African American Music Through The Centuries
The History of African-American Music through the Centuries
African-American music has influenced modern artists and songs quite heavily, but the music itself has developed immensely over the years. Every century has seen innovative genres come to life, and you’ll see that African American musicians have contributed tremendously in this.
19th century
With the prevalence of slavery and the Second Great Awakening of the 1830s, African Americans created spirituals and work songs to ease their pains and sufferings they felt working under the control of white masters.
Following the U.S. Civil War, the music changed tremendously with a lot of foreign and popular influence. Many genres and styles were developed from the lower-class occupations African-Americans were allowed to have at the time. Barbershop quartets were a popular genre that …show more content…
However, these genres were called “race music” by the white majority public, which led Billboard to create a separate African-American music list in 1942. Even when these songs were played for the white public, they were heavily adapted. This change to accommodate the white audiences led to swing and pop jazz.
Rock and roll was the product of rhythm and blues, but ended up getting popularized by white musicians who had commercial appeal. This genre was also adapted, which led to a country music and rock and roll mixture that people called rockabilly.
Doo Wop developed in the 1950s, which incorporated group harmonies, nonsensical syllables, simple lyrics, and barely any instruments. Unfortunately, British pop music gained so much popularity that most African-American artists were pushed off U.S. charts. There were, however, many Motown, soul, and funk artists that maintained their prosperity.
As the 1960s sprouted psychedelic music, African-American musicians followed. A lot of psychedelic soul crossovers were developed during this
African-American music has influenced modern artists and songs quite heavily, but the music itself has developed immensely over the years. Every century has seen innovative genres come to life, and you’ll see that African American musicians have contributed tremendously in this.
19th century
With the prevalence of slavery and the Second Great Awakening of the 1830s, African Americans created spirituals and work songs to ease their pains and sufferings they felt working under the control of white masters.
Following the U.S. Civil War, the music changed tremendously with a lot of foreign and popular influence. Many genres and styles were developed from the lower-class occupations African-Americans were allowed to have at the time. Barbershop quartets were a popular genre that …show more content…
However, these genres were called “race music” by the white majority public, which led Billboard to create a separate African-American music list in 1942. Even when these songs were played for the white public, they were heavily adapted. This change to accommodate the white audiences led to swing and pop jazz.
Rock and roll was the product of rhythm and blues, but ended up getting popularized by white musicians who had commercial appeal. This genre was also adapted, which led to a country music and rock and roll mixture that people called rockabilly.
Doo Wop developed in the 1950s, which incorporated group harmonies, nonsensical syllables, simple lyrics, and barely any instruments. Unfortunately, British pop music gained so much popularity that most African-American artists were pushed off U.S. charts. There were, however, many Motown, soul, and funk artists that maintained their prosperity.
As the 1960s sprouted psychedelic music, African-American musicians followed. A lot of psychedelic soul crossovers were developed during this