Modernist Music (1900-1945)
- Atonalism: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg
- Expressionism: Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók
- Neoclassicism: Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev
- Serialism: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern
20th-Century Popular Music (1920-1960)
- Jazz: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker
- Blues: Robert Johnson, B.B. King, Muddy Waters
- Popular Song: Cole Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin
Post-War and Contemporary Music (1945-Present)
Avant-Garde Music
- Electronic Music: Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez
- Aleatoric Music: John Cage, Earle Brown
- Minimalism: Philip Glass, Steve Reich
Popular Music
- Rock and Roll: Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, The Beatles
- Soul Music: Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, James Brown
- Folk Music: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie
- Country Music: Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson
- Hip-Hop: Grandmaster Flash, Run DMC, Public Enemy
Contemporary Classical Music
- Neo-Romanticism: Krzysztof Penderecki, Arvo Pärt
- Post-Minimalism: John Adams, Steve Reich
- Spectralism: Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail
- Electroacoustic Music: Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Milton Babbitt