Symphony orchestras and opera offer various classic and modern performances as well. However, the modern American listeners prefer the music with their original roots. It had taken a long time before America developed its own original styles of music. The early settlers brought tot heir new homeland European music. One of the most popular American orchestras played Mozart, Bellini, Weber or Strauss. People sang folk songs, psalms and hymns. They danced polkas and minuets. In the beginning of the 19th century the minstrel show emerged. It was the first typically American form which included songs, dances, storytelling and banter. The main representative of the minstrel show was Stephen Foster, considered American first great folk composer. Minstrel shows gave rise to musicals which are so popular in American culture. The late 19th century brought ragtime rhythmic piano music which combined European classical romanticism with American folk. Ragtime had some associations with the blues, slow and mournful music which enjoyed great popularity in America. Out of the blues came jazz which is the only music form considered to be truly American. Jazz was first played by Black brass bands at parades and funerals. By 1920 it spread from the South and began to take hold around the country. The main center of jazz was New Orleans where the first well-known jazz musician Louis Armstrong was born. For most people America is the first place of rock and roll. This new music form was originally a mixture of gospel, country music and black rhythm and blues. It was first popularized in the 1950s by Bill Haley and The Comets.
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