La Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans) was founded in 1718 by the French Mississippi Company, under the direction of Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville. In 1763, the French colony was ceded to the Spanish Empire and remained under Spanish control for 40 years. Most of the surviving architecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from this Spanish period. Louisiana reverted to French control in 1801, but two years later Napoleon sold it to the United States in the Louisiana Purchase. The city grew rapidly, with influxes of Americans, French and Creole French. During the War of 1812 the British sent a force to conquer the city. The British were defeated by American forces led by Andrew Jackson in the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. ******************************** As a principal port, New Orleans had a leading role in the slave trade, while at the same time having the most prosperous community of free persons of colour in the South. The population of the city doubled in the 1830s, and by 1840, New Orleans had become the wealthiest city in the nation, and was the third most populous. ***************************** Early in the American Civil War, New Orleans was captured by the Union. This action spared the city the destruction suffered by many other cities of the American South.********New Orleans has always been a significant centre for music with its intertwined European, Latin American, and African-American cultures. New Orleans' unique musical heritage was born in its pre-American and early American days with a unique blending of European instruments with African rhythms. As the only North American city to allow slaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely in Congo Square, now located within Louis Armstrong Park), likely due to the more relaxed attitudes of French and Creole slave owners as compared to their Anglo-American neighbours, New Orleans was blessed to give birth to an indigenous music, jazz. With New Orleans' large, educated and influential Creole, Haitian and free black population, these African beats intertwined with trained musicians and the city's now famous brass bands gained wide popularity (and they remain just as popular today). Decades later it was home to a distinctive brand of rhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth of rock and roll. A great example of the New Orleans sound in the 60s is the #1 US hit "Chapel of Love" by The Dixie Cups, a song which had the distinction of knocking the Beatles out of the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100. New Orleans became a hotbed for funk music in the 60s and 70s. By the late 1980s it had developed its own localised variant of hip hop called bounce music which, while never commercially successful outside of the Deep South, remained immensely popular in the poor African-American neighbourhoods of the city through the 1990s. A cousin of Bounce, New Orleans Rap has seen commercial success locally and internationally.Also, a form of southern rock or cowpunk has become popular across college campuses throughout the southeastern United States. New Orleans bands which helped originate this wave include Better Than Ezra, Cowboy Mouth and Dash Rip Rock. Noteable members of the New Orleans music scene are Master P, Cash Money Records, Djuan Edgerton and Rickey Spearman. Throughout the 1990s many sludge metal bands have started in the New Orleans area. In addition, the nearby countryside is the home of Cajun music, Zydeco music, and Delta blues. ************************* The city also created its own spin on the old tradition of military brass band funerals; traditional New Orleans funerals with music feature sad music (mostly dirges and hymns) on the way to the cemetery and happy music (hot jazz) on the way back. Such traditional musical funerals still take place when a local musician, a member of a club, krewe, or benevolent society, or a noted dignitary has passed. Until the 1990s most locals preferred to call these "funerals with music," but out of town visitors have long dubbed them "jazz funerals." Younger bands, especially those based in the Treme neighbourhood, have embraced the term and now have funerals featuring only jazz music.*********Zydeco is a form of American folk music, originated in the beginning of the 20th century among the Francophone Creole peoples of south-west Louisiana and developed alongside the music of the French-speaking Cajuns. Zydeco is heavily syncopated (back-beat), usually fast-tempo, and dominated by the button or piano accordion and a form of a washboard known as a rub-board or frottoir. Zydeco music was developed for house dances to permit attendees to dance all night. As a result, the music integrated waltzes, shuffles, two-steps, blues, rock and roll, and most dance music forms of the era. Today, the tradition continues while integrating reggae sounds, hip-hop sounds, and other styles in addition to the traditional forms.********************