From the earliest Native American bands who traveled across the Bering Strait and into North America to the influx of immigrants that made the journey to the U.S. and Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries, each group has made its unique impact on North American culture and music. Some traditions grew huge enough to require their own space in the collective consciousness, like blues, jazz and rock, Cajun and Latin, but within North America, the music of indigenous people, culturally or physically isolated communities and long-standing settlements also deserve recognition. (read more)

From the earliest Native American bands who traveled across the Bering Strait and into North America to the influx of immigrants that made the journey to the U.S. and Canada in the 19th and 20th centuries, each group has made its unique impact on North American culture and music. Some traditions grew huge enough to require their own space in the collective consciousness, like blues, jazz and rock, Cajun and Latin, but within North America, the music of indigenous people, culturally or physically isolated communities and long-standing settlements also deserve recognition. Such music is tied strongly to a particular group of people or place, and is only now beginning to be performed by outsiders like the new age musicians who have appropriated Native American traditions, or the musicians in cities who study Appalachian folk.(collapse)