What is the origin of African American music?
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans.Their origins are in musical forms that arose out of the historical condition of slavery that characterized the lives of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. Some of the most popular music types today, such as rock and roll, country, rock, funk ...
What music genres were made by African Americans?
African American musical styles became an integral part of American popular music through blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and then rock and roll, soul, and hip hop; all of these styles were consumed by Americans of all races, but were created in African American styles and idioms before eventually becoming common in performance and consumption ...
What is the evolution of black music?
The Evolution of Black Music on Apple Music Black music in America has followed a path as complex, joyous, and heartbreaking as the experiences of the people who listened to it. If there is a thematic element that connects Robert Johnson to Kanye West, it's an aspiration to freedom, whether personal, spiritual, or creative.
Who are some famous African musicians?
Top 15 Most Celebrated African Musicians, Guess Who Topped The List
- Tubaba [Nigerian]
- Koffi Olomidé [Congolese]
- Manu Dibango [Cameroonian]
- Fally Ipupa [Congolese]
- Femi Kuti [Nigerian]
- Awilo Longomba [Congolese]
- Khaled [Algerian]
- King Sunny Ade [Nigerian]
- Angélique Kidjo [Beninese]
- Onyeka Onwenu [Nigerian]
What was the most common musical form among southern blacks?
One of the most widespread of early musical forms among southern blacks was the spiritual. Neither black versions of white hymns nor transformations of songs from Africa, spirituals were a distinctly African American response to American conditions. They expressed the longing of slaves for spiritual and bodily freedom, for safety from harm and evil, and for relief from the hardships of slavery.
How many bars are in a Ragtime piece?
The standard ragtime piece consists of several different musical ideas, or strains, held together by a main opening theme. The strains, which are often sixteen bars in length, are highly syncopated and alternate with the main theme throughout the piece. The standard left-hand technique of piano rag evolved from the martial rhythms of marching bands, and later, during the early 1900s, it became the basis for the jazz piano style called "stride. "Although the rags we hear in the twenty-first century are played at very fast tempos, the traditional ragtime performances were more stately and unrushed.
What is the blues genre?
It was played on the farms of sharecroppers and in honky-tonk gin joints. People brought the music with them into the cities at the dawn of the industrial age. Early blues was an acoustic musical tradition and was invented and performed by literally a handful of itinerant musicians in search of day labor. Much has been made of the pared down qualities of the music. Early practitioners such as Robert Johnson (1911-1938), widely regarded as the father of what we know as "classical blues" today, relied on the immediacy of a powerful vocal performance with a striking rhythmic counterpoint created as much by the body as by the strings of the guitar, to captivate his audiences. The music has powerful alliances with African rhythmic and vocal traditions.
How many chords are there in blues?
The musical structure of the blues is very simple, built upon three main chords. In the standard blues, called the twelve-bar blues, a certain idea is expressed twice in a repeated lyric and then responded to or completed in a third line. As a way of putting his or her own "signature" on a song, a blues singer will at certain points use vocal scoops, swoops, and slurs, imitate sounds of the accompanying instrument (usually a guitar), or add percussive elements to the rendition.
How does migration affect society?
Migration not only changes social order, it also breeds new forms of culture. The history of the blues in the twentieth century provides one example of the link between black migration and cultural change.
What instruments did Africans use in America?
The "banja" or "banshaw," now known as the banjo, was one of the African instruments that continued to be built and played in America. Africans in America also fashioned numerous types of drums and percussion instruments from whatever materials they could gather. Slaveholders, however, eventually discovered that African slaves were using drums to communicate among themselves and by the 1700s, drums had been banned on many plantations.
Why did African music continue to flow into the New World?
Nevertheless, African music continued to flow into the New World as a result of the slave trade, which continued illegally well into the nineteenth century despite its official abolition in 1808.
What was the music of the 1970s?
The 1970s was a great decade for Black bands playing melodic music. Album-oriented soul continued its popularity, while musicians such as Smokey Robinson helped turn it into Quiet Storm music. Funk evolved into two strands, one a pop-soul-jazz-bass fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone, and the other a more psychedelic fusion epitomized by George Clinton and his P-Funk ensemble. The sound of Disco evolved from black musicians creating Soul music with an up-tempo melody. Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Donna Summer and among others help popularized disco music. However, this music was integrated into popular music achieving mainstream success.
What is psychedelic soul?
Psychedelic soul, a mix of psychedelic rock and soul began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popular among Black people, and with more crossover appeal, was album-oriented soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which revolutionized African-American music.
What were the Ragtime performers associated with?
Ragtime performers such as Scott Joplin became popular and some were associated with the Harlem Renaissance and early civil rights activists. In addition, white and Latino performers of African-American music were visible, rooted in the history of cross-cultural communication between the United States' races.
What was the purpose of the term "race"?
At the time "race" was a term commonly used by African-American press to speak of the community as a whole with an empowering point of view, as a person of "race" was one involved in fighting for equal rights. Also, developments in the fields of visual arts and the Harlem Renaissance led to developments in music.
What were the first musicals written by African Americans?
In early 20th-century American musical theater, the first musicals written and produced by African Americans debuted on Broadway in 1898 with a musical by Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. In 1901, the first recording of black musicians was of Bert Williams and George Walker, featuring music from Broadway musicals. Theodore Drury helped black artists develop in the opera field. He founded the Drury Opera Company in 1900 and, although he used a white orchestra, he featured black singers in leading roles and choruses. Although this company was only active from 1900 to 1908, black singers' opportunities with Drury marked the first black participation in opera companies. Also significant is Scott Joplin 's opera Treemonisha, which is unique as a ragtime-folk opera; it was first performed in 1911.
What was the first instrument that African Americans used to play?
The influence of African Americans on mainstream American music began in the 19th century, with the advent of blackface minstrelsy. The banjo, of African origin, became a popular instrument, and its African-derived rhythms were incorporated into popular songs by Stephen Foster and other songwriters.
What genre of music did black artists create in the 1970s?
In the 1970s and 1980s, Black artists developed hip-hop, and in the 1980s introduced the disco -infused dance style known as house music. Much of today's genres of music is heavily influenced by traditional African-American music. A new museum opened in Nashville, Tennessee on January 18, 2021 called the National Museum ...
How were turntables used?
turntables were used as an instrument, by scratChing and shifting the pitch and speed of records. The Djs would improvise like a jazz musician would
What instruments do choirs use?
choirs, use piano or the Hammond organ, tambourines, drums, bass guitar and even the electric guitar.
What is the meaning of "following the big dipper"?
Following the Big Dipper (code word) in order to access the underground rail road. What is homophonic. Melody with one or more harmonies. T/f: originally the music was thought to be monophonic, later we found out it was homphonic. True.
Do contemporary artists sing with a choir?
places more emphasis on solo artists, contemporary artists rarely sing with a choir.
What were the early slave songs called?
Early slave songs known as spirituals were adaptations of the hymns that new slaves were taught during Sunday worship. One of the most interesting paradoxes of slavery was that despite the blatant cruelty of this dehumanizing practice, there was still an insistence that slaves worshiped “God” and become Christian.
Why did slaves sing hymns?
Singing hymns during Sunday worship was one of the few moments slaves were able to express themselves freely. As more of the population began to adopt Christianity, slaves were allowed to sing these songs while they worked, and stories of their lived reality began to seep into the narratives. Tales of freedom and salvation, their current plight mixed with a religious sensibility, forged together to create new spiritual songs to teach younger generations how to escape this earthly nightmare — in some cases, very literally.
What were the main casualties of slavery?
One of the main casualties of slavery was language . Africa is a continent rich with many different countries, cultures, traditions, and languages. Most of the slave population that was taken across the Atlantic Ocean between the 17th and 19th centuries came from West Africa, and that region alone is just as diverse as all of Europe. So when the first African slaves arrived on American soil, many of them could not communicate with each other. Families and people from the same region were also separated, on purpose, so that ethnic and tribal communication would be even further limited amongst the slave population.
What is the resilience of African slaves?
The resilience and resistance African slaves demonstrated in the face of oppression was the catalyst for an unprecedented amount of innovation. American music as an idea has been largely shaped by the byproducts of this resistance: blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, gospel, hip-hop, and so much more.
Why were new languages and dialects created in the New World?
Because slaves were often prohibited from practicing traditional religions and customs from back home, new languages and dialects were created in the New World to hide elements of culture and communicative devices from their captors. These elements from African culture were able to subversively survive through music, among other ways.
How many people are locked up in slavery?
The number of men, women, and children considered to be locked in modern forms of slavery or unjustly imprisoned today is estimated at 40 million.
Why did the song "Wading in the Water" come about?
Wading in the water referred to instructions to hide in the water and leave the main trails, so as to evade the search dogs. Metaphorically, though, water is a symbol of rebirth and transformation in Christianity and other religions.
What is the genre of jazz that was popular in the 1960s?
A different trend resulted, an unaccompanied improvisation by melody instruments. The tradition of the free jazz of the 1960s was carried on by pianist Cecil Taylor and by groups such as the Art Ensemble of Chicago into the 1980s. This techno-based style of jazz is also called fusion; a popular form of music developed in the 1970s.
Why is jazz called cross over?
The style was also known as "cross over" because sales of the music crossed over from the jazz market to the popular music market. Jazz-rock provided a new musical vocabulary stemming in part from that offered by John Coltrane and sometimes from modern concert music as well as rock.
What is cool jazz?
Cool jazz, some of which, like the playing of Stan Getz (tenor saxophone) and the ensembles of Cannonball Adderley (saxophone), arose out of Lester Young's music, developed partially as a reaction against bebop. Other post-bop developments included the music of Lennie Tristano (piano), the Modern Jazz Quartet, Gil Evans, Miles Davis (trumpet), ...
What was the first jazz band?
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a white group, copied Superior’s style and was the first to record (1917). Leading early 1920s groups included the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, and the Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver bands, whose music was more smoothly flowing than ragtime. Jazz at this time included improvised solos, ...
What is jazz music?
Jazz is an American musical form, often improvisational, developed by Blacks and influenced by both European harmonic structure and African rhythmic intricacy. It is often characterized by its use of blues and speech intonations. Although it is not known exactly when jazz emerged, there were plantation brass bands as early as 1835, ...
What is the name of the music that is based on techno?
This techno-based style of jazz is also called fusion; a popular form of music developed in the 1970s. Its main characteristics are drumming styles and instrumentation of rock music going with improvisation with a strong emphasis on electronic instruments and dance rhythms. Although various jazz musicians began to include at least some jazz-rock in ...
What was jazz's counter trend in the 1970s?
A counter tendency during the 1970s was the use of technology, particularly rhythmic ones, taken from rock. This led jazz musicians to experiment with electronic instruments. The most successful were Miles Davis' later bands, and the Weather Report, Return to Forever, and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. A different trend resulted, an unaccompanied improvisation by melody instruments.
A Music Rooted in Africa
- The first Africans transported to this country came from a variety of ethnic groups with a long history of distinct and cultivated musical traditions. Some were able to bring musical instrumentswith them or build new ones in this country. The "banja" or "banshaw," now known asthe banjo, was one of the African instruments that continued to be built and played in America…
The Negro Spiritual
- One of the most widespread of early musical forms among southern blacks was the spiritual. Neither black versions of white hymns nor transformations of songs from Africa, spirituals were a distinctly African American response to American conditions. They expressed the longing of slaves for spiritual and bodily freedom, for safety from harm and evil, and for relief from the hard…
The Rise of Ragtime
- Ragtime became the first nationally popular form of American music in 1899, when Scott Joplin's (1868-1917) "Maple Leaf Rag" enjoyed unprecedented success, selling over a million sheet-music copies. But ragtime was not new in 1899. Documents reveal that it was being played as early as the 1870s. Black musicians spoke of "ragging a tune" when descri...
The Blues
- The blues is perhaps the simplest American musical form and yet also the most versatile. Along with jazz, blues takes its shape and style in the process of performance, and for this reason it possesses a high degree of flexibility. Although certain musical and lyrical elements of the blues can be traced back to West Africa, the blues, like the spiritual, is a product of slavery. When and …
"Chicago Blues"
- Migration not only changes social order, it also breeds new forms of culture. The history of the blues in the twentieth century provides one example of the link between black migration and cultural change. Industrialization brought about technological advances in recording, the growth of radio, a black "race record" industry, and the development of large urban black communities w…
Jazz
- Jazz, which has been called "America's classical music," is perhaps the most creative and complex music the nation has produced. Although no one can say for sure where the origins of jazz lie, it combines the musical traditionsof black New Orleans with the creative flexibility of the blues. By 1918, the term "jazz" was already in wide use. Early jazz performers included the cornet…
The Blues and Jazz
- The blues and jazz are unique forms of African American traditional expression that defy the popular belief that in the field of music there are no truly original ideas, only the rehashing of existing traditions. Both musical genres reveal that, within the African American artistic community, there is a drive to create a wonderful "new story." The unique histories of musical ex…
Classical Performers and Composers
- While a number of black female concert singers have achieved great popularity during the last fifty years, their success is not altogether new. Their way was paved by earlier classical singers like Elizabeth TaylorGreenfield (1809-1876). The first of the widely known black vocalists, Greenfield made her debut in 1853 in Philadelphia in a recital that was well reviewed in the whit…
Gospel Music
- The sound of today's gospel music also has a long history in African American music, having been influenced by everything from the ensemble performances of the jubilee singers during the late 1800s and early 1900s to the predominantly male gospel quartets and choirs of the 1930s and 1940s. By the 1930s, Roberta Martin (1912-1969), Sallie Martin, and Thomas Dorsey (a former bl…
Rap
- Rap is the most complex and influential form of hip-hop culture, combining elements of the African American musical tradition (blues, jazz, and soul) with Caribbean calypso, dub, and dance-hall reggae. Two of its earliest innovators were West Indians, DJ Kool Herc and Grand-master Flash (b. 1958). The Jamaican DJ Kool Herc was known for using massive speaker systems an…
Overview
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of music and musical genres largely developed by African Americans. Their origins are in musical forms that arose out of the historical condition of slavery that characterized the lives of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. Some of the most popular music types today, such as rock and roll, country, rock,
History
In the late 18th century folk spirituals originated among Southern enslaved people, following their conversion to Christianity. Conversion, however, did not result in enslaved people adopting the traditions associated with the practice of Christianity. Instead they reinterpreted them in a way that had meaning to them as Africans in America. They often sang the spirituals in groups as they worke…
Historic traits
As well as bringing harmonic and rhythmic features from western and sub-Saharan Africa to meet European musical instrumentation, it was the historical condition of chattel slavery forced upon black Americans within American society that contributed the conditions which would define their music.
Many of the characteristic musical forms that define African-American music …
Economic impact
Record stores played a vital role in African-American communities for many decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, between 500 and 1,000 black-owned record stores operated in the American South, and probably twice as many in the United States as a whole. African-American entrepreneurs embraced record stores as key vehicles for economic empowerment and critical public spaces for black consumers at a time that many black-owned businesses were closing a…
International influence
The genres of Jazz and Hip-Hop spread around the world. These genres traveled to Africa and Asia and influenced other genres of African and Asian Music. The textural styles, slang language and African American Vernacular English influenced American pop culture and global culture. The way African-Americans dress in hip-hop videos and how African-Americans talk is copied for style and profit in the American market and the global market. Blues, jazz, and hip-hop were created i…
See also
• African-American dance
• African American musical theater
• Groove
• Afro-Caribbean music
• Blackface
Further reading
• Joshua Clark Davis, "For the Records: How African American Consumers and Music Retailers Created Commercial Public Space in the 1960s and 1970s South," Southern Cultures, Winter 2011.
• Work, John W., compiler (1940), American Negro Songs and Spirituals: a Comprehensive Collection of 230 Folk Songs, Religious and Secular, with a Foreword. Bonanza Books, New York. N.B.: Consists most notably of an analytical study of this repertory, on p. 1–46, an anthology of s…
External links
• https://folklife.si.edu/magazine/freedom-sounds-tell-it-like-it-is-a-history-of-rhythm-and-blues
• https://www.loc.gov/collections/songs-of-america/articles-and-essays/musical-styles/ritual-and-worship/african-american-gospel
• https://www.loc.gov/item/ihas.200197383