Music of Illinois

Illinois, including Chicago has a wide musical heritage. Chicago is most famously associated with the development of electric (or Chicago-style) blues music. 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. Chicago also has a thriving rock scene that spans the breadth of the rock genre, from huge stadium-filling arena-rock bands to small local indie bands. Chicago has had a significant historical impact on the development of many rock subgenres including power pop, punk rock, indie rock, emo rock, pop punk, and alternative rock.

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. In addition, Chicago musicians with a number-one album on the Billboard 200 include bands The Smashing Pumpkins with Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness in October 1995, Disturbed with five number-one consecutive albums from 2002 to 2015 from Believe to Immortalized, and Fall Out Boy with four number-one albums such as American Beauty/American Psycho in 2015; and rappers Common with Finding Forever in 2007, Lupe Fiasco with Lasers in 2011, Juice Wrld (d.2019 in Chicago) with two number-one albums including Death Race for Love in 2019, and Lil Durk with a number-one solo album in 2022. Also, Curtis Mayfield (d.1999) had a number-one Billboard 200 album with the Superfly soundtrack in 1972. Composer Richard A. Whiting 1891-1938