Music Evolution

Music Evolution

Oh, darkeys hab ye heerd it, hab ye heerd de joyful news?

Uncle Abram's' gwine to free us, and he'll send us where we chuse,

For de Jubilee is comin' don't ye sniff it in de air!

And sixty-three is the Jubilee for de darkeys eb'ry where! (Greene)

Black music throughout the past couple of centuries has changed in many ways. It started out as a basic way to communicate, and then evolved into complex rhythms found in many different genres. Since African-Americans have been in North America, they have brought a whole new meaning to European traditional music (Southern). It has impacted numerous genres such as blues, big band, jazz, funk, and rap. What change in society caused the evolution of black music?

Black music had first started out as Spirituals. Spirituals were old black hymns that were sung all day and all night. For the most part the hymns were about freedom, and how blacks needed their "Moses" to come and free them from their hardships. These songs were sung before, during and a little after the Civil War. Some time after the Civil War new types of music were heard more often.

These new types would soon become the biggest thing to happen in the music industry. They were the Blues and Jazz. During the legalization of segregation also known as the Jim Crow Laws, blues and jazz were a hit. History shows the whites didn't want to be with the blacks no matter the case. Baseball, there was a separate "Negro League", schools were separating blacks from whites, and white musicians didn't want blacks in their bands. The Blues were still about black hardships and how different things may be. The main listeners were laborers, who moved to the pulse of the song. Some of the most famous blues artists of the time were Ray Charles, Ida Cox, and Fats Domino. From them "Blueberry Hill," I got a Women," and "Hit the Road Jack" became huge hits.

All the while Jazz was the new biggest thing in the north, although was said to have began in New Orleans, this era is known as the Roaring Twenties. When alcohol was prohibited jazz musicians would play in very private and hidden bars. Jazz was about all the good stuff. Marsalis quoted in Jazz, Jazz music is freedom