Western music

Western music is a broad category of music that includes all musical genres that use a 12-note chromatic scale, including Western classical music, rock and roll, and many other forms of popular music. The word Western may be misleading; although much of this music came from Europe and North America, important contributions have come from places like Russia and Japan.

Western music developed out of the creatively fertile framework of Western philosophy that had its birthplace in ancient Greece. Pythagoras experimented with intervals of sound based on small integers, which we recognize today as the 12-tone chromatic scale. From these logical roots developed the chants of early Christian tradition, first monophonic, and later polyphonic and including instruments.

See also

Musical genres in the Western tradition include:

• Classical music
  • Medieval European music
  • Renaissance music
  • Baroque music
  • Classical music era
  • Romantic music
  • 20th century classical music
  • Contemporary music

• Pop and popular music
  • Acid
  • Bluegrass
  • Blues
  • Country music
  • Disco
  • Folk
  • Hymns
  • Indian music
  • Jazz
  • Metal
  • Punk rock
  • Rap
  • Rock and roll
  • Ska
  • Soul
  • Spirituals
  • Swing
  • Synthpop