See also: List of years in music, Timeline of trends in music to 1899, Timeline of trends in music (1951-1979), Timeline of trends in music (1980-present)

Table of contents 1 1900s 2 1910s 3 1920s 4 1930s 5 1940s

1900s

• 1900 in music
  • Music of Cuba
    • Romantic ballads called boleros[?] are developed
  • Music of Spain
    • Travelling troupes offering pop flamenco (Opera Flamenco[?]) begin to achieve widespread popularity
  • Music of Trinidad and Tobago
    • First recorded use of the word "calypso"
• 1901 in music
  • Music of Puerto Rico
    • Commonly regarded as the beginning of plena[?] music in Puerto Rico
• 1902 in music
  • Music of the Dominican Republic
    • Juan F. García[?], Juan Espínola[?] and Julio Alberto Hernandez[?], among others, begin trying to move merengue into mainstream ballrooms in the Dominican Republic; their attempt fails but is the beginning of merengue's eventual success outside of rural areas
• 1903 in music
• 1904 in music
• 1905 in music
• 1906 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Early Blues is sung and played by guitarists along the lower Mississippi River, also played by bands in New Orleans
• 1907 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Isaac Watts publishes the first collection of New England hymns, Hymns and Spiritual Songs[?]
• 1908 in music
  • International trends
    • Arnold Schoenberg's Book of Hanging Gardens[?] revolutionizes classical music, replacing harmony and tonality with dissonance
  • Music of the United States
    • Tin Pan Alley continues dominating US music industry
    • Anthony Maggio[?] publishes Blues band orchestration "I Got The Blues"
• 1909 in music

• 1910 in music
  • Music of Spain
    • The end of the golden age of flamenco
  • Music of the United States
    • The first scholarly interest in Appalachian folk music results in several field recordings
• 1911 in music
  • International trends
    • Kaji Nazrul Islam[?] begins his domination of Bengali folk music, Nazrulgeeti[?], which became very popular through India and South Asia
• 1912 in music
  • Music of Azerbaijan[?]
    • Alasgar Abdullayev[?] performs the Bayati Shiraz mugham[?] in Warsaw; this is the earliest known recording of Azerbaijani folk music
  • Music of Cuba
    • Trío Matamoros[?] refines son[?] and begins its popularization
  • Music of Trinidad and Tobago
    • Lovey's String Band[?] travels to New York City to make the first calypso recordings
  • Music of the United States
    • W.C. Handy publishes early hit blues song, "The Memphis Blues".
    • After Bird of Paradise[?] becomes a Broadway hit, the popularization of Hawaiian music begins; slack-key guitar[?]'s influence on country music also starts
• 1913 in music
  • Classical music
    • A near-riot occurs at the premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Paris
  • Music of Bulgaria[?]
    • Trumpeter Abe Elenkrig[?] & His Hebrew Bulgarian Orchestra[?] make some of the first known recordings of klezmer, a form of Yiddish folk music
• 1914 in music
  • Music of Japan
    • "Kachusha no uta" composed by Nakayama Shimpei[?] is the first big kayokyoku[?] (pop music) hit in Japan
  • Music of Trinidad and Tobago
    • Lionel Belasco makes his first recordings, the first from Trinidad
• 1915 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • New Orleans style bands start enjoying popularity in Chicago; Tom Brown starts billing his group as a Jass Band
• 1916 in music
  • Music of the Dominican Republic
    • The American occupation of the Dominican Republic begins. This leads to a pop form called pambiche[?], invented for American soldiers that couldn't dance to the harder forms, and is also responsible for nationalist elements being added to the lyrics, foreshadowing the rise of Rafael Trujillo
  • Music of the United States
    • Folklorist Cecil Sharp[?] begins a series of influential recordings of rural folk musicians, most importantly The Ritchies[?]
• 1917 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • The beginning of recorded jazz by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
• 1918 in music
• 1919 in music
  • Music of Canada
    • The first scholarly interest in Quebecois folk music[?]; commercial recording soon begins
  • Music of Mexico
    • Cornets are added to mariachi[?] groups
  • Music of the United States
    • Chicago establishes itself as the capital of jazz

• 1920 in music
  • International trends
    • Highlife music develops in western Africa, especially coastal Ghana
    • Performers like Carlos Gardel begin to popularize the tango in France, Spain and Latin America
    • Xavier Cugat[?] popularizes several forms of Afro-Cuban dances in the United States and Europe
  • Music of Algeria
    • Rai music begins to become popular in the Algerian port city Oran
  • Music of Cuba
    • Son[?] reaches Havana and begins its peak of popularity
  • Music of the Sudan
    • Haqibah[?] develops in Omdurman
  • Music of the United States
    • Popularity of Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues" alerts music industry to the profitablity of making records by and for African Americans
• 1921 in music
  • Classical music
    • Arnold Schoenberg with his pupils Anton Webern, and Alban Berg pioneer the twelve-tone technique intended on establishing a unifying principle for nontonal music
  • Music of Germany
    • Bavarian folk singers reach the height of their popularity in Munich and other German cities
  • Music of the United States
    • Thomas A. Dorsey's "If I Don't Get There[?]" is the start of the popularization of gospel music, performed outside of a church setting
• 1922 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Country music develops with artists like Eck Robertson[?] creating the sound from rural folk, jug bands and blues
• 1923 in music
  • Music of Denmark[?]
    • Saxophonist Valdemar Eiberg[?] forms the first Danish jazz band
  • Music of the United States
    • Surge in recordings by African American jazz and blues artists, including first records by Louis Armstrong, Ida Cox[?], Jelly Roll Morton, Sidney Bechet, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Johnny Dodds, Bessie Smith, and many others
• 1924 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Louis Armstrong joins the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, arguably the beginning of big band and swing music
    • Vernon Dalhart[?]'s "The Prisoner's Song[?]" is the first commercially successful country single
• 1925 in music
  • International Trends
    • Major record companies start recording with electric microphones, allowing records of greater audio fidelity
  • Music of the United States
    • Blind Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins[?] help invent the Texas blues[?]
• 1926 in music
• 1927 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Big band and swing music begin to break into the fringes of the mainstream
    • Gus Cannon, Noah Lewis[?] and Will Shade[?] represent the commercial peak of jug band-styled folk music
    • The first massively popular musical comedy, Show Boat[?] (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein[?]) is performed for the first time
• 1928 in music
  • International trends
    • Django Reinhart[?] emerges in the world of jazz; he will go on to begin a strong jazz tradition among European Gypsies
  • Music of the United States
    • Recordings by banjoist Dock Boggs[?] are among the early pivotal recordings of folk music
• 1929 in music
  • Music of Mexico
    • Trumpets replace the cornet in mariachi[?] bands
  • Music of the United States
    • Blues musicians like Memphis Minnie and Furry Lewis[?] emerge with the Memphis blues
    • Musicians like Cow Cow Davenport[?], Roosevelt Sykes[?], and Clarence "Pine Top" Smith[?] use the piano in the blues, coining the term boogie woogie to describe this sound

• 1930 in music
  • Music of Cuba
    • The rumba's popularity begins to spread in Cuba and abroad, while Arsenio Rodriguez[?] develops the conjunto band, using the septeto[?] as a basis; both these changes signal the roots of salsa
  • Music of the Dominican Republic
    • Dominican Rafael Trujillo uses several merengue bands for his presidential campaign, which brings the sound to new areas and inspires merengue radio stations to begin broadcasting
  • Music of Norway
    • Composers like David Monrad Johansen[?], Geirr Tveitt[?], Bjarne Brustad[?], Eivind Groven[?], Klaus Egge[?], Ludvig Irgens Jensen[?], Harald Sæverud[?] begin to develop a nationalist form of Norwegian classical music
  • Music of Trinidad and Tobago
    • Pan instruments begin to replace bamboo ones during Carnival music competitions; this is the origin of steelpan[?] music
  • Music of the United States
    • Led by musicians like Sol Hoopii[?], Hawaiian steel guitar folk music's popularity in the United States becomes widespread, influencing country music, the country blues and other genres
• 1931 in music
  • Music of India
    • The success of India's first talkie, Alam Ara[?], marks the beginning of filmi[?] music
  • Music of Mexico
    • As rural Mexicans begin moving into the cities, trumpets are added to traditional mariachi[?] bands, and the music develops a more pronounced nationalist bent; Silvestre Vargas[?] soon becomes the most popular mariachi performer
• 1932 in music
  • Music of Greece
    • Márkos Vamvakáris[?] begins his career playing a style of Greek folk music called rembetika[?]
  • Music of the United States
    • Folklorists John[?] and Alan Lomax begin their series of influential folk music recordings for the Library of Congress; most importantly, they record Woody Guthrie
• 1933 in music
  • Music of Mexico
    • The campaign of Lázaro Cárdenas[?] helps move mariachi[?] into the mainstream; he will be the first to officially subsidize the music
• 1934 in music
  • Music of Trinidad and Tobago
    • Atilla the Hun[?] and Roaring Lion[?] sign to major record labels[?] in New York City; they will become the first stars of calypso music
• 1935 in music
  • • The unprecedented success of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller and Count Basie marks the mainstream commercial emergence of swing, jazz and big band music
• 1936 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Artists like Robert Johnson, Charley Patton[?] and Son House innovate what comes to be known as Delta blues
• 1937 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • The Golden Gate Quartet[?] reaches the peak of their popularity; they are the first major gospel group
• 1938 in music
  • Music of Cuba
    • Desi Arnaz popularizes the conga[?] throughout Cuba, the US and elsewhere
  • Music of the United States
    • Boogie woogie breaks into the mainstream with the success of Meade Lux Lewis, Albert Ammons[?], and Pete Johnson[?]
• 1939 in music
  • Music of Cuba
    • Mambo music begins to develop in Cuba
  • Music of the United States
    • Dixieland jazz becomes a mainstream commercial force with the success of Lu Watters & the Yerba Buena Jazz Band[?]

• 1940 in music
  • Music of Denmark[?]
    • During the German occupation of Denmark, jazz musicians like violinist Svend Asmussen[?] and the pianist Kjeld Bonfils[?] inaguarate a golden age of Danish jazz as an underground phenomenon
  • Music of the United States
    • Musicians like Bukka White[?] help invent the Chicago blues
    • The Almanac Singers[?] (including the pioneering singer Pete Seeger) form, marking the beginning the of the popularization of folk music
    • Béla Bartók moves to the United States from Hungary and begins composing many of his most famous works, which fuse Hungarian folk music[?] and classical music
• 1941 in music
  • International trends
    • Arsenio Rodriguez[?] begins his reign as the most popular and influential Latin singer; his early recordings mark the beginning of salsa music
    • Jazz music and Afro-Cuban rhythms are united to form Latin jazz, or Cubop[?]
  • Music of the United States
    • Les Paul builds the first solid-body electric guitar
• 1942 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Bing Crosby releases "White Christmas", one of the most successful recordings in history
    • A recording strike begins
• 1943 in music
• 1944 in music
  • Music of India
    • Filmi qawwali[?], a secular form of Sufi qawwali[?], is invented by the film Zeenat[?]
  • Music of the United States
    • The 1942 recording strike ends
    • This is the first year chart positions can be reliably calculated
    • Al Dexter[?]'s chart success marks the mainstream acceptance of honky tonk country music
• 1945 in music
  • Music of Cuba
    • The mambo is popular in Cuba and begins to spread to the United States and Europe
  • Music of the United Kingdom
    • Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes[?] revitalizes British opera[?]
  • Music of the United States
    • Bebop emerges with the success of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie
    • The jump blues, a fusion of jazz, early rock and roll and the blues, becomes popular, especially Louis Jordan
• 1946 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • The emergence of Hank Williams and his blues country style.
    • Artists like B.B. King, T-Bone Walker and Howlin' Wolf plug in, resulting in the electric blues
• 1947 in music
  • Music of the Bahamas
    • In the Bahamas, the annual junkanoo[?] parades return after a five year ban (since the Burma Road Riots[?])
  • Music of Trinidad and Tobago
    • The use of steel drums in Carnival music competitions becomes commonplace
  • Music of the United States
    • Dizzy Gillespie joins forces with several Cuban musicians in New York City; Gillespie's Carnegie Hall performance gives "latin jazz[?]" instant critical acclaim
    • Gabby Pahinui[?] begins recording; this is the beginning of slack-key guitar[?]'s peak of popularity
• 1948 in music
  • International trends
    • 331/3 RPM LPs introduced
• 1949 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats releases "Rocket 88", one of the first rock and roll recordings
    • Musicians like Professor Longhair popularize New Orleans style Rhythm & Blues
• 1950 in music
  • Music of Argentina
    • Astor Piazzolla begins to fuze traditional tango music with jazz and classical music
  • Music of Algeria
    • Rai singers like Bellemou Messaoud[?] add violin, accordion and other western influences
  • Music of the United States
    • Israel "Cachao" López[?] popularizes Cuban mambo in the US
    • The peak of Chicago blues, exemplified by musicians like Sonny Boy Williamson[?], Big Bill Broonzy and Tampa Red[?].
• 1949 in music
  • Music of the United States
    • Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats releases "Rocket 88", one of the first rock and roll recordings
    • Musicians like Professor Longhair popularize New Orleans style rhythm & blues