What are some less known American music genres that are more popular on a regional level?

33 comments

1. Red Dirt Country music, Outlaw Country Music, and MidWest Emo/Mathrock come to mind.

2. Bounce was pretty much only known in New Orleans until Katrina happened and people left the city.

3. Baltimore Club Music and Jersey Club Music is pretty regional as well

   You got Zydeco

   A lot of Chicago and Detroit Juke, Footwork and House music is regional as well.

   Swamp Pop

   Memphis Jookin

   New Orleans Second Line type Music

4. Go Go in the DC area. The hip hop radio stations play live from the clubs late night.

   https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/go-go-music-washington-dc-essential-songs-1367062/amp/

5. Go-Go music is confined to DC, mostly.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go-go

6. Zydeco is the best example I can think of.

7. Bounce music is popular in the NOLA region

8. Mid Atlantic Reggae- Maryland seems to be the capital.

9. Tex-Mex

10. Bluegrass

11. Beach Music in the Carolinas, although most of the fans are pretty old now. It was probably at its peak in the 1960s.

12. Polka

13. Zydeco in Louisiana and Texas.

14. Hyphy (uptempo, “hyper” style of hip-hop), Bay Area California. May have hit the national stage for a few years beginning in 2004. I’m not sure, I was in California and constantly exposed to it then.

15. My mind instantly went to midwest emo

16. Zydeco/Swamp Pop because a lot of it is in Cajun French.

17. I’ve never heard chopped and screwed outside of Houston

18. HorrorCore in Michigan

19. Power Noise was really popular at like two clubs in Los Angeles for a while. For everyone who likes the rhythmic sound of a shoe in a dryer.

20. Appalachia is the birthplace of bluegrass. Still very much a big thing in the South.

21. New Orleans Bounce

22. Chicago grime

23. Supposedly, Jersey Shore Rock is a thing.

24. Tejano is huge here in San Antonio. The music halls are everywhere and all have their own house bands.

25. Milwaukee Raop

    I just heard about this a couple of days ago. It’s not really popular but its emerging among young rappers in that area.

26. Zydeco. Very popular in Louisiana and Texas.

27. New Mexico music. Kind of a weird blend of norteño, Tejano, early rock n’roll, and country, with a splash of polka and a dash of Pueblo Indian music.

    If you hear a song that sounds like a Mexican norteña or cumbia, but there’s way more trumpet, electric guitar, and electric bass than you’re used to, then that’s New Mexico music.

    Many say the genre was pioneered by Al Hurricane, and many of the most prominent New Mexican artists today (Sparx, Lorenzo Antonio, Jerry Dean, etc) are related to him by blood or marriage.

28. Detroit techno, Chicago house, NYC hip-hop, Jersey club, and pretty much almost all of the electronic scene here is lesser-known

29. Midwest emo is the only one i know

30. Appalachian mountain ballads…a direct descendent of Scottish folk music. Beautiful stuff, but you have to listen to it with an open mind because a lot of it is quite literally caterwauling.

31. Jesco White and West Virginia tap dancing.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesco_White

    Miami Bass.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_bass

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_Live_Crew

32. Jawaiian.

33. Reggaeton is real popular in PR, Texas, Florida.

    Talked to DJs from LA and they say they refuse to play it.

    Raggae rock like Sublime really popular westcoast, when I tried playing in Europe, they fkn hated it haha, was embarrassing.