African American music
Encyclopedia
African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of music
s and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African American
s, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States
. Many of their ancestors were originally brought to North America
to work as enslaved peoples
, bringing with them polyrhythmic songs from hundreds of black African ethnic group
s across West
and sub-Saharan Africa
. With the convergence in the United States of peoples from different regions, multiple cultural traditions merged with influences from polka
, waltz
es and other Europe
an music. Later periods saw considerable innovation and change. African-American genres have been highly influential across socio-economic and racial groupings internationally, and has also enjoyed popularity on a global level. African-American music and all aspects of African American culture
are celebrated during Black History Month
in February of each year in the United States
.
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. In the 1830s, the Second Great Awakening
led to a rise in Christian revivals and pietism
, especially among African Americans. Drawing on traditional work song
s, enslaved African Americans originated and began performing a wide variety of Spirituals and other Christian music
. Many of these songs were coded messages of subversion against slaveholders, or that signaled escape.
During the period after the Civil War, the spread of African-American music continued. The Fisk University Jubilee Singers
toured first in 1871. Artists including Morris Hill and Jack Delaney helped revolutionize post-war African-American music in the central-east of the United States. In the following years, the Hampton Students and professional "jubilee" troops formed and toured. The first black musical-comedy troupe, Hyers Sisters
Comic Opera Co., was organized in 1876.
By the end of the 19th century, African-American music was an integral part of mainstream American culture.
In early 20th-century American theater, the first musicals written and produced by African Americans debuted on Broadway in 1898 with A Trip to Coontown by Bob Cole
and Billy Johnson. In 1901, the first known recording of black musicians was that of Bert Williams
and George Walker
; this set featured music from Broadway musicals. Theodore Drury played a very significant role helping blacks emerge in the opera field. He founded the Drury Opera Company in 1900 and, although he used a white orchestra, featured black singers in leading roles and choruses. Although this company was only active from 1900 to 1908, black singers' opportunities with Drury marked the first black participation in opera companies. Also significant is Scott Joplin
's opera, Treemonisha
, which is unique as a black jazz-folk opera; it was first performed in 1911.
The early part of the 20th century saw a constant rise in popularity of African-American blues
and jazz
. African-American music at this time was classed as "race music". 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". Also, developments in the fields of visual arts and the Harlem Renaissance
led to developments in music. Ragtime
performers such as Scott Joplin
became popular and some became associated with the Harlem Renaissance
and early civil rights
activists. In addition, white and Latino performers of African-American music were visible, rooted in the history of cross-cultural communication between the United States' races. African-American music was often adapted for white audiences, who would not have as readily accepted black performers, leading to genres like swing music, a pop-based outgrowth of jazz.
In addition, African Americans were making dramatic strides in the realm of concert music at the turn of the 20th century. While originally excluded from major symphony orchestras, black musicians could study in music conservatories that had been founded in the 1860s; some include the Oberlin School of Music
, National Conservatory of Music
, and the New England Conservatory. Blacks also formed their own symphony orchestras at the turn of the 20th century in major cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia; various black orchestras began to perform regularly in the late 1890s-early 20th century. In 1906, the first incorporated black orchestra in the nation was established in Philadelphia. A few years later in the early 1910s, some all-black music schools, such as the Music School Settlement for Colored
and the Martin-Smith School of Music, were founded in New York.
The Music School Settlement for Colored became a strong sponsor of the famous Clef Club
orchestra in New York. The Clef Club
Symphony Orchestra attracted both black and white audiences to concerts at Carnegie Hall
from 1912–15. Conducted by James Reese Europe
and William H. Tyers, the orchestra uniquely included banjos, mandolins, and baritone horns. Concerts featured music written by black composers, notably Harry T. Burleigh
, Will Marion Cook
, and Europe, the conductor. Other annual black concert series include the William Hackney “All-Colored Composers” concerts in Chicago and the Atlanta Colored Music Festivals.
The return of the black musical to Broadway occurred in 1921 with Sissle and 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 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 Thompson
's Four Saints in Three Acts
of 1934.
The first Symphony by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra was William Grant Still
's Afro-American Symphony (19xx) by the New York Philharmonic
. Also in 1934 William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony was the second work by an African-American composer to be performed by a major orchestra – the Philadelphia Orchestra.
African Americans were the pioneers of jazz
music, through masters such as Jelly Roll Morton
, James P. Johnson
, Louis Armstrong
, Count Basie
, Fletcher Henderson
, and Duke Ellington
.
s of African American songs were commonplace, and frequently topped the charts, while the original musicians found success among their African American audience, but not in mainstream. In 1955, Thurman Ruth
persuaded a gospel group to sing in a secular setting, the Apollo Theater
, with such success that he subsequently arranged gospel caravans that traveled around the country, playing the same venues that rhythm and blues
singers had popularized. Meanwhile, jazz performers began to push jazz away from a danceable popular music towards more intricate arrangements, improvisation, and technically challenging forms, culminating in the bebop
of Charlie Parker
, Dizzy Gillespie
, the cool sounds and modal jazz
of Miles Davis
, and the free jazz
of Ornette Coleman
and John Coltrane
.
African Americans in the 1940s and 1950s were developing an outgrowth of rhythm and blues into a genre called rock and roll
, which featured a very strong backbeat and whose prominent exponents included Louis Jordan
and Wynonie Harris
. However, it was with white musicians such as Bill Haley
and Elvis Presley
, playing a guitar-based fusion of black rock and roll with country music called rockabilly
, that rock music became commercially appealing. Rock music thereafter became more associated with white people, though it did give some black people, such as Chuck Berry
and Bo Diddley
, a high level of commercial success.
The late 1950s also saw vastly increased popularity of hard blues
from the earliest part of the century, both in the United States and United Kingdom
. The '50s also saw doo-wop
become popular. A secularized form of American gospel music
called soul
also developed, with pioneers like Ray Charles
and Sam Cooke
leading the wave. Soul and R&B became a major influence on surf
, as well as the chart-topping girl group
s like The Angels
and The Shangri-Las
, only some of whom were white. In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records
, the first record label to primarily feature African-American artists 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
, and The Temptations
, The Supremes
, and others. Black diva
s such as Aretha Franklin
became '60s crossover stars. In the UK, British blues
became a gradually mainstream phenomenon, returning to the USA 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 modernized aspects.
The British Invasion knocked many black bands off the charts, with only a handful of groups, including The Mamas & the Papas
and some Motown artists, maintaining a pop career. Soul music, however, remained popular among blacks through highly-evolved forms such as Funk
developed through the innovations of James Brown.
By the end of the decade, Blacks were part of the psychedelia and early heavy metal
trends, particularly Jimi Hendrix
. Hendrix was himself the primary innovator on the electric guitar
, and was the first guitarists to use effects pedals such as the wah wah pedal. Psychedelic soul
began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popular among blacks and with more crossover appeal, was album-oriented soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which revolutionized African American music with intelligent and introspective -lyrics, often with a socially aware tone. Marvin Gaye
's What's Going On
is perhaps the best remembered of this field.
helped turn it into Quiet Storm
music. Funk evolved into two strands, one a pop-soul-jazz-bass fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone
, and the other a more experimental psychedelic and metal fusion epitomized by George Clinton
and his P-Funk
ensemble.
Black musicians achieved generally little mainstream success, though some African American artists including The Jackson 5
, Roberta Flack
, Dionne Warwick
, Stevie Wonder
, The O'Jays
, Gladys Knight & the Pips
found crossover audiences. White listeners preferred country rock
, singer-songwriter
s, stadium rock, soft rock
, glam rock
, and, in some subcultures, heavy metal
and punk rock
. The disco
era was popularized by Barry White
and Donna Summer
, among others. However, this music was integrated into popular music in a way it had never been before.
The dozens
, an urban African-American tradition of using playful rhyming ridicule
, developed into street jive in the early '70s, which in turn inspired a new form of music by the late 1970s: hip-hop. Black nationalism
-inspired spoken word
poets such as The Last Poets
and Gil Scott-Heron
are also cited as the major innovators in early hip-hop. Beginning at block parties
in The Bronx
, hip-hop music arose as one facet of a large subculture with rebellious and progressive elements. DJs spun records, most typically funk, while MC
s introduced tracks to the dancing audience. Over time, DJs, particularly Jamaica
n immigrant DJ Kool Herc
for instance, began isolating and repeating the percussion breaks, producing a constant, eminently danceable beat, which they or MCs began rapping over, through rhymes and eventually sustained lyrics. In the South Bronx
, the half-speaking, half-singing rhythmic street talk of 'rapping' grew into a cultural force known as Hip hop
. Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement in young black America, led by artists such as Kurtis Blow
and Run-DMC.
had record-breaking success with his albums Off the Wall
, Bad, and Thriller
– the latter remaining the best-selling album of all time – transforming popular music and uniting all races, ages and genders, and would eventually lead a revolution helmed by successful crossover black solo artists, including Prince
, Lionel Richie
, Luther Vandross
, Whitney Houston
, and Janet Jackson
. Pop and dance-soul of this era inspired New Jack Swing
by the end of the decade.
Hip hop spread across the country and diversified. Techno
, Dance
, Miami bass
, Chicago house
, Los Angeles
hardcore
and Washington, D.C.
Go Go
developed during this period, with only Miami bass achieving mainstream success. But, before long, Miami bass was relegated primarily to the Southeastern US, while Chicago house had made strong headways on college campuses and dance arenas (i.e. the warehouse sound, the rave
). The DC go-go sound like Miami bass became essentially a regional sound that didn't muster much mass appeal. Chicago house
sound had expanded into the Detroit music environment and mutated into more electronic and industrial sounds creating Detroit techno
, acid, jungle
. Mating these experimental, usually DJ-oriented, sounds with the prevalence of the multi-ethnic New York City
disco sound from the 1970s and 1980s created a brand of music that was most appreciated in the huge discothèques that are located in cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston
, etc. Eventually, European audiences embraced this kind of electronic dance music with more enthusiasm than their North American counterparts. These variable sounds let the listeners prioritize their exposure to new music and rhythms while enjoying a gigantic dancing experience.
In the later half of the decade, from about 1986, rap took off into the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.
's Raising Hell, and the Beastie Boys
' Licensed to Ill
, the latter becoming the first rap album to enter No.1 Spot on the Billboard 200. Both of these groups mixed rap and rock together, which appealed to rock and rap 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
, Big Daddy Kane
, and Salt-N-Pepa
. Hip Hop became popular in America until the late 1990s when it became worldwide. The golden age scene would die out in the by the early 1990s when gangsta rap and g-funk took over with west-coast artists N.W.A, Dr. Dre
, Snoop Dogg
, 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 best represented by the rapper Tupac
.
In 1988, all-black heavy metal
band Living Colour
achieved mainstream success with their début album Vivid
, peaking at #6 on the Billboard 200, thanks to their Top 20 single "Cult of Personality
". The band's music contained lyrics that attack the Eurocentrism and racism of America. A decade later, more black artists like Lenny Kravitz
, Body Count
, Ben Harper
, and countless others would start playing rock again.
African-American rapper 2Pac had huge success in 1995 with his album Me Against The World
, which was released while he was imprisoned for sexual assault. He had further success after being released from prison, with his albums All Eyez on Me
and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
, and after his fatal shooting and death in Las Vegas
in 1996, his politically-charged lyrics influenced many hip-hop artists and a big part of the African-American community. His East Coast rival the Notorious B.I.G., was assassinated the following year, mere weeks before the release of Life After Death
. Life After Death would go on to become one of the best selling rap albums of all time, receiving Diamond RIAA certification for sales of over 10 million copies. His smooth, intricate lyricism helped influence and inspire many future emcees and many emcees today see 2Pac and the Notorious BIG as being the most talented and influential emcees in the history of hip-hop despite their being on opposite ends of the spectrum in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry
. The killers of both rappers have still yet to be found.
Contemporary R&B, as the post-disco version of soul music came to be known as, remained popular throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Male vocal groups in the style of soul groups such as The Temptations
and The O'Jays
were particularly popular, including New Edition
, Boyz II Men
, Jodeci
, Dru Hill
, Blackstreet
, and Jagged Edge
. Girl groups, including TLC, Destiny's Child
, and SWV
, were also highly successful. TLC would go on to hold the title of the highest girl group with the highest selling female group album ever, with their 1994 album CrazySexyCool
influencing creativity in many young women around the world.
Singer-songwriters such as R. Kelly
, Mariah Carey
, Montell Jordan
, D'Angelo
, and Raphael Saadiq
of Tony! Toni! Toné!
were also significantly popular during the 1990s, and artists such as Mary J. Blige
, Faith Evans, and BLACKstreet
popularized a fusion blend known as hip-hop soul. The neo soul
movement of the 1990s looked back on more classical soul influences and was popularized in the late 1990s/early 2000s by artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu
, Maxwell
, Lauryn Hill
, India.Arie
, Alicia Keys
, Jill Scott
, Bilal and Musiq Soulchild. According to one music writer, 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 slip out of every pore of these haunted songs."
By the first decade of the 21st century, R&B had shifted towards an emphasis on solo artists with pop appeal, with Usher and Beyoncé being the most prominent examples. The line between hip-hop and R&B and pop became significantly blurred by producers such as Timbaland
and Lil Jon
and artists such as Missy Elliott
and OutKast
.
"Urban music" and "urban radio" are largely race-neutral today, terms which are synonymous with hip hop and R&B and the associated hip hop culture which originated in New York City
. The term also reflects the fact that they are popular in urban areas, both within black population centers and among the general population (especially younger audiences).
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." As a result, the music that is popularized by the music industry is becoming increasingly different from what hip hop was meant to be, and in the process makes people wonder who is responsible for this unappreciated shift.
Plans for a Smithsonian-affiliated Museum of African-American music to be built in Newark, New Jersey
and an R&B museum/hall of fame have been discussed within the last several years.
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
s and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Many of their ancestors were originally brought to North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
to work as enslaved peoples
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
, bringing with them polyrhythmic songs from hundreds of black African ethnic group
Ethnic group
An ethnic group is a group of people whose members identify with each other, through a common heritage, often consisting of a common language, a common culture and/or an ideology that stresses common ancestry or endogamy...
s across West
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
and sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa as a geographical term refers to the area of the African continent which lies south of the Sahara. A political definition of Sub-Saharan Africa, instead, covers all African countries which are fully or partially located south of the Sahara...
. With the convergence in the United States of peoples from different regions, multiple cultural traditions merged with influences from polka
Polka
The polka is a Central European dance and also a genre of dance music familiar throughout Europe and the Americas. It originated in the middle of the 19th century in Bohemia...
, waltz
Waltz
The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in time, performed primarily in closed position.- History :There are several references to a sliding or gliding dance,- a waltz, from the 16th century including the representations of the printer H.S. Beheim...
es and other Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an music. Later periods saw considerable innovation and change. African-American genres have been highly influential across socio-economic and racial groupings internationally, and has also enjoyed popularity on a global level. African-American music and all aspects of African American culture
African American culture
African-American culture, also known as black culture, in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of Americans of African descent to the culture of the United States, either as part of or distinct from American culture. The distinct identity of African-American culture is rooted in...
are celebrated during Black History Month
Black History Month
Black History Month is an observance of the history of the African diaspora in a number of countries outside of Africa. Since 1976, it is observed annually in the United States and Canada in February, while in the United Kingdom it is observed in October...
in February of each year in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Historic traits
Features common to most African-American music styles include:- field hollers
- work songWork songA work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
- call and responseCall and responseCall and response is a form of "spontaneous verbal and non-verbal interaction between speaker and listener in which all of the statements are punctuated by expressions from the listener."...
- vocalityVocalityVocality or special vocal effects are vocal or vocally inspired devices including guttural effects, interpolated vocality, falsetto, blue notes, Afro-melismas, lyric improvisation, and vocal rhythmization. All of the listed devices are attributes of African vocality and are used to emotionalize...
(or special vocal effects): guttural effects, interpolated vocality, falsettoFalsettoFalsetto is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous edges of the vocal folds, in whole or in part...
, melismaMelismaMelisma, in music, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in this style is referred to as melismatic, as opposed to syllabic, where each syllable of text is matched to a single note.-History:Music of ancient cultures used...
, vocal rhythmization - improvisationImprovisationImprovisation is the practice of acting, singing, talking and reacting, of making and creating, in the moment and in response to the stimulus of one's immediate environment and inner feelings. This can result in the invention of new thought patterns, new practices, new structures or symbols, and/or...
- blue noteBlue noteIn jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
s - polyrhythms: syncopationSyncopationIn music, syncopation includes a variety of rhythms which are in some way unexpected in that they deviate from the strict succession of regularly spaced strong and weak but also powerful beats in a meter . These include a stress on a normally unstressed beat or a rest where one would normally be...
, concrescence, tension, improvisation, percussion, swung note - texture: antiphony, homophonyHomophonyIn music, homophony is a texture in which two or more parts move together in harmony, the relationship between them creating chords. This is distinct from polyphony, in which parts move with rhythmic independence, and monophony, in which all parts move in parallel rhythm and pitch. A homophonic...
, polyphonyPolyphonyIn music, polyphony is a texture consisting of two or more independent melodic voices, as opposed to music with just one voice or music with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ....
, heterophonyHeterophonyIn music, heterophony is a type of texture characterized by the simultaneous variation of a single melodic line. Such a texture can be regarded as a kind of complex monophony in which there is only one basic melody, but realized at the same time in multiple voices, each of which plays the melody... - harmony: vernacular progressionChord progressionA chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
s; complex, multi-part harmony, as in spirituals and barbershop musicBarbershop musicBarbershop vocal harmony, as codified during the barbershop revival era , is a style of a cappella, or unaccompanied vocal music characterized by consonant four-part chords for every melody note in a predominantly homophonic texture...
19th century
The influence of African Americans on mainstream American music began in the 19th century, with the advent of blackfaceBlackface
Blackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
minstrelsy
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
. The banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, of African origin, became a popular instrument, and its African-derived rhythms were incorporated into popular songs by Stephen Foster
Stephen Foster
Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...
and other songwriters. In the 1830s, the Second Great Awakening
Second Great Awakening
The Second Great Awakening was a Christian revival movement during the early 19th century in the United States. The movement began around 1800, had begun to gain momentum by 1820, and was in decline by 1870. The Second Great Awakening expressed Arminian theology, by which every person could be...
led to a rise in Christian revivals and pietism
Pietism
Pietism was a movement within Lutheranism, lasting from the late 17th century to the mid-18th century and later. It proved to be very influential throughout Protestantism and Anabaptism, inspiring not only Anglican priest John Wesley to begin the Methodist movement, but also Alexander Mack to...
, especially among African Americans. Drawing on traditional work song
Work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
s, enslaved African Americans originated and began performing a wide variety of Spirituals and other Christian music
Christian music
Christian music is music that has been written to express either personal or a communal belief regarding Christian life and faith. Common themes of Christian music include praise, worship, penitence, and lament, and its forms vary widely across the world....
. Many of these songs were coded messages of subversion against slaveholders, or that signaled escape.
During the period after the Civil War, the spread of African-American music continued. The Fisk University Jubilee Singers
Fisk Jubilee Singers
The Fisk Jubilee Singers are an African-American a cappella ensemble, consisting of students at Fisk University. The first group was organized in 1871 to tour and raise funds for their college. Their early repertoire consisted mostly of traditional spirituals, but included some Stephen Foster songs...
toured first in 1871. Artists including Morris Hill and Jack Delaney helped revolutionize post-war African-American music in the central-east of the United States. In the following years, the Hampton Students and professional "jubilee" troops formed and toured. The first black musical-comedy troupe, Hyers Sisters
Hyers Sisters
With Joseph Bradford and Pauline Hopkins, the Hyers Sisters produced the "first full-fledged musical plays... in which African Americans themselves comment on the plight of the slaves and the relief of Emancipation without the disguises of minstrel comedy", the first of which was Out of Bondage...
Comic Opera Co., was organized in 1876.
By the end of the 19th century, African-American music was an integral part of mainstream American culture.
Early 20th century (1900s–1930s)
Bob Cole (composer)
Robert Allen "Bob" Cole was an American composer, actor, playwright, and stage producer and director.In collaboration with Billy Johnson, he wrote and produced A Trip to Coontown , the first musical entirely created and owned by black showmen. The popular song La Hoola Boola was also a result of...
and Billy Johnson. In 1901, the first known recording of black musicians was that of Bert Williams
Bert Williams
Egbert Austin "Bert" Williams was one of the preeminent entertainers of the Vaudeville era and one of the most popular comedians for all audiences of his time. He was by far the best-selling black recording artist before 1920...
and George Walker
George Walker (vaudeville)
George Walker was an African American vaudevillian. In 1893, in San Francisco, Walker met Bert Williams, who became his performing partner. Walker and Williams appeared in The Gold Bug , Clorindy , The Policy Player , Sons of Ham , In Dahomey , Abyssinia , and Bandanna Land...
; this set featured music from Broadway musicals. Theodore Drury played a very significant role helping blacks emerge in the opera field. He founded the Drury Opera Company in 1900 and, although he used a white orchestra, featured black singers in leading roles and choruses. Although this company was only active from 1900 to 1908, black singers' opportunities with Drury marked the first black participation in opera companies. Also significant is Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
's opera, Treemonisha
Treemonisha
Treemonisha is an opera composed by the famed African-American ragtime composer Scott Joplin. Though it encompasses a wide range of musical styles other than ragtime, and Joplin did not refer to it as such, it is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a "ragtime opera"...
, which is unique as a black jazz-folk opera; it was first performed in 1911.
The early part of the 20th century saw a constant rise in popularity of African-American blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
and jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
. African-American music at this time was classed as "race music". Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
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". Also, developments in the fields of visual arts and the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
led to developments in music. Ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
performers such as Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin
Scott Joplin was an American composer and pianist. Joplin achieved fame for his ragtime compositions, and was later dubbed "The King of Ragtime". During his brief career, Joplin wrote 44 original ragtime pieces, one ragtime ballet, and two operas...
became popular and some became associated with the Harlem Renaissance
Harlem Renaissance
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology by Alain Locke...
and early civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
activists. In addition, white and Latino performers of African-American music were visible, rooted in the history of cross-cultural communication between the United States' races. African-American music was often adapted for white audiences, who would not have as readily accepted black performers, leading to genres like swing music, a pop-based outgrowth of jazz.
In addition, African Americans were making dramatic strides in the realm of concert music at the turn of the 20th century. While originally excluded from major symphony orchestras, black musicians could study in music conservatories that had been founded in the 1860s; some include the Oberlin School of Music
Oberlin Conservatory of Music
The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...
, National Conservatory of Music
National Conservatory of Music of America
The National Conservatory of Music of America was an institution for higher education in music founded in 1885 in New York City by Jeannette Meyers Thurber...
, and the New England Conservatory. Blacks also formed their own symphony orchestras at the turn of the 20th century in major cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia; various black orchestras began to perform regularly in the late 1890s-early 20th century. In 1906, the first incorporated black orchestra in the nation was established in Philadelphia. A few years later in the early 1910s, some all-black music schools, such as the Music School Settlement for Colored
Colored Music Settlement School
The Colored Musical Settlement School was a New York City school established and operated to provide music education for African-American children, who were generally excluded from other music schools....
and the Martin-Smith School of Music, were founded in New York.
The Music School Settlement for Colored became a strong sponsor of the famous Clef Club
Clef Club
The Clef Club was a popular entertainment venue and society for African American musicians in Harlem, achieving its largest success in the 1910s. Incorporated by James Reese Europe in 1910, it was a combination musicians' hangout, fraternity club, labor exchange, and concert hall, across the street...
orchestra in New York. The Clef Club
Clef Club
The Clef Club was a popular entertainment venue and society for African American musicians in Harlem, achieving its largest success in the 1910s. Incorporated by James Reese Europe in 1910, it was a combination musicians' hangout, fraternity club, labor exchange, and concert hall, across the street...
Symphony Orchestra attracted both black and white audiences to concerts at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
from 1912–15. Conducted by James Reese Europe
James Reese Europe
James Reese Europe was an American ragtime and early jazz bandleader, arranger, and composer. He was the leading figure on the African American music scene of New York City in the 1910s.-Biography:...
and William H. Tyers, the orchestra uniquely included banjos, mandolins, and baritone horns. Concerts featured music written by black composers, notably Harry T. Burleigh
Harry Burleigh
Henry "Harry" Thacker Burleigh , a baritone, was an African American classical composer, arranger, and professional singer...
, Will Marion Cook
Will Marion Cook
William Mercer Cook , better known as Will Marion Cook, was an African American composer and violinist from the United States. Cook was a student of Antonín Dvořák and performed for King George V among others...
, and Europe, the conductor. Other annual black concert series include the William Hackney “All-Colored Composers” concerts in Chicago and the Atlanta Colored Music Festivals.
The return of the black musical to Broadway occurred in 1921 with Sissle and Blake's Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along
Shuffle Along is the first major successful African American musical. Written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, the musical premiered on Broadway in 1921.-Plot:...
. In 1927, a concert survey of black music was performed at Carnegie Hall including jazz, spirituals and the symphonic music of W. C. Handy
W. C. Handy
William Christopher Handy was a blues composer and musician. He was widely known as the "Father of the Blues"....
's Orchestra and Jubilee Singers. The first major film musical with a black cast was King Vidor
King Vidor
King Wallis Vidor was an American film director, film producer, and screenwriter whose career spanned nearly seven decades...
's Hallelujah of 1929.
African-American performers were featured in the musical Show Boat
Show Boat
Show Boat is a musical in two acts with music by Jerome Kern and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II. It was originally produced in New York in 1927 and in London in 1928, and was based on the 1926 novel of the same name by Edna Ferber. The plot chronicles the lives of those living and working...
(which had a part written for Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
and a chorus of Jubilee Singers), and especially all-black operas such as Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess
Porgy and Bess is an opera, first performed in 1935, with music by George Gershwin, libretto by DuBose Heyward, and lyrics by Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward. It was based on DuBose Heyward's novel Porgy and subsequent play of the same title, which he co-wrote with his wife Dorothy Heyward...
and Virgil Thompson
Virgil Thompson
Virgil Thompson is an American author. Her first published novel was the 2002 crime drama Final Things: A Novel of Suspense. She lives in Connecticut.-Bibliography:...
's Four Saints in Three Acts
Four Saints in Three Acts
Four Saints in Three Acts is an opera by American composer Virgil Thomson with a libretto by Gertrude Stein. Written in 1927-8, it contains about 20 saints, and is in at least four acts...
of 1934.
The first Symphony by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra was William Grant Still
William Grant Still
William Grant Still was an African-American classical composer who wrote more than 150 compositions. He was the first African American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major...
's Afro-American Symphony (19xx) by the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
. Also in 1934 William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony was the second work by an African-American composer to be performed by a major orchestra – the Philadelphia Orchestra.
African Americans were the pioneers of jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
music, through masters such as Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
, James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson
James P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
, Fletcher Henderson
Fletcher Henderson
James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson, Jr. was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. His was one of the most prolific black orchestras and his influence was vast...
, and Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
.
Mid-20th century (1940s–1960s)
By the 1940s, cover versionCover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s of African American songs were commonplace, and frequently topped the charts, while the original musicians found success among their African American audience, but not in mainstream. In 1955, Thurman Ruth
Thurman Ruth (promoter)
Thurman Ruth , who got his start in vaudeville in 1927, was a gospel singer, deejay and concert promoter, and a forefather of such rhythm and blues producers as Ralph Bass...
persuaded a gospel group to sing in a secular setting, the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
, with such success that he subsequently arranged gospel caravans that traveled around the country, playing the same venues that rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
singers had popularized. Meanwhile, jazz performers began to push jazz away from a danceable popular music towards more intricate arrangements, improvisation, and technically challenging forms, culminating in the bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
of Charlie Parker
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker, Jr. , famously called Bird or Yardbird, was an American jazz saxophonist and composer....
, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz...
, the cool sounds and modal jazz
Modal jazz
Modal jazz is jazz that uses musical modes rather than chord progressions as a harmonic framework. Originating in the late 1950s and 1960s, modal jazz is characterized by Miles Davis's "Milestones" Kind of Blue and John Coltrane's classic quartet from 1960–64. Other important performers include...
of Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
, and the free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
of Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman is an American saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter and composer. He was one of the major innovators of the free jazz movement of the 1960s....
and John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
.
African Americans in the 1940s and 1950s were developing an outgrowth of rhythm and blues into a genre called rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
, which featured a very strong backbeat and whose prominent exponents included Louis Jordan
Louis Jordan
Louis Thomas Jordan was a pioneering American jazz, blues and rhythm & blues musician, songwriter and bandleader who enjoyed his greatest popularity from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as "The King of the Jukebox", Jordan was highly popular with both black and white audiences in the...
and Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
. However, it was with white musicians such as Bill Haley
Bill Haley
Bill Haley was one of the first American rock and roll musicians. He is credited by many with first popularizing this form of music in the early 1950s with his group Bill Haley & His Comets and their hit song "Rock Around the Clock".-Early life and career:...
and Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, playing a guitar-based fusion of black rock and roll with country music called rockabilly
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
, that rock music became commercially appealing. Rock music thereafter became more associated with white people, though it did give some black people, such as Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
and Bo Diddley
Bo Diddley
Ellas Otha Bates , known by his stage name Bo Diddley, was an American rhythm and blues vocalist, guitarist, songwriter , and inventor...
, a high level of commercial success.
The late 1950s also saw vastly increased popularity of hard blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
from the earliest part of the century, both in the United States and United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. The '50s also saw doo-wop
Doo-wop
The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
become popular. A secularized form of American gospel music
Gospel music
Gospel music is music that is written to express either personal, spiritual or a communal belief regarding Christian life, as well as to give a Christian alternative to mainstream secular music....
called soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...
also developed, with pioneers like Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
and Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
leading the wave. Soul and R&B became a major influence on surf
Surf music
Surf music is a genre of popular music associated with surf culture, particularly as found in Orange County and other areas of Southern California. It was particularly popular between 1961 and 1965, has subsequently been revived and was highly influential on subsequent rock music...
, as well as the chart-topping girl group
Girl group
A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production...
s like The Angels
The Angels (band)
The Angels are an American girl group, best known for their 1963 million selling #1 hit single, "My Boyfriend's Back".-History:The group originated in New Jersey as The Starlets which consisted of sisters, Barbara "Bibbs" and Phyllis "Jiggs" Allbut, Bernadette Carroll, and Linda Malzone. They had...
and The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las
The Shangri-Las were an American pop girl group of the 1960s. Between 1964 and 1966 they charted with often heartbreaking teen melodramas, and remain best known for "Leader of the Pack" and "Remember ".- Early career :...
, only some of whom were white. In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records
Motown Records
Motown is a record label originally founded by Berry Gordy, Jr. and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation in Detroit, Michigan, United States, on April 14, 1960. The name, a portmanteau of motor and town, is also a nickname for Detroit...
, the first record label to primarily feature African-American artists 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
The Miracles
The Miracles are an American rhythm and blues group from Detroit, Michigan, notable as the first successful group act for Berry Gordy's Motown Record Corporation . Their single "Shop Around" was Motown's first million-selling hit record, and the group went on to become one of Motown's signature...
, Martha and the Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas
Martha and the Vandellas were among the most successful groups of the Motown roster during the period 1963–1967...
, Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, and The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
, The Supremes
The Supremes
The Supremes, an American female singing group, were the premier act of Motown Records during the 1960s.Originally founded as The Primettes in Detroit, Michigan, in 1959, The Supremes' repertoire included doo-wop, pop, soul, Broadway show tunes, psychedelic soul, and disco...
, and others. Black diva
Diva
A diva is a celebrated female singer. The term is used to describe a woman of outstanding talent in the world of opera, and, by extension, in theatre, cinema and popular music. The meaning of diva is closely related to that of "prima donna"....
s such as Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Louise Franklin is an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Although known for her soul recordings and referred to as The Queen of Soul, Franklin is also adept at jazz, blues, R&B, gospel music, and rock. Rolling Stone magazine ranked her atop its list of The Greatest Singers of All...
became '60s crossover stars. In the UK, British blues
British blues
British blues is a form of music derived from American blues that originated in the late 1950s and which reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1960s, when it developed a distinctive and influential style dominated by electric guitar and made international stars of several proponents of...
became a gradually mainstream phenomenon, returning to the USA in the form of the British Invasion
British Invasion
The British Invasion is a term used to describe the large number of rock and roll, beat, rock, and pop performers from the United Kingdom who became popular in the United States during the time period from 1964 through 1966.- Background :...
, a group of bands led by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
and The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
who performed blues and R&B inspired pop, with both traditional and modernized aspects.
The British Invasion knocked many black bands off the charts, with only a handful of groups, including The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas
The Mamas & the Papas were a Canadian/American vocal group of the 1960s . The group recorded and performed from 1965 to 1968 with a short reunion in 1971, releasing five albums and 11 Top 40 hit singles...
and some Motown artists, maintaining a pop career. Soul music, however, remained popular among blacks through highly-evolved forms such as Funk
Funk
Funk is a music genre that originated in the mid-late 1960s when African American musicians blended soul music, jazz and R&B into a rhythmic, danceable new form of music. Funk de-emphasizes melody and harmony and brings a strong rhythmic groove of electric bass and drums to the foreground...
developed through the innovations of James Brown.
By the end of the decade, Blacks were part of the psychedelia and early heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
trends, particularly Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
. Hendrix was himself the primary innovator on the electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, and was the first guitarists to use effects pedals such as the wah wah pedal. Psychedelic soul
Psychedelic soul
Psychedelic soul, sometimes called black rock, is a sub-genre of soul music, which mixes the characteristics of soul with psychedelic rock...
began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popular among blacks and with more crossover appeal, was album-oriented soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which revolutionized African American music with intelligent and introspective -lyrics, often with a socially aware tone. Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
's What's Going On
What's Going On
What's Going On is the eleventh studio album by soul musician Marvin Gaye, released May 21, 1971, on the Motown-subsidiary label Tamla Records...
is perhaps the best remembered of this field.
The 1970s
The 1970s saw one of the greatest decades of black bands concerning melodic music. Album-oriented soul continued its popularity, while musicians such as Smokey RobinsonSmokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
helped turn it into Quiet Storm
Quiet storm
Quiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
music. Funk evolved into two strands, one a pop-soul-jazz-bass fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone
Sly & the Family Stone
Sly and the Family Stone were an American rock, funk, and soul band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music...
, and the other a more experimental psychedelic and metal fusion epitomized by George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
and his P-Funk
P-Funk
P-Funk is a shorthand term for the repertoire and performers associated with George Clinton and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective and the distinctive style of funk music they performed...
ensemble.
Black musicians achieved generally little mainstream success, though some African American artists including The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 , later known as The Jacksons, were an American popular music family group from Gary, Indiana...
, Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who is notable for jazz, soul, R&B, and folk music...
, Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick
Dionne Warwick is an American singer, actress and TV show host, who became a United Nations Global Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a United States Ambassador of Health....
, Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder
Stevland Hardaway Morris , better known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and activist...
, The O'Jays
The O'Jays
The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1963 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert , Walter Williams , William Powell , Bobby Massey and Bill Isles. The O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005...
, Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles on Motown's "Soul" record label and Buddah Records from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight...
found crossover audiences. White listeners preferred country rock
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
, singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
s, stadium rock, soft rock
Soft rock
Soft rock is a style of music which uses the techniques of rock music to compose a softer, more toned-down sound. Soft rock songs generally tend to focus on themes like love, everyday life and relationships. The genre tends to make heavy use of acoustic guitars, pianos, synthesizers and sometimes...
, glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
, and, in some subcultures, heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
and punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
. The disco
Disco
Disco is a genre of dance music. Disco acts charted high during the mid-1970s, and the genre's popularity peaked during the late 1970s. It had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, gay, psychedelic, and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and...
era was popularized by Barry White
Barry White
Barry White, born Barry Eugene Carter , was an American composer and singer-songwriter.A five-time Grammy Award-winner known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic image, White's greatest success came in the 1970s as a solo singer and with the Love Unlimited Orchestra, crafting many enduring...
and Donna Summer
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines , known by her stage name, Donna Summer, is an American singer/songwriter who gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s. She has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Summer is a five-time Grammy winner and was the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach...
, among others. However, this music was integrated into popular music in a way it had never been before.
The dozens
The dozens
The Dozens is a game that has its origins in African American slavery. The game originates from the devaluing and bargaining off of deformed or defective slaves in auction houses. This element of the African American oral tradition in which two competitors, usually males, go head-to-head in a...
, an urban African-American tradition of using playful rhyming ridicule
Appeal to ridicule
Appeal to ridicule, also called appeal to mockery, the Horse Laugh, or reductio ad ridiculum , is a logical fallacy which presents the opponent's argument in a way that appears ridiculous, often to the extent of creating a straw man of the actual argument, rather than addressing the argument itself...
, developed into street jive in the early '70s, which in turn inspired a new form of music by the late 1970s: hip-hop. Black nationalism
Black nationalism
Black nationalism advocates a racial definition of indigenous national identity, as opposed to multiculturalism. There are different indigenous nationalist philosophies but the principles of all African nationalist ideologies are unity, and self-determination or independence from European society...
-inspired spoken word
Spoken word
Spoken word is a form of poetry that often uses alliterated prose or verse and occasionally uses metered verse to express social commentary. Traditionally it is in the first person, is from the poet’s point of view and is themed in current events....
poets such as The Last Poets
The Last Poets
The Last Poets is a group of poets and musicians who arose from the late 1960s African American civil rights movement's black nationalist thread...
and Gil Scott-Heron
Gil Scott-Heron
Gilbert "Gil" Scott-Heron was an American soul and jazz poet, musician, and author known primarily for his work as a spoken word performer in the 1970s and '80s...
are also cited as the major innovators in early hip-hop. Beginning at block parties
Block party
A block party is a large public party in which many members of a single neighbourhood congregate, either to observe an event of some importance or simply for mutual enjoyment. The name comes from the form of the party, which often involves closing an entire city block to vehicle traffic...
in The Bronx
The Bronx
The Bronx is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City. It is also known as Bronx County, the last of the 62 counties of New York State to be incorporated...
, hip-hop music arose as one facet of a large subculture with rebellious and progressive elements. DJs spun records, most typically funk, while MC
Master of Ceremonies
A Master of Ceremonies , or compere, is the host of a staged event or similar performance.An MC usually presents performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the event moving....
s introduced tracks to the dancing audience. Over time, DJs, particularly Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n immigrant DJ Kool Herc
DJ Kool Herc
Clive Campbell , also known as Kool Herc, DJ Kool Herc and Kool DJ Herc, is a Jamaican-born DJ who is credited with originating hip hop music, in The Bronx, New York City...
for instance, began isolating and repeating the percussion breaks, producing a constant, eminently danceable beat, which they or MCs began rapping over, through rhymes and eventually sustained lyrics. In the South Bronx
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
, the half-speaking, half-singing rhythmic street talk of 'rapping' grew into a cultural force known as Hip hop
Hip hop
Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
. Hip Hop would become a multicultural movement in young black America, led by artists such as Kurtis Blow
Kurtis Blow
Kurt Walker , better known by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapper and record producer. He is one of the first commercially successful rappers and the first to sign with a major record label...
and Run-DMC.
The 1980s
In the 1980s, Michael JacksonMichael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
had record-breaking success with his albums Off the Wall
Off the Wall (album)
Off the Wall is the fifth studio album by the American recording artist Michael Jackson, released August 10, 1979 on Epic Records, after Jackson's critically well received film performance in The Wiz. While working on that project, Jackson and Quincy Jones had become friends, and Jones agreed to...
, Bad, and Thriller
Thriller (album)
Thriller is the sixth studio album by American recording artist Michael Jackson. It was released on November 30, 1982, by Epic Records as the follow-up to Jackson's critically and commercially successful 1979 album Off the Wall...
– the latter remaining the best-selling album of all time – transforming popular music and uniting all races, ages and genders, and would eventually lead a revolution helmed by successful crossover black solo artists, including Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
, Luther Vandross
Luther Vandross
Luther Ronzoni Vandross was an American singer-songwriter and record producer. During his career, Vandross sold over twenty-five million albums and won eight Grammy Awards including Best Male R&B Vocal Performance four times...
, Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
, and Janet Jackson
Janet Jackson
Janet Damita Jo Jackson is an American recording artist and actress. Known for a series of sonically innovative, socially conscious and sexually provocative records, as well as elaborate stage shows, television and film roles, she has been a prominent figure in popular culture for over 25 years...
. Pop and dance-soul of this era inspired New Jack Swing
New jack swing
New jack swing or swingbeat is a fusion genre spearheaded by Teddy Riley and Bernard Belle which became extremely popular from the late-1980s into the mid-1990s. Its influence, along with hip-hop, seeped into pop culture and was the definitive sound of the inventive Black New York club scene...
by the end of the decade.
Hip hop spread across the country and diversified. Techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, Dance
Dance music
Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole musical piece or part of a larger musical arrangement...
, Miami bass
Miami bass
Miami bass , is a type of hip hop music, that became popular in the 1980s and 1990s. Its roots are directly linked to the Electro-funk sound of the early 1980s, pioneered by Afrika Bambataa & The Soulsonic Force and later on by UK-based musician Paul Hardcastle...
, Chicago house
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
, Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
hardcore
Hardcore hip hop
Hardcore hip hop, also referred to as hardcore rap, is a sub-genre of hip hop music that developed through the East Coast hip hop scene in the 1980s. Pioneered by such artists as Schoolly D, Spoonie Gee, Boogie Down Productions, and Kool G Rap, it is generally characterized by anger, aggression and...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
Go Go
Go go
Go-go is a subgenre associated with funk that originated in the Washington, D.C., area during the mid- 1960s to late-1970s. It remains primarily popular in the area as a uniquely regional music style...
developed during this period, with only Miami bass achieving mainstream success. But, before long, Miami bass was relegated primarily to the Southeastern US, while Chicago house had made strong headways on college campuses and dance arenas (i.e. the warehouse sound, the rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
). The DC go-go sound like Miami bass became essentially a regional sound that didn't muster much mass appeal. Chicago house
Chicago house
Chicago house is a style of house music, a genre of electronic dance music which emerged in Chicago in the mid-1980s. Stylistically, Chicago house has no widely accepted definition, but generally includes the first house music productions by Chicago-based artists throughout the 1980s, and any later...
sound had expanded into the Detroit music environment and mutated into more electronic and industrial sounds creating Detroit techno
Detroit techno
Detroit techno is an early style of electronic music beginning in the 1980s. Detroit, Michigan has been cited as the birthplace of techno music. Prominent Detroit Techno artists include Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson...
, acid, jungle
Oldschool jungle
Jungle is a genre of electronic music that incorporates influences from genres including breakbeat hardcore, and reggae/dub/dancehall. There is debate as to whether jungle is a separate genre from drum and bass as many use the terms interchangeably...
. Mating these experimental, usually DJ-oriented, sounds with the prevalence of the multi-ethnic New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
disco sound from the 1970s and 1980s created a brand of music that was most appreciated in the huge discothèques that are located in cities like Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, etc. Eventually, European audiences embraced this kind of electronic dance music with more enthusiasm than their North American counterparts. These variable sounds let the listeners prioritize their exposure to new music and rhythms while enjoying a gigantic dancing experience.
In the later half of the decade, from about 1986, rap took off into the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.
Run-D.M.C.
Run–D.M.C. was an American hip hop group from Hollis, in the Queens borough of New York City. Founded by Joseph "Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, and Jason "Jam-Master Jay" Mizell, the group is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential acts in the history of hip hop culture.Run–D.M.C...
's Raising Hell, and the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
' Licensed to Ill
Licensed to Ill
In 1998, the album was selected as one of The Sources 100 Best Rap Albums.It is still the only album by a white hip-hop act to receive the coveted 5 mics from The Source....
, the latter becoming the first rap album to enter No.1 Spot on the Billboard 200. Both of these groups mixed rap and rock together, which appealed to rock and rap audiences. Hip-hop took off from its roots and the golden age hip hop
Golden age hip hop
Hip hop's "golden age" is a name given to a period in mainstream hip hop—usually cited as being a period varying in time frames during the 1980s and 1990s said to be characterized by its diversity, quality, innovation and influence. There were strong themes of Afrocentricity and political...
flourished, with artists such as Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim
Eric B. & Rakim were a hip-hop duo composed of DJ Eric Barrier and MC Rakim .Hailing from Long Island, New York, the pair are generally considered by hip hop enthusiasts to be one of the most influential and innovative groups in the genre...
, Public Enemy, LL Cool J
LL Cool J
James Todd Smith , better known as LL Cool J , is an American rapper, entrepreneur, and actor...
, Big Daddy Kane
Big Daddy Kane
Antonio Hardy better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MC's in Hip Hop...
, and Salt-N-Pepa
Salt-N-Pepa
Salt-N-Pepa is an American hip hop trio from Queens and Brooklyn, New York, that was formed in 1985. The group, consisting of Cheryl "Salt" Renee James, Sandra "Pepa" Denton, and Deidra "DJ Spinderella" Roper, was one of the first all-female rap crews....
. Hip Hop became popular in America until the late 1990s when it became worldwide. The golden age scene would die out in the by the early 1990s when gangsta rap and g-funk took over with west-coast artists N.W.A, Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Andre Romelle Young , primarily known by his stage name Dr. Dre, is an American record producer, rapper, record executive, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is the founder and current CEO of Aftermath Entertainment and a former co-owner and artist of Death Row Records...
, Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is an American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Snoop Dogg was a Crip gang member while in high school...
, and Ice Cube
Ice Cube
O'Shea Jackson , better known by his stage name Ice Cube, is an American rapper and actor. He began his career as a member of the hip-hop group C.I.A. and later joined the rap group N.W.A. After leaving N.W.A in December 1989, he built a successful solo career in music, and also as a writer,...
, east-coast artists Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan
Wu-Tang Clan
The Wu-Tang Clan is a hip-hop group from Staten Island that consists of RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa, and the late Ol' Dirty Bastard. They are frequently joined by fellow childhood friend Cappadonna, a quasi member of the group...
, and Mobb Deep
Mobb Deep
Mobb Deep is an American hip hop duo from Queensbridge, Queens, New York, U.S., that consists of Havoc and Prodigy. The duo is "one of the most critically acclaimed hardcore East Coast hip-hop groups." The group is best known for its dark, hardcore delivery, as exemplified by the single "Shook Ones...
, and the sounds of urban black male bravado, compassion, and social awareness best represented by the rapper Tupac
Tupac
Tupac is a relatively uncommon male name. Notable people with the name include:*Túpac Inca Yupanqui , tenth Sapa Inca of the Incan Empire*Túpac Amaru , last indigenous leader of the Inca people in Peru...
.
In 1988, all-black heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
band Living Colour
Living Colour
Living Colour is an American rock band from New York City, formed in 1984. Stylistically, the band's music is a creative fusion influenced by free jazz, funk, neo-psychedelia, hard rock, and heavy metal...
achieved mainstream success with their début album Vivid
Vivid (album)
Vivid is the debut album by the American heavy metal band Living Colour, which was released on May 3, 1988. The band was discovered by Mick Jagger while playing a show at punk club CBGB's in 1987...
, peaking at #6 on the Billboard 200, thanks to their Top 20 single "Cult of Personality
Cult of Personality (song)
"Cult of Personality" is a song by funk metal band Living Colour. It was the first single from their debut album, Vivid, released in 1988. "Cult of Personality" reached #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #9 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. It also won the Grammy award for "Best Hard Rock...
". The band's music contained lyrics that attack the Eurocentrism and racism of America. A decade later, more black artists like Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
, Body Count
Body Count
Body Count is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1990. The group is fronted by rapper and actor Ice-T, who founded the group out of his interest in heavy metal music, taking on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of the group's songs. Lead guitarist...
, Ben Harper
Ben Harper
Benjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
, and countless others would start playing rock again.
The 1990s and 2000s
Hip Hop/Rap, and R&B are the most popular genres of music for African Americans in this period.African-American rapper 2Pac had huge success in 1995 with his album Me Against The World
Me Against the World
Me Against the World is the third studio album by American hip hop artist Tupac Shakur. It was released March 14, 1995 on the Interscope Records label. The album was composed of un-used tracks from the Thug Life era, and from other studio sessions from 1993 to 1994...
, which was released while he was imprisoned for sexual assault. He had further success after being released from prison, with his albums All Eyez on Me
All Eyez on Me
All Eyez on Me is the fourth studio album by American rapper 2Pac, released February 13, 1996 on Death Row Records and Interscope Records....
and The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory
The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory is the fifth and final studio album by Tupac Shakur, under the new stage name Makaveli, finished before his death and his first studio album to be posthumously released...
, and after his fatal shooting and death in Las Vegas
Las Vegas metropolitan area
The Las Vegas Valley is the heart of the Las Vegas-Paradise, NV MSA also known as the Las Vegas–Paradise–Henderson MSA which includes all of Clark County, Nevada, and is a metropolitan area in the southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada. The Valley is defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a ...
in 1996, his politically-charged lyrics influenced many hip-hop artists and a big part of the African-American community. His East Coast rival the Notorious B.I.G., was assassinated the following year, mere weeks before the release of Life After Death
Life After Death
Life After Death is the second and final studio album by American rapper The Notorious B.I.G., released March 25, 1997 on Bad Boy Records. A double album, it was released posthumously following his death on March 9, 1997 and serves as his final studio album...
. Life After Death would go on to become one of the best selling rap albums of all time, receiving Diamond RIAA certification for sales of over 10 million copies. His smooth, intricate lyricism helped influence and inspire many future emcees and many emcees today see 2Pac and the Notorious BIG as being the most talented and influential emcees in the history of hip-hop despite their being on opposite ends of the spectrum in the East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry
East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry
The East Coast–West Coast Hip Hop Rivalry was a feud in the 1990s between artists and fans of the Eastcoast and Westcoast hip-hop scenes. Seeming focal points of the feud were East Coast-based rapper The Notorious B.I.G...
. The killers of both rappers have still yet to be found.
Contemporary R&B, as the post-disco version of soul music came to be known as, remained popular throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Male vocal groups in the style of soul groups such as The Temptations
The Temptations
The Temptations is an American vocal group having achieved fame as one of the most successful acts to record for Motown Records. The group's repertoire has included, at various times during its five-decade career, R&B, doo-wop, funk, disco, soul, and adult contemporary music.Formed in Detroit,...
and The O'Jays
The O'Jays
The O'Jays are an American R&B group from Canton, Ohio, formed in 1963 and originally consisting of Eddie Levert , Walter Williams , William Powell , Bobby Massey and Bill Isles. The O'Jays were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2004, and The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005...
were particularly popular, including New Edition
New Edition
New Edition is an R&B group formed in Boston in 1978. The group reached its height of popularity during the 1980s. They were the progenitors of the boy band movement of the 1980s and 1990s and led the way for groups like New Kids on the Block, Boyz II Men, Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync...
, Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet, but original member Michael McCary...
, Jodeci
Jodeci
Jodeci is an American band, whose repertoire includes R&B, soul music, and new jack swing. The group consists of two pairs of brothers from Hampton, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina: Cedric & Joel Hailey and Donald & Dalvin DeGrate, all respectively known by their stage names: K-Ci & Jojo,...
, Dru Hill
Dru Hill
Dru Hill is an American singing group, most popular during the late 1990s, whose repertoire included R&B, soul, and gospel music. Founded in Baltimore, Maryland, and active since 1992, Dru Hill recorded seven Top 40 hits, and is best known for the R&B #1 hits "In My Bed", "Never Make a Promise", ...
, Blackstreet
Blackstreet
Blackstreet is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by Thomas Taliaferro and Teddy Riley, the inventor of New Jack Swing known for his work as a member of Guy. Chauncey Hannibal and Levi Little were signed under production and management contracts with Thomas Taliaferro and were merged into what...
, and Jagged Edge
Jagged Edge (band)
Jagged Edge is an American R&B group, with the lead singers, Brandon & Brian, born in Hartford, CT on October 13, 1975, Kyle Norman of Decatur, GA born on February 26,1976 and Richard Wingo of College Park, GA born on September 3, 1975. Wingo was a late addition to the group, added after Kandi...
. Girl groups, including TLC, Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child
Destiny's Child was an American R&B girl group whose final line-up comprised lead singer Beyoncé Knowles alongside Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams. Formed in 1997 in Houston, Texas, Destiny's Child members began their musical endeavors in their pre-teens under the name Girl's Tyme...
, and SWV
SWV
Sisters with Voices, better known as SWV, is an American female R&B trio from New York. Formed in 1990 as a gospel group, SWV became one of the most successful R&B groups of the 1990s. They had a series of hits, including "Weak", "Right Here/Human Nature", "I'm So Into You", and "You're the One"....
, were also highly successful. TLC would go on to hold the title of the highest girl group with the highest selling female group album ever, with their 1994 album CrazySexyCool
CrazySexyCool
CrazySexyCool is the second studio album by American R&B group TLC, released by LaFace Records on November 15, 1994 in North America...
influencing creativity in many young women around the world.
Singer-songwriters such as R. Kelly
R. Kelly
Robert Sylvester Kelly , better known by his stage name R. Kelly, is an American singer-songwriter and record producer. A native of Chicago, Kelly began performing during the late 1980s and debuted in 1992 with the group Public Announcement. In 1993, Kelly went solo with the album 12 Play...
, Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey
Mariah Carey is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. She made her recording debut with the release of her eponymous studio album in 1990, under the guidance of Columbia Records executive Tommy Mottola, whom she later married in 1993...
, Montell Jordan
Montell Jordan
Montell Jordan is a former American R&B singer-songwriter and record producer. Jordan became the main solo male artist on its Def Soul imprint until leaving the label in 2003. Of his live performances it is often regarded that he is a rock oriented musician, with Jordan even going as far as to...
, D'Angelo
D'Angelo
Michael Eugene Archer , better known by his stage name D'Angelo, is an American R&B and neo soul singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is known for his production and songwriting talents as much as for his vocal abilities, and often draws comparisons to his influences,...
, and Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq
Raphael Saadiq is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Saadiq has been a standard bearer for "old school" R&B since his early days as a member of the multiplatinum group Tony! Toni! Toné! He also produced songs of such artists as TLC, Joss Stone, D'Angelo, Mary J...
of Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American Soul/R&B group from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy...
were also significantly popular during the 1990s, and artists such as Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
, Faith Evans, and BLACKstreet
BLACKstreet
Blackstreet is an American R&B group founded in 1991 by Thomas Taliaferro and Teddy Riley, the inventor of New Jack Swing known for his work as a member of Guy. Chauncey Hannibal and Levi Little were signed under production and management contracts with Thomas Taliaferro and were merged into what...
popularized a fusion blend known as hip-hop soul. The neo soul
Neo soul
The term neo soul was originally coined by Kedar Massenburg of Motown Records in the late 1990s as a marketing category following the commercial breakthroughs of artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and Maxwell...
movement of the 1990s looked back on more classical soul influences and was popularized in the late 1990s/early 2000s by artists such as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...
, Maxwell
Maxwell (musician)
Maxwell , is an American R&B, funk and neo soul musician. He played an important role in the development of the soul sub-genre, neo-soul.-Early life:...
, Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Noelle Hill is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress.Early in her career, she established her reputation as a member of the Fugees. In 1998, she launched her solo career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album, The Miseducation of...
, India.Arie
India.Arie
India.Arie is a Grammy Award-winning American singer-songwriter and record producer . She has sold over 3.3 million records in the U.S. and 10 million worldwide. She has won four Grammy Awards from her 21 nominations, including Best R&B Album.-Background:Simpson was born in Denver, Colorado...
, Alicia Keys
Alicia Keys
Alicia Augello Cook , better known by her stage name Alicia Keys, is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and occasional actress. She was raised by a single mother in the Hell's Kitchen area of Manhattan in New York City. At age seven, Keys began playing the piano...
, Jill Scott
Jill Scott
Jill Scott is an American soul and R&B singer-songwriter, poet, and actress. In 2007, Scott made her cinematic debut in the films Hounddog and in Tyler Perry's feature film, Why Did I Get Married? That year, her third studio album, The Real Thing: Words and Sounds Vol. 3, was released on...
, Bilal and Musiq Soulchild. According to one music writer, D'Angelo
D'Angelo
Michael Eugene Archer , better known by his stage name D'Angelo, is an American R&B and neo soul singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He is known for his production and songwriting talents as much as for his vocal abilities, and often draws comparisons to his influences,...
'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
Memphis soul
Memphis soul, also known as Memphis Sound, is stylish, funky, uptown soul music that is not as hard-edged as Southern soul. It is a shimmering, sultry style produced in the 1960s and 1970s at Stax and Hi Records in Memphis, Tennessee, featuring melodic unison horn lines, organ, bass, and a driving...
, ragtime blues
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
, funk and bass grooves, not to mention hip-hop, that slip out of every pore of these haunted songs."
By the first decade of the 21st century, R&B had shifted towards an emphasis on solo artists with pop appeal, with Usher and Beyoncé being the most prominent examples. The line between hip-hop and R&B and pop became significantly blurred by producers such as Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
and Lil Jon
Lil Jon
Jonathan Mortimer Smith , better known by his stage name Lil Jon, is an American rapper, music producer, entrepreneur, and occasional disc jockey who was a member of the group Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz. Lil Jon formed the group in 1997, and the group released several albums between then and 2004...
and artists such as Missy Elliott
Missy Elliott
Melissa Arnette "Missy" Elliott , is an American rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, and actressA five-time Grammy Award winner, Elliott, with record sales of over seven million in the United States, is the only female rapper to have five albums certified platinum by the RIAA, including one...
and OutKast
OutKast
Outkast is an American hip hop duo based in East Point, Georgia, consisting of Atlanta native André "André 3000" Benjamin and Savannah, Georgia-born Antwan "Big Boi" Patton. They were originally known as Two Shades Deep but later changed the group's name to OutKast...
.
"Urban music" and "urban radio" are largely race-neutral today, terms which are synonymous with hip hop and R&B and the associated hip hop culture which originated in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. The term also reflects the fact that they are popular in urban areas, both within black population centers and among the general population (especially younger audiences).
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." As a result, the music that is popularized by the music industry is becoming increasingly different from what hip hop was meant to be, and in the process makes people wonder who is responsible for this unappreciated shift.
Plans for a Smithsonian-affiliated Museum of African-American music to be built in Newark, New Jersey
Newark, New Jersey
Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...
and an R&B museum/hall of fame have been discussed within the last several years.
See also
- Afro-Caribbean musicAfro-Caribbean musicAfro-Caribbean music is a broad term for music styles originated in the Caribbean area, most notably music of Cuba, music of Puerto Rico, music of Haiti, music of Jamaica, music of The Bahamas, music of Belize, music of the Dominican Republic, music of Trinidad and Tobago, music of Venezuela, music...
- African American musical theaterAfrican American Musical Theater-Early History:Before the late 1890s, the image portrayed of African-Americans on Broadway was a "secondhand vision of black life created by European-American performers." Stereotyped "coon songs" were popular, and blackface was common....
- BanjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
- Beach musicBeach musicBeach music, also known as Carolina beach music, is a regional genre which developed from various musical styles of the forties, fifties and sixties. These styles ranged from big band swing instrumentals to the more raucous sounds of blues/jump blues, jazz, doo-wop, boogie, rhythm and blues,...
- BlackfaceBlackfaceBlackface is a form of theatrical makeup used in minstrel shows, and later vaudeville, in which performers create a stereotyped caricature of a black person. The practice gained popularity during the 19th century and contributed to the proliferation of stereotypes such as the "happy-go-lucky darky...
- BluesBluesBlues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
- Cultural appropriationCultural appropriationCultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...
- Delta BluesDelta bluesThe Delta blues is one of the earliest styles of blues music. It originated in the Mississippi Delta, a region of the United States that stretches from Memphis, Tennessee in the north to Vicksburg, Mississippi in the south, Helena, Arkansas in the west to the Yazoo River on the east. The...
- Doo-wopDoo-wopThe name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...
- Hip hopHip hopHip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
- JazzJazzJazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
- Juke jointJuke jointJuke joint is the vernacular term for an informal establishment featuring music, dancing, gambling, and drinking, primarily operated by African American people in the southeastern United States. The term "juke" is believed to derive from the Gullah word joog, meaning rowdy or disorderly...
- Museum of African American MusicMuseum of African American MusicThe Museum of African American Music is a Smithsonian-affiliated museum being built in Newark, New Jersey. The museum is the center of a larger project to revitilize The Coast/Lincoln Park district in Newark. The museum will feature various genres of African-American music, including gospel, blues,...
- Music of the African diasporaMusic of the African diasporaMuch of the music of the African diaspora was refined and developed during the period of slavery. Slaves did not have easy access to instruments, so vocal work took on new significance. Through chants and work songs people of African descent preserved elements of their African heritage while...
- Musical genres, List of
- Quiet stormQuiet stormQuiet storm is a late-night radio format, featuring soulful slow jams, pioneered in the mid-1970s by then-station-intern Melvin Lindsey at WHUR-FM, in Washington, D.C. Smokey Robinson's like-titled hit single, released in 1975 as the title track to his third solo album, lent its name to the format...
- Rhythm and bluesRhythm and bluesRhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
- Rock musicRock musicRock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
- Spiritual (music)Spiritual (music)Spirituals are religious songs which were created by enslaved African people in America.-Terminology and origin:...