Spiritual		Term that used to designate upbeat popular music performed by African American artists that combined jazz and blues. By the 1970s, it was used as a blanket term to describe soul and funk as well. Today, it defines the modern version of the soul and funk influenced African-American pop music that originated with the demise of disco in the 80s
Gospel		Church music characterized by dominant vocals (often with a strong use of harmony) referencing lyrics of a religious nature
Blues		Genre of Christian music purely and solely the creation of generations of Black Americans, which merged African cultural heritage with the experiences of being held in slavery in the form of work songs. Used nowadays to describe subcategories of folk songs.
Rock and roll		A form of popular music, usually featuring vocals, a strong back beat, electric guitars, and a catchy melody backed by 3 or 4 chords
Jazz		Music composed of 4 main elements: rapping, disk jockeying, break-dancing and graffiti. As a cultural movement, it began among African Americans in 1970s New York City.
RnB (Rhythm and Blues)		Called the first original art form to develop within the US. It grew out of a cross-fertilization of folk blues, ragtime, and European band music. Primarily an instrumental form of music most closely associated with the saxophone, followed by the trumpet. It is characterized by blue notes, swing, call and response, but mostly improvisation
Reggae		Evolved from African American spirituals and a major influence on later American and Western popular music (ragtime, jazz, country music, rock and roll..) . A vocal and instrumental form of music based on a pentatonic scale and a characteristic 12-bar chord progression
Hip Hop		A form of rhyming lyrics spoken rhythmically over musical instruments that typically uses a musical backdrop of sampling, scratching and mixing by DJs. One of the elements of hip hop music
Ragtime		An American musical genre enjoying its peak popularity around the years 1900-1918. It is a dance form written in 2/4 or 4/4 time, written in Sonata form, with the melodic notes landing largely on the off-beats
Rap		An African-Caribbean style of music developed in Jamaica, founded upon a rhythm style, which is characterized by regular chops on the back-beat, played by a rhythm guitarist