Music of Sri Lanka can be divided in to seven categories as seen today.

 1) Traditional folk music of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka had traditional folk music from the beginning of its race, which has been enjoyed and developed under the Buddhist environment.They were used by the ordinary people.

2) Local drama music (Kolam/Nadagam/Noorthy)

Kolam music based on law country tunes and it is not a developed form of music, as tunes were not developed. Limited to very few notes about 3~4 and used by the ordinary people for pleasure and entertainments.

Nadagam music is more developed form of drama influenced from South Indian street drama which was introduced by some South Indian Artists.Phillippu Singho from Negombo in 1824 Performed ?Harishchandra Nadagama? in Hnguranketha which was originally written in Telingu language. Later ?Maname?, ?Sanda kinduru? and few others were introduced.

C. Don Bastian of Dehiwala introduced Noorthy firstly by looking at Indian dramas and then John De Silva developed it and did Ramayanaya in 1886.

 3) Hindustani classical music (Ragadari  Music)

Ravindranath Tagor visited Sri Lanka with a group in 1934 and performed a drama and laid the foundation stone for ?Sri Pali? at Horana and later introduced music, Art and Dancing. His visit to Sri Lanka made a big change and the awareness in the music scene and lot of Sri Lankan started visiting India for higher education.

 4) South Indian classical music (Karnataka Music)

This type of Music can be seen in South India and northern part of Sri Lanka and used by the Tamil community.

 5) Tamil and Hindustani Film music

Sri Lanka did not produced films and had to export from India during the early periods. Music for films such as ?Kadawunu Poronduwa?, ?Varadunu Kurumanama?, ?and Angulimala? and others too copied from Indian film songs. ?Rekhawa? produced Sir Lester James Peiris was the first Sri Lankan film produced using Sri Lankan music.

6) Western classical music

British wanted to introduce western music to Sri Lanka during their period of rule from 1815.It was a success and soon Sri Lankan were able to learn the piano as it was not that difficult to learn as Indian music.

7) Sinhala light music

Some artist visited India to learn music and later stared introducing light music.Ananda Samarakone was the pioneer of this attempt and and He composed National Anthem too. Then Sunil Santha who also did not stick to Hindustani music introduced light music of his own. Please visit http://www.info.lk/music to listen few of them online.

 Nowadays this is the most popular type of music in Sri Lanka and enriched with the influence of folk music, kolam music, Nadagam music, Noorthy music, Film music, Classical music, Western music and others too. Most of the musician in Sri lanka have come out with their own creations and  become success in this category of music.

The music of Sri Lanka originates in cultural traditions deriving from three influences: the religious practices of Buddhism, the aftereffects of Portuguese colonization, and the commercial and historical influence of Indian culture - specifically, Bollywood cinema. The Theravada sect of Buddhism has influenced Sri Lankan Music since Buddhism arrived in Sri Lanka two millennia ago.

Portuguese colonizers arrived centuries after the Buddha, in the mid 1400s, bringing with them cantiga ballads, ukuleles and guitars; as well as African slaves (referred to, historically, as kaffrinhas), who brought with them a style of music now referred to as baila. The people of these two regions, and the musical traditions they brought with them, served to contribute further to the diverse musical roots of modern Sri Lankan music

For many years, what were considered new Sri Lankan pop songs (other than baila songs), were, in large part, drawn heavily upon melodies found in Indian films - adapted to a Sri Lankan audience by substituting their original lyrics with Sinhala/Tamil lyrics.

The earliest stars of Sri Lankan recorded music came from the theater at a time when the traditional open-air drama (referred to in Sinhala as kolam, sokari or nadagam) remained the most popular form of entertainment. A 1903 album, entitled Nurthi, is the first recorded album to come out of Sri Lanka via Radio Ceylon. The station, which had long held a monopoly over Sri Lanka's airwaves, had been established in 1925, and one of Sri Lanka's pioneering broadcasters,Vernon Corea, almost immediately grasped the opportunity to introduce Sri Lankan Music on the English Services of Radio Ceylon.

During the early 1960s, music that had been produced for Indian films had grown to become the most popular kind of music in Sri Lanka. Conversely; Sri Lankan stars like Sunil Shantha found greater popularity among Indian audiences than those in their homeland - by 1963, Radio Ceylon had more Indian listeners than Sri Lankan ones. Shantha, Molligoda, and other songwriters (most notably Mahagama Sekara), however, realized the importance of reaching the people they had long overlooked, and began the Sri Lankan Artistic Revolution. This class of songwriters is now remembered for its deeply poetic, and honestly expressed, ideas - many of which also promoted a sense of nationalism in a nation that had received independence less than a generation before in 1948 (Ananda Samarakoon, a prominent songwriter of the period, later wrote Sri Lanka's national anthem).

At the peak of this revolution, musicians such as Mohamed Ghouse, Nimal Mendis, Premasiri Kernadasa and W. D. Amaradeva began pioneering a uniquely Sri Lankan style of film music. This was followed, in the mid-1960s, by the introduction of pop groups such as Los cabelleros led by Neville Fernando, The La Bambas, The Humming Birds and Los Muchachos; all of whom played calypso-style baila borrowing their style from Caribbean folk-singer Harry Belafonte. This mixture of Caribbean calypso with native baila was dominated by two groups: The Moonstones, and The Golden Chimes led by musicians Annesley Malewana and Clarence Wijewardene.

Sri Lankan pop/film music managed to hold a large portion of Sri Lanka's market during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but by 1980, Indian film music had again displaced local musicians as the highest-selling sector of the Sri Lankan music industry.

Western classical music has been studied and performed in Sri Lanka since its introduction during the British Colonial period of the 19th century. The upper middle-class and upper-class citizens of the country traditionally formed the pedagogues, students, and audience of the Western classical tradition in the country, although western music is also offered as a subject at secondary schools and at tertiary level. The Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka is one of the oldest western orchestras in South Asia. The foundation of the National Youth Orchestra has helped increase interest and participation more widely in society and among young people outside Colombo. Many Sri Lankans have continued to reach the upper echelons of classical performance, including world renowned cellist Rohan de Saram, White House pianist Rohan de Silva [1], and many other composers, organists, and orchestral performers.

Since 1998, Many Pop/R&B groups have emerged in Sri Lanka - the most prominent of which is known as Bathiya and Santhush (these two musicians are considered pioneers in contemporary Sri Lankan pop, having begun performing in 1998 with female singer Ashanthi and rapper Randhir). Among their accomplishments; they are the first Sri Lankan group to be signed to an international record label (Sony BMG), and were an integral component in the label's entrance into the nation's music industry in 2002/2003. They have received international awards for their compositions, and have performed in several countries - including on BBC radio in the UK. Chitral 'Chity' Somapala is an artist who lives in Germany and has his own Power Metal band called "Civilization One". He's the first artist who did a sinhalese sond which falls into Rock Music category, which is the theme song for "Lion Beer". The artist M.I.A. is an electric artist living in London who is of Sri Lankan ancestry. M.I.A. has recently reached acclaim in the United States. Other Western styles of music, such as rock and heavy metal, are also popular among the middle and upper class youth of the country.