I need an American...

If you know hip hop and rap, you know the most important modern American music.

Hahaha.

Nice opinion.

He said, "most of the mainstream hip hop and rap" stuff...

Are you talking contemporary music only? We're a young country but our musical history is rich. I assume you have the requisite Dylan, Springsteen, and Ice Cube on hand already.

Nothing says Important American Music like Soulja Boy and T-Pain.

I know, I know. There's good hip hop and rap and then there's that. *points above*

DaveB just left for work. He'll be "here" in about an hour.

As long as I'm here, for Springsteen, you can start with The Wild, the Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle. But Dylan begat Springsteen, so you also need one or all of the following: Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and Bringin' It All Back Home. And if you want to follow all of this fun forward, might I recommend The Hold Steady? Their relationship to Springsteen is most obvious on Boys and Girls in America.

Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Minutemen, The Stooges, Pavement, Fugazi, White Stripes, My Morning Jacket for the indie/punk scene.

For the classic rock vibe try The Byrds, Love, Grateful Dead, early ZZ Top and even though he is from Canada, I'm going to claim Neil Young as American.

For a more obscure Hip Hop artist, check out Del tha Funkee Homosapien.

Are you looking for modern popular music or just any kind of music produced in America in the last century or so?

I mean "American music" is a pretty broad term. It's hard to know whether you're looking for Charlie Parker, Hank Williams, Cole Porter, John Cage, Patti Smith, Aretha Franklin, Tom Petty, or The Decemberists.

Is the music, itself, most important to you? Lyrics? Do you want sort of a history of the various American-established genres or just a list of currently relevant popular artists?

If you are looking for good hip-hop/rap (which Devin is correct on, I believe rap is one of the most (potentially) personal and sincere art-forms you can find today), I would look into:

Del Tha Funkee Homo Sapien :: I second this from TURBO, especially the album, Deltron 3030. It's like Blade Runner: The Album. Absolutely the best rapper out there in terms of creating imagery.

Blackalicious :: Solid solid rapper. Works with great composers and brings a very positive message, which is always refreshing.

For old school gangster rap go with Biggie, Wu-Tang, and NWA. Emphasis on the Wu and Big. Biggie brings the soul, Wu-Tang brings the ruckus, and NWA brings the fire/anger.

Check out Jedi Mind Tricks, Pharcycde, Gravediggaz (a horror Wu-Tang essentially) and Eminem (early stuff) for different kinds of genre rap that are mostly based on personal taste.

Most of all, check out MF DOOM. He's my personal favorite rapper working. You also find him under Viktor Vaughn and Danger Doom.

He does things with the human voice and the english language that no other person can touch. He consistently works with great composers too. Danger Doom is a fantastic fucking album, that really shows how poetic and ingenious he can be with language. That being said, the album revolves around Adult Swim shows (Aqua Teen, Harvey Birdman) so the humor can be very esoteric - not a problem with any of his other albums though.

Also, try out www.pandora.com or www.musicovery.com ---- They might help you branch out and find different artists and find more music, if you have a good starting point for the genre you're investigating.

Don't forget his great collaborations with Madlib, Madvillain. The first record they collaborated on (Madvillainry) might be my favorite hip hop record.

Also, check out Madlib solo (Shades of Blue is my favorite...a beautiful record made up of mostly blue note jazz samples...simply incredible) and his collaboration with late producer/MC J Dilla (Jaylib) is also good stuff.

Thanks Parker, that's actually something I need to look into myself.

Upon reflection, I think Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables may be one of the great American albums.

For mellower moods, everyone should own a copy of Joshua Rifkin's Scott Joplin Piano Rags.

Essential American albums off the top of my head:

Exile In Guyville--Liz Phair

The Marshall Mathers LP--Eminem

American Recordings--Johnny Cash

The Woods--Sleater-Kinney

Parallel Lines--Blondie

De Stijl--The White Stripes

It's like the vaguest question ever asked.

No, that would be "Where's a good place to sit down in America?"

My lap.

Tarkovsky, if you're interested in checking out all these suggestions, I recommend ruckus.com. It allows college students to download albums for free, you just need a college email. The songs have a license on them that has to be renewed every so often and I don't think they can be transferred to an MP3 player (but there are ways around this).
As for suggestions, when I started to really get into exploring new music, I just got a hold of as many albums listed in the Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums as I could. Or the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die list. Either one is a decent starting point.

I love Sleater-Kinney, but I'm not sure that this album is the most representative of their catalog. GREAT album but I'd pick either Dig Me Out or All Hands on the Bad One as a better starting point.

That's just my opinion.

It's like the second vaguest question ever asked.

The Woods is the pinnacle of S-K's vision and chemistry as a band. It's a sledgehammer of pulverizing rock n' roll, right to the gut. As far as the rest of their catalogue, it's nothing short of amazing. They actually got better and better with each release.

I'd say One Beat would probably be the best starting point for a newbie. The Woods is the one I keep coming back to and continues to entrench my thoughts to this day.

Agreed. Start with Run-DMC "RUN-DMC", L.L. Cool J "RADIO", & Beastie Boys "LICENSED TO ILL". That's the foundation. From there seek out Slick Rick and De La Soul.

How could I forget Public Enemy? It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back!

I think Flavor of Love has made a lot of people forget how fucking awesome PE was in the late 80s/early 90s.

There's a song on their newest album (How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul?) called "Harder Than You Think" where Flav does the No. 1 vocals over again. It sounds so much like the original bit, it's bizarre.

Yeah. Definitely crushed the mystique/hurt the legend. Luckily, Chuck D. had enough credibility for the whole band.

On the other side of the coin, for some rural flavor check out: Hank Williams-Complete Singles Collection, Elvis- Sunrise, The Byrds- Sweet Hearts of the Rodeo, Bob Dylan-John Wesley Harding/Nashville Skyline, The Band-Music From the Big Pink, Johhny Cash-Live From Folson Prison/ San Quentin, Gram Parsons-GP/Return of the Grivous Angel, Emmylou Harris-Pieces of the Sky/Elite Hotel. Waylon Jennings-Honkey Tonk Heroes, Willie Nelson-The Red-Headed Stranger/Willie & The Family Live, & Dwight Yoakam-Guitars, Cadillacs, etc, etc

Of course, for soulful american music in a nutshell; a taste of how perfect it can be check out the 60's Motown box set.