Jazz is considered "America's Classical Music" by www.historyjazz.com, a website dedicated to celebrating the history of jazz. The genre dates to the early 20th century when African Americans brought it to the mainstream. Jazz music is a combination of improvised solos, blues notes and a deep rhythmical structure, characterized by brass instruments, guitars, drums, pianos and keyboards. Some of the most famous jazz musicians include Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday.
Historians trace rock 'n' roll to 1954, according to www.esto.es, an Argentinian music website. The genre developed by combining rhythm and blues and country music. A couple of the original Rock 'n' Roll artists included Bill Haley and His Comets and Elvis Presley. This new music was much faster and more flashy and catchy than country and R&B. People could dance to it, and the genre became hugely popular with teenagers, while parents called it too provocative.
Rap music took the music scene by storm when it developed a new appearance in the 1980s. The origins can be traced to Africa where tribes honored "men of words." When slaves were brought over in the 1700s and 1800s, the workers mixed American music with the words of their motherland. Another source of the genre is Jamaican folk stories, where people would tell poems and stories in rhyme. "Rappers Delight" by the Sugar Hill Gang in 1979 resulted in the first rap group being signed by a major record label.
Traditional folk music is passed on from generation to generation. The genre is associated with music by the working class. According to Gene Shay of the Philadelphia Folk Festival, "In the strictest sense, it's music that is rarely written for profit. It's music that has endured and been passed down by oral tradition." She went on to say folk singers aren't usually in search of profit and you don't have to be a good singer to sing folk.
Western Swing was developed in Oklahoma and in Texas in the 1930s, according to Roughstock, a country music history site. The style began to catch on with the public in the 1940s. Roughstock described the music as, "A blend of big band, blues, dixieland, and jazz, among others." The music utilized a Hawaiian steel guitar and drums in its early years. Bob Willis and Milton Brown are considered two of the genre's top pioneers.