The Great Awakening (a religious revival) sweeps the United States, inspiring slaves to use their own vocal styles with English hymns; these songs are called negro spirituals
The shape note tradition becomes popular in the American South
Anna Slezak, a peasant girl in Labska Tynice in Eastern Bohemia is credited with the invention of the polka, based off the folk song "Strycek Nimra Koupil Simla"
Maria Severa 's performance of a fado for the Comte de Vimisio causes him to fall in love with her and an ensuing public controversy; this is the earliest certain example of fado's existence
The Russian Music Society is founded to encourage appreciation of classical music, especially from Germany; composers and brothers Antonin and Nikolay Rubinstein were among the most influential figures of this period.
Slave Songs From the Southern United States is published and helps to set the stage for the popularization of African American music which enters the mainstream in the following century
A gold rush prompts large-scale Caribbean immigration to Venezuela, leading to the development of a distinctive style of Trinidadiancalypso referred to as Venezuelan calipso.
Nicholas Bennett 's Alawon Fy Nghwlad , a compilation of traditional Welsh songs, is published; this, along with the formation of London-based Welsh Societies , is part of a revival of Welsh folk music
Ethnographer Rybakov S.G. writes Music and Songs of the Ural's Muslims and Studies of Their Way of Life , the first scholarly description of Bashkir music
