Musique née aux États-Unis et issue des traditions musicales des Africains vendus comme esclaves aux Amériques à partir du XVIe siècle. Sous l'influence des traditions profanes et religieuses que les colons, pour la plupart anglo-saxons et français, imposèrent à la communauté noire, la musique afro-américaine utilise le vocabulaire et les structures de la musique européenne tout en perpétuant les pratiques musicales africaines.

Blues is a vocal and instrumental form of music based on the use of the blues chord progressions and the blue notes. Though several blues forms exist, the 12-bar blues chord progressions are the most frequently encountered. Blue notes are sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Blues emerged as an accessible form of self-expression in African-American communities of the United States from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads.[1] The use of blue notes and the prominence of call-and-response patterns in the music and lyrics are indicative of African influences. The blues influenced later American and Western popular music, as it became the roots of jazz, rhythm and blues, bluegrass and rock and roll. In the 1960s and 1970s, blues was popularized in a hybrid form called blues rock.

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1750.[1] This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance and was followed by the Classical music era. The original meaning of "baroque" was "misshapen pearl", a strikingly fitting characterization of the architecture of this period; later, the name came to be applied also to its music. Baroque music forms a major portion of the classical music canon, being widely studied, performed, and listened to. It is associated with composers such as Claudio Monteverdi, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frideric Handel, Arcangelo Corelli, and Johann Sebastian Bach. The baroque period saw the development of functional tonality. During the period composers and performers used more elaborate musical ornamentation; made changes in musical notation, and developed new instrumental playing techniques. Baroque music expanded the size, range and complexity of instrumental performance, and also established opera as a musical genre. Many musical terms and concepts from this era are still in use today.

Ragtime originated in African American musical communities, in the late 19th century, and descended from the jigs and marches played by black bands. By the start of the 20th century it became widely popular throughout North America and was listened and danced to, performed, and written by people of many different subcultures. A distinctly American musical style, ragtime may be considered a synthesis of African syncopation and European classical music, especially the marches made popular by John Philip Sousa. However this description is a simplification.

Le ragtime est un genre musical d'origine américaine, extrêmement populaire dans les années 1900-1915. On trouve dans le Cakewalk et les musiques de salon une forme primitive de ragtime, mais on situe généralement l'émergence du ragtime classique en 1897, année où furent publiées plusieurs compositions importantes de ragtime (communément appelées rags).

Ludwig van Beethoven began concentrated work on his Symphony No. 7 in A major (Op. 92) in 1811, while he was staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplice in the hope of improving his health. It was completed in 1812, and was dedicated to Count Moritz von Fries.

Johann Pachelbel was a German Baroque composer, organist and teacher, who brought the south German organ tradition to its peak. He composed a large body of sacred and secular music, and his contributions to the development of the chorale prelude and fugue have earned him a place among the most important composers of the middle Baroque era.

Contemporary Christian music first came onto the scene of popular music during the Jesus movement revival of the late 1960s and early 1970s. One of the first, popular "Jesus music" albums was Upon This Rock (1969) by Larry Norman initially released on Capitol Records. Unlike traditional or southern gospel music, this new Jesus music was birthed out of rock and roll. The pioneers of this movement also included Keith Green, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Andraé Crouch and the Disciples, Love Song, Petra, and Barry McGuire. The small Jesus music culture had expanded into a multimillion-dollar industry by the 1980s. By the 1990s, many CCM artists such as Amy Grant, dc Talk, Michael W. Smith, Stryper, and Jars of Clay had found crossover success with Top 40 mainstream radio play. Currently, Christian music sales exceed those for classical, jazz, Latin, New Age, and soundtrack music.

Music hall is a form of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to :
- A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts. British music hall was similar to American vaudeville, featuring rousing songs and comic acts, while in the United Kingdom the term vaudeville referred to more lowbrow entertainment that would have been termed burlesque.
- The theatre or other venue in which such entertainment takes place;
- The type of popular music normally associated with such performances.

Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States. Swing uses a strong anchoring rhythm section which supports a lead section that can include brass instruments, including trumpets and trombones, woodwinds including saxophones and clarinets or stringed instruments including violin and guitar; medium to fast tempos; and a "lilting" swing time rhythm. Swing bands usually featured soloists who would improvise a new melody over the arrangement. The danceable swing style of bandleaders such as Benny Goodman and Count Basie was the dominant form of American popular music from 1935 to 1945. The verb "to swing" is also used as a term of praise for playing that has a strong rhythmic "groove" or drive.

Tango is a style of music that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay. It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, doublebass, and two bandoneons. Earlier forms of this ensemble sometimes included flute, clarinet and guitar. Tango music may be purely instrumental or may include a vocalist. Tango music is well-known across much of the world, along with the associated tango dance.

A wedding march is a piece of music played during a wedding, usually during the entrance of the bride (processional) or the departure of the married couple at the end (recessional). Three versions of the Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Wedding March Op.61 and the Miss Davis Ruth, A Sacred Song

L.V. Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. He was a crucial figure in the transitional period between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western classical music, and remains one of the most acclaimed and influential composers of all time. Born in Bonn, then in the Electorate of Cologne in western Germany, he moved to Vienna in his early twenties and settled there, studying with Joseph Haydn and quickly gaining a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. Beethoven's hearing gradually deteriorated beginning in his twenties, yet he continued to compose, and to conduct and perform, even after he was completely deaf.

Achille-Claude Debussy (August 22, 1862 – March 25, 1918) was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he is considered one of the most prominent figures working within the field of Impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions. Debussy is not only among the most important of all French composers, he was also a central figure in all European music at the turn of the twentieth century. Debussy's music virtually defines the transition from late-Romantic music to twentieth century modernist music. In French literary circles, the style of this period was known as Symbolism, a movement that directly inspired Debussy both as a composer and as an active cultural participant.

Louis Hector Berlioz (December 11, 1803 – March 8, 1869) was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande Messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several concerts
with over 1,000 musicians. At the other extreme, he also composed around 50 songs for voice and piano.