The term Creole music is used to refer to two distinct musical traditions: art songs adapted from 19th-century vernacular music; or the vernacular traditions of Louisiana Creole people which have persisted as 20th- and 21st-century la la and zydeco in addition to influencing Cajun music.
Cedric Watson playing a diatonic button accordion
Congo Square in New Orleans
Louis Moreau Gottschalk pictured on an 1864 publication
Zydeco is a music genre that was created in rural Southwest Louisiana by Afro-Americans of Creole heritage. It blends blues and rhythm and blues with music indigenous to the Louisiana Creoles such as la la and juré, using the French accordion and a creole washboard instrument called the frottoir.
Buckwheat Zydeco with accordion
New Orleans Cajun-Zydeco Fest, 2019
Early Creole musicians playing an accordion and a washboard in front of a store, near Opelousas, Louisiana (1938).
Chenier Brothers performing at Jay's Lounge and Cockpit, Cankton, Louisiana, Mardi Gras, 1975