The Heart of All Music in the New World is African

Volume 2 Number 2: Music in the Diaspora

And so we continue our second year of African Music in the New World!

The second issue of our second year is all about the many types of music that can be found in the U.S, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

As slaves were brought from Africa into what would become the U.S. and Latin America, they brought their music to this new world. In the nineteenth century, Africans and African Americans created new styles of American Music like Spirituals, Ragtimes, and Blues. Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean today, so much of what we hear, from Regge to Rap and Calypso to Salsa, stems originally from Africa.

Today, most music throughout the U.S contains many African traits. The Story Map Below presents a brief discussion of African Music in the New World. It shows images of instruments, as well as audio and video clips of African and New World musical styles pinned to specific places on a map. Because these images are tied to specific locations, this Story Map can help explain the strong connections between music in two such far flung places through a history of more than three hundred years.

If you do not see a story map below, click on the box that says ‘Show Embed.’