African Music in America

Socially and artistically, African-American music is one of the most inspiring and pivotal spectacle’s to ever occur in American culture. The influence of African-Americans on mainstream music is immeasurable. Many of the songs that have come to be synonymous with struggle, empowerment, human rights, and perseverance have come from the African-American community. Blues and Black Gospel music comes to us from the plantation songs and "field hollers" of the slaves. As blacks moved north in the first half of the 20th Century to urban centers like Memphis, St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit, the music became more urbanized. Blues deviated into jazz, and combined with Gospel music to form soul. It would unbearable to tell the story of mainstream American music without the story of the African slave in America.

The Atlantic slave trade or Trans-Atlantic slave trade took place across the Atlantic Ocean from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. The majority of slaves involved in the Atlantic trade were Africans from the central and western parts of the continent, who were sold by Africans to European slave traders, who transported them across the ocean to the colonies in North and South America. The slaves were forced to labor on coffee, tobacco, cocoa, cotton and sugar plantations, toil in gold and silver mines, in rice fields, the construction industry, timber for ships, or in houses to work as servants. However, the African slaves brought facets of their culture with them to the New World. They told stories, danced, sang and kept alive the rhythms of their homeland. In spite of the efforts of slave owners, African slaves possessed a vital and vibrant cultural legacy which they retained across the Atlantic and which they used to protect themselves from the plunders of slavery. This cultural vivacity also spread into and incorporated European cultural developments, to produce a complex and often subtle hybridity of cultures (The New World, 2001, University of Calgary)

Music played a great part in African cultural identity, and continues to play an important role in today’s society. The voice and the drum were the primary instruments of African music; but other makeshift instruments, such as hollow gourds, wood, string, bones, and horn, were also used. Almost every ethnic group within Africa had its own type of drum and drumming was a highly sophisticated occupation that served many different purposes. This music played a large part in slave religious and working lives as a robust form of self-expression (The New World, 2001). During this time, much of the music among the slaves was a series of calls they would make to each other in the fields. Other music of the time came from religious ceremonies (Ruehl, K, Celebrating African-Americans in Folk Music). This formula of music later evolved into gospel, Blues, Jazz, Rhythm & Blues, Rock & Roll and Soul. All of these genres of music have a connection to Africa. Not even