190 copies of a broadside ballad are sold by one merchant in England -- this is a phenomenal amount considering the rarity of literacy at the time, and can be considered the beginning of a British popular music tradition
The Burmese sack Ayuthaya and bring Thai musicians to their homeland, thus leading to a mixture of Burmese, Thai and Cambodian musics in Burma and elsewhere in southeast Asia
Spain adopts a policy of encouraging Roman Catholics to move to its colonies, leading to a French majority on the island of Trinidad; the French immigrants bring Carnival and the roots of calypso
Mungo Park, a Scottish explorer, sees a kora being played in one of the Mande courts; this is the first verifiable sighting of the instrument, now the dominant instrument in Malian music
The Great Awakening (a religious revival) sweeps the United States, inspiring slaves to use their own vocal styles with English hymns; these songs are called negro spirituals
The shape note tradition becomes popular in the American South
Maria Severa's performance of a fado for the Comte de Vimisio causes him to fall in love with her and an ensuing public controversy; this is the earliest certain example of fado's existence
Slave Songs From the Southern United States is published and helps to set the stage for the popularization of African American music which enters the mainstream in the following century
A gold rush prompts large-scale Caribbean immigration to Venezuela, leading to the development of a distinctive style of Trinidadian calypso referred to as Venezuelan calipso.
Nicholas Bennett's Alawon Fy Nghwlad, a compilation of traditional Welsh songs, is published; this, along with the formation of London-based Welsh Societies, is part of a revival of Welsh folk music