The heavy German immigration played a major role in establishing musical traditions, especially choral and orchestral music.
[98] Czech and German traditions combined to sponsor the polka.
[99]
The
African American migration from the South brought jazz to the Midwest, along with
blues, and
rock and roll, with major contributions to
jazz,
funk, and
R&B, and even new subgenres such as the
Motown Sound and
techno from Detroit
[100] or
house music from Chicago. In the 1920s, South Side Chicago was the base for
Jelly Roll Morton (1890–1941). Kansas City developed its own jazz style.
[101]
The electrified
Chicago blues sound exemplifies the genre, as popularized by record labels
Chess and
Alligator and portrayed in such films as
The Blues Brothers,
Godfathers and Sons, and
Adventures in Babysitting.
[citation needed]
Rock and roll music was first identified as a new genre in 1951 by Cleveland, Ohio,
disc jockey Alan Freed who began playing this music style while popularizing the term "rock and roll" to describe it.
[102] By the mid-1950s, rock and roll emerged as a defined musical style in the
United States, deriving most directly from the
rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier
blues,
boogie woogie,
jazz, and
swing music, and was also influenced by
gospel,
country and western, and traditional
folk music. Freed's contribution in identifying rock as a new genre helped establish the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, located in Cleveland.
Chuck Berry, a Midwesterner from St. Louis, was among the first successful
rock and roll artists and influenced many other rock musicians.
[citation needed]
Notable soul and R&B musicians associated with Motown that had their origins in the area include
Aretha Franklin,
The Supremes,
Mary Wells,
Four Tops,
The Jackson 5,
Smokey Robinson & the Miracles,
Stevie Wonder,
The Marvelettes,
The Temptations, and
Martha and the Vandellas. These artists achieved their greatest success in the 1960s and 1970s.
Michael Jackson,
from the Jackson 5, went on to have an extremely successful solo career
from the 1970s through the 2000s. Known as the "King of Pop", he went
on to become one of the bestselling solo artists of all time and the
most-awarded artist of all time. His sister,
Janet Jackson, also had an extremely successful solo career in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s.
[citation needed]
In the 1970s and 1980s, native Midwestern musicians such as
John Mellencamp and
Bob Seger found great success with a style of rock music that came to be known as
heartland rock,
which were characterized by lyrical themes that focused on and appealed
to the Midwestern working class. Other successful Midwestern rock
artists emerged during this time, including
REO Speedwagon,
Styx, and
Kansas.
[citation needed]
In the 1990s, the Chicago-based band
The Smashing Pumpkins
emerged and went on to become one of the most successful alternative
rock artists of the decade. Also in the 1990s, the Midwest was at the
center of the emerging
emo movement, with bands like
The Get Up Kids (Missouri),
Cursive (Nebraska) and
Cap'n Jazz
(Illinois) blending earlier hardcore punk sounds with a more melodic
indie rock sentiment. This hybrid of styles came to be known as Midwest
emo. Chicago-based artists
Fall Out Boy and
Plain White T's popularized the genre in the early part of the
21st century.
[citation needed]
In the late 1990s,
Eminem and
Kid Rock
emerged from the Detroit area. Eminem went on to become one of the most
commercially successful and critically acclaimed rappers of all time.
Meanwhile, Kid Rock successfully mixed elements of rap, hard rock, heavy
metal, country rock, and pop in forming his own unique sound. Both
artists are known for celebrating their Detroit roots.
[citation needed]
Numerous
classical composers live and have lived in midwestern states, including
Easley Blackwood,
Kenneth Gaburo,
Salvatore Martirano, and
Ralph Shapey (Illinois);
Glenn Miller and
Meredith Willson (Iowa);
Leslie Bassett,
William Bolcom,
Michael Daugherty, and
David Gillingham (Michigan);
Donald Erb (Ohio);
Dominick Argento and
Stephen Paulus (Minnesota). Also notable is
Peter Schickele, born in Iowa and partially raised in North Dakota, best known for his classical music parodies attributed to his alter ego of
P. D. Q. Bach.
[citation needed]
