Editing Music of the United States (section)

===Early popular song===
[[File:StephenFoster.jpeg|thumb|left|upright|19th-century song composer [[Stephen Foster]]]]

{{Listen
|filename     = Star-spangled banner.ogg
|title        = "The Star-Spangled Banner"
|description  = [[The Star-Spangled Banner]] performed by [[Fred Waring]] and his Pennsylvanians (1942)
|filename2    = USMC stars stripes forever.ogg
|title2       = "Stars and Stripes Forever"
|description2 = [[John Philip Sousa]]'s [[The Stars and Stripes Forever]]. Performed by the [[United States Marine Corps]] band
|filename3    = Dixie (1916).ogg
|title3       = "Dixie"
|description3 = 1916 rendition of [[Dixie (song)|Dixie]] by the Metropolitan Mixed Chorus with [[Ada Jones]] and [[Billy Murray (singer)|Billy Murray]]
}}

The [[American patriotic music|patriotic lay songs]] of the American Revolution constituted the first kind of mainstream popular music. These included "The Liberty Tree" by [[Thomas Paine]]. Cheaply printed as [[broadsheet]]s, early patriotic songs spread across the colonies and were performed at home and at public meetings.<ref>Ewen, p. 9.</ref> [[Fife (instrument)|Fife]] songs were especially celebrated, and were performed on fields of battle during the American Revolution. The longest lasting of these fife songs is "[[Yankee Doodle]]", still well known today. The melody dates back to 1755 and was sung by both American and British troops.<ref>Ewen, p. 11.</ref> Patriotic songs were based mostly on English melodies, with new lyrics added to denounce British colonialism; others, however, used tunes from Ireland, Scotland or elsewhere, or did not utilize a familiar melody. The song "[[Hail, Columbia]]" was a major work<ref>Ewen, p. 17.</ref> that remained an unofficial national anthem until the adoption of "[[The Star-Spangled Banner]]". Much of this early American music still survives in [[Sacred Harp]]. Although relatively unknown outside of Shaker Communities, [[Simple Gifts]] was written in 1848 by Elder [[Joseph Brackett]] and the tune has since become internationally famous.<ref name=liberty>{{cite book|last=Fischer|first=David|title=Liberty and freedom: a visual history of America's founding ideas|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195162530/page/269 269]–273|isbn=978-0-19-516253-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780195162530 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

During the Civil War, when soldiers from across the country commingled, the multifarious strands of American music began to cross-fertilize each other, a process that was aided by the burgeoning [[Rail transport|railroad]] industry and other technological developments that made travel and communication easier. Army units included individuals from across the country, and they rapidly traded tunes, instruments and techniques. The war was an impetus for the creation of distinctly American songs that became and remained wildly popular.<ref name="Struble_2">Struble, p. xvii.</ref> The most popular songs of the Civil War era included "[[Dixie (song)|Dixie]]", written by [[Dan Emmett|Daniel Decatur Emmett]]. The song, originally titled "Dixie's Land", was made for the closing of a [[minstrel show]]; it spread to New Orleans first, where it was published and became "one of the great song successes of the pre-Civil War period".<ref>Ewen, p. 21.</ref> In addition to popular patriotic songs, the Civil War era also produced a great body of [[brass band]] pieces.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Band Music from the Civil War Era {{!}} About this Collection |url=https://www.loc.gov/collections/civil-war-band-music/about-this-collection/ |access-date=June 26, 2023 |website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

[[File:Jolson 1916.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Al Jolson]], circa 1916, is credited with being America's most famous and highest-paid star of the 1920s.]]
Following the Civil War, minstrel shows became the first distinctively American form of music expression. The minstrel show was an indigenous form of American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, usually performed by white people in [[blackface]]. Minstrel shows used African American elements in musical performances, but only in simplified ways; storylines in the shows depicted blacks as natural-born slaves and fools, before eventually becoming associated with [[abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]].<ref>Clarke, p. 21.</ref> The minstrel show was invented by Daniel Decatur Emmett and the [[Virginia Minstrels]].<ref>Clarke, p. 23.</ref> Minstrel shows produced the first well-remembered popular songwriters in American music history: [[Thomas D. Rice]], Daniel Decatur Emmett, and, most famously, [[Stephen Foster]]. After minstrel shows' popularity faded, [[coon song]]s, a similar phenomenon, became popular.

The composer [[John Philip Sousa]] is closely associated with the most popular trend in American popular music just before the start of the 20th century. Formerly the bandmaster of the [[United States Marine Band]], Sousa wrote military marches like "[[The Stars and Stripes Forever]]" that reflected his "nostalgia for [his] home and country", giving the melody a "stirring virile character".<ref>Ewen, p. 29.</ref><ref name="Bierley1973">{{cite book|first=Paul E.|last=Bierley|title=John Philip Sousa: American Phenomenon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QcabC2avFLsC&pg=PA5|year=1973|publisher=Alfred Music|isbn=978-1-4574-4995-6|page=5|edition=Revised}}</ref>

In the early 20th century, American [[Musical theatre|musical theater]] was a major source for popular songs, many of which influenced blues, jazz, country, and other extant styles of popular music. The center of development for this style was in New York City, where the [[Broadway theatre]]s became among the most renowned venues in the city. Theatrical composers and lyricists like the brothers [[George Gershwin|George]] and [[Ira Gershwin]] created a uniquely American theatrical style that used American vernacular speech and music. Musicals featured popular songs and fast-paced plots that often revolved around love and romance.<ref>Crawford, p. 664–688.</ref>