African American music

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African American music is a collective term for those musical cultures in South , North and Central America, including the Caribbean , that have been heavily influenced by traditional African music . The history of these musical cultures is closely linked to the history of slavery and the Atlantic triangular trade since the 16th century.

Common features of all African American styles of music

Special features of African-American music that come from the African musical tradition are: question and answer motifs , strong emphasis on percussion , polyrhythmics and polyphony , syncopation , chord progression and improvisations . The latter can affect every aspect of music, be it structure, melody, harmony or rhythm. In the singing , effects with the palate , singing called in during the piece, fistulous voice , blue note and afro- melismas are typical. In Brazil, Cuba and other Latin American countries, original African musical instruments (mostly drums), songs in the West African language Yoruba and references to the Afro-American religions are common. These traditions were suppressed and demolished in the United States.

North America

The term “Afro-American music” is also used synonymously for so-called black music, especially in the United States , and in this narrower sense differentiated from Afro-Latin American music .

The slaves who were abducted from Africa to America to work in the cotton fields mixed their musical traditions with polka , waltz and other European musical styles. From the chants in the cotton fields (call & response), the blues developed at the beginning of the 20th century, which was initially only native to the southern states. With the migration of many African Americans from the rural south to the industrialized north (Chicago, Detroit ...) and the electrical amplification of the music that developed here, the style of Chicago blues emerged. From this the rhythm 'n' blues developed in the 1940s, which was mainly adapted by white musicians to rock 'n' roll. The advancement of this music led to rock, hard rock, punk, grunge, metal, etc.

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The European influence in the New Orleans area and its mixing with the original blues led to the emergence of jazz. And the influence of Afro-American church music when it merged with the blues was the hour of birth of soul and thus of disco, funk, hip-hop and other modern music styles.

Thus, the original African American music in North America is the cradle of much of the music of the past 100 years.

The following styles of music belong to African American music:

Middle and South America

The musical styles of the Caribbean are almost all rooted in African traditions. Especially the Cuban , Haitian and Jamaican music is of particular importance. On the Central American mainland, however, the African musical heritage plays a rather minor role compared to that of the Indians . Only Panama , Costa Rica and Belize have significant proportions of African descent in the population .

In South America , Brazilian music in particular has an African tradition. In addition, the music of Guyana , Suriname , French Guiana , Venezuela and Colombia is influenced to a greater extent by African musical traditions. The African heritage is less pronounced in the music of Uruguay , Bolivia and Peru . In the rest of South America, slavery played a minor role, so that the proportion of the population of African descent is very small here and therefore also the African influence, for example on Argentine music .

literature

  • Gerhard Kubik , Tiago de Oliveira Pinto: Afro-American Music , in: MGG Online, ed. by Laurenz Lütteken, Kassel, Stuttgart, New York: 2016ff., published February 28, 2016
  • Africa in America. Edited by Corinna Raddatz. Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde, Gütersloh 1992, DNB 94943860X .
  • Eileen Southern: The Music of Black Americans. 3. Edition. WW Norton & Company, 1997, ISBN 0-393-97141-4 .
  • Earl L. Stewart: African American music: an introduction. Schirmer Books, New York 1998, ISBN 0-02-860294-3 .
  • Jacqueline Cogdell DjeDje (Ed.): Turn up the volume! A celebration of African music. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, Los Angeles 1999, ISBN 0-930741-76-5 .
  • Manfred Miller: About Blues and Groove - African American Music in the 20th Century. Heupferd Musik Verlag, Dreieich 2017, ISBN 978-3-923445-18-9 .

swell

  1. ^ Earl L. Stewart: African American music: an introduction. Schirmer Books, New York 1998, pp. 5-15.