To segway from yesterday's George Clinton, let's have a music post.
The African-American Stream
The following is excerpted from the U.S. Department of State publication, American Popular Music (seriously, click that link!).
Not all immigrants came willingly. Between one and two million Africans were forcibly brought to the United States between the 17th and 19th centuries. The areas of western and central Africa from which slaves were drawn were home to hundreds of distinct societies, languages, and musical traditions.
The genesis of African-American music in the United States involved two closely related processes. The first of these was syncretism, the selective blending of traditions derived from Africa and Europe. The second was the creation of institutions that became important centers of black musical life – the family, the church, the voluntary association, the school, and so on.
It is misleading to speak of “black music” as a homogeneous entity. African-American culture took different forms in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States, shaped in each by the particular mix of African and European source traditions, and by local social conditions. In the United States, people from the Senegambia region of West Africa appear to have made up a large part of the slave population. The banjo, an African-American invention, was developed from stringed instruments common in Senegambia; and certain aspects of blues singing are derived from the griot (praise singer) traditions of the West African savannah.
Certain features of African music form the core of African-American music and, by extension, of American popular music as a whole. Call-and-response forms, in which a lead singer and chorus alternate, are a hallmark of African-American musical traditions. In much African music-making repetition is regarded as an aesthetic strength, and many forms are constructed of short phrases that recur in a regular cycle. These short phrases are combined in various ways to produce music of great power and complexity. In African-American music such repeated patterns are often called riffs.
The aesthetic interest of much African music lies in the interlocking of multiple repeating patterns to form dense polyrhythmic textures (textures in which many rhythms are going on at the same time). This technique is evident in African-American styles such as funk music, particularly the work of James Brown, and the instrumental accompaniments for contemporary rap recordings. One common West African rhythm pattern has generated many variants in the Americas, including the “hambone” riff (a syncopated boogie rhythm, at times produced by a rhythmic knee and chest slapping motion) popularized during the rock ’n’ roll era by Bo Diddley, Johnny Otis, and Buddy Holly.
In contrast to the aesthetics of Western art music, in which a “clear” tone is the ideal, African singers and instrumentalists make use of a wide palette of timbres. Buzzing tones are created by attaching a rattling device to an instrument, and singers frequently use growling and humming effects, a technique that can also be heard in African-American genres such as blues, gospel, and jazz. In West African drumming traditions the lead drummer often plays the lowest-pitched drum in the group. This emphasis on low-pitched sounds may be a predecessor of the prominent role of the bass drum in Mississippi black fife-and-drum ensembles and of the “sonic boom bass” aesthetic in rap music.
The influence of African musical aesthetics and techniques on American popular music has been profound. Its history reveals both the creativity of black musicians and the persistence of racism in the music business and American society as a whole. In the early 20th century African-American ragtime and blues profoundly shaped the mainstream of American popular song. The “jazz age” of the 1920s and the “swing era” of the 1930s and 1940s involved the reworking of African-American dance music to appeal to a white middle-class audience.
Although country music is typically identified as a “white” style, some of its biggest stars have been black, and the styles of country musicians such as Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, and Willie Nelson were strongly influenced by African-American music. One could cite many more examples of the influence of black music on the musical “mainstream” of America: 1950s rock ’n’ roll was, in large part, rhythm & blues (R&B) music reworked for a predominantly white teen music market; the influence of 1960s soul music, rooted in black gospel and R&B, is heard in the vocal style of practically every pop singer, from Bonnie Raitt and Whitney Houston to Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson; the virtuoso guitar style of heavy metal owes a large debt to the urban blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf; and rap music, based on African-derived musical and verbal traditions, continues to provide many white Americans with a vicarious experience of “listening in” on black urban culture.
We could say that, with every passing year, American popular music has moved closer to the core aesthetic values and techniques of African music. Yet this is misleading, for it directs attention away from the fact that African Americans are Americans, the ancestors of black Americans arrived in the United States before the forebears of many white Americans. The complex history of interaction between European-American and African-American styles, musicians, and audiences demonstrates the absurdity of racism. (lolz)
[This article is excerpted from American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3 by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, published by Oxford University Press, copyright (2003, 2007), and offered in an abridged edition by the Bureau of International Information Programs.]
Source. Additional Reading that I sure as hell wasn't aware of before today: We Pioneered House Music, and Run That Classical Ish. Have a timeline of black musical accomplishments, too.
Shoutout to
kitschaster for help with this one! I just wanted to say that this was probably the most difficult topic to find a cohesive article on, just because music itself is such a vast topic. I would highly recommend checking out the additional reading! To be honest, even though this article was one of the better summaries of black musical history, it oversimplifies the subject and is not nearly comprehensive enough. To that end, I'm gonna start some genre threads so make sure to post examples! If I missed a category, please post it. :).
Previously this month: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five
The African-American Stream
The following is excerpted from the U.S. Department of State publication, American Popular Music (seriously, click that link!).
Not all immigrants came willingly. Between one and two million Africans were forcibly brought to the United States between the 17th and 19th centuries. The areas of western and central Africa from which slaves were drawn were home to hundreds of distinct societies, languages, and musical traditions.
The genesis of African-American music in the United States involved two closely related processes. The first of these was syncretism, the selective blending of traditions derived from Africa and Europe. The second was the creation of institutions that became important centers of black musical life – the family, the church, the voluntary association, the school, and so on.
It is misleading to speak of “black music” as a homogeneous entity. African-American culture took different forms in Brazil, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States, shaped in each by the particular mix of African and European source traditions, and by local social conditions. In the United States, people from the Senegambia region of West Africa appear to have made up a large part of the slave population. The banjo, an African-American invention, was developed from stringed instruments common in Senegambia; and certain aspects of blues singing are derived from the griot (praise singer) traditions of the West African savannah.
Certain features of African music form the core of African-American music and, by extension, of American popular music as a whole. Call-and-response forms, in which a lead singer and chorus alternate, are a hallmark of African-American musical traditions. In much African music-making repetition is regarded as an aesthetic strength, and many forms are constructed of short phrases that recur in a regular cycle. These short phrases are combined in various ways to produce music of great power and complexity. In African-American music such repeated patterns are often called riffs.
The aesthetic interest of much African music lies in the interlocking of multiple repeating patterns to form dense polyrhythmic textures (textures in which many rhythms are going on at the same time). This technique is evident in African-American styles such as funk music, particularly the work of James Brown, and the instrumental accompaniments for contemporary rap recordings. One common West African rhythm pattern has generated many variants in the Americas, including the “hambone” riff (a syncopated boogie rhythm, at times produced by a rhythmic knee and chest slapping motion) popularized during the rock ’n’ roll era by Bo Diddley, Johnny Otis, and Buddy Holly.
In contrast to the aesthetics of Western art music, in which a “clear” tone is the ideal, African singers and instrumentalists make use of a wide palette of timbres. Buzzing tones are created by attaching a rattling device to an instrument, and singers frequently use growling and humming effects, a technique that can also be heard in African-American genres such as blues, gospel, and jazz. In West African drumming traditions the lead drummer often plays the lowest-pitched drum in the group. This emphasis on low-pitched sounds may be a predecessor of the prominent role of the bass drum in Mississippi black fife-and-drum ensembles and of the “sonic boom bass” aesthetic in rap music.
The influence of African musical aesthetics and techniques on American popular music has been profound. Its history reveals both the creativity of black musicians and the persistence of racism in the music business and American society as a whole. In the early 20th century African-American ragtime and blues profoundly shaped the mainstream of American popular song. The “jazz age” of the 1920s and the “swing era” of the 1930s and 1940s involved the reworking of African-American dance music to appeal to a white middle-class audience.
Although country music is typically identified as a “white” style, some of its biggest stars have been black, and the styles of country musicians such as Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams, and Willie Nelson were strongly influenced by African-American music. One could cite many more examples of the influence of black music on the musical “mainstream” of America: 1950s rock ’n’ roll was, in large part, rhythm & blues (R&B) music reworked for a predominantly white teen music market; the influence of 1960s soul music, rooted in black gospel and R&B, is heard in the vocal style of practically every pop singer, from Bonnie Raitt and Whitney Houston to Bruce Springsteen and Michael Jackson; the virtuoso guitar style of heavy metal owes a large debt to the urban blues of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf; and rap music, based on African-derived musical and verbal traditions, continues to provide many white Americans with a vicarious experience of “listening in” on black urban culture.
We could say that, with every passing year, American popular music has moved closer to the core aesthetic values and techniques of African music. Yet this is misleading, for it directs attention away from the fact that African Americans are Americans, the ancestors of black Americans arrived in the United States before the forebears of many white Americans. The complex history of interaction between European-American and African-American styles, musicians, and audiences demonstrates the absurdity of racism. (lolz)
[This article is excerpted from American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to MP3 by Larry Starr and Christopher Waterman, published by Oxford University Press, copyright (2003, 2007), and offered in an abridged edition by the Bureau of International Information Programs.]
Source. Additional Reading that I sure as hell wasn't aware of before today: We Pioneered House Music, and Run That Classical Ish. Have a timeline of black musical accomplishments, too.
Shoutout to
kitschaster for help with this one! I just wanted to say that this was probably the most difficult topic to find a cohesive article on, just because music itself is such a vast topic. I would highly recommend checking out the additional reading! To be honest, even though this article was one of the better summaries of black musical history, it oversimplifies the subject and is not nearly comprehensive enough. To that end, I'm gonna start some genre threads so make sure to post examples! If I missed a category, please post it. :).Previously this month: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, Day Five
The two most talented modern artists on one track. Game over.
*shakes what little I have*