Music of Illinois
Chicago was also a center of development for early jazz and later for house music, and includes a vibrant hip hop scene and R&B.
Illinois musicians with a number-one Billboard Hot 100 hit include artists from the 1950s: Sam Cooke ("The King of Soul," d.1964); from the 1960s: The Buckinghams; from the 1970s: Earth, Wind & Fire, The Chi-Lites, The Staple Singers, The Emotions, Minnie Riperton, Styx; from the 1980s: Chicago, Cheap Trick, REO Speedwagon, Survivor, Richard Marx; from the 1990s: R. Kelly; from the 2000s: Kanye West, Twista, Plain White T's; from the 2020s: Polo G with "Rapstar".
Most of these artists are from Chicago, with soul singers Sam Cooke, Mavis Staples, Minnie Riperton, and R. Kelly hailing from the South Side.
Composer Richard A. Whiting 1891-1938 Chicago blues music was developed as black musicians influenced by Delta blues joined the post-World War II migration to the burgeoning industrial city from the deep south, and, seeking a way to be heard in the raucous clubs, turned to electric guitar and other forms of amplified music.
Chicago would continue to be a hotbed of activity in this genre, with artists including Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor (d.2009), Junior Wells, Son Seals, and others calling the city home and performing regularly.
The name jazz (and its early variations jass or jas) may have first been applied to the music in Chicago in the 1910s, as such hot New Orleans bands as Tom Brown's made a hit up north.
Famous jazz musicians originally from Illinois include trumpeter Miles Davis (from Alton, Illinois near St. Louis), clarinetist Benny Goodman "The King of Swing", Gene Krupa, Lee Sims, Ramsey Lewis, and Herbie Hancock, while singers Nat King Cole (d.1965) and Dinah Washington (d.1963) grew up in Chicago.
Joshua Scott Jones, winner of Season 2 of CMT Can You Duet and one-half of the duo "Steel Magnolia", is from the southeastern town of Charleston.
Notable Illinois pop and rock bands include The Smashing Pumpkins (who also had two number-one albums on the Billboard 200 like Adore in 1998 and Zeitgeist in 2007.
Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin attended Northern Illinois University), Styx (who had a number-one Hot 100 hit with "Babe" in 1979, and whose members originally lived in the Chicago neighborhood of Roseland and later in the suburbs), Chicago (the original members of which were students at DePaul University in Chicago and hailed from the area, though they moved to Los Angeles before becoming famous and eventually releasing three number-one Hot 100 hits, including "Look Away" in 1988), Jim Peterik (who founded Chicago-area band the Ides of March and was later a member of Survivor (who had a number-one hit with "Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III in 1982).
[1] Nearby Rockford, Illinois, produced the power pop four-some Cheap Trick (who had a number-one Hot 100 hit with "The Flame" in 1988).
Enuff Z'nuff, who had a couple of minor hits in 1989 with the songs "New Thing" and "Fly High Michelle", hailed from the Chicago suburb of Blue Island.
Songwriters who hail from the Chicago area have had success on the US pop rock charts as well, including Jim Whelan, from Wilmette who co-wrote Belinda Carlisle's Go-Go's first hit.
Illinois musicians inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame include Sam Cooke, Muddy Waters (buried in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, IL), The Impressions and Curtis Mayfield, The Staple Singers; Earth, Wind & Fire; Buddy Guy, Miles Davis (d.1991), Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Chicago, and Cheap Trick.
This fad featured bands such as Shadows of Knight, The New Colony Six, The Cryan' Shames, Ides of March, The Mauds, Mason Proffit, H.P.
A gay club called O'Banion's replaced it, and new wave bands like Special Effect, The Dadistics, Epicycle and Ono played there.
Another gay bar, Oz, soon opened and began catering to the burgeoning hardcore punk scene as local bands like Naked Raygun, Big Black, Strike Under and, most famously, The Effigies, formed.
The highly influential Screeching Weasel formed in scenic Prospect Heights northwest of Chicago in 1986, and would inspire fellow travelers around the world, especially in the East Bay area of northern California.
Fall Out Boy, from Wilmette, Illinois, has been the most commercially successful band to come from the Chicago area in recent years, scoring four number-one albums on the Billboard 200.
Allister, Spitalfield, The Lawrence Arms, and Alkaline Trio are prime examples of "second wave" pop-punk musical acts that hail from Chicago.
During the early 1990s, several Illinois alternative rock artists garnered national attention, including Didjits, Disturbed, SOiL, The Smashing Pumpkins (Billy Corgan went to high school in Carol Stream), Local H, Liz Phair, Urge Overkill, and Veruca Salt.
Wilco, a popular Chicago-based indie rock group, formed out of the ashes of Uncle Tupelo, who in turn hailed from Belleville, Illinois.
This includes the newly signed Tooth & Nail Records band Icon For Hire, based out of Decatur, Illinois, and the popular Champaign native So Long Forgotten.
A new scene is rising from Chicago that includes bands such as Real Friends, Knuckle Puck, Sworn In, Marina City, Sleep On It, Mighty Fox, AyOH, and Bonfires.
Steve Spaperri was one of the guitarists for Schizzl, he was also an engineer who worked with bands such as Ministry, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, amongst many others.
Artists include: Smith Westerns, Andrew Bird, Jim O'Rourke, Tortoise, The Sea and Cake, and Gauntlet Hair.
Additional musicians from Illinois include power pop band OK Go ("Here It Goes Again" 2006), pop rock band Augustana ("Boston" 2006), Jars of Clay ("The Flood" 1996), and industrial metal band Stabbing Westward ("Save Yourself" 1998; they attended Western Illinois University); country singer Brett Eldredge who had the hit album Illinois in 2015 ; rappers Boo & Gotti (featured on R. Kelly's song "Fiesta" 2001); r&B singers The Five Stairsteps "O-o-h Child" from 1970, Michelle Williams (of Destiny's Child) from Rockford, Anastacia ("I'm Outta Love" 2000) and Syleena Johnson (featured on the Kanye song "All Falls Down" 2004, and attended Illinois State University); hip house duo The Outhere Brothers ("Boom Boom Boom" 1995, on Jock Jams, Volume 2), house DJ Kaskade (Fire & Ice 2011) from the North Shore, electropop singer Kiiara ("Gold" 2016) from Will County, and female alternative hip hop and electro singer K.Flay ("Blood in the Cut" 2017) from Wilmette.
Other influential house artists to come out of Chicago include Adonis, Larry Heard, Ron Hardy, Phuture, Robert Owens, and Farley Jackmaster Funk.
On the underground level, Chicago is home to The Molemen, Robot Hilarious, Tomorrow Kings, Gravel Records and Mc juice.
Illinois is a center of the shaped note singing revival with the Midwest Sacred Harp convention taking place yearly in Chicago.
