An Abridged History of Western Music in 16 Genres

An abridged history of Western Music, performing "What a Wonderful World" in 16 different genres.

cdza. We create musical video experiments. New video every other Tuesday.

Filmed on: June 14th, 2012

[cameronherrmann]

Y'all need to calm down about the metal thing. It's supposed to the most "stereotypical" version of the genre that's the whole point of these videos to be silly.

[soodonim]

What a perfect way to end the Leanback playlist! Thanks Vsauce

[Jan.Feldmann]

Where did you go, CDZA? I love how genuine this is compared to all those overproduced videos of today. Just some great musicians having fun and a couple of mics here and there!

[IceBreaker]

Only finding out about this vid now through a college assignment, and good Lord, you guys are all so talented—your ability to play all these different instruments in such different ways as phenomenal! Not to mention the cinematography is awesome too!

[trainknut]

Even when comparing the same song in different styles:

Dubstep is still the sore thumb of western music.

[ideogramme]

This must be what happens when you get 20 or so insanely talented and creative musicians with lots of time on their hands.

[marcushogan]

Great way to get people talking and thinking about the history of music. Commentary of any kind here is the clear evidence of success for your effort - really well done.

[vervixx]

and i think to myself.. how many takes did it took to not mess this up xD

[juliansantos]

It's hilarious when it switches to punk and the violinists are like no thank you and leave

[iCantMakeMovies]

I am on a huge cadenza marathon right now. All their videos are wonderful, especially this one. And, to cap it all off, the blonde lady singer in this video is cute. I think imma go ahead and subscribe.

[monkeydloofie]

O_O
*claps awkwardly*
This… was amazing!!!  I can't clap properly because I'm so astonished that y'all managed to do this all in one take!  I can't really agree with ALL of the representations of the genres, but still, this was great!  Thanks to Vsauce for bringing me here :)

[Ottermanz_]

Finnaly! Something origional and entertaining on youtube! The internet is not dead anymore! Great job guys! Its the most spectacular and jawdropping performance I ever saw this year! Thank you for that!

[RhettOracle]

I love everything CDZA have done, but this is high on the list. Such a perfect song choice to show off a variety of music styles.

[InsertNameHereBoi]

Everyone saying how amateur the metal was, but is no one going to mention the dubstep part?

[jonnycool]

completely skipped the romantic period??

[TheStudiosWithRandJ]

Dylan, in every genre there are some subcategories, and every genre that cdza did, was in one of those categories

[Vegasprimetime]

This is the best video ever posted to YouTube, hands down

[Calpsotoma]

Reggae comes from ska, which was a rift on jazz played by people in the Caribbean hearing radio broadcast from the Louisiana region. They would hit the strings on the upstroke and a percussive click on the downstroke. this is what gives ska and reggae their unique, fun sound.

[jolkert_]

Oh no, they didn't include every single genre/subgenre? Better comment that the video was terrible because of that

[cameronjirowetz]

I'd love to have a fixed perspective view to see all the quick changes out of frame