Music of Belarus is blessed with a rich tradition of the folk music as well as the religious music. The folk music of Belarus can be traced back to the period of Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The countries of Canada, United States, Russia, Latvia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine are all under the influence of the music of Belarus. In the year 2002, Alexander Lukashenko signed a decree which requires almost fifty percent of the FM broadcast music in Belarus to be original.
In the twentieth century however the Soviet control of Belarus limited the music of Belarus to a large extent since it thought that the nationally oriented music of Belarus is dangerous and subversive to the Soviet authority. The most extensive exposure of the people of the country was towards the music of Soviet Russia's pop music even after the independence.
Folk music at Belarus is as old as the 15th century with the skomorokhs belonging to the major profession of music. The religious chant known as znamenny is known as the earliest kind of Belarus music. It was later followed by the church music. Stary Olsa is a modern folk band which is working towards the revival of the old melodies, that are slowly getting lost. Operas later followed these musical trends in Belarus.
