A Brief History of African Music Through the Colonial Period

American history was radically changed when President Abraham Lincoln gave the very famous Emancipation Proclamation. This lead to the freedom of millions of African Americans who sought the same liberty and equality that was promised to everyone under the United States constitution. These liberties, of course, were not achieved right away. During the Reconstruction era, which is the decade right after the Civil War, many of the recently freed slaves did not have money, property, or credit. They could not buy the necessary things to enjoy their freedom, which lead to sharecropping, a glorified form of slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner lets a tenant use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land (Sharecropping).. Added on to this, facilities were segregated to prevent the black man from enjoying the same things as the white man due to Jim Crow laws which were enacted after the Reconstruction era. The struggle for equality and rights continued during the Gilded Age (1873-1900), the Progressive Era (1900-1920s), the Great Depression (1930s), WWII (1939-1945), the beginning of the Cold War (1947), up until the Civil Rights movement (1954-1968). At this point in history, African Americans fought for their rights and changed the course of American history. Music was a very important tool used by African Americans that helped achieve this. Ever since the slavery times, music was a big part of their culture

Music was tied to the black identity because of the historical significance that songs had. Slaves had not lost their interest in music when the owners forced them to work on plantations, and their songs were one of the few things that slave owners could not take away from them. [!crendentials] Eileen Southern discussed how slaves were part of the musical tradition even during the colonial era. Slaves sang their own music for recreation, but they also sang psalms and hymns from the Bible and performed for their masters. While living in captivity, music was one of the few areas of life in which slaves had autonomy. In addition to having group time away from their physical tasks, the structure of the songs allowed for more bonding because of

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

From the 1500s to the 1700s, African blacks, mainly from the area of West Africa (today's Senegal, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Gambia, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Dahomey, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gabon) were shipped as slaves to North America, Brazil, and the West Indies. For them, local and tribal differences, and even varying cultural backgrounds, soon melded into one common concern for the suffering they all endured. Music, songs, and dances as well as remembered traditional food, helped not only to uplift them but also quite unintentionally added immeasurably to the culture around them. In the approximately 300 years that blacks have made their homes in North America, the West Indies, and Brazil, their highly honed art

The Untold Story Behind Slave Spirituals Music can be used as a powerful tool to help us combat the sorrows and evils of our lives. The slaves in early American history used music to help themselves endure their difficult way of life. The slaves used their music, called spirituals, in many different settings and for many different purposes. The African Americans sang around campfires, for church worship, and in hidden meetings called bush meetings or camp meetings. African slave spirituals gave meaning and light to a slave's life, had hidden meanings buried in the words, and described the conditions and situations of slaves everyday life.

Thesis: Despite the oppression of slavery, African Americans were able to keep their culture alive through their music and oral traditions.

In ancient African civilizations music took precedence in all activities that the tribes participated in. There was a song for every celebration, every birth, and every death. As Africans were enslaved and moved to North America by Europeans, many customs and traditions followed with them. As their culture was stripped from them and European ideals were placed upon them, they kept song as their universal language and their link to the motherland. From early on, slave songs also known as “Negro Spirituals” were the first inclination of what could be considered African American music. These songs were largely influenced by the conversion of many Africans to Christianity, and generally held a religious overtone. As slavery came and went and

The roots of modern american rock and roll music, are firmly planted in Africa. As the native Africans were torn apart from their family’s and brought to the new world their lives were immediately and drastically changed forever. Finding themselves immersed in a completely new environment with a foreign culture, they thankfully persevered and carried on with their own traditions and most importantly to this paper, musical ones. Most American slaves originated from Western and Central Africa. The West Africans carried a musical tradition rich with long melody lines, complicated rhythms (poly rhythmics) and stringed instruments CITATION. The West Africans music was also strongly integrated into their everyday lives. Songs were preformed for religious ceremonies and dances and music was often a

Music has made an impact on all levels in history. The early days of jazz provided many styles which highlighted the talent and innovation of African American music including Ragtime and Dixieland. Ragtime also

artists and the soul artists provided a rich resource for the succeeding style of music

Europe was not the only part of the world that experienced change in music. The United States also began a change in music that drastically improved the way we listen to, compose, and disperse music. Before the 1960s, there was an increase in different types of music that displayed characteristics much different from the nineteenth century and beyond. People began to play with tone, timing, rhythm and much more.

The songs were developed to reduce the level of boredom and increase production, these songs created a sense of familiarity and togetherness among workers. The African American work songs were created during the slave era in the seventeenth century; many had their origin in traditions of Africa and were sung to remind them of home or ordered by their masters to boost morale and keep slaves working. They have also been seen as means of endurance, expressing of anger and frustration via verbal signals. Some aspects like call and response were said to be rooted in African tradition, where a leader could sing a verse and be repeated by the greater mass. This eventually led to spirituality development which acted as a basis for Christianity leading to modern day gospels and blues.

The art of improvisation traces back to early African and European roots which eventually influenced jazz musicians to produce what we hear today. We cannot know for sure where the early African traditions for improvisations spawned from, but we do know that African traditions heavily influenced the blues and jazz. Some of the earliest examples of improvisation come from a drum ensemble of Ghana and the Mandinka tribe. African singing was among the most influential for its improvisations which helped develop African Blues singing. Singers began to manipulate pitch and single sustained tones. This imagination and creativity led to singers altering rhythms and melodies as well as changing the timing of tones. Eventually, these creative manipulations led to some of the first rhythmic displacement which would be perfected and widely used in early jazz.

The history of American music begins with a fundamental process of exchange through all different social lines, where diverse cultures meet, and mix. Music has and always will be defined as sounds that are arranged in a particular pattern that are played to be meaningful and pleasurable. The chronology of music began in the Medieval period, when chanting was introduced into the Church. Music has then moved its way through many stages: renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic and leading up to 20th century American music. American 20th century music is made up of a diverse number of styles that are reflected by cultural traditions and the era’s of the past. Immigrants from Spain, France, England, Germany and Ireland all contributed and brought their own unique styles to the forefront, hence creating American music. African Americans created influential musical traditions that include rhythm and improvisation that were later combined with European traditions and other indigenous music.

Cultural forms practiced by African slaves on the plantations included music, dance, festivals, food and religion. Music, to slaves was a form of expression of a people who had hope. Music was expressed in the form of singing and drumming. Although the drum seemed like a simple piece