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Music

Music is found in every known culture, past and present, varying wildly between times and places. Around 50,000 years ago, early modern humans began to disperse from Africa, reaching all the habitable continents. Since all people of the world, including the most isolated tribal groups, have a form of music, it may be concluded that music is likely to have been present in the ancestral population prior to the dispersal of humans around the world. Consequently music may have been in existence for at least 50,000 years and the first music may have been invented in Africa and then evolved to become a fundamental constituent of human life. A culture's music is influenced by all other aspects of that culture, including social and economic organization and experience, climate, and access to technology. The emotions and ideas that music expresses, the situations in which music is played and listened to, and the attitudes toward music players and composers all vary between regions and periods. "Music history" is the distinct subfield of musicology and history which studies music (particularly Western art music) from a chronological perspective.

Prehistoric music (Florentina Ciolacu)


Prehistoric music, once more commonly called primitive music, is the name given to all music produced in preliterate cultures (prehistory), beginning somewhere in very late geological history. Prehistoric music is followed by ancient music in most of Europe and later musics in subsequent European-influenced areas, but still exists in isolated areas. It is probable that the first musical instrument was the human voice itself, which can make a vast array of sounds, from singing, humming and whistling through to clicking, coughing and yawning. In 2008 archaeologists discovered a bone flute in the Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, Germany. The five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone. The oldest known wooden pipes were discovered near Greystones, Ireland, in 2004. A wood-lined pit contained a group of six flutes made from yew wood, between 30 and 50 cm long, tapered at one end, but without any finger holes. They may once have been strapped together.

Ancient music (Simona Ceica)


The prehistoric era is considered to have ended with the development of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. "Ancient music" is the name given to the music that followed. The "oldest known song" was written in cuneiform, dating to 4,000 years ago from Ur. It was deciphered by Prof. Anne Draffkorn Kilmer (University of Calif. at Berkeley), and was demonstrated to be composed in harmonies of thirds, like ancient gymel, and also was written using a Pythagorean tuning of the diatonic scale. The term Early music era may also refer to contemporary but traditional or folk music, including Asian music, Persian music, music of India, Jewish music, Greek music, Roman music, the music of Mesopotamia, the music of Egypt, and Muslim music.

Byzantine music (Bianca Vladareanu)


Byzantine music is the music of the Byzantine Empire composed to Greek texts as ceremonial, festival, or church music. Greek and foreign historians agree that the ecclesiastical tones and in general the whole system of Byzantine music is closely related to the ancient Greek system. It remains the oldest genre of extant music, of which the manner of performance and (with increasing accuracy from the 5th century onwards) the names of the composers, and sometimes the particulars of each musical work's circumstances, are known.

Indian music (Stefania Cioclu)


The origins of indian music can be found in the Vedas, which are the oldest scriptures in the Hindu tradition. Indian classical music has also been significantly influenced by, or syncretised with, Indian folk music and Persian music. The Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music at length. The Samaveda was derived from the Rigveda so that its hymns could be sung as Samagana; this style evolved into jatis and eventually into ragas. Bharat's Natyashastra was the first treatise laying down fundamental principles of dance, music, and drama.

Egypt music (Florentina Ciolacu)


The music of Egypt has been an integral part of Egyptian culture since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians credited one of their Gods Thoth with the invention of music, which Osiris in turn used as part of his effort to civilize the world. The earliest material and representational evidence of Egyptian musical instruments dates to the Predynastic period, but the evidence is more securely attested in the Old Kingdom when harps, flutes and double clarinets were played. Percussion instruments, lyres and lutes were added to orchestras by the Middle Kingdom. Cymbals frequently accompanied music and dance, much as they still do in Egypt today. Egyptian folk music, including the traditional rituals, are the closest contemporary music genre to ancient Egyptian music, having preserved many of its features, rhythms and instruments.

Greece music (Simona Ceica)


The music of Greece is as diverse and celebrated as its history. Greek music separates into two parts: Greek traditional music and Byzantine music, with more eastern sounds. These compositions have existed for millennia: they originated in the Byzantine period and Greek antiquity, where there is a continuous development which appears in the language, the rhythm, the structure and the melody. Also Greek music has many similarities with the music of Cyprus; their modern popular music scenes remaining well-integrated with one another. Music is a significant aspect of Hellenic culture, both within Greece and in the diaspora.

Medieval music (Bianca Vladareanu)


Medieval music is Western music written during the Middle Ages. This era begins with the fall of the Roman Empire and ends sometime in the early fifteenth century. Instruments used to

perform medieval music still exist, but in different forms. The flute was once made of wood rather than silver or other metal, and could be made as a side-blown or end-blown instrument. The recorder has more or less retained its past form. The gemshorn is similar to the recorder in having finger holes on its front, though it is actually a member of the ocarina family. One of the flute's predecessors, the pan flute, was popular in medieval times, and is possibly of Hellenic origin. This instrument's pipes were made of wood, and were graduated in length to produce different pitches.

Baroque music (Stefania Cioclu)


Instrumental music became dominant in the Baroque, and most major music forms were defined. Counterpoint was one of the major forces in both the instrumental and the vocal music of the period. Although a strong religious musical tradition continued, secular music came to the fore with the development of the sonata, the concerto, and the concerto grosso. Much Baroque music was designed for improvisation, with a figured bass provided by the composer for the performer to flesh out and ornament. The keyboard, particularly the harpsichord, was a dominant instrument, and the beginnings of well temperament opened up the possibilities of playing in all keys and of modulation.

Classic and romantic music (Florentina Ciolacu)


The music of the Classical period is characterized by homophonic texture, or an obvious melody with accompaniment. These new melodies tended to be almost voice-like and singable, allowing composers to actually replace singers as the focus of the music. Instrumental music therefore quickly replaced opera and other sung forms (such as oratorio) as the favorite of the musical audience and the epitome of great composition. In the Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional, expanding to encompass literature, art, and philosophy. Famous early Romantic composers include Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Bellini, and Berlioz.

Simona Ceica: (POP MUSIC)


Pop music (a term that originally derives from an abbreviation of "popular") is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.

Influences and development


Throughout its development, pop music has absorbed influences from most other genres of popular music. Early pop music drew on the sentimental ballad for its form, gained its use of vocal harmonies from gospel and soul music, instrumentation from jazz, country, and rock music, orchestration fromclassical music, tempo from dance music, backing from electronic music, rhythmic elements from hip-hop music, and has recently appropriated spoken passages from rap.

It has also made use of technological innovation. In the 1940s improved microphone design allowed a more intimate singing style and ten or twenty years later inexpensive and more durable 45 r.p.m. records for singles "revolutionized the manner in which pop has been disseminated" and helped to move pop music to a record/radio/film star system. Another technological change was the widespread availability of television in the 1950s; with televised performances, "pop stars had to have a visual presence". In the 1960s, the introduction of inexpensive, portable transistor radios meant that teenagers could listen to music outside of the home. Multitrack recording (from the 1960s); and digital sampling (from the 1980s) have also been utilized as methods for the creation and elaboration of pop music. By the early 1980s, the promotion of pop music had been greatly affected by the rise of Music Television channels like MTV, which "favoured those artists such as Michael Jackson andMadonna who had a strong visual appeal". Pop music has been dominated by the American and (from the mid-1960s) British music industries, whose influence has made pop music something of an international monoculture, but most regions and countries have their own form of pop music, sometimes producing local versions of wider trends, and lending them local characteristics. Some of these trends (for example Europop) have had a significant impact of the development of the genre.

Singers:
Smiley, Jonas Brothers, Ne-yo, nelly furtado, Mariah Carey, Leona Lewis, Paula Seling, Andreea Banica, Andreea Balan, Sore, Holograf, Adam Lambert, Bruno Mars, Cheryl Cole, Enrique Iglesias , Katy Perry, Avril Lavigne, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Beyonce, Miley Cyrus, Shakira, Christina Aguilera, JLS, Gwen Stefani

Bianca Vladareanu: (DANCE MUSIC)


Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance music.

Origins
Folk dance music is music accompanying traditional dance and may be contrasted with historical/classical, and popular/commercial dance music. An example of folk dance music in the United States is the old-time music played at square dances and contra dances. Brazilian dance music includes Samba, Pagode, and Forr.

Historical dance music


While there exist attestations of the combination of dance and music in ancient times (for example Ancient Greek vases sometimes show dancers accompanied by musicians), the earliest Western dance music that we can still play with a degree of certainty are the surviving medieval dances such as carolsand the Estampie. The earliest of these surviving dances are almost as old as Western staff-basedmusic notation.

By genre

Dance music works often bear the name of the corresponding dance, e.g. waltzes, the tango, the bolero, the can-can, minuets, salsa, various kinds of jigs and the breakdown. Other dance forms includecontradance, the merengue (Dominican Republic), and the cha-cha-cha. Often it is difficult to know whether the name of the music came first or the name of the dance.
Dansband

"Dansband" ("Dance band") is a term in Swedish for bands who play a kind of popular music. These terms came into use around 1970, and before that, many of the bands were classified as "pop groups". This type of music is mostly popular in the Nordic countries.
Electronic

By 1981, a new form of electronic dance music was developing. This music, made using electronics, is a style of popular music commonly played in dance music nightclubs, radio stations, shows and raves. During its gradual decline in the late 1970s, disco became influenced by computerization. Looping,sampling and seguing as found in disco continued to be used as creative techniques within Trance music, Techno music, and especially House music.

Singers
Inna, Elena Gheorghe, Edward Maya, Alexandra Stan, Whitney Houston, Hilary Duff, Flo Rida, Fergie , Michael Jackson, Chris Brown, Christina Aguilera, Ciara, Cher, Vanessa Hudgens, Mariah Carey, Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lopez, Usher

Florentina Ciolacu: (ROCK MUSIC)


Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical sources. The sound of rock is traditionally centered around the electric guitar, which emerged in its modern form in the 1950s with the popularization of rock and roll. The sound of the electric guitar in rock music is typically supported by the electric bass guitar pioneered in jazz music in the same era, and percussion produced from a drum kit that combines drums and cymbals.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_music - cite_note-2 By the late 1960s a number of distinct rock music sub-genres had emerged, including hybrids like blues rock, folk rock, country rock, and jazz-rock fusion, many of which contributed to the development of psychedelic rock influenced by the counter-cultural psychedelic scene. New genres that emerged from this scene included progressive rock, which extended the artistic elements; glam rock, which highlighted showmanship and visual style, and the diverse and enduring major sub-genre of heavy metal, which emphasized volume, power and speed. In the second half of the 1970s, punk rock both intensified and reacted against some of these trends to produce a raw, energetic form of music characterized by overt political and social critiques. Punk was an influence into the 1980s on the subsequent development of other sub-genres, including New Wave, post-punk and eventually the alternative rock movement. From the 1990s alternative

rock began to dominate rock music and break through into the mainstream in the form of grunge, Britpop, and indie rock. Further fusion sub-genres have since emerged, including pop punk, rap rock, and rap metal, as well as conscious attempts to revisit rock's history, including the garage rock/post-punk and synthpop revivals at the beginning of the new millennium.

Singers:
The Doors, Beatles, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, Robert Plant, Jimmy Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Freddie Mercury

Stefania Cioclu: (JAZZ)


Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th century American popular music. Its West African pedigree is evident in its use of blue notes, improvisation, polyrhythms, syncopation, call-response, and the swung note. The origin of the word jazz is one of the most sought-after word origins in modern American English. The word's intrinsic interest - the American Dialect Society named it the Word of the Twentieth Century - has resulted in considerable research, and its history is well documented. Jazz can be very difficult to define because it spans from Ragtime marches to the present day. Attempts have been made to define jazz from the perspective of other musical traditionsusing the point of view of European music history or African music for examplebut jazz critic Joachim Berendt argues that all such attempts are unsatisfactory.[3] One way to get around the definitional problems is to define the term "jazz" more broadly. Berendt defines jazz as a "form of art music which originated in the United States through the confrontation of blacks with European music".

Singers:
Bill Haley (Rock around the clock /See You Latter Alligator/Shake Rattle and Roll) Johnny & The Hurricanes (Red River Rock) Little Richard (Long Tall Sally/Lucille/Tutti Frutti) Fats Domino (Aint That A Shame/Kansas City) Pat Boone (Speedy Gonzales) The Swinging Blue Jeans (Good Golly Miss Molly) The Platters (Great Pretender) Chubby Checker (Lets Twist Again)

Questions:
- Do you know the genres of music? - Which singers you know from every genre? - Which are the genres of music you listen to? - Who is the singer you like most ?

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