Ragtime was extremely popular the early 20th century in United States and is considered as the founding style of jazz. Like jazz it is known as a racy style associated with New Orleans’s red-light distinct, Storyvillle. In the contrary it is highly technical music that lacks of improvisation, written for piano solos. There were some ragtime songs composed as technical challenges to pianists. There are several songs claiming to be the first to be composed as ragtime but the first known published sheet of music was that of “You’ve Been a Good Old Wagon” by Ben Harlem who also played an important role on making ragtime popular in New York. But then again it wasn’t before 1899 that this kind of music became popular nationwide due to Scott’s Joplin “Maple Leaf Rag”. Joplin is considered to be the most famous Ragtime composer and his songs were not only heard almost everywhere but were also recorded on piano rolls for player pianos (recordings in piano rolls were the closest thing of recorded music during that period). Ragtime may be associated with pianists but was also played by other instruments like banjos and even orchestras. It is said that ragtime died in 1917 together with Scott Joplin but nevertheless it came back for some short periods in the following years.
The Blues were developed by distinctive African beats utilized as work songs that talked about suffering and loneliness by slaves during the 17th – early 19th century, combined with black spiritual music, religious sermons, ballads, and jump-ups (rhythmic dance tunes). The primary instrument of blues prior to the well-known today’s guitar was the banjo. That genre of music was made popular in the Mississippi River Delta region due to pioneers of the time, Charley Patton and Robert Johnson. Blues as a term was commonly used by 1910. During the 1920s blues were popular nationwide and that lead to millions of recording sails by artists like Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday. During the 1930s and 1940s blues met the electric bass guitar which together with the genre’s musical compatibility made the absorption of blues possible by jazz and pop music. In the late 1940s and 1950s blues were played in Detroit and Chicago by Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Water accompanied by the electric bass guitar, percussion instruments and harmonicas. In the 1960s blues were introduced to young whites when white musical groups of US and Europe, like Canned Heat and Cream, incorporated those new sounds in their music. Since then blues have influenced the style of a number of rock guitarists like Eric Clapton. Today more and more fans are attracted by this music since great blues artists such as B. B. King continue on producing original music and their disciples, like John Hooker and Stevie Ray Vaughan have managed to introduce blues to new generations.
Dixieland / New Orleans Jazz was developed in New Orleans around 1890 and it continues to be performed up till now. It has a characteristic upbeat tempo and uses banjo, piano, clarinet, trombone and trumpet. Dixieland was influenced by Congo Squares, Mardi Gras music and brass marching bands. In the late 1890s a number of musicians who couldn’t read music started to play improvised songs. More and more trained and untrained musicians were attracted by this style and entered improvisational bands. Moreover creole musicians started using instruments of the New Orleans jazz band (trombones, clarinets, coronets). New Orleans jazz quickly spread all around New Orleans and other cities with the help of Original Creole Orchestra by Freddie Keppard, Tom Brown’s Band from Dixieland and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band with Nick LaRocca (among others) who toured in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. Dixieland became nationally known in 1917 with the first commercial jazz recording by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. At the beginning of the 1900s Chicago was the mecca of jazz. “King” Oliver, Louis Armstrong and Jelly Roll Morton were some of the most influential artists of the New Orleans Jazz era. At the beginning of the 1930s the competitive environment that was produced because of a number of new musical forms faded Dixieland’s popularity. However recordings from George Lewis and Gear “Bunk” Johnson revived it in the late 1930s which lead to the survival of the style until today.
Big Band / Swing Band (precursor of rock and roll) was introduced during the 1930’s and 1940s in Harlem, New York. It used elements from all previous styles of blues, ragtime and New Orleans jazz. What differentiated those bands from the classic jazz bands was the scale since they had more than ten members of brass, reed and rhythm sections and the fact that their songs were less syncopated with simpler music structure and smoother sound which made them grate for dancing. Swing was played by jukeboxes, radio, clubs and even movies and that made jazz a mainstream music.
Bebop / Bop was the result of experimentations from a group of musicians consisting of the pianists Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk, saxophonist Charlie “Bird” Parker, trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” and drummers Kenny Clarke and Max Roach, among others. What they created may have been the evolvement of swing but it was so deferent that some could not even recognize it as jazz. It was a more energetic than swing with harsh, dense and dissonant melodies. Bebop had a cultural influence. In the 1960s it was used as a symbol of black visionary power and pride from the young African Americans. Bob as a movement was short-lived but it managed to swift jazz from dancing music to serious listening music. Furthermore, it was the inspiration of future movements like cool jazz and free jazz. Today the bebop period is considered a classic period for jazz and how well can someone play bob style it is used as a measurement to count the skill of performer
Sources: http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageaas/ragtime_music/0?searchId=afca40ae-bf16-11e3-ba23-0aea1e3b2a47&result=0 , http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageaas/blues/0?searchId=318ba506-bf24-11e3-ba23-0aea1e3b2a47&result=0 , http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageaas/new_orleans_jazz/0?searchId=273a749f-bf2e-11e3-b8e2-12c1d36507ee&result=1 , http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageblackst/jazz/0?searchId=86bd7896-bf36-11e3-ba23-0aea1e3b2a47&result=1 , http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageaas/jazz/0?searchId=aa2d6e1c-bf36-11e3-ab99-0aea1e24c1ac&result=1 , http://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/sageaas/bebop/0?searchId=2d7af28c-bf39-11e3-b8e2-12c1d36507ee&result=0