African-American music
Following the Civil War, African Americans employed playing European music in military bands developed a new style called ragtime that gradually evolved into jazz.
The rhythmic practices and theological motifs of this music suspend and push time by connecting with past traditions, while denoting a spiritual bond that is simultaneously ancestral, communal, and divine".
After the banning of drums, slaves made rhythmic music by slapping their knees, thighs, arms and other body parts, a practice called pattin Juba.
They also changed the melodies and rhythms of psalms and hymns, by speeding up the tempo, adding repeated refrains and choruses, and replacing texts with new ones that often combined English and African words and phrases.
Originally passed down orally, folk spirituals have been central in the lives of African Americans for more than three centuries, serving religious, cultural, social, political, and historical functions.
Song interpretation incorporates the interjections of moans, cries, hollers, and changing vocal timbres, and can be accompanied by hand clapping and foot-stomping.
In a groundbreaking moment in 1898, Broadway witnessed the debut of the first musical created by African Americans, courtesy of Bob Cole and Billy Johnson.
Fast forward to 1911, where Scott Joplin's trailblazing ragtime-folk opera, Treemonisha, took center stage, adding a unique and vibrant chapter to the history of African American contributions to the musical realm.
African-American performers were featured in the musical Show Boat (which had a part written for Paul Robeson and a chorus of Jubilee Singers), and especially all-black operas such as Porgy and Bess and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts of 1934.
Musicians like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Duke Ellington became cultural icons, transforming jazz into a dominant artistic force through improvisation and swing.
Their innovations during this era not only inspired the sounds of the 20th century but continue to resonate in music today, highlighting the resilience and creativity of the African American community.
Through her unforgettable voice and gospel swing crossover style, Tharpe influenced a generation of musicians including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry and countless others ... She was, and is, an unmatched artist.
[56] Elvis Presley's recognition of the importance of artists such as Fats Domino was significant, according to a 2017 article: the "championing of black musicians as part of a narrative that saw many positives in growing young white interest in African American-based musical styles".
Alongside this blues resurgence, Doo-wop center stage, enchanting listeners with its unique blend of vocal group harmonies, playful nonsense syllables, minimal instrumentation, and straightforward lyrics.
Doo-wop, often featuring solo artists with backing groups, emphasized lead singers who played a prominent role in the musical arrangement.
Simultaneously, a secularized version of American gospel music, known as soul ,emerged in the mid-1950s, led by trailblazers like Ray Charles,[60] Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke.
Some artists who successfully crossed over were Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ella Fitzgerald in the pop and jazz worlds, and Leontyne Price and Kathleen Battle in classical music.
By the end of the decade, black people were part of the psychedelia and early heavy metal trends, particularly by way of the ubiquitous Beatles' influence and the electric guitar innovations of Jimi Hendrix.
During the 1970s, The Dozens, an urban African-American tradition of using playful rhyming ridicule, developed into street jive in the early '70s, which in turn inspired hip-hop by the late 1970s.
Before long, Miami bass was relegated primarily to the Southeastern US, while Chicago house had made strong headway on college campuses and dance arenas (i.e. the warehouse sound, the rave).
Male vocal groups such as The Temptations and The O'Jays were particularly popular, as well as New Edition, Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Dru Hill, Blackstreet, and Jagged Edge.
A record review claimed that D'Angelo's critically acclaimed album Voodoo (2000) "represents African American music at a crossroads ... To simply call [it] neo-classical soul ... would be [to] ignore the elements of vaudeville jazz, Memphis horns, ragtime blues, funk and bass grooves, not to mention hip-hop, that slips out of every pore of these haunted songs.
It emerged from a blend of rockabilly influenced by white artists Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, as well as doo wop inspired by Dion and The Four Seasons.
[71] Within underground circles, the Afro-punk movement garnered attention in the early 21st century, in large part due to the eponymous documentary released in 2003.
[80] J. Cole, Beyonce, Jay Z, and half-Canadian Drake, were all top-selling music artists this year, but none made it to the Billboard Hot 100's number one, leading to much debate.
[87] African-American men, women, and children from across the nation came together in social settings such as marches, mass meetings, churches, and even jails and "conveyed the moral urgency of the freedom struggle".
[89] In April 1960 at Raleigh, North Carolina, folk singer Guy Carawan sang the new version at the founding convention of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), starting its quick spread throughout the Civil Rights Movement.
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 amid desegregation.
Music referred to as Afrobeats, in contrast to Kuti, is frequently upbeat, digitally generated, and sung in English, West African, and pidgin languages.
"[108] As of 2020, within "K-pop, blackface, mouthing or saying racial slurs, and purely aesthetic uses of Black culture and hairstyles" were still common,[109] without necessarily understanding, honoring or crediting their African-American roots.
