Portal:Minnesota//Featured content
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Minnesota (IPA: [ˌmɪnəˈsoʊtə]) (Audio (US) ) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest state in the U.S., and the 21st most populous, with over five million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the 32nd state in 1858. While the state's residents have been primarily white, Northern European, and Lutheran, substantial influxes of African, Asian, and Hispanic immigrants have joined the descendants of European immigrants and Native American descendants of its original inhabitants.
The music of Minnesota has played a role in the historical and cultural development of Minnesota. As with the culture of Minnesota in general, the state's music scene centers on the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area, and most of the Minnesotan artists who have become nationally popular either came from that area or debuted there. Rural Minnesota has also produced a flourishing folk music scene, with a long tradition of traditional Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian music.[1]Minnesota's modern local music scene is home to thousands of local bands, many of which perform with some regularity.[2] Some performers from nearby regions of neighboring states, such as western Wisconsin and Fargo, North Dakota, are often considered a part of the Minnesota music scene.
Minneapolis has produced a number of famous performers, such as Bob Dylan, who was born in Hibbing and began his musical career in the Minneapolis area, and Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, who eventually formed The Time and produced for Gladys Knight and Janet Jackson. Minneapolis' most influential contributions to American popular music began in the 1970s and 1980s, when the city's music scene "expanded the state's cultural identity" and launched the careers of acclaimed performers like the multi-platinum soul singer Prince, and cult favorites The Replacements and Hüsker Dü. More recently, the Twin Cities has played a role in the national hip-hop scene with artists such as Atmosphere and P.O.S.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Garland, pp. 866 - 881
- ^ Music Scene.org An incomplete listing of local bands at MusicScene.org has 2,241 entries as of February 2005, while a concert calendar compiled by the University of Minnesota's radio station usually lists dozens of performances each week in the Twin Cities
- ^ Minneapolis Music Collection In the mid-1970s and early 1980s, the creative explosion in Minnesota's thriving black and white rock music scenes expanded the state's cultural identity far beyond the shores of Lake Wobegon.
