This timeline of music in the United States covers the period from 1850 to 1879. It encompasses the California Gold Rush, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and touches on topics related to the intersections of music and law, commerce and industry, religion, race, ethnicity, politics, gender, education, historiography and academics. Subjects include folk, popular, theatrical and classical music, as well as Anglo-American, African American, Native American, Irish American, Arab American, Catholic, Swedish American, Shaker and Chinese American music.
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The music of the United States reflects the country's pluri-ethnic population through a diverse array of styles. It is a mixture of music influenced by music of the United Kingdom, West Africa, Ireland, Latin America, and mainland Europe, among other places. The country's most internationally renowned genres are jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, rock, rock and roll, R&B, pop, hip hop, soul, funk, gospel, disco, house, techno, ragtime, doo wop, folk music, americana, boogaloo, tejano, reggaeton, and salsa. American music is heard around the world. Since the beginning of the 20th century, some forms of American popular music have gained a near-global audience.
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American form of racist entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people specifically of African descent. The shows were performed by mostly white people in make-up or blackface for the purpose of playing the role of black people. There were also some African-American performers and black only minstrel groups that formed and toured. Minstrel shows lampooned black people as dim-witted, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, and happy-go-lucky.
"God Save the South" is a poem-turned-song written by American George Henry Miles, under the pen name Earnest Halphin, in 1861. It is considered by some to have been the unofficial national anthem of the Confederate States of America. The commonly heard version was composed by Charles W. A. Ellerbrock, while C. T. De Cœniél later composed a different tune for the song.
Daniel Decatur Emmett was an American songwriter, entertainer, and founder of the first troupe of the blackface minstrel tradition, the Virginia Minstrels. He is most remembered as the creator of the song "Dixie".
The latter part of the 19th century saw the increased popularization of African American music and the growth and maturity of folk styles like the blues.
American popular music has had a profound effect on music across the world. The country has seen the rise of popular styles that have had a significant influence on global culture, including ragtime, blues, jazz, swing, rock, bluegrass, country, R&B, doo wop, gospel, soul, funk, punk, disco, house, techno, salsa, grunge and hip hop. In addition, the American music industry is quite diverse, supporting a number of regional styles such as zydeco, klezmer and slack-key.
"Dixie", also known as "Dixie's Land", "I Wish I Was in Dixie", and other titles, is a song that has been popular in the Southern United States since the 19th century. It is one of the most distinctively Southern musical products of the 19th century and probably the best-known song to have come out of blackface minstrelsy. It was not a folk song at its creation, but it has since entered the American folk vernacular. The song likely cemented the word "Dixie" in the American vocabulary as a nickname for the Southern U.S.
John Hill Hewitt was an American songwriter, playwright, and poet. He is best known for his songs about the American South, including "A Minstrel's Return from the War", "The Soldier's Farewell", "The Stonewall Quickstep", and "Somebody's Darling". His output during the American Civil War earned him the epithets "Bard of the Stars and Bars" and "Bard of the Confederacy".
This is a timeline of music in the United States prior to 1819.
This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1950 to 1969.
This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1970 to the present.
John Thomas Douglass (1847–1886) was an accomplished American violinist who composed Virginia's Ball, which is the first known opera written by an African American, copyrighted in 1868. It was performed at least once, but is now lost. Virginia's Ball was a three-act opera, premiered in 1868 in New York, at the Stuyvesant Institute on Broadway.
This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1820 to 1849.
This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1880 to 1919.
This is a timeline of music in the United States from 1920 to 1949.
Slave Songs of the United States was a collection of African American music consisting of 136 songs. Published in 1867, it was the first, and most influential, collection of spirituals to be published. The collectors of the songs were Northern abolitionists William Francis Allen, Lucy McKim Garrison, and Charles Pickard Ware. It is a "milestone not just in African American music but in modern folk history". It is also the first published collection of African-American music of any kind.
Armand Edward Blackmar, was born in Vermont in 1826, to parents Reuben Harmon and Amanda (Cushman) Blackmar. Armand, with his brother, Henry, was the founder of Blackmar Brothers, a music publishing company. Begun in 1860, this publishing company was originally based out of New Orleans, Louisiana, and later Augusta, Georgia. This would become the most successful publisher of music of the Confederacy during American Civil War, issuing about half the songs released during that era. A.E. was best known for the patriotic songs he wrote.
George Dunn was an American music publisher and lithographer. He entered the music publishing business in 1863, during the American Civil War and rapidly rode to prominence. His firm was George Dunn & Company, and during the War Dunn published thirty-two works on his own and twenty-four with partner Julian A. Selby.
During the American Civil War, music played a prominent role on both sides of the conflict: Union and Confederate. On the American Civil War battlefield, different instruments including bugles, drums, and fifes were played to issue marching orders or sometimes simply to boost the morale of one's fellow soldiers. Singing was also employed not only as a recreational activity but as a release from the inevitable tensions that come with fighting in a war. In camp, music was a diversion away from the bloodshed, helping the soldiers deal with homesickness and boredom. Soldiers of both sides often engaged in recreation with musical instruments, and when the opposing armies were near each other, sometimes the bands from both sides of the conflict played against each other on the night before a battle.
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(help)Laing notes that Root & Cady "published most of the bestselling popular songs associated with the American Civil War".
Horn notes that the hymnal "obliterated other Anglican opposition".