Music of Georgia (U.S. state)

's musical output includes groups like  and, as well as a wide variety of rock, pop and country artists. The, is especially well-known for a kind of quirky that has included such well-known bands as  and.



Music institutions
The state's official music museum is the, located in. Colleges such as the and  have extensive music departments.

Folk music
Georgia's al traditions include important contributions to the, singing and.

African American folk music
The "ring shout" is an African American musical and dance tradition that is among the oldest surviving African American performance styles in North America. The ring shout tradition is rare in the modern Southern United States, but it still found in, where black communities have kept the style alive. The McIntosh County ring shout is a counterclockwise ring dance featuring and stick-beating percussion with  vocals. The ring shout tradition is strongest in Boldon, Georgia (also known as Briar Patch), where it is traditionally performed on.



The Georgia Sea Island are an important group in modern African American folk music in Georgia. They perform worldwide the Gullah music of the Georgia coast, and have been touring since the early 1900s; the folklorist and musicologist discovered the Singers on a 1959-60 collecting trip, and helped to bring their music to new audiences. The Georgia Sea Island Singers have included, Emma Ramsey, , Maybel Hillary and.

Shape-note
The , first published in, was compiled and produced by Georgians and Elisha J. King. The helped establish a singing tradition also known as Sacred Harp, as well as fasola and shape note. The Sacred Harp system use notes expressed with shapes, intended to make it easy for people to learn to sight-read music and performed complex pieces without a lot of training. Foremost among Georgia Sacred Harp adherents is the Original Sacred Harp Publishing Company of Tallapoosa. A Georgia-based music label,, has released a 28-cut CD of Sacred Harp Music.

Rhythm and Blues
native James Brown and native  started performing in Georgia clubs on the Chitlin' Circuit, fused  with  and  to lay the foundations for  and  music, and rank among the most iconic musicians of the 20th century. In the 1960s, native  proved one of the most popular  recording artists, while, born in the small town of  but raised in , defined the grittier  sound of -based.

Hip-Hop
Atlanta-based proved one of the first commercially successful Hip-Hop groups from outside of  or. In the 1990s and 2000s, Atlanta emerged as the leading center of urban music. Artists like, , , , , , (as well as the  music collective which both are members of), producers like , , and , the later of whom founded the successful record labels  and SoSo Def, have blurred musical boundaries by blending R&B singing with Hip-Hop production. More recently, Atlanta is also known as a center of music, an electric bass-driven club music, whose most visible practioner has been Atlanta-based producer/hype man/rapper. Before moving to Atlanta, Young Jeezy lived in Macon, GA.

Rock
The earliest Atlanta-based music maven, Bill Lowery, started the careers of Ray Stevens, Joe South, Jerry Reed, and countless others, and created the first Georgia-based springboard for such talent,, sporting not only a record label, but a recording studio and pressing plant. Lowery would later work with the likes of Billy Joe Royal, Mac Davis, Dennis Yost & The Classics Five, and The Atlanta Rhythm Section, and put Atlanta on the music map with his Lowery Music group of publishing companies, one of the world's biggest music publishers.

The, founded in , moved to at the urging of their manager, , who had previously managed. Walden's Macon-based, spearheaded the rise of , and the success of the Allman Brothers paved the way for other bands, including , South Carolina-based  and , also founded in Jacksonville, but more closely associated with.

The are a group out of Marietta, Georgia that fuse blues, rock, and gospel into a Southern-soul-driven hard-rockin' extravaganza with tones of Zeppelin-power and Sunday morning inspiration. The city of Athens, Georgia, home to the University of Georgia has been a fertile field for alternative rock bands since the late 1970s. Notable bands from Athens include, , , , as well as bands from the most notably.

Acoustic rock/folk duo the got their start in Decatur.

Rock pianist spends sometime living in Atlanta.

Country
In the 1960s, Guitarist, born in Luttrell, Tennessee but raised in Hamilton, Georgia, drew on and Pop music to help create the smoother Country music style known as the , expanding Country music's appeal to adult pop fans. Country music superstars such as, , and are natives of Georgia. Other successful country music singers from Georgia include and up and coming star.

Classical
Opera singer is native to Augusta. Famous music director spent much of his time living in Atlanta directing the. Notable musical groups include the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Atlanta Symphony Chorus,, the , and the , as well as symphonies in the cities of Columbus, Macon, Augusta, and Savannah.