American Music is African

Volume 2 Number 3: African Music in the United States

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

The third issue of our second year is all about US.

As slaves were brought from Africa into what would become The United States, 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. In the Twentieth century, African Americans not only created jazz, R&B, Soul, Rock, Funk, and Rap, but they contributed heartily to Symphony and Opera as well.

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.’