The Blues Branch
African SpiritualsField hollers, work songs (1600s-1800s)
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BluesRobert Johnson, B.B. King, Muddy Waters
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Rock & RollChuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley
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Hard RockLed Zeppelin, Deep Purple, AC/DC
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Heavy MetalBlack Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Metallica
The most well-known lineage in popular music. African spirituals gave birth to the Delta blues, which electrified into rock & roll in the 1950s. By the late 1960s, bands pushed the volume and distortion further into hard rock, eventually spawning heavy metal.
The Electronic Branch
DiscoDonna Summer, Bee Gees, Gloria Gaynor
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HouseFrankie Knuckles, Larry Heard, Marshall Jefferson
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TechnoJuan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson
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EDMSkrillex, Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Avicii
Disco's four-on-the-floor beat and synthesizer culture fueled Chicago house music in the early 1980s. Detroit techno emerged in parallel, and these branches converged into the global EDM movement of the 2000s-2010s.
The Hip-Hop Branch
FunkJames Brown, Parliament, Sly & the Family Stone
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Hip-HopGrandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, Public Enemy
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Gangsta RapN.W.A, Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G.
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TrapT.I., Gucci Mane, Future, Migos
Funk's heavy rhythmic grooves provided the sample bedrock for hip-hop, born in the South Bronx in the late 1970s. Hip-hop branched into conscious, gangsta, and eventually the trap subgenre that dominates modern charts.
The Jazz Branch
RagtimeScott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton
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JazzLouis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday
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BebopCharlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk
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FusionMiles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Weather Report
Ragtime's syncopated piano rhythms evolved into New Orleans jazz in the 1920s. As musicians pushed harmonic complexity, bebop emerged in the 1940s, and jazz-rock fusion followed in the late 1960s.
The Country Branch
FolkWoody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan
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CountryHank Williams, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline
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Outlaw CountryWillie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard
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Alt-CountryWilco, Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams
American and British folk traditions formed the foundation of country music. By the 1970s, outlaw country rebelled against Nashville's polished sound, eventually leading to the alt-country and Americana movements.
The Punk Branch
Garage RockThe Sonics, MC5, The Stooges
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PunkRamones, Sex Pistols, The Clash
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Post-PunkJoy Division, Siouxsie, Talking Heads
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GrungeNirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains
Raw garage rock energy crystallized into punk in the mid-1970s. Post-punk expanded the sonic palette with art-rock influences, and in the early 1990s grunge merged punk's attitude with heavy metal's weight.