African American music

African American music (also called black music, formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the population of the United States. They were originally brought to North America to work as slaves in cotton plantations, bringing with them typically polyphonic songs from hundreds of ethnic groups across West and Sub-Saharan Africa. In the United States, multiple cultural traditions merged with influences from polka, waltzes and other European music. Later periods saw considerable innovation and change, and in the 21st century, African American genres have become some of the most dominant in mainstream popular music.

Related topics

• Barbershop quartet
• Blackface
• Blues
• Cultural appropriation
• Dixieland
• Doo-wop
• Funk
• Hip hop
• Jazz
• Neo soul
• New jack swing
• P-funk
• Popular Music
• Quiet storm
• Rhythm and blues
• Rock and roll
• Soul music
• Spirituals
• Swing