But it wasn't just American music laying the groundwork for house. European music, spanning English electronic pop like Gary Numan and Soft Cell, sparse German proto-techno by Kraftwerk, the more disco based sounds of Giorgio Moroder and Klein & MBO and Belgium's Telex were immensely popular in urban areas like New York and Chicago.
Reggae is a product of the union of West African rythms and European melody and harmony.
Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, France, ...
Europe Divided
The Low Countries, which are today called Belgium and the Netherlands, had long been under the rule of the Spanish Hapsburgs. In 1517 Luther's reforms will split the Low Countries. In the south, Belgium, Catholicism remains strong, while in the provinces of the north, the Netherlands, Protestant reforms are adopted and the Dutch Calvinists rebel against the Catholic Habsburg rule.
Though the Catholic Holy Roman Empire does not end until 1806, the German states are irrevocably separated from the influence of Rome during the age of the Reformation.20th century Europe bears the imprint of Reformation. Italy, France, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, the south of Germany, Austria, and Hungary, Poland, and parts of the Balkans in eastern Europe, have continued to be predominantly Catholic. The rest, Scandinavia, England Scotland, Switzerland, the north and east of Germany, and parts of eastern Europe have largely remained Protestant.