Black Music Research Paper

The Evolution of Black Music Black music has changed so much throughout the years. Music is used all over the world by millions of people to physically and mentally heal them. It is used to express emotion, give messages, and to tell stories. Music has a way of bringing people together and communicating with beats and lyrics. Different articles talked about how slaves even used to use it as an escape route. Anything from rap, jazz, R&B, gospel, and etc. already had the rode made out for future music because back in the day artist used music for what we used it for today. The Historian of African Americans stated that, “African American involvement in the nation’s music making has influenced every genre of American music,”(Brooks). Slaves cultivated their own style of music.
Music rooted in africa. Since slaves did not have instruments, they used their own bodies to make the music. One thing slaves did have was drums, they used this to communicate but they banned the drums around 1700s. Negro spirituals was one of the most popular genre of music amongst slaves. As slavery ended and America adjust to the end of it, negro spirituals started to blend with other musical traditions. A couple of years after negro spirituals started to blend, Blues started to get popular. Lori Brooks stated that “The Blues is perhaps the simplest American musical form and yet is so versatile,”(Brooks). The Blues is the type of music you used a romantic occasion. Gospel was also pushed forward during this time. This songs are all about God and were song mostly in church. Slaves even song gospel songs during their get togethers.
Throughout the years all types of music was created. Artist begin singing and becoming famous and a bunch of group singers begin to do what they called tours, A tour is is a journey for pleasure in which several different places are visited. Different types of instruments were created during this time. Life, Culture, People, A Haven for the Young Black Millennial stated that Music embodied passion and life lessons (Talley). New Edition was a very popular group who made many hit songs like Candy Girl and Can You Stand the Rain. They would travel and perform all across the world. One of the members of New Edition even founded a group called Boys 2 Men. Drugs are what killed most groups back then. New Edition went through group members using drugs and it cause them to split. Destiny’s Child was another group that eventually split up but it wasn’t because of drugs. They all wanted the spotlight and that was another issue with the music industry. They made hit songs like Cater 2 You and Say My Name.
Rap begin to get popular around the 1970s.
The Evolution Of Rap Music stated that “Rap was something to be heard and seen,” (Cho). Rap was a strong subject and still is. Rap was a way for any black person that had the talent to spit rhymes on a beat to speak their mind and talk about their struggle. Some talk about their childhoods and whatever they felt like rapping about. Rappers like LL Cool J, Eazy E, Slick Rick, and Schoolly D paved a way for the new school rappers. The made rap a hot topic back then. LL Cool J made the song Mama Said Knock You Out that became very popular really fast. Eazy E who unfortunately passed away made hit songs like Creep N’ Crawl. Eazy E was one who lived a street life and he loved the women. He actually died of AIDS at a early age. During this age rappers did interact with a lot of women and they loved money just like the new age rappers did. That kind of stuff was passed down to different rappers. Migos, YFN Lucci, Nicki Minaj, and Drake also love the same thing and they talk about it in their music videos but old school rappers did more interaction with the audience. Most of the old school rappers would rap on street corners such as freestyle
battles.
The History of R&B stated that R&B contains love and passion just like any other genre of music. R&B is most likely right next to Blues because embodies romance. Beyonce is one of the most popular R&B singers that song back then and now. She has had plenty of hit songs throughout the years. R&B changed in some ways but not many. Back in the day R&B was only song on slow beats and jams, now it is song on fast beats and has a little flare to it.
In conclusion black music has evolved tremendously. All the genres of music has had great artist that spoke and changed the world for the better. They spoke about the different things they went through and are going to face. Music is something that heals. Negro spirituals started it all for black music and will continue to help music evolve more.