The banjo is a direct descendant of the Akonting created by the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa.
It combined blues, jazz, boogie-woogie and gospel taking the form of fast paced dance music with highly energized guitar work appealing to young audiences across racial divides.
[4] Genres include spiritual,[5] gospel, rumba, blues,[6] bomba, country, rock and roll, rock, jazz, pop, salsa, R&B, samba, calypso, soca, soul, disco, kwaito, funk, ska, reggae,[7] dub reggae, house, Detroit techno, amapiano, hip hop, gqom, afrobeat, bluegrass, and others.
The Cuban contradanza, which became also known as the Habanera, the first written music to be rhythmically based on an African rhythm pattern, gained international fame in the 19th century.
The habanera "El Arreglito" composed by the Spanish musician Sebastian Yradier, was adapted to become one of the most famous arias in Georges Bizet's 1875 opera Carmen, "L'amour est un oiseau rebelled".
Melegue is a fast-paced 2/4 beat that combines bass guitar, accordion, guira (a metal scraper), and tambora (a two-sided drum).
Similar to bachata, merengue was originally connected to the lower classes but rose to national popularity in the 20th century and has subsequently expanded globally.
Beyond its roots in the Caribbean, zouk has become more popular throughout the French-speaking world, especially in France, Quebec, and Francophone Africa, where regional varieties of the genre have emerged.
African nations such as Cape Verde, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast have seen the fusion of zouk with indigenous music genres to create new hybrid styles such as Afro-funk.
Mento is a style of Jamaican music that predates and has greatly influenced ska, which was also fused with African traditions, American jazz and blues.
In addition to African and European influences, East Indian immigrants, who were brought to the Caribbean as indentured laborers after the abolition of slavery, also contributed to the region's musical diversity.
[11] In Trinidad and Tobago, whose calypso style is an especially potent part of the music of the other former British colonies, which also share traditions like the Big Drum dance.
[12] Calypso's early rise was closely connected with the adoption of Carnival by Trinidadian slaves, including camboulay drumming and the music masquerade processions.
Starting from the second half of the 19th century, African American performance through the colonial type of blackface entertainment gained popularity in Australia.
American presence in the Second World War brought African-American and West Indian soldiers into contact with Melanesian and Aboriginal indigenous groups.
Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders were able to identify with the American and West Indian servicemen due to the similarities of their physical appearance, most notably their darker skin color, and consequently shared dances and songs with them.
Eventually, the hymns and the text of the Bible combined with many elements of music that the enslaved Africans had brought with them from Africa, such as antiphony (the call-and-response pattern) and syncopation.
Spirituals would continue to be created and played by African Americans post emancipation as well, bands like the Fisk Jubilee Singers would spread across America.
While a couple bands like the Fisk Jubilee Singers made main stage appearances a bulk of Spirituals would be in small Black churches.
This popular musical composition mentioned racial injustice events that triggered the Black Lives Matter Movement (e.g. police brutality/violence) but, also included Beyoncé embracing her distinct African heritage.
Lamar further cemented his status as a protestor with his 2015 album To Pimp a Butterfly, which was an artistic investigation of racial injustice, police brutality, and African-American identity.