Back موسيقى أمريكية إفريقية Arabic Afroamerikanische Musik German Afrikusona muziko EO Música afroamericana Spanish موسیقی آمریکایی آفریقاییتبار FA Afroamerikkalainen musiikki Finnish Musique afro-américaine French Música afroamericana GL מוזיקה שחורה HE Musica afroamericana Italian
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African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War.[1][2] It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."[3]
White slave owners subjugated their slaves physically, mentally, and spiritually through brutal and demeaning acts.[4] White Americans considered African Americans separate and unequal for centuries, going to extraordinary lengths to keep them oppressed. African-American slaves created a distinctive type of music that played an important role in the era of enslavement. Slave songs, commonly known as work songs, were used to combat the hardships of the physical labor. Work songs were also used to communicate with other slaves without the slave owner hearing. The song "Wade in the Water" was sung by slaves to warn others trying to leave to use the water to obscure their trail. Following the Civil War, African Americans employed playing European music in military bands developed a new style called ragtime that gradually evolved into jazz. Jazz incorporated the sophisticated polyrhythmic structure of dance and folk music of peoples from western and Sub-Saharan Africa. These musical forms had a wide-ranging influence on the development of music within the United States and around the world during the 20th century.[5][6]
Analyzing African music through the lens of European musicology can leave out much of the cultural use of sound and methods of music making. Some methods of African music making are translated more clearly though the music itself, and not in written form.[7]
Blues and ragtime were developed during the late 19th century through the fusion of West African vocalizations, which employed the natural harmonic series and blue notes. "If one considers the five criteria given by Waterman as cluster characteristics for West African music, one finds that three have been well documented as being characteristic of Afro-American music. Call-and-response organizational procedures, dominance of a percussive approach to music, and off-beat phrasing of melodic accents have been cited as typical of the genre in virtually every study of any kind of African-American music from work songs, field or street calls, shouts, and spirituals to blues and jazz."[8]
The roots of American popular music are deeply intertwined with African-American contributions and innovation. The earliest jazz and blues recordings emerged in the 1910s, marking the beginning of a transformative era in music. These genres were heavily influenced by African musical traditions, and they served as the foundation for many musical developments in the years to come.
As African-American musicians continued to shape the musical landscape, the 1940s witnessed the emergence of rhythm and blues (R&B). R&B became a pivotal genre, blending elements of jazz, blues, and gospel, and it laid the groundwork for the evolution of rock and roll in the following decade.[9]
- ^ Tamberrino. "Responses to African-American Music During the Civil War". Virginia Lucas Poetry Scrapbook. Department of English at Virginia Tech. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
- ^ Smithsonian Staff. "Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia The McIntosh County Shouters". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
- ^ Eaglin, Maya (February 21, 2021). "The soundtrack of history: How Black music has shaped American culture through time". NBC News. NBC News. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
- ^ MORRIS, GEORGE (July 2017). "Unspeakable cruelty: Former slaves tell their stories in Southern University online listings". The Advocate. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
- ^ Samuel, Floyd (1996). The Power of Black Music Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-19-510975-7.
- ^ Price, Tanya (2013). "Rhythms of Culture: Djembe and African Memory in African-American Cultural Traditions". Black Music Research Journal. 33 (2): 227–247. doi:10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.2.0227. JSTOR 10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.2.0227. S2CID 191599752.
- ^ "Black Music | Alexander Street, part of Clarivate". search.alexanderstreet.com. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
- ^ Wilson, Olly (1974). "The Significance of the Relationship between Afro-American Music and West African Music". The Black Perspective in Music. 2 (1): 6. doi:10.2307/1214144. JSTOR 1214144.
- ^ Maultsby, Mellonee V.; Burnim, Portia K. (2014). African American Music: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 9781317934424.