pop in the 1970s.
K-Pop
K-pop, from South Korea, blends pop, hip-hop and electronic music with sharp choreography. BTS became one of the biggest bands in the world.
Key fact
“Gangnam Style” was the first YouTube video to pass 1 billion views, in 2012.
Fun facts
Robert Johnson, one of the most influential bluesmen ever, recorded just 29 songs.
The first jazz record, in 1917, was made by the Original Dixieland “Jass” Band, spelled with two s’s.
Before they were famous, the Beatles played over 250 nights in the clubs of Hamburg, Germany.
Hip-hop’s founding party, on 11 August 1973, was a back-to-school jam in a building’s recreation room.
When Bob Marley died in 1981, Jamaica gave him a state funeral.
The Roland TR-808 drum machine flopped at first, then went on to shape hip-hop and dance music.
In 2020, BTS became the first K-pop act to top the US Billboard Hot 100.
Story: The Weirdest Music
The Weirdest Music
1903, Tutwiler, Mississippi. Bandleader W. C. Handy dozes on a station platform, waiting for a train that’s nine hours late.
A lean man sits down beside him, pressing a knife against his guitar strings as he sings. Handy later called it “the weirdest music I had ever heard”.
Handy started writing that sound down. Songs like his St. Louis Blues carried the blues around the world, and earned him the name Father of the Blues.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
-
Question 1 of 10
The blues began in the southern United States.
Show the answer
True. Especially the Mississippi Delta.
-
Question 2 of 10
Jazz was born in New Orleans.
Show the answer
True. In the early 1900s.
-
Question 3 of 10
Chuck Berry was a rock and roll pioneer.
Show the answer
True. Alongside Little Richard and Elvis.
-
Question 4 of 10
Hip-hop began in the Bronx.
Show the answer
True. In New York, at a party.
-
Question 5 of 10
Reggae comes from Jamaica.
Show the answer
True. In the late 1960s.
-
Question 6 of 10
House music grew up in Chicago.
Show the answer
True. In 1980s clubs.
-
Question 7 of 10
BTS became one of the biggest bands in the world.
Show the answer
True. From South Korea.
-
Question 8 of 10
The blues began in 1990s Sweden.
Show the answer
False. In the US South, in the late 1800s.
-
Question 9 of 10
Jazz musicians never improvise.
Show the answer
False. Improvising is central to jazz.
-
Question 10 of 10
The Beatles were a jazz orchestra.
Show the answer
False. They were a rock band from Liverpool.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Music Genres has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture — blues, jazz and hip-hop
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — Inductees and history
- UNESCO — Reggae music of Jamaica (2018)
- Nielsen (2018) — US year-end music report
- Guinness World Records — Gangnam Style, first video to 1 billion YouTube views
- UNESCO — Flamenco
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — punk, Fela Kuti, bossa nova, Grand Ole Opry, reggaeton
