African-American music

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Banjo Lesson," by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1893. Oil on canvas, 49" 35". Hampton
University Museum
African-American music is an umbrella term covering a diverse range of musics an
d musical genres largely developed by African Americans. Their origins are in mu
sical forms that arose out of the historical condition of slavery that character
ized the lives of African Americans prior to the American Civil War.
The modern genres of blues and ragtime were developed during the late 19th centu
ry by fusing European musical styles (characterized by diatonic harmony within t
he framework of equal temperament) with those of African origin which employed t
he natural harmonic series and blue notes. The exceptions are hip hop, house and
techno, which were formed in the late 20th century from earlier forms of Africa
n-American music such as funk and soul.
Following the Civil War, black Americans, through employment as musicians playin
g European music in military bands, developed a new style of music called ragtim
e which gradually evolved into jazz. In developing this latter musical form, Afr
ican Americans contributed knowledge of the sophisticated polyrhythmic structure
of the dance and folk music of peoples across western and sub-Saharan Africa. T
hese musical forms had a wide-ranging influence on the development of music with
in the United States and around the world during the 20th century.
The earliest jazz and blues recordings were made in the 1920s. African-American
musicians developed related styles such as Rhythm and Blues in the 1940s. In the
1960s, soul performers had a major influence on white US and UK singers. In the
mid-1960s, black musicians developed funk and they were many of the leading fig
ures in late 1960s and 1970s genre of jazz-rock fusion. In the 1970s and 1980s,
black artists developed hip hop and in the 1980s introduced the disco-infused da
nce style known as house music. In the 2000s, hip hop attained significant mains
tream popularity. Modern day music is heavily influenced by previous and present
African-American music genres.
Contents [hide]
1 Historic traits
2 African-American music styles
3 History
3.1 18th century
3.2 19th century
3.3 Early 20th century (1900s1930s)
3.4 Mid-20th century (1940s1960s)
3.5 1970s
3.6 1980s
3.7 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s
4 Economic impact
5 See also
6 Notes
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links
Historic traits[edit]
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 experienced by black Americans within American society that
contributed the conditions which would define their music. Many of the character
istic musical forms that define African-American music have historical precedent
s. These earlier forms include:
field hollers
beat boxing
work song
Spoken Word
Rapping
Scatting
call and response
vocality (or special vocal effects): guttural effects, interpolated vocality, fa
lsetto, melisma, vocal rhythmization
improvisation
blue notes
polyrhythms: syncopation, concrescence, tension, improvisation, percussion, swun
g note
texture: antiphony, homophony, polyphony, heterophony
harmony: vernacular progressions; complex, multi-part harmony, as in spirituals,
Doo Wop, and barbershop music[1]
African-American music styles[edit]
Barbershop music
Blues
Bebop
Boogie woogie
Delta Blues
Disco
Doo-wop
Electro
Funk
Go-go
Gospel music
Groove
Hip hop
House music
Jazz
Jug Band Music
Negro spirituals
Neo soul
New Jack Swing
Quiet storm
Ragtime
Contemporary R&B
Rhythm and blues
Rock & roll
Skiffle
Soul music
Southern Rap
Spiritual
Swing
Techno
Trap music
PBR&B
Zydeco
History[edit]
18th century[edit]
In the late 18th century folk spirituals originated among Southern slaves, follo
wing their conversion to Christianity. Conversion, however, did not result in sl
aves adopting the traditions associated with the practice of Christianity. Inste
ad they reinterpreted them in a way that had meaning to them as Africans in Amer
ica. They often sang the spirituals in groups as they worked the plantation fiel
ds.
Folk spirituals, unlike much white gospel, were often spirited: slaves added dan
cing (later known as "the shout") and other forms of bodily movements to the sin
ging. They also changed the melodies and rhythms of psalms and hymns, such as sp
eeding up the tempo, adding repeated refrains and choruses, and replaced texts w
ith new ones that often combined English and African words and phrases. Original
ly being passed down orally, folk spirituals have been central in the lives of A
frican Americans for more than three centuries, serving religious, cultural, soc
ial, political, and historical functions.[2]
Folk spirituals were spontaneously created and performed in a repetitive, improv
ised style. The most common song structures are the call-and-response ("Blow, Ga
briel") and repetitive choruses ("He Rose from the Dead). The call-and-response
is an alternating exchange between the soloist and the other singers. The solois
t usually improvises a line to which the other singers respond, repeating the sa
me phrase. Song interpretation incorporates the interjections of moans, cries, h
ollers etc... and changing vocal timbres. Singing is also accompanied by hand cl
apping and foot-stomping.
Suggested listening: Spirituals [3]
19th century[edit]
The influence of African Americans on mainstream American music began in the 19t
h 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. In the 1830s, the S
econd Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian revivals and pietism, especiall
y among African Americans. Drawing on traditional work songs, enslaved African A
mericans originated and began performing a wide variety of Spirituals and other
Christian music. Some of these songs were coded messages of subversion against s
laveholders, or that signaled escape.
During the period after the Civil War, the spread of African-American music cont
inued. The Fisk University Jubilee Singers toured first in 1871. Artists includi
ng Jack Delaney helped revolutionize post-war African-American music in the cent
ral-east of the United States. In the following years, professional "jubilee" tr
oops formed and toured. The first black musical-comedy troupe, Hyers Sisters Com
ic Opera Co., was organized in 1876.[4] In the last half of the 19th century, U.
S. barbershops often served as community centers, where most men would gather. B
arbershop quartets originated with African-American men socializing in barbersho
ps; they would harmonize while waiting their turn, vocalizing in spirituals, fol
k songs and popular songs. This generated a new style, consisting of unaccompani
ed, four-part, close-harmony singing. Later, white minstrel singers adopted the
style, and in the early days of the recording industry their performances were r
ecorded and sold. By the end of the 19th century, African-American music was an
integral part of mainstream American culture.
Early 20th century (1900s1930s)[edit]
The Slayton Jubilee Singers entertain employees of the Old Trusty Incubator Fact
ory, Clay Center, about 1910
In early 20th-century American musical theater, the first musicals written and p
roduced by African Americans debuted on Broadway in 1898 with a musical by Bob C
ole and Billy Johnson. In 1901, the first recording of black musicians was of Be
rt Williams and George Walker, featuring music from Broadway musicals. Theodore
Drury helped black artists develop in the opera field. He founded the Drury Oper
a Company in 1900 and, although he used a white orchestra, he featured black sin
gers in leading roles and choruses. Although this company was only active from 1
900 to 1908, black singers' opportunities with Drury marked the first black part
icipation in opera companies. Also significant is Scott Joplin's opera Treemonis
ha, which is unique as a ragtime-folk opera; it was first performed in 1911.[5]
The early part of the 20th century saw a rise in popularity of African-American
blues and jazz. African-American music at this time was classed as "race music".
[6] This term gained momentum due to Ralph Peer, musical director at OKeh Record
s, who put records made by "foreign" groups under that label. 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 involve
d in fighting for equal rights.[7] Also, developments in the fields of visual ar
ts and the Harlem Renaissance led to developments in music. Ragtime performers s
uch as Scott Joplin became popular and some were associated with the Harlem Rena
issance and early civil rights activists. In addition, white and Latino performe
rs of African-American music were visible, rooted in the history of cross-cultur
al communication between the United States' races. African-American music was of
ten adapted for white audiences, who would not have as readily accepted black pe
rformers, leading to genres like swing music, a pop-based outgrowth of jazz.
In addition, African Americans were becoming part of classical music by the turn
of the 20th century. While originally excluded from major symphony orchestras,
black musicians could study in music conservatories that had been founded in the
1860s, such as the Oberlin School of Music, National Conservatory of Music, and
the New England Conservatory.[8] Black people also formed their own symphony or
chestras at the turn of the 20th century in major cities such as Chicago, New Or
leans, and Philadelphia. Various black orchestras began to perform regularly in
the late 1890s and the early 20th century. In 1906, the first incorporated black
orchestra was established in Philadelphia.[9] In the early 1910s, all-black mus
ic schools, such as the Music School Settlement for Colored and the Martin-Smith
School of Music, were founded in New York.[10]
The Music School Settlement for Colored became a sponsor of the Clef Club orches
tra in New York. The Clef Club Symphony Orchestra attracted both black and white
audiences to concerts at Carnegie Hall from 1912 to 1915. Conducted by James Re
ese Europe and William H. Tyers, the orchestra included banjos, mandolins, and b
aritone horns. Concerts featured music written by black composers, notably Harry
T. Burleigh and Will Marion Cook. Other annual black concert series include the
William Hackney's All-Colored Composers concerts in Chicago and the Atlanta Color
ed Music Festivals.[11]
The return of the black musical to Broadway occurred in 1921 with Sissle and Eub
ie Blake's Shuffle Along. In 1927, a concert survey of black music was performed
at Carnegie Hall including jazz, spirituals and the symphonic music of W. C. Ha
ndy's Orchestra and the Jubilee Singers. The first major film musical with a bla
ck cast was King Vidor's Hallelujah of 1929. African-American performers were fe
atured 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 B
ess and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts of 1934.
The first symphony by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra was
William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony (1930) by the New York Philharmonic
. Also in 1934 William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony was the second work by an Af
rican-American composer to be performed by a major orchestra the Philadelphia Or
chestra.[12]
African Americans were the pioneers of jazz music, through masters such as Jelly
Roll Morton, James P. Johnson, Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson
, and Duke Ellington.
Mid-20th century (1940s1960s)[edit]
Billboard started making a separate list of hit records for African-American mus
ic in October 1942 with the "Harlem Hit Parade", which was changed in 1945 to "R
ace Records", and then in 1949 to "Rhythm and Blues Records".[13] By the 1940s,
cover versions of African-American songs were commonplace, and frequently topped
the charts, while the original musicians found success among their African-Amer
ican audience, but not in the mainstream. In 1955, Thurman Ruth persuaded a gosp
el group to sing in a secular setting, the Apollo Theater, with such success tha
t he subsequently arranged gospel caravans that traveled around the country, pla
ying the same venues that rhythm and blues singers had popularized. Meanwhile, j
azz performers began to push jazz away from swing, a danceable popular music tow
ards more intricate arrangements, improvisation, and technically challenging for
ms, culminating in the bebop of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the cool sou
nds and modal jazz of Miles Davis, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and John
Coltrane.
African-American musicians in the 1940s and 1950s were developing rhythm and blu
es into a genre called rock and roll, which featured a strong backbeat and whose
prominent exponents included Louis Jordan and Wynonie Harris. However, it was w
ith white musicians such as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, playing a guitar-based
fusion of black rock and roll with country music called rockabilly, that rock a
nd roll music became commercially successful. Rock music thereafter became more
associated with white people, though some black performers such as Chuck Berry a
nd Bo Diddley had commercial success.
The 1950s also saw increased popularity of hard blues in the style from the earl
iest part of the century, both in the United States and United Kingdom. The 1950
s also saw doo-wop style become popular. Doo-wop had been developed through voca
l group harmony with the musical qualities of different vocal parts, nonsense sy
llables, little or no instrumentation, and simple lyrics. It usually involved en
semble single artists appearing with a backing group. Solo billing was given to
lead singers who were more prominent in the musical arrangement. A secularized f
orm of American gospel music called soul also developed in the mid 1950s, with p
ioneers like Ray Charles,[14] Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke leading the wave.[15]
Soul and R&B became a major influence on surf, as well as the chart-topping girl
groups including The Angels and The Shangri-Las, only some of whom were white.
In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, the first record label to primarily
feature African-American artists aimed at achieving crossover success. The labe
l developed an innovativeand commercially successfulstyle of soul music with disti
nctive pop elements. Its early roster included The Miracles, Martha and the Vand
ellas, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations, The Supremes, and others.[16] Black div
as such as Aretha Franklin became '60s crossover stars. In the UK, British blues
became a gradually mainstream phenomenon, returning to the U.S. in the form of
the British Invasion, a group of bands led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones
who performed blues and R&B-inspired pop, with both traditional and modernized
aspects. WGIV in Charlotte, North Carolina was amongst a few radio stations dedi
cated to African-American music that started during this period.
The British Invasion knocked many black artists off the US pop charts, although
some, among them Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin and a number o
f Motown artists, continued to do well. Soul music, however, remained popular am
ong black people through highly evolved forms such as funk, developed out of the
innovations of James Brown.[17]
By the end of the decade, black people were part of the psychedelia and early he
avy metal trends, particularly by way of the ubiquitous Beatles' influence and t
he electric guitar innovations of Jimi Hendrix.[18] Hendrix was among the first
guitarists to use audio feedback, fuzz, and other effects pedals such as the wah
wah pedal to create a unique guitar solo sound. Psychedelic soul, a mix of psyc
hedelic rock and soul began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popula
r among black people and with more crossover appeal, was album-oriented soul in
the late 1960s and early 1970s, which revolutionized African-American music. The
genre's intelligent and introspective lyrics, often with a socially aware tone
were created by artists such as Marvin Gaye in What's Going On, and Stevie Wonde
r in Songs in the Key of Life.
1970s[edit]
The 1970s was a great decade for black bands playing melodic music. Album-orient
ed 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-j
azz-bass fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone, and the other a more psyche
delic 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 m
usic. However, this music was integrated into popular music achieving mainstream
success.
Black musicians achieved some mainstream success, though some African-American a
rtists including The Jackson 5, Roberta Flack, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, Th
e O'Jays, Gladys Knight & the Pips found crossover audiences. White listeners pr
eferred country rock, singer-songwriters, stadium rock, soft rock, glam rock, an
d, in some subcultures, heavy metal and punk rock. During the 1970s, The Dozens,
an urban African-American tradition of using playful rhyming ridicule, develope
d into street jive in the early '70s, which in turn inspired a new form of music
by the late 1970s: hip-hop. Spoken-word artists such as The Last Poets, Gil Sco
tt-Heron and Melvin Van Peebles are also cited as the major innovators in early
hip-hop. Beginning at block parties in The Bronx, hip-hop music arose as one fac
et of a large subculture with rebellious and progressive elements. DJs spun reco
rds, most typically funk, while MCs introduced tracks to the dancing audience. O
ver time, DJs, particularly Jamaican immigrant DJ Kool Herc for instance, began
isolating and repeating the percussion breaks, producing a constant, eminently d
anceable beat, which they or MCs began rapping over, through rhymes and eventual
ly sustained lyrics. In the South Bronx, the half-speaking, half-singing rhythmi
c street talk of 'rapping' grew into a cultural force known as Hip hop.[19] Hip
Hop would become a multicultural movement in young black America, led by artists
such as Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC.
1980s[edit]
In the 1980s, Michael Jackson had record-breaking success with his albums Off th
e Wall, Bad, and Thriller the latter remaining the best-selling album of all tim
e transforming popular music and uniting races, ages and genders, and would even
tually lead to successful crossover black solo artists, including Prince, Lionel
Richie, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson. Pop a
nd dance-soul of this era inspired new jack swing by the end of the decade.
Hip hop spread across the country and diversified. Techno, Dance, Miami bass, Ch
icago house, Los Angeles hardcore and Washington, D.C. Go-go developed during th
is period, with only Miami bass achieving mainstream success. But, before long,
Miami bass was relegated primarily to the Southeastern US, while Chicago house h
ad made strong headways on college campuses and dance arenas (i.e. the warehouse
sound, the rave). The DC go-go sound of Miami bass was essentially a regional s
ound that did not garner much mass appeal. Chicago house sound had expanded into
the Detroit music environment and mutated into more electronic and industrial s
ounds creating Detroit techno, acid, jungle. Mating these experimental, usually
DJ-oriented, sounds with the prevalence of the multi-ethnic New York City disco
sound from the 1970s and 1980s created a brand of music that was most appreciate
d in the huge discothques that are located in cities like Chicago, New York, Los
Angeles, Detroit, Boston, etc. Eventually, European audiences embraced this kind
of electronic dance music with more enthusiasm than their North American counte
rparts. These variable sounds let the listeners prioritize their exposure to new
music and rhythms while enjoying a gigantic dancing experience.
In the later half of the decade, from about 1986, rap took off into the mainstre
am with Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell, and the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill, the la
tter becoming the first rap album to enter No.1 Spot on the Billboard 200. Both
of these groups mixed rap and rock together, which appealed to rock and rap audi
ences. Hip-hop took off from its roots and the golden age hip hop flourished, wi
th artists such as Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Big
Daddy Kane, and Salt-N-Pepa. Hip Hop became popular in America until the late 19
90s, when it went worldwide. The golden age scene would die out by the early 199
0s as gangsta rap and g-funk took over, with west-coast artists Dr. Dre, Snoop D
ogg, Warren G and Ice Cube, east-coast artists Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, a
nd Mobb Deep, and the sounds of urban black male bravado, compassion, and social
awareness best represented by the rapper Tupac Shakur.
While heavy metal music was almost exclusively created by white performers in th
e 1970s and 1980s, there were a few exceptions. In 1988, all-black heavy metal b
and Living Colour achieved mainstream success with their dbut album Vivid, peakin
g at #6 on the Billboard 200, thanks to their Top 20 single "Cult of Personality
". The band's music contained lyrics that attack what they perceived as the Euro
centrism and racism of America. A decade later, more black artists like Lenny Kr
avitz, Body Count, Ben Harper, and countless others would start playing rock aga
in.
1990s, 2000s, and 2010s[edit]
Contemporary R&B, as the post-disco version of soul music came to be known, rema
ined popular throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Male vocal groups in the style of s
oul groups such as The Temptations and The O'Jays were particularly popular, inc
luding New Edition, Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Dru Hill, Blackstreet, and Jagged Edge.
Girl groups, including TLC, Destiny's Child, SWV and En Vogue, were also highly
successful.
Singer-songwriters such as R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, Montell Jordan, D'Angelo, Aal
iyah and Raphael Saadiq of Tony! Toni! Ton! were also significantly popular durin
g the 1990s, and artists including Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, and BLACKstreet p
opularized a fusion blend known as hip-hop soul. The neo soul movement of the 19
90s looked back on more classical soul influences and was popularized in the lat
e 1990s/early 2000s by such artists as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Lauryn Hi
ll, India.Arie, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Bilal and Musiq Soulchild.
According to one music writer, D'Angelo's critically acclaimed album Voodoo (20
00) "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, tha
t slip out of every pore of these haunted songs."[20] Blue-eyed soul is an influ
ence of African-American music performed by white artists, including Michael McD
onald, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Robin Thicke, Jon B., Lisa Stansfield,
Teena Marie, Justin Timberlake, Joss Stone, George Michael, and Anastacia.
By the first decade of the 21st century, R&B had shifted towards an emphasis on
solo artists with pop appeal, with Usher, Rihanna, and Beyonc being the most prom
inent examples. The line between hip-hop and R&B and pop was significantly blurr
ed by producers such as Timbaland and Lil Jon and artists such as Missy Elliott,
T-Pain, Nelly, Akon and OutKast.
"Urban music" and "urban radio" are largely race-neutral today,[citation needed]
terms that are synonymous with hip hop and R&B and the associated hip-hop cultu
re that originated in New York City.[citation needed] The term also reflects the
fact that they are popular in urban areas, both within black population centers
and among the general population (especially younger audiences).

Edward Ray at Capital Records

The hip-hop movement has become increasingly mainstream as the music industry ha
s taken control of it. Essentially, "from the moment 'Rapper's Delight' went pla
tinum, hiphop the folk culture became hiphop the American entertainment-industry
sideshow."[21]
In June 2009, Michael Jackson died unexpectedly from a cardiac arrest, triggerin
g a global outpouring of grief. Within a year of his death, his estate had gener
ated $1.4 billion in revenues. A documentary film consisting of rehearsal footag
e for Jackson's scheduled This Is It tour, entitled Michael Jackson's This Is It
, was released on October 28, 2009, and became the highest-grossing concert film
in history.[22]
In 2013, no African-American musician had a Billboard Hot 100 number one. This w
as the first time there was no number one in a year by an African American in th
e chart's 55-year history.[23]
Plans for a Smithsonian-affiliated Museum of African-American music to be built
in Newark, New Jersey, and an R&B museum/hall of fame have been discussed.[citat
ion needed]
Economic impact[edit]
Record stores played a vital role in African-American communities for many decad
es. In the 1960s and 1970s, between 500 and 1,000 black-owned record stores oper
ated 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 fo
r economic empowerment and critical public spaces for black consumers at a time
that many black-owned businesses were closing amid desegregation.[24] In additio
n, countless African Americans have earned livings as musical performers, club o
wners, radio deejays, concert promoters, and record label owners.
See also[edit]
icon African American portal
African-American dance
African American musical theater
Afro-Caribbean music
Banjo
Beach music
Blackface
Cultural appropriation
Gandy dancer
Juke joint
List of musical genres of the African diaspora
Music of the African diaspora
Notes[edit]
Jump up ^ Stewart 1998, pp. 515.
Jump up ^ Maultsby, Portia. "A History of African American Music". Retrieved 201
2-08-14.
Jump up ^ "African American Gospel Music from Smithsonian Folkways". Smithsonian
Folways. Retrieved 2012-08-14.
Jump up ^ Southern 221.
Jump up ^ Southern 221-2, 294.
Jump up ^ "Race Music". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Matthew A. Kill
meier 01/29/02. 2002.
Jump up ^ Brackett, David. The Pop, Rock and Soul Reader.
Jump up ^ Southern 266.
Jump up ^ Southern 291.
Jump up ^ Southern 288-9.
Jump up ^ Southern 285, 292.
Jump up ^ Southern 361.
Jump up ^ Fred Bronson (June 12, 1993). "Billboard, Vol. 105, No. 24". Nielsen B
usiness Media, Inc.: 47. Retrieved 17 July 2011.
Jump up ^ Ray Charles interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
Jump up ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 17 - The Soul Reformation: More on the e
volution of rhythm and blues. [Part 3]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of N
orth Texas Libraries.
Jump up ^ Motown artists interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
Jump up ^ "Soul Reformation" artists interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1970)
Jump up ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 53 - String Man." (audio). Pop Chronicle
s. University of North Texas Libraries.
Jump up ^ "THE ROOTS OF HIP HOP RM HIP HOP MAGAZINE 1986". Globaldarkness.com. R
etrieved 2012-06-23.
Jump up ^ "Review of Voodoo". NME: 42. February 14, 2000.
Jump up ^ Tate, Greg. "Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin For?" Village Voice,
January 4, 2005.
Jump up ^ "Michael Jackson s wealth soars after death". Retrieved February 7, 20
14.
Jump up ^ "Color Blind: No African-American Artists Had a No. 1 Hit in 2013". Ti
me. January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
Jump up ^ Joshua Clark Davis, "For the Records: How African American Consumers a
nd Music Retailers Created Commercial Public Space in the 1960s and 1970s South,
" Southern Cultures, Winter 2011.
References[edit]
Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History. W. W. Norton &
Company; 3rd edition. ISBN 0-393-97141-4
Stewart, Earl L. (1998). African American Music: An Introduction. ISBN 0-02-8602
94-3.
Cobb, Charles E., Jr., "Traveling the Blues Highway", National Geographic Magazi
ne, April 1999, v. 195, n.4
Dixon, RMW & Godrich, J (1981), Blues and Gospel Records: 19021943, Storyville, L
ondon.
Hamilton, Marybeth: In Search of the Blues.
Leadbitter, M. & Slaven, N. (1968), Blues Records 19431966, Oak Publications, Lon
don.
Ferris, William; Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues, Unive
rsity of North Carolina Press (2009). ISBN 0-8078-3325-8 ISBN 978-0807833254 (wi
th CD and DVD)
Ferris, William; Glenn Hinson, The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume
14: Folklife, University of North Carolina Press (2009). ISBN 0-8078-3346-0 ISBN
978-0-8078-3346-9 (Cover :photo of James Son Thomas)
Ferris, William; Blues From The Delta, Da Capo Press; revised edition (1988). IS
BN 0-306-80327-5 ISBN 978-0306803277
Gioia, Ted; Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revol
utionized American Music, W. W. Norton & Company (2009). ISBN 0-393-33750-2 ISBN
978-0393337501
Harris, Sheldon; Blues Who s Who, Da Capo Press, 1979.
Nicholson, Robert; Mississippi Blues Today! Da Capo Press (1999). ISBN 0-306-808
83-8 ISBN 978-0-306-80883-8
Palmer, Robert; Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi De
lta, Penguin reprint (1982) ISBN 0-14-006223-8; ISBN 978-0-14-006223-6
Ramsey Jr, Frederic; Been Here And Gone, 1st edition (1960), Rutgers University
Press; London Cassell (UK) and New Brunswick, NJ. 2nd printing (1969), Rutgers U
niversity Press, New Brunswick, NJ: University Of Georgia Press, 2000.
Wilson, Charles Reagan, William Ferris, Ann J. Adadie, Encyclopedia of Southern
Culture (1656 pp.), University of North Carolina Press; 2nd Edition (1989). ISBN
0-8078-1823-2. ISBN 978-0-8078-1823-7
Further reading[edit]
Joshua Clark Davis, "For the Records: How African American Consumers and Music R
etailers 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 Comprehen
sive Collection of 230 Folk Songs, Religious and Secular, with a Foreword. Bonan
za Books, New York. N.B.: Consists most notably of an analytical study of this r
epertory, on p. 1-46, an anthology of such music (words with the notated music,
harmonized), on pp. 47250, and a bibliog., on p. 252256.
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to African American music.
Shall We Gather at the River, a collection of African-American sacred music, mad
e available for public use by the State Archives of Florida
20 historical milestones in African-American music
Wikisource-logo.svg "Negro Melodies". New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
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Banjo
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NDL: 00566486
Categories: African-American musicAfrican-American musiciansAfrican-American cul
tureAmerican styles of musicEthnic music in the United States
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