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Country Music: repertoire of American songs with lyrics treating the subjects of love and life’s disappointments, accompanied primarily by one or more guitars
Early Artists & Composers: James Gideon "Gid" Tanner, Vernon Dalhart, Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry, Roy Claxton Acuff, John R. Cash, Ernest Tubb, Patsy Cline, Roy Rogers, Loretta Lynn, Hank williams, Lefty Frizzell, Jim Ed Brown, Jim Reeves, Buck Owens, etc.
Current Artist Examples: Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Tim Mcgraw, George Straight, Luke Bryan, Dolly Parton, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Vince Gill, etc.
Outlaw Country Artist: Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Waylon Jennings.
Resources and Links:
Library of Congress: Dolly Parton and the Roots of Country Music
Country Music by Ken Burns
Ragtime: an early type of jazz emerging in the 1890s and characterized by a steady bass and a syncopated, jazzy treble
Artists & Composers: Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, Eubie Blake, James Scott, James P. Johnson, Joseph Lamb etc.
Resources and Links:
History and Origins of Ragtime
This style of music was a precursor to American jazz
Rap: a style of popular music closely associated with hip hop that became
popular in the United States in the 1980s, mostly among urban African Americans; it usually involves rapping along with audio processing (sampling and scratching)
Hip hop: a larger genre, encompassing rap music, in which the vocal line is delivered more like speech than like song and in which a wide variety of rhythmic devices are used
Artists & Composers: Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels, etc.
Resources and Links:
A Century of Black American Music by 
Artists & Composers: Leonard Bernstein, Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, etc.
Examples: The Phantom of the Opera, West Side Story, Fiddler on the Roof, Sweeney Todd
Resources and Links:
Pop Music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. Pop music has memorable melodies and meaningful lyrics that appeal to a wide range of listeners and form connections to popular culture
Artists & Composers: Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Bill Haley, Elton John, Queen, Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, prince, Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, Justin Bieber, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Prince, Kelly Clarkson, Spice Girls, Janet Jackson, etc.
Resources and Links:
Folk Music
Folk Music: any style of music which represents a community and can be sung or played by people who may or may not be trained musicians, using the instruments available to them.
Bluegrass: A genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the United States Appalachian region. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Unlike mainstream country music, bluegrass is traditionally played on acoustic stringed instruments.
Artists & Composers: Bill Monroe, Foggy Mountain Boys, Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Lester Flatt, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, etc.
Resources & Links
Rhythm and Blues: A style of early rock and roll c. 1950 characterized by a pounding beat and a raw, growling style of singing, all set within a twelve-bar blues harmony
Early Artists & Composers: Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Al green, etc.
Resources and Links:
R&B Music Guide: The Evolution of Rhythm and Blues
Tell It Like It Is: A History of Rhythm and Blues
Rock and roll: a type of popular music that emerged from rhythm and blues in the 1950s, characterized by amplified singing, acoustic and electric instruments, and a very strong rhythmic drive conducive to dancing
Rock: a type of popular music that emerged from rock and roll in the mid-1960s, marked by amplified singing, electric instruments, and a strong rhythmic drive conducive to dancing
Artists & Composers: Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pink Floyd, the Who, etc.
Resources and Links:
soul: gospel-style singing that emerged in African American music during the 1950s and 1960s
Doo-wop: a type of soul music that emerged in the 1950s as an outgrowth of the gospel hymns sung in African-American churches in urban Detroit, Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York; its lyrics made use of repeating phrases sung in a cappella (unaccompanied) harmony below the tune
Funk: a blend of soul, jazz, and rhythm and blues that emerged in AfricanAmerican music in the 1960s
Artists & Composers: Martha and the Vandellas, The Supremes, The Temptations, The Four Tops, James Brown, Jackson 5, Tina Turner, Stevie Wonder, Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, the Shirelles, the Chantels, etc.
Resources and Links:
Movies, Tv, and Game music
Film Titles and the Artist or Composer:
Starwars: John Williams
The Pink Panther (1963) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961): Henry Mancini
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1955): Bernard Herrmann
Gladiator, The Dark Knight trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, The DaVinci Code, Sherlock Holmes, Man of Steel, Inception and Interstellar: Hans Zimmer
Saw series scored by Charlie Clouser
Game Titles and the Artist or Composer:
Assassin’s Creed: Lorne Balfe
Call of Duty and Metal Gear: Harry Gregson-Williams
The Legend of Zelda (1989): Shigeru Miyamoto
Final Fantasy (1987): Nobuo Uematsu
Experiencing Film Music by 
American Popular Music and Its Business : The First Four Hundred Years by 
Jazz: a lively, energetic music with pulsating rhythms and scintillating syncopations, usually played by either a small instrumental ensemble (a combo) or a larger group (a big band)
smooth jazz: mellow jazz genre that became popular beginning in the 1980s, with the legato sounds of saxophonist Kenny G
Modal jazz: a style of jazz that developed during the 1950s, in which the melody is constructed around scale patterns other than major and minor, and the chordal harmony emphasizes degrees of the scale other than the traditional subdominant, dominant, and tonic
Symphonic jazz: music (mostly of the 1920s and 1930s) that incorporates idioms of jazz into the genres and forms traditionally performed by the classical symphony orchestra
Early Artists & Composers: King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, John Coltrane, George Gershwin, Ella Fitzgerald, Sidney Joseph Bechet, Thelonious Monk, etc.
Resources & Links:
Music Online: Jazz Music Library
What Is Jazz? Your guide to the different types of jazz music and the best albums and players in each style
A comprehensive resource for jazz fans and musicians, this site includes lists of articles, columns, CD and book reviews, musician interviews, news releases, and links to other jazz-related resources on the Web.
A comprehensive site for all things jazz-related. This site includes a glossary, timeline, etymology of jazz, links to vendor sites, and festival guide as well as information about jazz education.
Blues: an expressive, soulful style of singing that emerged from the AfricanAmerican spiritual and work song in the South at the end of the nineteenth century; its texts are strophic and its harmonies, simple and repetitive
Artists & Composers: Bessie Smith, B. B. King, Nina Simone, Lead Belly, Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, etc.
Resources and Links:
Is Blues the Mother of All Modern Music?
Blues Access Online: This is an electronic version of the periodical Blues Access which contains articles, reviews, discographies, record label information, photographs, festival lists, and other information about the blues
Grunge Music: A type of alternative rock music, inspired by punk rock and youthful rebellion generally, that originated in the northwestern United States and peaked in popularity around 1990
Artists & Composers: Nirvana, Pearl jam, Alice in Chains, Green River, Mudhoney etc.
Resources and Links:
Music Theory behind Grunge Music
From Londonhua WIKI by Katharine Conory
New World Encyclopedia
Bebop: a complex, hard-driving style of jazz that emerged shortly after World War II; played without musical notation by a small ensemble
Artists & Composers: Charlie “Bird” Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk etc.
Resources and Links:
Big Band: a mid- to large-size dance band that emerged in the 1930s to play the style of jazz called swing
Artists & Composers: Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Glenn Miller, etc.
Punk rock: fast, hard-edged music, with short, simple songs and minimal instrumentation
New Wave: a more electronic and experimental form of punk rock
Artists & Composers: Ramones, Sex Pistols, The Clash, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, the Police, the Talking Heads, etc.
Resources and Links:
The Songs of America explores American history from the 16th century to the present as documented in popular and traditional songs, art songs, and sacred music. The collection contains 80,000+ online items, including recordings and video, scores and sheet music, manuscripts, copyright submissions, biographies, essays, and maps.
This website provides an insight into music from around the world, as you may expect from the title! Complete with relevant examples linked to YouTube, the site covers everything from the Tango, to English folk music, reggae and Bellydancing music!
American Popular Song: A Brief History
Survey of American Popular Music
by Frank Hoffmann and modified for the web by Robert Birkline
American popular music from the 1930's
MIT Open Course
DRAM ( Database of Recorded Music)
Established in 1985 as an archive and research center devoted to the study of American popular music from the pre-revolutionary era to the present.
American Popular Songs Collection (New York Public Library Digital Collections)
DLP - Music as a Window to the Past
