Abstract

African American Music has been developing for more than 4 centuries. Now it has become the most important part of American Popular Music. The paper attempts to introduce the development of African American music, and the influences on mainstream American society. The African American music helps the black people to improve their social position in the United States, and the different musical genres have also brought great influences on American culture.

Key words: African American music, origin, development, influence

摘 要

 美国黑人音乐经过了四个多世纪的发展，已经成为美国流行音乐的重要组成部分。本文主要介绍美国黑人音乐的发展过程及其对美国主流社会的影响。黑人音乐不仅帮助广大美国黑人提升他们的社会地位，同时也给美国主流文化带来了巨大的影响。

关键词：美国黑人音乐; 起源; 发展; 影响

1. Introduction:
David Melzer said: “Whatever you are listening to, all is the black music.”(Melzer 60) Here we can know that the African American Music has brought great influence to the American popular music and become the most important part of it. African-American music is an umbrella term given to a range of musical styles. Many musical forms emerged from or were influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large and significant ethnic minority of the population in America. Many of their ancestors were originally brought to North America to work as slaves, bringing with them typical African songs. In 1619, the first shipment of Africans was brought to America as slaves. On the new continent, the black slaves lived in poor condition. They had to keep working in a long time with little food and sleep. In order to enjoy themselves from the suffering, they began to create their own music. They combined African musical characteristics with the hymn singing, and the earliest black musical form came into being. Now we call it the Soul. The black slaves used their own music to communicate and show their dissatisfaction to the white slave holder.
Blues is quite important in black music, because all the later musical forms were based on it. And the first time the white colonists began to listen to black music, they were attracted. So it offered a way to help the two different classes to communicate with each other. Ragtime was the first musical form that exercised influence over the whole country. It developed in New Orleans. Because the local listeners were not so strict with the music, many musicians began to adapt to some European music. Then they create Ragtime. The black people were so creative that they soon invented a new musical style. It is called Jazz. Like Ragtime, Jazz was developed in New Orleans as well. Without doubt, Jazz is the most influential music of black music. It made the whole world know about the black music. Many people are not familiar with Funk, because it is only popular in several countries.