Some were released decades after they were first written
Music, in the African-American community as in countless other communities around the world, has been a space of resistance, healing, and catharsis. From the coded rhythms and lyrics of old spirituals to the celebratory sounds of funk and disco, the innate power of African-American music is undeniable.
The rise and development of Black music in the United States runs closely alongside the experience of African Americans in general. From the dawn of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the relatively recent rise of hip hop as the world's most popular music genre, music and the African-American experience at large have always met at the cornerstones of history.
Of course, the story of Black music in the United States is not always a happy one, but it is a story of tireless resistance and perseverance. The history of uniquely African-American music starts with the violently racist and oppressive so-called "Black Codes" of the 18th and 19th centuries, which, among other things, banned the use of drums, horns, and even certain styles of singing. Still, the music of the oppressed found a way.
Almost every distinctly Black genre of American music can be traced back to the "spirituals" sung by enslaved groups of Africans in the American South. These songs were collaboratively written as strictly vocal pieces, often sung as "work songs," which not only told stories of Christian and African spiritualities, but also recounted the incomprehensible hardships of a life enslaved.
After the Civil War, historically white instruments like the guitar started to fall into the hands of newly emancipated African Americans. Despite the official end of slavery, the post-war Reconstruction period was still a time of extreme oppression and hardship for Black folks in the United States. This new brand of oppression, coupled with the guitar, gave birth to what is known today as the blues.
The blues were an inherently grassroots genre of music, the invention of which can't be attributed to any one person. By the turn of the 20th century, the blues were a genre known throughout Black communities as sorrowful ballads, rhymed and set against cyclical call-and-response guitar patterns that are still characteristic of blues music. As is sadly the case with so much of African-American history, the erasure or ignoring of the Black experience by historians of the time has left gaping holes in the story of blues music's development.
As the blues continued to develop and African-American populations spread out of the South, many new styles came into existence. Distinct styles like Texas blues, Chicago blues, and Memphis blues flourished, but arguably none had as great an impact on Black music and music at large as what we now know as jazz.
It doesn't need to be said that jazz is now universally considered to be one of the most important and influential musical developments of all time. At first, however, it was widely seen by White America as valueless noise, similar to countless other African-American inventions, musical and otherwise, that went on to change the world. Some experts have drawn links between the dynamic and improvisational nature of jazz to the equally unpredictable and uncertain day-to-day lives of the genre's Black developers. With time, though, jazz would reach the furthest corners of the globe and cement African-American music as a legitimate and incalculably influential phenomenon.
Blues was emblematic of the Jim Crow South, a place and time when African Americans were only technically free but still subjected to overtly racist laws concerning segregation, vagrancy, and crime. The blues acted as an immensely important outlet for not only trauma and hardships, but also strength, unity, and communication.
It has been deemed virtually impossible to pinpoint the definitive birth, or birthplace, of jazz, but most experts agree it developed in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. The earliest jazz music combined the emotional history of the blues with the volume and musicianship of brass bands and marching music.
Some time after the inception of jazz, blues music developed into another of the world's most transformative genres: rock and roll. Although considered by many for decades to be the king, father, and progenitor of rock and roll, Elvis Presley did not, in fact, invent the genre. More accurately, Elvis popularized an already existing genre by learning from the Black artists who truly pioneered the hard-hitting, revolutionary genre.
Rock and roll grew out of the more up-tempo traditions of jazz, but retained the centrality of the blues guitar and its more simple rhythms. Early artists who fused these elements like Count Basie, Bo Diddley (pictured), and Lucky Millinder paved the way for later stars like Chuck Berry and Elvis himself.
With jazz and rock firmly cemented in the annals of music history, and the civil rights movement steadily on the rise, African-American music continued to branch out in innovating and successful ways. Detroit's Motown Records, one of the country's very first Black-owned and operated record companies, incubated new blues-derived styles that took on more romantic and less political feelings, like rhythm and blues and disco.
From the explosive success of soul and disco came one of the most iconic sounds of the 1960s: funk. Characterized by its joyous tempos and hard-hitting bass lines, early funk greats like Kool and the Gang (pictured), Sly and the Family Stone, and Parliament Funkadelic pioneered the quintessentially groovy sounds of the '60s.
Artists born in and outside of Motown Records, such as Marvin Gaye and Etta James, popularized quintessentially Black music for an interracial audience for the first time. Unlike jazz and rock, which were quickly appropriated by white musicians who then gained the appreciation of white audiences, genres like disco, soul, and R&B remained almost exclusively in the sphere of Black artists for decades while still enjoying record-breaking album sales and airtime.
At this point, it's obvious that the vast majority of the most important musical developments of the past 200 years are all thanks to the African-American community. But while many icons like Miles Davis and Prince (pictured) have received their due fame, some of the most important innovators of American music are still practically unknown to the general public.
While some artists in all genres of Black music continued to instill the songs with political and societal messages, the truth of the African-American experiences truly took the spotlight again in earnest with the birth of hip hop. This revolutionary genre of music was born in New York by mostly underprivileged Black youths who spliced old disco, funk, and blues tracks into new arrangements and rhymed over top of them. This new style, which necessitated nothing more than records, turntables, and some speakers, made musical creation more accessible to poor, predominately Black urban communities than ever before.
Tom Turpin is considered by many to be the godfather of musical notation in African-American music. Pre-Turpin spirituals and blues music were played, taught, and performed organically, but after Turpin became the first African American to pen, notate, and publish a ragtime song in 1897, the possibilities for Black songwriting were massively expanded.
What Tom Turpin did for ragtime, spirituals, and early blues, Jelly Roll Morton did for jazz. He is the world's first known arranger of jazz music, and proved to his peers and the jazz community at large that the mostly improvisational genre could, in fact, be properly arranged and notated without losing its magic.
In 1920, Cincinnati-born Mamie Smith made history as the first African-American singer to be featured on a recording.
Many people credit Sister Rosetta Tharpe with the invention of rock and roll. A pioneer of the electric guitar, Tharpe's inventive and energetic playing styles took traditional blues to new heights of tempo and excitement.
If Bessie Smith is the Empress of the Blues, W.C. Handy is the Father of the Blues. While Smith was popularizing the blues styles of singing, Handy was revolutionizing blues guitar and piano while introducing it to a wider audience. Handy is also an important figure in the posterity of blues history. He was famously concerned with citing and documenting the sources of melodies, rhythms, and lyrics that came from earlier African-American folk music and spirituals. Handy's legacy lives on in the popularity of his original 1913 composition 'The Memphis Blues,' which has become one of the most popular blues standards in history.
Ma Rainey revolutionized the blues by bridging the gap between often cartoonish vaudeville performance and the raw, honest emotions of the African-American experience.
Bessie Smith, born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1894, was known as the Empress of the Blues. She was easily one of the most popular blues singers of the early 20th century, and was the highest-paid Black performer of her time. Her influence on the history of blues cannot be overstated.
While Duke Ellington is certainly well known around the world, the true level of his impact is often underplayed. Born in 1899, Ellington was one of jazz's earliest stars and stands alone even today in the sheer volume of his output. During his long and storied career, Ellington penned more than 2,000 original compositions, countless of which have become the genre's most popular and resilient standards.
Thelonious Monk was one of the most important innovators of improvisational jazz. Behind Ellington, Monk is the second-most recorded jazz musician in history. He composed some of music's most famous songs, such as 'Round Midnight' and 'Ruby, My Dear.'
Tina Turner persevered through a profoundly difficult childhood and young adulthood to become one of the most celebrated women in rock and roll history. Turner, who died on May 24, 2023, not only opened up rock and roll to African-American women, but put the mostly white and male leaders of the genre to shame with her unmatched stage presence and creative output.
Sources: (LiveAbout) (Dig!)
See also: Where does our taste in music come from?
The history of hip hop can be divided into two categories: the genre before N.W.A., and the genre after N.W.A.. The original group of hip-hop icons such as Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E, N.W.A. moved the genre away from the more lighthearted wordsmithing of Grandmaster Flash and transformed it into an invaluable tool of protest and resistance against the deplorable living conditions in the low-income, predominantly Black neighborhoods of Los Angeles and beyond.
These spirituals, often sung in secret, kept people alive and hopeful for a liberated future through some of the darkest eras of American history. After the Civil War and the emancipation of slavery, spirituals were performed by ensembles such as the Fisk Jubilee Singers (pictured), who brought the sounds of spirituals to a national audience.
Music is an immeasurably important aspect of any culture. Through music, communities pass on stories of history, hardships, and victories, as well as the sounds, rhythms, and styles of those who came before. With that said, it can be argued that no musical tradition has been as influential on the modern world as the music of the African-American community. For hundreds of years, the most popular and influential styles and genres in the world have stemmed from the ingenuity of Black artists and musicians. The world at large would not sound the same without the members of the African diaspora who continue to push the limits of musical creativity. Truly, the histories and traditions of African-American music are to be remembered, and celebrated.
Read on to learn about how African-American music changed the nation, and the world.
Celebrating the history of African-American music
How African-American music changed the world
MUSIC Entertainment
Music is an immeasurably important aspect of any culture. Through music, communities pass on stories of history, hardships, and victories, as well as the sounds, rhythms, and styles of those who came before. With that said, it can be argued that no musical tradition has been as influential on the modern world as the music of the African-American community. For hundreds of years, the most popular and influential styles and genres in the world have stemmed from the ingenuity of Black artists and musicians. The world at large would not sound the same without the members of the African diaspora who continue to push the limits of musical creativity. Truly, the histories and traditions of African-American music are to be remembered, and celebrated.
Read on to learn about how African-American music changed the nation, and the world.