Contemporary Music (1593)

The history of popular music in the 1970s and '80s is basically that of rock music which has grown to include hundreds of musical styles. New styles such as folk, salsa, new wave, funk, reggae, heavy metal, acid rock, punk rock, rap, hip hop, acid jazz and world music have developed. Country rock, a fusion of country and western and rock 'n' roll, grew popular in the 1970s.

Soul music was always dance music, but in the 1980s a new type of dance music became popular – disco. Disco is a kind of soul music, often with Latin rhythms. Discos opened up all over America. Many of the disco musicians were black, but disco dancing was popular with most Americans. In the 1980s a lot of black musicians became superstars, for example, Prince, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston.

Rap, a very skilful kind of fast street talk, with a strong rhythm, developed in 1980s among African-American and Hispanic performers in New York City. The 1990s saw the birth of alternative music or grunge. Techno, a style of dance music that gained popularity in the 1990s, combines computer-generated, disco like rhythms with digital samples.

In contemporary music, there is a strong crossover phenomenon. Cultural influences are much more readily available. The trend is not towards one big homogeneous style, but rather an interesting meeting of different influences in projects here and there. Whereas in the past jazz, blues and country all came out of the roots of black society and Appalachia, nowadays there are influences from farther away. Musicians have become much more globally aware of other kinds of music. A whole genie called "world music," a sort of mix of ethnic music adapted to modern western styles, has developed. It includes any ethnic music that isn't big enough to have its own category.

Music brings the people of the world together, and perhaps with music we can also change the world and make it a better place.

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