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Even though the United States is a relatively young country in the scheme of the world, America is large and diverse. Being a country of immigrants, America’s culture was eventually formed from all of the countries in the world. Some might say that America is the only representation of all of the world’s cultures, or at least an embracement of the world’s cultures. However, since America reflects the cultures of others, some earthlings suggest America does not have any culture of its own. So how can we define America? Where do we go to look for the culture of America?
Since music was most likely around before humans even had fire or maybe even some sort of primitive language, it makes sense to start searching there. What is music but a bunch of beats and tones (maybe not even tones, or maybe not even beats), so how can something so simple define culture? The only way music can be produced is from a human making out a sound, and anything humans create is a representation of themselves. Culture is defined as the totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought. So get a group of humans together to create beats and tones of their liking…and there! You have culture! Imagine many hundreds of groups forming their own millions of different sounds coming together to create hundreds of other new sounds. This is what America’s culture is about. The people of America created one form of their history by evolving musical styles originating from different cultures. Formed from a destined conglomeration in folk, popular and classical music, the most well-known genres of American music are blues, rock and roll, country, hip hop, jazz and gospel.
Let's take a road trip through America and see what we find...MSN Music Map
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Music along the Mississippi River
Through the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky
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Get your kicks on Route 66!
Evolution of Jazz Styles Map:
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