African-American music

Musical traditions of African American people

For a generalized discussion of music by people of African descent, see Black music.

This article is part of a series on the

Music of the
United States

General topics

* Education
* History

Timeline

* Colonial era
* to the Civil War
* During the Civil War
* Late 19th century
* 1900–1940
* 1950s
* 1960s
* 1970s
* 1980s
* 1990s
* 2000s
* 2010s
* 2020s

Genres

* Classical
* Jazz
* Country
* EDM
* Folk
* Bluegrass
* Hip hop
* Pop
* Rock
* R&B
* Techno
* Trap

Specific forms

Religious music

* Gospel music
* Christian pop

Ethnic music

* Native American
* Arapaho
* Blackfeet
* Inuit
* Iroquois
* Kiowa
* Navajo
* Pueblo
* Seminole
* Sioux
* Yuman

* Anglo-American
* Old-time
* Western

* African-American

* Celtic

* Spanish

* New Mexican

* Latin
* Tejano
* Puerto Rican

* Cajun and Creole

* Hawaiian

* Immigrant communities

Media and performance

Awards

* American Music Awards
* Grammy Awards
* Country Music Awards
* Gospel Music Awards
* Tejano Music Awards

Charts

* Billboard Music Chart
* American Top 40

Festivals

* Jazz Fest
* Lollapalooza
* Ozzfest
* Monterey Jazz Festival
* Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

Media

* Spin
* Rolling Stone
* Vibe
* DownBeat
* The Source
* XXL
* MTV
* VH1
* BET
* Revolt

Nationalistic and patriotic

National anthem

* The Star-Spangled Banner

Other

* American patriotic music

Regional

* AK
* AL
* AR
* AS
* AZ
* CA
* CO
* CT
* DC
* DE
* FL
* GA
* GU
* HI
* IA
* ID
* IL
* IN
* KS
* KY
* LA
* MA
* MD
* ME
* MI
* MN
* MO
* MP
* MS
* MT
* NC
* ND
* NE
* NH
* NM
* NV
* NJ
* NY
* OH
* OK
* OR
* PA
* PR
* RI
* SC
* SD
* TN
* TX
* UT
* VA
* VI
* VT
* WA
* WI
* WV
* WY

* United States portal
* Music portal

* v
* t
* e

Part of a series on

African Americans

History

|  Periods

* Timeline
* Atlantic slave trade
* Abolitionism in the United States
* Slavery in the colonial history of the US
* Revolutionary War
* Antebellum period
* Slavery and military history during the Civil War
* Reconstruction era
* Politicians
* Juneteenth
* Civil rights movement (1865–1896)
* Jim Crow era (1896–1954)
* Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
* Black power movement
* Post–civil rights era

Aspects

* Agriculture history
* Black Belt in the American South
* Business history
* Military history
* Treatment of the enslaved

Migrations

* Great Migration
* Second Great Migration
* New Great Migration

Culture

|  Lifeways

* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food

Schools

* Education during the slave period in the US
* Education of freed people during the Civil War
* History of African-American education, after the Civil War
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Fraternities

Academic study

* Studies
* Art
* Literature

Celebrations

* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Black History Month
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa

Economic class

* African-American businesses
* Middle class
* Upper class
* Billionaires

Symbols and ideas

* African-American beauty
* Black is beautiful
* Black pride
* African-American hair
* Good hair
* Stepping
* "Lift Every Voice and Sing"
* Self-determination

Religion

|  Institutions

* Black church

Theologies

* Black theology
* Womanist theology

Non-Christian groups

* Hoodoo
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* African-American Jews
* African-American Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Louisiana Voodoo
* African Diaspora Religions

Politics

|  Organizations

* Congressional Black Caucus
* Joint Center
* National Black Caucus of State Legislators
* National Conference of Black Mayors

Ideologies

* Afrocentrism
* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Garveyism
* Leftism
* Liberalism
* Nationalism
* Pan-Africanism
* Patriotism
* Populism
* Radicalism
* Socialism

Civic/economic groups

|  Organizations

* Association for the Study of African
American Life and History
* Black conductors
* NAACP
* National Black Chamber of Commerce
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Pan-Hellenic Council
* National Urban League
* TransAfrica
* UNCF

Sports

* Negro league baseball

Athletic associations and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* HBCU (HBCUAC)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Sub-communities

|  Multiethnic

* African-American Jews
* Afro-Puerto Ricans
* Alabama Creole people
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Mascogos
* Blaxicans
* Brass Ankles
* Creoles of color
* Dominickers
* Freedmen
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creoles
* Melungeon
* Carmel
* Redbone

Specific ancestries

* Americo-Liberians
* Creek Freedmen
* Gullah
* Merikins
* Nova Scotians
* Samaná Americans
* Sierra Leone Creole

Sexual orientation

* LGBT community

Dialects and languages

|  English dialects

* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* Liberian English
* Samaná English
* Tutnese

Languages and other dialects

* Gullah
* Afro-Seminole Creole
* Negro Dutch
* Black American Sign Language

Population

|  US states

* Alabama
* Arkansas
* California
* Florida
* Georgia
* Illinois
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Kansas
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* New York
* North Carolina
* Ohio
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Utah
* Virginia

US cities

* Black mecca
* List of neighborhoods
* Atlanta
* Baltimore
* Boston
* Chicago
* Dallas-Fort Worth
* Davenport
* Detroit
* Houston
* Jacksonville
* Kentucky
* Lexington
* Los Angeles
* New York City
* Omaha
* Philadelphia
* San Antonio
* San Francisco

Historic places

* District of Columbia
* Florida
* Georgia
* Mississippi
* Missouri
* Omaha, Nebraska
* North Carolina
* South Carolina
* Texas
* West Virginia

Population count

* US states and territories
* US metropolitan areas
* US cities
* US communities
* Places by plurality of population

Diaspora

* Africa
* Canada
* France
* Ghana
* Israel
* Liberia
* Nova Scotia
* Sierra Leone

Prejudice

|  Racism

* Black genocide
* Race and ethnicity in the US census
* Racism against Black Americans
* Reparations for slavery
* School segregation in the US
* Unarmed African Americans killed by police officers

Stereotypes and media depictions

* Blackface
* Criminal stereotypes
* Hollywood
* Magical Negro
* Minstrel show

* United States portal
* Category
* Index

* v
* t
* e

African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War.[1][2] It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."[3]

White slave owners subjugated their slaves physically, mentally, and spiritually through brutal and demeaning acts.[4] Some White Americans considered African Americans separate and unequal for centuries, going to extraordinary lengths to keep them oppressed. African-American slaves created a distinctive type of music that played an important role in the era of enslavement. Slave songs, commonly known as work songs, were used to combat the hardships of the physical labor. Work songs were also used to communicate with other slaves without the slave owner hearing. The song "Wade in the Water" was sung by slaves to warn others trying to leave to use the water to obscure their trail. Following the Civil War, African Americans employed playing European music in military bands developed a new style called ragtime that gradually evolved into jazz. Jazz incorporated the sophisticated polyrhythmic structure of dance and folk music of peoples from western and Sub-Saharan Africa. These musical forms had a wide-ranging influence on the development of music within the United States and around the world during the 20th century.[5][6]

Analyzing African music through the lens of European musicology can leave out much of the cultural use of sound and methods of music making. Some methods of African music making are translated more clearly though the music itself, and not in written form.[7]

Blues and ragtime were developed during the late 19th century through the fusion of West African vocalizations, which employed the natural harmonic series and blue notes. "If one considers the five criteria given by Waterman as cluster characteristics for West African music, one finds that three have been well documented as being characteristic of Afro-American music. Call-and-response organizational procedures, dominance of a percussive approach to music, and off-beat phrasing of melodic accents have been cited as typical of the genre in virtually every study of any kind of African-American music from work songs, field or street calls, shouts, and spirituals to blues and jazz."[8]

The roots of American popular music are deeply intertwined with African-American contributions and innovation. The earliest jazz and blues recordings emerged in the 1910s, marking the beginning of a transformative era in music. These genres were heavily influenced by African musical traditions, and they served as the foundation for many musical developments in the years to come.

As African-American musicians continued to shape the musical landscape, the 1940s witnessed the emergence of rhythm and blues (R&B). R&B became a pivotal genre, blending elements of jazz, blues, and gospel, and it laid the groundwork for the evolution of rock and roll in the following decade.[9]

## Historic traits

[edit]

The Banjo Lesson by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1893

Most slaves arrived to the Americas from the western coast of Africa.[10] This area encompasses modern-day Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia and parts of Sierra Leone.[10] Harmonic and rhythmic features from these areas, European musical instrumentation, and the chattel slavery forced upon Black Americans all contributed to their music.[11][12][13]

Many of the characteristic musical forms that define African-American music have historical precedents. These earlier forms include: field hollers, beat boxing, work song, Spoken Word, rapping, scatting, call and response, vocality (or special vocal effect: guttural effects, interpolated vocality, falsetto, melisma, vocal rhythmization), improvisation, blue notes, polyrhythms (syncopation, concrescence, tension, improvisation, percussion, swung note), texture (antiphony, homophony, polyphony, heterophony) and harmony (vernacular progressions; complex, multi-part harmony, as in spirituals, Doo Wop, and barbershop music).[14]

American composer Olly Wilson outlines "heterogeneous sound ideals"[15] that define traditional and common patterns in African Music, such as the use of timbre, pitch, volume and duration, and the incorporation of the body in making music. His findings include uses of call-and-response and the importance of interjections from the audience to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction.[16] These heterogeneous sound ideals are also found in many other types of music.

White people sometimes taught black slaves to play Western instruments such as the fiddle and violin.[17]

Due to the fact that white colonizers viewed indigenous African religious practices that included drumming and dancing as idolatrous, the enslaved individuals conducted their music-infused religious ceremonies in private. During the eighteenth century, the slaves' informal assemblies in praise houses and brush arbor meetings featured songs and chants such as the ring shout, a circular dance accompanied by chanting and handclapping. On occasion, the participants would enter into ecstatic trances.[18]

African-American music is also influenced by European music and Native American music.[19]

## History

[edit]

### 18th century

[edit]

See also: Work song § African-American work songs

In the late 18th century folk spirituals originated among Southern slaves following their conversion to Christianity. Slaves reinterpreted the practice of Christianity in a way that had meaning to them as Africans in America. They often sang the spirituals in groups as they worked the plantation fields. African-American spirituals (Negro Spirituals) were created in invisible churches and regular Black churches. The hymns, melody, and rhythms were similar to songs heard in West Africa. Enslaved and free blacks created their own words and tunes. Themes include the hardships of slavery and the hope of freedom.[20]

Spirituals from the era of slavery are called Slave Shout Songs. These shout songs are sung today by Gullah Geechee people and other African Americans in churches and praise houses. During slavery, these songs were coded messages that spoke of escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad and were sung by enslaved African Americans in plantation fields to send coded messages to other slaves, unbeknownst to the slaveholders.[21] According to musicologist and historian Eric Sean Crawford[22] who published Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands, Gullah music influenced all genres of American music. Crawford said: "All genres of music have been influenced by Gullah Geechee spirituals. This music's bent notes, syncopated rhythms, and improvisational qualities heavily influenced gospel and country music. These musical traits found a secular home in the blues, jazz, and even later popular styles like hip hop".[23] Scholar LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant explained Gullah spirituals are sacred music that connects Black Americans to ancestral spirits. She said: "I am suggesting that low country sacred music simultaneously takes on a cyclical and linear quality, which is best exemplified in the use of the low country clap, and the repetition of verses that literally push a song forward to invoke The Spirit. The rhythmic practices and theological motifs of this music suspend and push time by connecting with past traditions, while denoting a spiritual bond that is simultaneously ancestral, communal, and divine".[24]

Congo Square African Drum 1819 Latrobe

Slaves also used drums to communicate messages of escape. In West Africa, drums are used for communication, celebration, and spiritual ceremonies. West African people enslaved in the United States continued to make drums to send coded messages to other slaves across plantations. The making and use of drums by enslaved Africans was outlawed after the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739.[25] Enslaved African Americans used drums to send coded messages to start slave revolts, and white slaveholders banned the creation and use of drums. After the banning of drums, slaves made rhythmic music by slapping their knees, thighs, arms and other body parts, a practice called pattin Juba.[26][27] The Juba dance was originally brought by Kongo slaves to Charleston, South Carolina, and became an African-American plantation dance performed by slaves during gatherings when rhythm instruments were prohibited.[28][29]

Slave dance to banjo, 1780s

Folk spirituals, unlike much white gospel, were often spirited. Slaves added dancing (later known as "the shout") and other body movements to the singing. They also changed the melodies and rhythms of psalms and hymns, by speeding up the tempo, adding repeated refrains and choruses, and replacing texts with new ones that often combined English and African words and phrases. Originally passed down orally, folk spirituals have been central in the lives of African Americans for more than three centuries, serving religious, cultural, social, political, and historical functions.[30]

Folk spirituals were spontaneously created and performed in a repetitive, improvised style. The most common song structures are the call-and-response ("Blow, Gabriel") and repetitive choruses ("He Rose from the Dead"). The call-and-response is an alternating exchange between the soloist and the other singers. The soloist usually improvises a line to which the other singers respond, repeating the same phrase. Song interpretation incorporates the interjections of moans, cries, hollers, and changing vocal timbres, and can be accompanied by hand clapping and foot-stomping.

The Smithsonian Institution Folkways Recordings have samples of African American slave shout songs.[31]

### 19th century

[edit]

William Sidney Mount painted scenes of black and white American musicians. This 1856 painting depicts an African-American banjo player.

The influence of African Americans on mainstream American music began in the 19th 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. Over time the banjo's construction adopted some European traditions such as a flat fingerboard. Some banjos had five strings, in contrast to the West African three-string version. This resulted in the creation of several different types of banjos in the United States.[32]

In the 1830s, the Second Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian revivals, especially among African Americans. Drawing on traditional work songs, enslaved African Americans originated and performed a wide variety of spirituals and other Christian music. Some of these songs were coded messages of subversion against slaveholders, or signals to escape. For example, Harriet Tubman sang coded messages to her mother and other slaves in the field to let them know she was escaping on the Underground Railroad. Tubman sang: "I'm sorry I'm going to leave you, farewell, oh farewell; But I'll meet you in the morning, farewell, oh farewell, I'll meet you in the morning, I'm bound for the promised land, On the other side of Jordan, Bound for the Promised Land."[33][34][35]

During the period after the Civil War, the spread of African-American music continued. The Fisk University Jubilee Singers first toured in 1871. Artists including Jack Delaney helped revolutionize post-war African-American music in the central-east of the United States. In the following years, professional "jubilee" troops formed and toured. The first black musical-comedy troupe, Hyers Sisters Comic Opera Co., was organized in 1876.[36] In the last half of the 19th century, barbershops often served as community centers, where men would gather. Barbershop quartets originated with African-American men socializing in barbershops; they would harmonize while waiting their turn, singing spirituals, folk songs and popular songs. This generated a new style of unaccompanied four-part, close-harmony singing. Later, white minstrel singers stole the style, and in the early days of the recording industry their performances were recorded and sold. By the end of the 19th century, African-American music was an integral part of mainstream American culture.

### Early 20th century (1900s–1930s)

[edit]

The Slayton Jubilee Singers entertain employees of the Old Trusty Incubator Factory, Clay Center, about 1910

In a groundbreaking moment in 1898, Broadway witnessed the debut of the first musical created by African Americans, courtesy of Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. The musical landscape saw another milestone in 1890 with the first recording by black musicians—Bert Williams and George Walker—highlighting music from Broadway productions. Theodore Drury played a pivotal role in nurturing black talent in opera, establishing the Drury Opera Company in 1900. Despite its short run until 1908, the company left an indelible mark as the pioneer in black participation within opera. Fast forward to 1911, where Scott Joplin's trailblazing ragtime-folk opera, Treemonisha, took center stage, adding a unique and vibrant chapter to the history of African American contributions to the musical realm.[37]

The early part of the 20th century saw a rise in popularity of blues and jazz. African-American music at this time was classed as "race music".[38] Ralph Peer, musical director at Okeh Records, put records made by "foreign" groups under that label. At the time "race" was a term commonly used by the African-American press to speak of the community as a whole with an empowering point of view, as a person of "race" was one involved in fighting for equal rights.[39] Ragtime performers such as Scott Joplin became popular and some were associated with the Harlem Renaissance and early civil rights activists. White and Latino performers of African-American music were also visible. African-American music was often altered and diluted to be more palatable for white audiences, who would not have accepted black performers, leading to genres like swing music.

By the turn of the 20th century African Americans were becoming part of classical music as well. 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.[40] Black people also formed symphony orchestras in major cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, 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.[41] In the early 1910s, all-black music schools, such as the Music School Settlement for Colored and the Martin-Smith School of Music, were founded in New York.[42]

The Music School Settlement for Colored became a sponsor of the Clef Club orchestra 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 Reese Europe and William H. Tyers, the orchestra included banjos, mandolins, and baritone 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 Colored Music Festivals.[43]

The return of the black musical to Broadway occurred in 1921 with Sissle and Eubie 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. Handy's Orchestra and the Jubilee Singers. The first major film musical with a black cast was King Vidor's Hallelujah of 1929. African-American performers were featured 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 Bess and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts of 1934. From 1900 to 1930, Black American music underwent significant evolution, laying the foundation for many modern genres and profoundly shaping American culture. The early 1900s saw the rise of ragtime, characterized by its syncopated rhythms and popularized by artists like Scott Joplin. As the decade progressed, blues music emerged from the Deep South, with pioneers such as W.C. Handy, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith bringing the genre to a wider audience. The 1920s, known as the Jazz Age, witnessed the explosion of jazz, a genre that combined elements of blues, ragtime, and brass band music. Musicians like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and Duke Ellington became cultural icons, transforming jazz into a dominant artistic force through improvisation and swing.

This period also saw gospel music taking shape, influenced by the spirituals and hymns sung in Black churches. The Harlem Renaissance, a cultural and artistic movement centered in New York City, further propelled Black music into the mainstream, showcasing the talents of Black musicians and celebrating African American heritage. Despite systemic racism and limited opportunities, Black artists revolutionized the music industry. Their innovations during this era not only inspired the sounds of the 20th century but continue to resonate in music today, highlighting the resilience and creativity of the African American community.[citation needed]

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. Florence Beatrice Price's Symphony in E minor was performed in 1933 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.[44] In 1934, William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.[45]

### Mid-20th century (1940s–1960s)

[edit]

Marilyn Horne and Henry Lewis in 1961, photo by Carl Van Vechten

Billboard started making a separate list of hit records for African-American music in October 1942 with the "Harlem Hit Parade", which was changed in 1945 to "Race Records", and then in 1949 to "Rhythm and Blues Records".[46][47]

By the 1940s, cover versions of African-American songs were commonplace, frequently topping the charts while the original versions did not reach the mainstream. In 1955, Thurman Ruth persuaded a gospel group to sing in the Apollo Theater. This presentation of gospel music in a secular setting was successful, and he arranged gospel caravans that traveled around the country playing venues that rhythm and blues singers had popularized. Meanwhile, jazz performers began to move away from swing towards music with more intricate arrangements, more improvisation, and technically challenging forms. This culminated in bebop, the modal jazz of Miles Davis, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.[citation needed]

African-American musicians in the 1940s and 1950s were developing rhythm and blues into rock and roll, which featured a strong backbeat. Prominent exponents of this style included Louis Jordan and Wynonie Harris. Rock and roll music became commercially successful with recordings of white musicians, however, such as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, playing a guitar-based fusion of black rock and roll and rockabilly. Rock music became more associated with white artists, although some black performers such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had commercial success.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe performing at Cafe Zanzibar

In 2017, National Public Radio wrote about the career of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and concluded with these comments: Tharpe "was a gospel singer at heart who became a celebrity by forging a new path musically ... Through her unforgettable voice and gospel swing crossover style, Tharpe influenced a generation of musicians including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry and countless others ... She was, and is, an unmatched artist."[48]

As the 1940s came to a close, other African Americans endeavored to concertize as classical musicians in an effort to transcend racial and nationalistic barriers in the post-war era. In 1968 Henry Lewis became the first African-American instrumentalist in a leading American symphony orchestra, an early "musical ambassador" in support of cultural diplomacy in Europe, and the first African-American conductor of a major American symphonic ensemble in 1968.[49][50][51][52]

The term "rock and roll" had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but when DJ Alan Freed referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid 50s, "the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing".[53]

R&B was a strong influence on rock and roll, according to many sources, including a 1985 article in The Wall Street Journal titled, "Rock! It's Still Rhythm and Blues". The author states that the "two terms were used interchangeably", until about 1957.[54]

Fats Domino was not convinced that there was any new genre. In 1957 he said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans".[55] According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties".[56] Elvis Presley's recognition of the importance of artists such as Fats Domino was significant, according to a 2017 article: the "championing of black musicians as part of a narrative that saw many positives in growing young white interest in African American-based musical styles".[57] At a press event in 1969, Presley introduced Fats Domino, and said, "that's the real King of Rock 'n' Roll" ... a huge influence on me when I started out".[58]

By the mid-1950s, many R&B songs were getting "covered" by white artists and the recordings got more airplay on the mainstream radio stations. For example, "Presley quickly covered "Tutti Frutti" ...So did Pat Boone", according to New Yorker. "In 1956, seventy-six per cent of top R.&.B. songs also made the pop chart; in 1957, eighty-seven per cent made the pop chart; in 1958, it was ninety-four per cent. The marginal market had become the main market, and the majors had got into the act."[59]

The 1950s marked a significant uptick in the allure of blues, captivating audiences both in the US and across the pond in the UK, reminiscent of early 20th-century styles. Alongside this blues resurgence, Doo-wop center stage, enchanting listeners with its unique blend of vocal group harmonies, playful nonsense syllables, minimal instrumentation, and straightforward lyrics. Doo-wop, often featuring solo artists with backing groups, emphasized lead singers who played a prominent role in the musical arrangement. Simultaneously, a secularized version of American gospel music, known as soul, emerged in the mid-1950s, led by trailblazers like Ray Charles,[60] Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke.[61] This soulful wave had a profound impact, influencing not only surf music but also paving the way for chart-topping girl groups like The Angels and The Shangri-Las. In a dance revolution, 1959 saw Hank Ballard releasing a song tailored for the new dance craze, "The Twist", which would become a sensation defining the early '60s.[62]

In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, the first record label to primarily feature African-American artists, which aimed at achieving crossover success. The label developed an innovative, and commercially successful, style of soul music with distinctive pop elements. Its early roster included The Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and The Supremes.[63] Black divas such as Aretha Franklin became '60s crossover stars. In the UK, British blues became a gradually mainstream phenomenon, returning to the United States 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 modern aspects. WGIV in Charlotte, North Carolina, was one of a few radio stations dedicated to African-American music that started during this period.

The British Invasion knocked many black artists off the US pop charts, although some, like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and a number of Motown artists, continued to do well. Soul music, however, remained popular among black people through new forms such as funk, developed out of the innovations of James Brown.[64] In 1961, 11-year-old Stevland Hardaway Morris made his first record under Motown's Tamla label as Stevie Wonder.[65]

In 1964 the Civil Rights Act outlawed major forms of discrimination towards African Americans and women. As tensions began to diminish, more African-American musicians crossed over into the mainstream. Some artists who successfully crossed over were Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ella Fitzgerald in the pop and jazz worlds, and Leontyne Price and Kathleen Battle in classical music.

By the end of the decade, black people were part of the psychedelia and early heavy metal trends, particularly by way of the ubiquitous Beatles' influence and the electric guitar innovations of Jimi Hendrix.[66] 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 psychedelic rock and soul began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popular 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 Wonder in Innervisions.

### 1970s

[edit]

See also: Progressive soul and Hip hop music

In the 1970s, album-oriented soul continued its popularity while musicians such as Smokey Robinson helped turn it into Quiet Storm music. Funk evolved into two strands, a pop-soul-jazz-bass fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone, and a more psychedelic fusion epitomized by George Clinton and his P-Funk ensemble. Disco evolved from black musicians creating soul music with an up-tempo melody. Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Donna Summer, and others helped popularize disco, which gained mainstream success.

Some African-American artists including The Jackson 5, Roberta Flack, Teddy Pendergrass, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Earth, Wind & Fire found crossover audiences, while white listeners preferred country rock, singer-songwriters, stadium rock, soft rock, glam rock, and, to some degree, heavy metal and punk rock.

During the 1970s, The Dozens, an urban African-American tradition of using playful rhyming ridicule, developed into street jive in the early '70s, which in turn inspired hip-hop by the late 1970s. Spoken-word artists such as The Watts Prophets, The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron and Melvin Van Peebles were some innovators of early hip-hop. Many youths in the Bronx used this medium to communicate the unfairness minorities faced at the time. DJs played records, typically funk, while MCs introduced tracks to the dancing audience. Over time, DJs began isolating and repeating the percussion breaks, producing a constant, eminently danceable beat, over which MCs began rapping, using rhyme and sustained lyrics.[67] Hip-hop would become a multicultural movement in a youthful black America, led by artists such as Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC.

### 1980s

[edit]

Michael Jackson leaving the White House in 1984

Michael Jackson had record-breaking success with his 1980s albums Off the Wall, Bad, and the best-selling album of all time, Thriller. Jackson paved the way for other successful crossover black solo artists such as Prince, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson. Pop and dance-soul of this era inspired new jack swing by the end of the decade.[68]

Hip-hop spread across the country and diversified. Techno, dance, Miami bass, post-disco, Chicago house, Los Angeles hardcore and Washington, D.C. Go-go developed during this period, with only Miami bass achieving mainstream success. Before long, Miami bass was relegated primarily to the Southeastern US, while Chicago house had made strong headway on college campuses and dance arenas (i.e. the warehouse sound, the rave). Washington's Go-go garnered modest national attention with songs such as E.U.'s Da Butt (1988), but proved to be a mostly regional phenomena. Chicago house sound had expanded into the Detroit music environment and began using more electronic and industrial sounds, creating Detroit techno, acid, and jungle. The combination of these experimental, usually DJ-oriented, sounds with the multiethnic NYC disco sound from the 1970s and 1980s created a brand of music that was most appreciated in large discothèques in large cities. European audiences embraced this kind of electronic dance music with more enthusiasm than their North American counterparts.[citation needed]

DJ Jazzy Jeff pictured in 2002.

From about 1986, rap entered the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell, and the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill. Licensed to Ill was the first rap album to enter the No.1 Spot on the Billboard 200 and opened the door for white rappers. Both of these groups mixed rap and rock, appealing to both audiences. Hip-hop took off from its roots and the golden age hip hop flourished, with 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 the United States and became a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1990s. The golden age scene would end by the early 1990s as gangsta rap and G-funk took over, with West Coast artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Ice Cube, East Coast artists Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and Mobb Deep, and the sounds of urban black male bravado, compassion, and social awareness.[citation needed]

While heavy metal music was almost exclusively created by white performers in the 1970s and 1980s, there were a few exceptions. In 1988, all-black heavy metal band Living Colour achieved mainstream success with their début album Vivid, peaking at No. 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 Eurocentrism and racism in America. A decade later, more black artists like Lenny Kravitz, Body Count, Ben Harper, and countless others would start playing rock again.[citation needed]

### 1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and today

[edit]

This section needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2021)

|

Lil Wayne is one of the top selling black American musicians in modern history. In 2008, his album sold one million in its first week.

Contemporary R&B, the post-disco version of soul music, remained popular throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Male vocal groups such as The Temptations and The O'Jays were particularly popular, as well as 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.[69]

Singer-songwriters such as R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, Montell Jordan, D'Angelo, Aaliyah, and Raphael Saadiq of Tony! Toni! Toné! were also popular during the 1990s. Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, and BLACKstreet popularized a fusion blend known as hip-hop soul. The neo soul movement of the 1990s, with classic soul influences, was popularized in the late 1990s and early 2000s by such artists as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, India.Arie, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Bilal, and Musiq Soulchild. A record review claimed that D'Angelo's critically acclaimed album Voodoo (2000) "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, that slips out of every pore of these haunted songs."[70] Blue-eyed soul is soul music performed by white artists, including Michael McDonald, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Robin Thicke, Michael Bolton, Jon B., Lisa Stansfield, Teena Marie, Justin Timberlake, Joss Stone, George Michael, and Anastacia. Blue-eyed soul, typically executed by Caucasian musicians, is known for its infectious hooks and melodies. It emerged from a blend of rockabilly influenced by white artists Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, as well as doo wop inspired by Dion and The Four Seasons. Notable artists in this genre include Righteous Brothers, Hall & Oates, The Rascals, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Dusty Springfield, Boy George, and George Michael. David Bowie's Young Americans album is considered a significant late contribution to blue-eyed soul.[71]

Within underground circles, the Afro-punk movement garnered attention in the early 21st century, in large part due to the eponymous documentary released in 2003.[72] This movement, including an annual festival[73] has also contributed to bringing further light to the role of black people in punk rock since its origins in the 1970s.

Along with the singer-songwriter influence on hip-hop and R&B, there was an increase in creativity and expression through Rap music. Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G. ("Biggie"), N.W.A, Lil' Kim, Snoop Dogg, and Nas broke into the music industry. '90s rap introduced many other subgenres including Gangsta rap, Conscious rap, and Pop rap.[74] Gangsta rap focused on gang violence, drug dealing and poverty.[74] It was also a major player in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. Main players in this rivalry were Tupac and Suge Knight on the West Coast and The Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy on the East Coast.

Hip-hop remains a genre created and dominated by African-Americans. In its early years the lyrics were about the hardships of being black in the United States. White-owned record labels controlled how hip-hop was marketed, resulting in changes to the lyrics and culture of hip-hop to suit white audiences. Scholars and African-American hip-hop creators noticed this change. Hip-hop is used to sell cars, cell phones, and other merchandise.[75][76]

Edward Ray at Capitol Records

The hip-hop movement has become increasingly mainstream as the music industry has taken control of it. Essentially, "from the moment 'Rapper's Delight' went platinum, hiphop the folk culture became hiphop the American entertainment-industry sideshow."[77]

50 Cent in 2006. 50 Cent was one of the most popular African-American rappers of the 2000s.

In the early 2000s, 50 Cent was one of the most popular African-American artists. In 2005, his album The Massacre sold over one million albums in its first week. In 2008, Lil Wayne's album Tha Carter III also sold more than a million copies in its first week.[78]

Within a year of Michael Jackson's unexpected death in 2009, his estate generated $1.4 billion in revenues. A documentary containing rehearsal footage 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.[79]

In 2013, no African-American musician had a Billboard Hot 100 number one, the first year in which there was not a number-one record by an African-American in the chart's 55-year history.[80] J. Cole, Beyonce, Jay Z, and half-Canadian Drake, were all top-selling music artists this year, but none made it to the Billboard Hot 100's number one, leading to much debate.[81]

Black protest music went mainstream in the 2010s.[82] Beyoncé, her sister Solange, Kanye West and Frank Ocean released black protest albums. Beyoncé released her first "black protest" album Lemonade in 2016. The album was dedicated to Black Lives Matter.[83]

In 2020, Beyoncé released "Black Parade" during Juneteenth following the murder of George Floyd.[84] Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, The Game, Janelle Monae and D'Angelo and the Vanguard have also released music for Black Lives Matter.[85]

The global rise of Afrobeats has been notable, with artists like Boy?|Burna Boy and Rema achieving international acclaim. In 2022, Afrobeats songs collectively reached 13 billion streams on Spotify,[86] reflecting a 550% growth in listenership since 2017. This surge has influenced various aspects of popular culture, including fashion and dance, and has led to increased collaborations between African and Western artists, further enriching the musical landscape.

In the 2020s, African-American musicians have continued to make significant contributions to the global music scene. In 2025, Beyoncé made history at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards by winning Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter—her first win in the category after four previous nominations. She also became the first Black woman to win Best Country Album.[87] Meanwhile, Kendrick Lamar’s song Not Like Us won both Song of the Year and Record of the Year, making it the most awarded song in Grammy history. These milestones highlight the continued impact of Black artists in shaping modern music.

## Cultural impact

[edit]

Through the hybridization of African, European, and Native American cultural elements, African American music has made itself "a distinctly American phenomenon".[88]

### Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras (early to mid 20th century)

[edit]

The music made during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era awakened "the passion and purposefulness of the Southern Civil Rights Movement" that "provided a stirring musical accompaniment to the campaign for racial justice and equality".[89] African-American men, women, and children from across the nation came together in social settings such as marches, mass meetings, churches, and even jails and "conveyed the moral urgency of the freedom struggle".[89] African-American music served to uplift the spirits and hearts of those fighting for civil rights.[89] Guy Carawan referred to the Civil Rights Movement as "the greatest singing movement this country has experienced".[90]

#### "We Shall Overcome"

[edit]

Often called "the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement", "We Shall Overcome" was a hymn from the 19th-century that was used as a protest labor song in a labor strike against American Tobacco in Charleston, South Carolina in 1945–1946.[90][91] It was overheard by Zilhpia Horton in a Tennessee tobacco field on a picket line in 1946, and a worker by the name of Lucille Simmons changed the original wording of "I Will Overcome" to "We Will Overcome", which made it more powerful for the Civil Rights Movement.[90]

In 1947, Horton added some verses to the song and taught Pete Seeger her version.[90] Seeger revised the song from "We will" to "We shall".[91] In April 1960 at Raleigh, North Carolina, folk singer Guy Carawan sang the new version at the founding convention of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), starting its quick spread throughout the Civil Rights Movement.[90] Seeger, Carawan, and Frank Hamilton copyrighted the song to prevent it from becoming a "commercialized pop song".[90]

"We Shall Overcome" continued to spread rapidly as the Civil Rights Movement gained supporters and momentum.[91] Protestors across the nation sang the song as they marched for rights, were beat up, attacked by police dogs, and sent to jail for breaking segregation laws.[91] "We Shall Overcome" and many other protest songs during the Civil Rights movement became its soundtrack.[91] Outside of the U.S., the song has been used in freedom movements around the world.[91] In India, the song is known as "Hum Honge Kaamyaab", which is a song that most school children in India know by heart.[91]

### Harlem Cultural Festival (1969)

[edit]

The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of music concerts held in Harlem's Mount Morris Park in New York City. This festival "celebrated African-American music and culture and promoted the continued politics of Black pride".[92] At 3 pm on Sundays from June 29, 1969, to August 24, 1969, artists would perform to an audience of tens of thousands of people.[92] Such artists that performed were Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Sly and the Family Stone, The 5th Dimension, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, and many others.[92]

## Economic impact

[edit]

Record stores played a vital role in African-American communities for many decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, between 500 and 1,000 black-owned record stores operated in the American South, and probably twice as many in the United States as a whole. According to The Political economy of Black Music By Norman Kelley, "Black music exists in a neo-colonial relationship with the $12 billion music industry, which consist of six record companies." African-American entrepreneurs embraced record stores as key vehicles for economic empowerment and critical public spaces for black consumers at a time that many black-owned businesses were closing amid desegregation.[93] Countless African Americans have worked as musical performers, club owners, radio deejays, concert promoters, and record label owners. Many companies use African-American music to sell their products. Companies like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Pepsi have used African-American music in advertising.[94]

## International influence

[edit]

Jazz and hip-hop traveled to Africa and Asia and influenced other genres of African and Asian Music.[95] Many state that without African-American music, there would be no American music.[96] The songs that Africans brought to America created a foundation for American music.[96] The textural styles, slang and African-American Vernacular English influenced American pop culture and global culture. The way African Americans dress in hip-hop videos and how African Americans talk is copied in the American market and the global market.[97][98]

### Afrobeat

[edit]

Afrobeat is a Nigerian music genre created by Nigerian artist Fela Kuti. Afrobeat began during the early twentieth century from Nigeria with a combination of Highlife, Yoruba music and jazz.[99] The years between the wars (1918–1939) were a particularly fertile time for the formation of pan-West African urban musical traditions.[100] Kuti fused traditional West African music with African-American music of Jazz, R&B, and other genres of West African and African-American music.[101] James Brown's funk music, dance style, and African-American drumming influenced Afrobeat.[102] In London, Kuti joined jazz and rock bands, and returned to Nigeria, creating Afrobeat by fusing African-American and traditional Yoruba music with Highlife music. In 1969, Kuti toured the United States and became inspired by the political activism of African Americans. He studied the life of Malcolm X and was inspired by his pro-black speeches. This resulted in a change in Kuti's message as he began discussing the political issues in Africa and Nigeria.[103] In contrast, "Afrobeats" is a term applied to a large range of genres popular all over Africa. Music referred to as Afrobeats, in contrast to Kuti, is frequently upbeat, digitally generated, and sung in English, West African, and pidgin languages. Kuti's music was characterized by its political content and orchestral style, whereas Afrobeats took influence from many musical themes found in R&B and hip-hop, like love, sex, drugs, money, hard times, and fame.[104]

### Racial appropriation and insensitivity in K-pop music

[edit]

Hip-hop came to Korea in the 1990s and developed into Korean hip-hop and Korean K-pop music.[105] Some Korean artists have appropriated African-American vernacular and other aspects of Black culture.[106][107] Groups like the girl group Mamamoo have been known to dress in blackface, and others speak in "blaccents" and wear their hair in ethnic styles. Artist Zico has used the word nigger in his music, and has claimed that he has a "black soul."[108] As of 2020, within "K-pop, blackface, mouthing or saying racial slurs, and purely aesthetic uses of Black culture and hairstyles" were still common,[109] without necessarily understanding, honoring or crediting their African-American roots.[108] According to sources cited in a 2020 Guardian article, many K-pop artists do not show support for African-American social justice issues: "[M]any international fans are waiting for the industry to develop a more sensitive, globalized understanding of race."[109] In Korean there are phrases that have been misconstrued to sound like the a racial slur. These include the phrase "because of" (니까), pronounced 'nikka' and the word "you" or "you're" (니가), pronounced 'neega'.[110]

## See also

[edit]

* Music portal
* United States portal

* African-American culture
* African-American dance
* African-American musical theater
* Afro-Caribbean music
* Blackface
* Cultural appropriation
* Culture of Africa
* Culture of the United States
* Culture of the Southern United States
* Gandy dancer
* Groove (music)
* Juke joint
* List of musical genres of the African diaspora
* Music of Africa
* Music of the African diaspora
* Cajun music
* Creole music – Music genre preceding lala, zydeco, and cajun music
* Neo soul
* Music of Baltimore
* Music of Detroit
* Music of Georgia (U.S. state)
* Music of New Orleans
* Music of the United States
* National Museum of African American Music
* African-American women work songs
* African-American Music Appreciation Month – Annual celebration of African-American music in the US

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Tamberrino. "Responses to African-American Music During the Civil War". Virginia Lucas Poetry Scrapbook. Department of English at Virginia Tech. Retrieved June 25, 2022.
2. ^ Smithsonian Staff. "Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia The McIntosh County Shouters". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved May 23, 2021.
3. ^ Eaglin, Maya (February 21, 2021). "The soundtrack of history: How Black music has shaped American culture through time". NBC News. NBC News. Retrieved December 17, 2021.
4. ^ MORRIS, GEORGE (July 2017). "Unspeakable cruelty: Former slaves tell their stories in Southern University online listings". The Advocate. Retrieved November 28, 2022.
5. ^ Samuel, Floyd (1996). The Power of Black Music Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. Oxford University Press. p. 208\. ISBN 978-0-19-510975-7.
6. ^ Price, Tanya (2013). "Rhythms of Culture: Djembe and African Memory in African-American Cultural Traditions". Black Music Research Journal. 33 (2): 227–247\. doi:10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.2.0227. JSTOR 10.5406/blacmusiresej.33.2.0227. S2CID 191599752.
7. ^ "Black Music | Alexander Street, part of Clarivate". search.alexanderstreet.com. Retrieved November 29, 2022.
8. ^ Wilson, Olly (1974). "The Significance of the Relationship between Afro-American Music and West African Music". The Black Perspective in Music. 2 (1): 6. doi:10.2307/1214144. JSTOR 1214144.
9. ^ Maultsby, Mellonee V.; Burnim, Portia K. (2014). African American Music: An Introduction. Routledge. ISBN 9781317934424.
10. ^ a b Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-03843-9.
11. ^ Robinson (2015). "The Healing Element of the Spirituals" (PDF). Journal of Pan African Studies. 8 (7). Retrieved September 23, 2023.
12. ^ Smithsonian Staff. "Roots of African American Music". Smithsonian Music. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
13. ^ Seldon. "Spiritual Awakening: Exploring South Carolina's Official State Music". Discover South Carolina. South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
14. ^ Stewart, Earl L. (1998). African-American Music: An Introduction (1st ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning (formerly Schirmer Books; London: Prentice Hall International). pp. 5–15\. ISBN 9780028602943.
15. ^ Wilson, Olly. "The Heterogeneous Sound Ideal in African-American Music" (PDF).
16. ^ Avorgbedor, Daniel; Pyne, James (October 1, 1999). "Voiced noise: The heterogeneous sound ideal as preferred acoustic environment in selective sub-Saharan African instruments and ensembles". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 106 (4): 2169. Bibcode:1999ASAJ..106.2169A. doi:10.1121/1.427227. ISSN 0001-4966.
17. ^ Pina, Andrew (July 15, 2017). The Story of African American Music. Greenhaven Publishing LLC. ISBN 978-1-5345-6074-1.
18. ^ African American Song
19. ^ "Musical Crossroads: African American Influence on American Music". September 22, 2016.
20. ^ Blassingame, John (1980). The slave community. Oxford University Press. p. 138\. ISBN 978-0-19-502563-7.
21. ^ Twining, Mary Arnold (1985). "Movement and Dance on the Sea Islands". Journal of Black Studies. 15 (4): 471. doi:10.1177/002193478501500407. JSTOR 2784212. S2CID 143507385.
22. ^ "Eric Crawford". Coastal Carolina University. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
23. ^ "Q&A with Eric Crawford, author of Gullah Spirituals". www.uscpress.com. The University of South Carolina Press. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
24. ^ "Singing the Soul Free: Gullah/Geechee Religion and Practice". Black Perspectives. African American Intellectual History Society. April 19, 2016. Retrieved April 15, 2024.
25. ^ UN Staff. "Drums and Slavery". Department of Public Information, United Nations. United Nations. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
26. ^ Diouf, Sylviane. "What Islam Gave the Blues". Renovatio. Zaytuna College. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
27. ^ NPS Staff. "Performing Culture in Music & Dance". African American Heritage & Ethnography. National Park Service. Archived from the original on August 30, 2010. Retrieved December 18, 2021.
28. ^ Holloway, Joseph E. (March 3, 2019). Africanisms in American Culture. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0253217493.[page needed]
29. ^ Vlach (1990). The Afro-American Tradition in Decorative Arts. The University of Georgia Press. pp. 20–28\. ISBN 9780820312330.
30. ^ Maultsby, Portia. "A History of African American Music". Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved August 14, 2012.
31. ^ Smithsonian Staff. "Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia The McIntosh County Shouters". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Smithsonian Institution.
32. ^ Smithsonian Staff. "How has the Banjo Changed Over Time?". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Smithsonian Music. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
33. ^ Larson, Kate (2009). Bound for the Promised Land Harriet Tubman: Portrait of an American Hero. Random House Publishing Group. pp. 82–83, 101, 187–188\. ISBN 9780307514769.
34. ^ "The Superpower of Singing: Music and the Struggle Against Slavery". The National Park Service. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
35. ^ Wade, Phyllis. "Signal Songs of the Underground Railroad" (PDF). Smithsonian Associates. Retrieved January 12, 2024.
36. ^ Southern 221.
37. ^ Southern 221-2, 294.
38. ^ "Race Music". St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture by Matthew A. Killmeier 01/29/02. 2002.
39. ^ Brackett, David. The Pop, Rock and Soul Reader.
40. ^ Southern 266.
41. ^ Southern 291.
42. ^ Southern 288-9.
43. ^ Southern 285, 292.
44. ^ "American Symphony Orchestra – Symphony No. 1 in E minor (1932)". americansymphony.org.
45. ^ Southern 361.
46. ^ "The Elvic Oracle Did anyone invent rock and roll?". New Yorker. November 16, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2021. "pop, country-and-Western, and (a new term, replacing "race music") rhythm and blues."
47. ^ Bronson, Fred (June 12, 1993). "Songs, soul and fusion stage a comeback as A&R hops aboard the '70s love train". Billboard. Vol. 105, no. 24\. Nielsen Business Media. p. 47. Retrieved July 17, 2011.
48. ^ "Forebears: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Godmother Of Rock 'N' Roll". NPR. August 24, 2017. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
49. ^ Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2005). Africana – The Encyclopedia of the African & African American Experience. Oxford University Press. p. 563\. ISBN 978-0195170559.
50. ^ Brown, Emily Freeman (2015). A Dictionary for the Modern Conductor. Scarecrow Press. pp. 197, 211, 240, 311. ISBN 978-0-8108-8401-4.
51. ^ New Music New Allies Amy C. Beal, University of California Press, Berkeley, 2006, P. 49, ISBN 9780-520-24755-0 "Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra (1952–1962) performing works by Roy Harris, Morton Gould and Leroy Anderson" on https://books.google.com
52. ^ Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra – praised throughout Europe on https://books.google.com
53. ^ "The unexpected origins of music's most well-used terms". BBC. October 12, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2021. "its meaning covering both sex and dancing"
54. ^ Redd, Lawrence N. (March 1, 1985). "The Black Perspective in Music". The Wall Street Journal. 13 (1): 31–47\. doi:10.2307/1214792. JSTOR 1214792.
55. ^ Leight, Elias (October 26, 2017). "Paul McCartney Remembers 'Truly Magnificent' Fats Domino". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
56. ^ Palmer, Robert (April 19, 1990). "The 50s: A Decade of Music That Changed the World". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
57. ^ "Champion or copycat? Elvis Presley's ambiguous relationship with black America". The Conversation. August 14, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2021.
58. ^ "Remembering Fats Domino: The Beatles, Elvis Presley and the real king of rock 'n' roll". National Post. October 26, 2017. Retrieved March 15, 2021. "ut rock 'n' roll was here a long time before I came along. Let's face it: I can't sing like Fats Domino can. I know that.""
59. ^ "The Elvic Oracle Did anyone invent rock and roll?". New Yorker. November 16, 2015. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
60. ^ Ray Charles interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
61. ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 17 – The Soul Reformation: More on the evolution of rhythm and blues. [Part 3]" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
62. ^ "African American Song". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
63. ^ Motown artists interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1969)
64. ^ "Soul Reformation" artists interviewed on the Pop Chronicles (1970)
65. ^ "African American Song". Library of Congress. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
66. ^ Gilliland, John (1969). "Show 53 – String Man" (audio). Pop Chronicles. University of North Texas Libraries.
67. ^ "THE ROOTS OF HIP HOP – RM HIP HOP MAGAZINE 1986". Globaldarkness.com. Retrieved June 23, 2012.
68. ^ "History of New Jack Swing". Timeline of African American Music. Retrieved June 22, 2024.
69. ^ "18 Forgotten R&B Girl Groups Of The '90s". www.vh1.com. Retrieved June 18, 2024.
70. ^ "Review of Voodoo". NME: 42. February 14, 2000.
71. ^ Sfetcu, Nicolae (May 9, 2014). American Music. p. 297.
72. ^ "The History Of Afro-Punk – The Official Black Magazine". Retrieved October 17, 2024.
73. ^ Maloney, Devon (August 21, 2013). "Afropunk Started With a Documentary. Ten Years, Two Websites, and Eight Festivals Later..." The Village Voice. Retrieved October 17, 2024.
74. ^ a b "The Cause & Effect of 90's Hip Hop – Black Music Scholar". November 2, 2020. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
75. ^ Kopano, T. Brown (2014). Soul Thieves The Appropriation and Misrepresentation of African American Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 9–10, 35–40\. ISBN 9781137071392.
76. ^ Blackshear, Janise Marie (2007). Understanding the White, mainstream appeal of hip-hop music: Is it a fad or is it the real thing? (PDF) (MA thesis). University of Georgia. OCLC 319404361.
77. ^ Tate, Greg (January 4, 2005). "Hip-hop Turns 30: Whatcha Celebratin' For?", Village Voice.
78. ^ Seabrook III, Robby (March 3, 2020). "Here Are the Biggest First-Week Hip-Hop Album Sales over the Years". XXL.
79. ^ "Michael Jackson's wealth soars after death". Retrieved February 7, 2014.
80. ^ "Color Blind: No African-American Artists Had a No. 1 Hit in 2013". Time. January 10, 2014. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
81. ^ Gordon, Taylor (January 12, 2014). "No African-American Artists Topped Billboard's Hot 100, But What Does That Really Mean?". Atlanta Black Star. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
82. ^ Corry, Kristin (November 11, 2019). "The 2010s Were the Decade when Black Protest Music Went Mainstream". Vice.
83. ^ "A hip-hop historian explains Black Lives Matter — and Beyonce's 'Lemonade'". The Washington Post.
84. ^ The Historical And Cultural References In Beyoncé's 'Black Parade' Lyrics
85. ^ Black Lives Matter and Music
86. ^ Akan, Joey (August 26, 2024). "'There's never been a greater time to be a Nigerian artist': But is there room for the next Burna Boy?". The Guardian.
87. ^ Nicolaou, Anna (February 3, 2025). "Beyoncé finally wins Album of the Year at the Grammys". Financial Times.
88. ^ Lewis, Steven (September 2016). "Musical Crossroads: African American Influence on American Music".
89. ^ a b c Ward, Brian (March 23, 2012). ""People Get Ready": Music and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s".
90. ^ a b c d e f "Voices of Struggle: The Civil Rights movement, 1945 to 1965". Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
91. ^ a b c d e f g "We Shall Overcome". The Kennedy Center. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
92. ^ a b c "The Harlem Cultural Festival is Held". African American Registry. Retrieved December 5, 2022.
93. ^ Joshua Clark Davis, "For the Records: How African American Consumers and Music Retailers Created Commercial Public Space in the 1960s and 1970s South", Southern Cultures, Winter 2011.
94. ^ Blair, M. Elizabeth; Hatala, Mark N. (1992). "The Use of Rap Music in Children's Advertising". ACR North American Advances. NA-19.
95. ^ Nettle, Bruno (2016). Excursions in World Music, Seventh Edition. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9781317213741.[page needed]
96. ^ a b "Musical Crossroads: African American Influence on American Music". Smithsonian Music. September 22, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
97. ^ Keyes, Cheryl (2003). "The Aesthetic Significance of African American Sound Culture and Its Impact on American Popular Music Style and Industry". The World of Music. 45 (3): 105–129\. JSTOR 41699526.
98. ^ Kopano, T. Brown (2014). Soul Thieves The Appropriation and Misrepresentation of African American Popular Culture. Palgrave Macmallin. pp. 35, 41, 58. ISBN 9781137071392.
99. ^ MasterClass (July 15, 2021). "Guide to Afrobeat Music: A Brief History of Afrobeat". MasterClass. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
100. ^ Stewart, Alexander (2013). "Make It Funky: Fela Kuti, James Brown and the Invention of Afrobeat". American Studies. 52 (4): 99–118\. ISSN 0026-3079. JSTOR 24589271.
101. ^ Sturman, Janet, ed. (2019). The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture. Sage Publications. ISBN 9781506353371.[page needed]
102. ^ Stewart, Alexander (2013). "Make It Funky: Fela Kuti, James Brown and the Invention of Afrobeat". American Studies. 52 (4): 101–108\. doi:10.1353/ams.2013.0124. JSTOR 24589271. S2CID 145682238.
103. ^ "Fela Kuti Nigerian musician and activist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
104. ^ C.J, Mankaprr Conteh, Nelson; Conteh, Mankaprr; C.J, Nelson (January 12, 2022). "How Afrobeats is Making the World Listen". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 16, 2022.`{{cite magazine}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
105. ^ Anderson, Crystal (2020). Soul in Seoul African American Popular Music and K-pop. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781496830111.[page needed]
106. ^ Gardner, Hyniea (2019). The Impact of African-American Musicianship on South Korean Popular Music: Adoption, Appropriation, Hybridization, Integration, or Other? (MLA thesis). Harvard Extension School. Retrieved March 25, 2023.
107. ^ Joyce, Mickaela (February 8, 2021). "Black Voices: K-pop is influenced by Black culture, but lacks Black representation". Indiana Daily Student. Indiana University. Retrieved December 20, 2021.
108. ^ a b "The Commercialization of Black Hip-Hop and Rap Culture in K-Pop". Five Cent Sound. Retrieved November 16, 2022.
109. ^ a b Luna, Elizabeth de (July 20, 2020). "'They use our culture': the Black creatives and fans holding K-pop accountable". the Guardian. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
110. ^ Joseph (April 5, 2020). "Korean Conjunctions: Basic Sentence Connectors". 90 Day Korean. Retrieved December 12, 2022.

### Sources

[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 0-02-860294-3.
* Cobb, Charles E. Jr., "Traveling the Blues Highway", National Geographic Magazine, April 1999, v. 195, n.4
* Dixon, RMW & Godrich, J (1981), Blues and Gospel Records: 1902–1943, Storyville, London.
* Hamilton, Marybeth: In Search of the Blues.
* Leadbitter, M., & Slaven, N. (1968), Blues Records 1943–1966, Oak Publications, London.
* Ferris, William; Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues, University of North Carolina Press (2009). ISBN 0-8078-3325-8 ISBN 978-0807833254 (with 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). ISBN 0-306-80327-5 ISBN 978-0306803277
* Gioia, Ted; Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized 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 0-306-80883-8 ISBN 978-0-306-80883-8
* Palmer, Robert; Deep Blues: A Musical and Cultural History of the Mississippi Delta, 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 University 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]

* Work, John W., compiler (1940), American Negro Songs and Spirituals: a Comprehensive Collection of 230 Folk Songs, Religious and Secular, with a Foreword. Bonanza Books, New York. N.B.: Consists most notably of an analytical study of this repertory, on p. 1–46, an anthology of such music (words with the notated music, harmonized), on pp. 47–250, and a bibliography, on p. 252–256.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to African American music.

* A collection of African-American Gospel Music from the Library of Congress
* Shall We Gather at the River, a collection of African-American sacred music, made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida
* 20 historical milestones in African-American music
* "Negro Melodies" . New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
* History of African music
* The History of Black Music — A Love Supreme (w/ Guthrie P. Ramsey Jr.), part of the Teach the Black Freedom Struggle online series.

* v
* t
* e

African Americans

History|

* Timeline
* Abolitionism
* African American founding fathers
* Afrocentrism
* American Civil War
* Atlantic slave trade
* Black Codes
* Black cowboys
* Black genocide
* Black Lives Matter
* Brown v. Board of Education (1954)
* Children of the plantation
* Civil Rights Acts
* 1964
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* 1968
* Civil rights movement 1865–1896
* Civil right movement 1896–1954
* Civil rights movement 1954–1968
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle (1956)
* Sit-in movement
* Freedom Riders
* Birmingham movement
* March on Washington
* Freedom Summer
* Selma to Montgomery marches
* Chicago Freedom Movement
* Post–civil rights era
* Cornerstone Speech
* COVID-19 impact
* Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
* Free Negro
* Free people of color
* George Floyd protests
* Great Migration
* Second
* New
* Exodusters
* Inauguration of Barack Obama 2009 / Inauguration of Barack Obama 2013
* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching
* Military history
* Million Man March
* Nadir of American race relations
* The Negro Motorist Green Book
* Partus sequitur ventrem
* Plantations
* Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
* Reconstruction Amendments
* Reconstruction era
* Redlining
* Separate but equal
* Silent Parade
* Slavery
* Treatment of slaves
* Tulsa race massacre
* Underground Railroad
* Women's suffrage movement

Culture|

* Afrofuturism
* Art
* Black mecca
* Businesses
* Dance
* Family structure
* Film
* Folktales
* Hair
* Harlem Renaissance
* New Negro
* Hoodoo
* Juneteenth
* Kwanzaa
* LGBTQ community
* Literature
* Music
* Musical theater
* Names
* Negro National Anthem
* Neighborhoods
* Newspapers
* Soul food
* Stereotypes
* Middle class
* Upper class

Notable people|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Maya Angelou
* Crispus Attucks
* James Baldwin
* James Bevel
* Julian Bond
* Amelia Boynton
* James Bradley
* Carol Moseley Braun
* Edward Brooke
* Blanche Bruce
* Ralph Bunche
* George Washington Carver
* Shirley Chisholm
* Claudette Colvin
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Medgar Evers
* James Farmer
* Henry Highland Garnet
* Marcus Garvey
* Fred Gray
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Kamala Harris
* Jimi Hendrix
* Jesse Jackson
* Ketanji Brown Jackson
* Michael Jackson
* Harriet Jacobs
* Barbara Jordan
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Huddie Ledbetter
* John Lewis
* Joseph Lowery
* Malcolm X
* Thurgood Marshall
* Toni Morrison
* Bob Moses
* Diane Nash
* Barack Obama
* Michelle Obama
* Rosa Parks
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Colin Powell
* Gabriel Prosser
* Joseph Rainey
* A. Philip Randolph
* Hiram Revels
* Paul Robeson
* Al Sharpton
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Clarence Thomas
* Emmett Till
* Sojourner Truth
* Harriet Tubman
* Nat Turner
* Denmark Vesey
* C. T. Vivian
* David Walker
* Booker T. Washington
* Ida B. Wells
* Roy Wilkins
* Oprah Winfrey
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young

Education, science
and technology|

* Black studies
* Black schools
* Historically black colleges and universities
* Inventors and scientists
* Museums
* Women
* in computer science
* in medicine
* in STEM fields

Religion|

* African-American Jews
* Islam
* American Society of Muslims
* Nation of Islam
* Black church
* Azusa Street Revival
* Black Hebrew Israelites
* Black theology
* Doctrine of Father Divine

Political movements|

* Anarchism
* Back-to-Africa movement
* Black power
* Movement
* Capitalism
* Conservatism
* Leftism
* Pan-Africanism
* Populism
* Raised fist
* Self-determination
* Nationalism
* Socialism

Civic and economic
groups

* Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
* Black Panther Party
* Committee to Eliminate Media Offensive to African People (CEMOTAP)
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
* Nashville Student Movement
* National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC)
* National Council of Negro Women (NCNW)
* National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC)
* National Urban League (NUL)
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* Thurgood Marshall College Fund
* United Negro College Fund (UNCF)
* Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL)

Sports|

* Negro league baseball
* Baseball color line
* Black players in professional American football
* Black NFL quarterbacks
* Black players in ice hockey
* Muhammad Ali
* Arthur Ashe
* Jack Johnson
* Joe Louis
* Jesse Owens
* Jackie Robinson
* Serena Williams

Athletic associations
and conferences

* Central (CIAA)
* Mid-Eastern (MEAC)
* Southern (SIAC)
* Southwestern (SWAC)

Ethnic subdivisions|

* By African descent
* Fula
* Gullah
* Igbo
* Yoruba
* Alabama Creole
* Black Indians
* Black Seminoles
* Cherokee Freedmen
* Choctaw Freedmen
* Creek Freedmen
* Black Southerners
* Blaxicans
* Great Dismal Swamp maroons
* Louisiana Creole
* of color
* Melungeon

Demographics|

* Neighborhoods
* list
* U.S. cities with large populations
* 2000 majorities
* 2010 majorities
* Metropolitan areas
* States and territories

Languages|

* Afro-Seminole Creole
* American Sign
* Black American Sign
* English
* American English
* African-American English
* African-American Vernacular English
* social context
* Gullah
* Louisiana Creole

By state/city|

* Alabama
* Arkansas
* California
* Los Angeles
* San Francisco
* Florida
* Jacksonville
* Tallahassee
* Georgia
* Atlanta
* Hawaii
* Illinois
* Chicago
* Indiana
* Iowa
* Davenport
* Kansas
* Kentucky
* Lexington
* Louisiana
* Maryland
* Baltimore
* Massachusetts
* Boston
* Michigan
* Detroit
* Mississippi
* Nebraska
* Omaha
* New Jersey
* New York
* New York City
* North Carolina
* Ohio
* Cleveland
* Oklahoma
* Oregon
* Pennsylvania
* Philadelphia
* Puerto Rico
* South Carolina
* South Dakota
* Tennessee
* Texas
* Austin
* Dallas–Fort Worth
* Houston
* San Antonio
* Utah
* Virginia
* West Virginia

Diaspora|

* Africa
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Liberia
* Sierra Leone
* America
* Canada
* Dominican Republic
* Haiti
* Mexico
* Trinidad and Tobago
* Israel
* Europe
* France

Lists|

* African Americans
* Activists
* Actors
* Astronauts
* Billionaires
* Journalists
* Jurists
* Mathematicians
* Republicans
* Singers
* Sportspeople
* Spingarn Medal winners
* US cabinet members
* US representatives
* US senators
* Visual artists
* Writers
* African-American firsts
* Mayors
* Sports firsts
* US state firsts
* Historic places
* Index of related articles
* Landmark African-American legislation
* Lynching victims
* Monuments
* Neighborhoods
* Topics related to the African diaspora

* Category
* United States portal

* v
* t
* e

Black American music (timeline)

American folk music series

Early 20th century

* Call and response
* Field holler
* Spirituals
* Gospel
* Blues
* Boogie-woogie
* Ragtime
* Jazz
* Swing

1940s

* Bebop
* Doo-wop
* Rhythm and blues

1950s

* Rock and roll
* Rock
* Soul

1960s

* Motown
* Funk
* Psychedelic soul

1970s

* Disco
* Go-go
* Hip-hop
* Garage house
* Rapping

1980s

* Electro
* House
* Techno

1990s

* New jack swing
* Chopped and screwed
* Neo soul

2000s

* Crunk
* Snap music
* Hyphy

2010s

* Trap music
* Drill music

Legacy|

* Contemporary R&B
* Urban (industry term)

Elsewhere|

* Chillwave
* Dance-pop
* Synth-pop
* K-pop
* Vaporwave
* UK garage

* Category
* United States portal
* Rhythm and blues portal

* v
* t
* e

American folk music

* Appalachian
* Old-time
* Cajun
* Swamp pop
* Folk revival (1950s–60s)
* Native American
* New Mexico
* Red dirt
* Tejano
* Western

African-American music|

* Blues
* Jazz
* Dixieland
* Creole
* Zydeco
* Jug
* Ragtime
* Spirituals
* Gospel

Country music|

* Americana
* Roots rock
* Bluegrass
* Honky-tonk
* Rockabilly
* Western swing

* v
* t
* e

Banjo

Technique|

* Roll
* Clawhammer
* Drone
* G run
* Keith style
* Scruggs style

Family instruments|

* Banjo
* Banjo guitar
* Banjo ukulele
* Mandolin-banjo
* Bass banjo
* Banjeaurine

Genres|

* African-American
* Bluegrass
* Country
* Folk
* Jazz
* Minstrel
* Old-time
* Traditional Irish

People|

* Four-String Banjo Hall of Fame Members
* Allison Brown
* J.D. Crowe
* Béla Fleck
* Rhiannon Giddens
* Bill Keith
* Steve Martin
* Don Reno
* Earl Scruggs
* Pete Seeger
* Ralph Stanley
* Emily Strayer
* Tony Trischka
* Molly Tuttle
* Abigail Washburn

Manufacturers|

* Clifford Essex
* Deering Banjo Company
* Framus
* Favilla Guitars
* Gibson
* Gretsch
* Ibanez
* Slingerland

International variants|

* Cümbüş

Authority control databases

National|

* United States
* Japan
* Czech Republic
* Spain
* Latvia
* Israel

Other|

* Yale LUX

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template