[6] Modern contemporary Scottish musicians within popular genres of rock, pop, and dance include Calvin Harris, Paolo Nutini, Amy Macdonald, Lewis Capaldi, Shirley Manson, Lulu, Sheena Easton, Susan Boyle, KT Tunstall, Emeli Sande, and Nina Nesbitt.

Successful bands originating from Scotland include Travis, Texas, Simple Minds, the Bay City Rollers, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Fratellis, Glasvegas, and the Cocteau Twins.

The first evidence of lyres was found in the Greco-Roman period on the Isle of Skye (dating from 2300 BCE), making it Europe's oldest surviving stringed instrument.

[7][8] Bards acted as musicians but also as poets, storytellers, historians, genealogists, and lawyers, relying on an oral tradition that stretched back generations in Scotland as well as Wales and Ireland.

[11] The captivity of James I in England from 1406 to 1423, where he earned a reputation as a poet and composer, may have led him to bring English and continental styles and musicians back to the Scottish court on his release.

[14] The Scottish Reformation, directly influenced by Calvinism, was generally opposed to church music, leading to the removal of organs and a growing emphasis on metrical psalms, including a setting by David Peebles commissioned by James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray.

[20] After the Reformation, the secular popular tradition of music continued, despite attempts by the Kirk, particularly in the Lowlands, to suppress dancing and events like penny weddings.

[21] This period saw the creation of the ceòl mór (the great music) of the bagpipe, which reflected its martial origins with battle tunes, marches, gatherings, salutes, and laments.

This marginal status was changed by individuals including Alan Lomax, Hamish Henderson and Peter Kennedy through collecting, publications, recordings, and radio programmes.

This was exemplified by the TV programme The White Heather Club which ran from 1958 to 1967, hosted by Andy Stewart and starring Moira Anderson and Kenneth McKellar.

[29] Acoustic groups who continued to interpret traditional material through into the 1970s included The Tannahill Weavers, Ossian, Silly Wizard, The Boys of the Lough, Battlefield Band, The Clutha and the Whistlebinkies.

[45] Several Italian musicians were active in the capital in this period and there are several known Scottish composers in the classical style, including Thomas Erskine, 6th Earl of Kellie, the first Scot known to have produced a symphony.

[49] By the late nineteenth century, there was in effect a national school of orchestral and operatic music in Scotland, with major composers including Alexander Mackenzie, William Wallace, Learmont Drysdale and Hamish MacCunn.

[50] Important post-war composers included Ronald Stevenson,[52] Francis George Scott, Edward McGuire, William Sweeney, Iain Hamilton, Thomas Wilson, Thea Musgrave, Judith Weir, James MacMillan and Helen Grime.

Bruce, as a member of The Tony Williams Lifetime (along with John McLaughlin and Larry Young) on Emergency!, similarly contributed to a seminal jazz-rock work that predated Bitches Brew by Miles Davis.

Several members of the internationally successful rock band AC/DC were born in Scotland, including original lead singer Bon Scott[64] and guitarists Malcolm and Angus Young, though by the time they began playing, all three had moved to Australia.

[65] Angus and Malcolm's older brother, George Young, found success as a member of the Australian band The Easybeats and later produced some of AC/DC's records and formed a songwriting partnership with Dutch ex-pat Harry Vanda.

[66] The growth of indie bands in Scotland during the 1980s was prominent with the arrival of the likes of Primal Scream, The Soup Dragons, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Aztec Camera, The Blue Nile, Teenage Fanclub, 18 Wheeler, The Pastels and BMX Bandits.

The following decade also saw a burgeoning scene in Glasgow, with the likes of The Almighty, Arab Strap, Belle and Sebastian, Camera Obscura, The Delgados, Bis and Mogwai.

In 1990, Scottish band Aztec Camera released a protest song against Margaret Thatcher and her government entitled "Good Morning Britain", with lyrics referencing the social unrest evident in the country during the 1980s.

Examples include Franz Ferdinand, Frightened Rabbit, Biffy Clyro, Texas, Travis, KT Tunstall, Amy Macdonald, Paolo Nutini, The View, Idlewild, Shirley Manson of Garbage, Glasvegas, We Were Promised Jetpacks, The Fratellis, and Twin Atlantic.

With the arrival and increasing popularity of musical talent television shows throughout the 2000s, notable Scottish acts include Michelle McManus (winner of Pop Idol, 2003), Darius Campbell Danesh (3rd, Pop Idol, 2001–2002), Leon Jackson (winner, The X Factor, 2007), Nicholas McDonald (runner-up, The X Factor, 2014) and Susan Boyle (runner-up, Britain's Got Talent, 2009).

Artists to achieve international and commercial success through the 2010s and 2020s include Calvin Harris, Susan Boyle, Lewis Capaldi,[69] Nina Nesbitt, The Snuts, Nathan Evans, Gerry Cinnamon and Chvrches.

Among native Scots, Aly Bain and Alasdair Fraser are two of the most accomplished, following in the footsteps of influential 20th-century players such as James Scott Skinner, Hector MacAndrew, Angus Grant and Tom Anderson.

[75] The guitar featured prominently in the folk revival of the early 1960s with the likes of Archie Fisher, The Corries, Hamish Imlach, Robin Hall and Jimmie Macgregor.

Other notable guitarists in Scottish music scene include Kris Drever of Fine Friday and Lau, and Ross Martin of Cliar, Dàimh and Harem Scarem.

Scotland has also produced several notable electric guitarists, including Stuart Adamson of Big Country (once referred to as "Britain's Jimi Hendrix"), Angus Young of AC/DC, Jimmy McCulloch of Wings, Manny Charlton of Nazareth, Zal Cleminson of The Sensational Alex Harvey band, and Brian Robertson of Thin Lizzy.

Until the end of the Middle Ages it was the most popular musical instrument in Scotland, and harpers were among the most prestigious cultural figures in the courts of Irish/Scottish chieftains and Scottish kings and earls.

Notable events include the annual Edinburgh International Harp Festival, which in 2006 staged the world record for the largest number of harpists to play at the same time.

The Glasgow Bandstand at Kelvingrove Park hosts the annual Summer Nights festival with artists such as KT Tunstall, Anastacia, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Belinda Carlisle, Rick Astley and The Jesus & Mary Chain being past performers.