Wikipedia:WikiProject African diaspora/Music of the African diaspora text dump

Article: Music of the African diaspora

Much 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. Trough chants and work songs people of African decent preserved elements of their African heritage while inventing new genres of music. The culmination of this great sublimation of musical energy in to vocal work can be seen in genres as disparate as Gospel Music and Hip-Hop. Despite efforts to erase African cultural elements in the United States traditions of melody also survived. (Metaphors of contagion, such as "infectious rhythm" were used to describe the spread of African culture by majority cultures.) The music of the African diaspora makes frequent use of ostinato, a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated at the same pitch. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody. The banjo is a direct decedent of the Akonting created by the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. Hence, the melodic traditions of the African diaspora are probably most alive in Blues and Jazz.

Caribbean

• Taken from Music of the Lesser Antilles

Music of the Lesser Antilles

Lesser Antilles' musical cultures are largely based on the music of African slaves brought by European traders and colonizers. The African musical elements are a hybrid of instruments and styles from numerous West African tribes, while the European slaveholders added their own musics into the mix, as did immigrants from India. In many ways, the Lesser Antilles can be musically divided based on which nation colonized them.

The ex-British colonies include Trinidad and Tobago, whose calypso style is an especially potent part of the music of the other former British colonies, which also share traditions like the Big Drum dance. The French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe share the popular zouk style and have also had extensive musical contact with the music of Haiti, itself once a French colony though not part of the Lesser Antilles. The Dutch colonies of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba share the combined rhythm popular style. The islands also share a passion for kaseko, a genre of Surinamese music; Suriname and its neighbors Guyana and French Guiana share folk and popular styles that are connected enough to the Antilles and other Caribbean islands that both countries are studied in the broader context of Antillean or Caribbean music.

United Kingdom

• Taken from British African-Caribbean community

The period of large-scale immigration brought many new musical styles to the United Kingdom. These styles gained popularity amongst Britons of all cultural origins, and aided Caribbean music in gaining international recognition. The earliest of these exponents was the calypso artist Lord Kitchener, who arrived in Britain on the Windrush in 1948 accompanied by fellow musician Lord Beginner. Already a star in his native Trinidad, Lord Kitchener got an immediate booking at the only West Indian club in London. Six months later, he was appearing in three clubs nightly, and his popularity extended beyond the West Indian and African nightclub audiences, to include music hall and variety show audiences. Kitchener's recording "London is the place for me" exemplified the experience of the Windrush generation. Other calypso musicians began to collaborate with African Kwela musicians and British jazz players in London clubs.

Jamaican music styles reached Britain in the 1960s, becoming the staple music for young British African-Caribbeans. Tours by ska artists such as Prince Buster and the Skatalites fed the growing British-Caribbean music scene, and the success of Jamaican artists Millie Small, Desmond Dekker and Bob and Marcia propelled Caribbean music and people into mainstream cultural life. British African-Caribbeans followed the changing styles of Jamaican music and began to produce homegrown music appealing to both Black and White communities. In 1969, the British African-Caribbean ska band Symarip recorded "Skinhead Moonstomp" which had a huge effect on the British ska scene. The ska sound and rude boy imagery inspired a generation of white working-class youths (especially mods and skinheads), and later helped spawn Britain's multi-cultural 2 Tone movement in the late 1970s.

As Jamaican ska gave way to the slower styles of rocksteady and the more politicised reggae, British African-Caribbeans followed suit. Sound systems to rival those in Jamaica sprung up throughout communities, and 'Blues parties' - parties in private houses, where one paid at the door - became an institution. The arrival of Bob Marley to London in 1971 helped spawn a Black British music industry based on reggae. His association with the Rastafarian movement influenced waves of young people, reared in Britain, to discover their Caribbean roots. British Barbadian Dennis Bovell became Britain's prominent reggae band leader and producer, working with many international reggae stars, and introducing a reggae flavour to the British pop charts with non-reggae acts such as Dexy's Midnight Runners and Bananarama. Bovell also worked extensively with London-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Succesful DJ and musician Goldie, born to Scottish and Jamaican parents, as was Bob Marley

British music with reggae roots prospered in the 1980s and early 1990s. British African-Caribbean artists Musical Youth, Aswad, Maxi Priest and Eddy Grant had major commercial successes, and the multicultural band UB40 helped promote reggae to an international audience. Birmingham-based Steel Pulse became one of the world's foremost exponents of roots reggae and accompanying black consciousness, their debut 1978 album Handsworth Revolution becoming a seminal release.

British African-Caribbean music had been generally synonymous with Caribbean styles until the 1990s, although some artists had been drawing on British and American musical forms for several decades. In the 1970s and 1980s, British African-Caribbean artists such as Hot Chocolate and Imagination became leaders of the British disco, soul and R&B scenes. By the mid-1980s British African-Caribbeans were also incorporating American hip hop and House styles, becoming leading figures in Britain's developing dance music culture. This led to an explosion of musical forms. British artists created musical hybrids combining many elements including European techno, Jamaican dancehall, dub, breakbeats and contemporary American R'n'B. These unique blends began to gain international acclaim through the success of Soul II Soul and the multi-racial Massive Attack.

British African-Caribbeans were at the leading edge of the jungle and drum and bass movements of the 1990s. Although the fast-tempo drums and loud intricate bass lines sounded fresh, Caribbean roots could still be detected. Two successful exponents of these new styles were DJs Goldie and Roni Size, both of Jamaican heritage. Later, British African-Caribbean musicians and DJs were at the forefront of the UK Garage and Grime scenes.

United States

• Taken from Music of the African diaspora

Much 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. Trough chants and work songs people of African decent preserved elements of their African heritage while inventing new genres of music. The culmination of this great sublimation of musical energy in to vocal work can be seen in genres as disparate as Gospel Music and Hip-Hop. Despite efforts to erase African cultural elements in the United States traditions of melody also survived. (Metaphors of contagion, such as "infectious rhythm" were used to describe the spread of African culture by majority cultures.) The music of the African diaspora makes frequent use of ostinato, a motif or phrase which is persistently repeated at the same pitch. The repeating idea may be a rhythmic pattern, part of a tune, or a complete melody. The banjo is a direct decedent of the Akonting created by the Jola people, found in Senegal, Gambia and Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. Hence, the melodic traditions of the African diaspora are probably most alive in Blues and Jazz.

• Taken from Motown Sound

While there were many hugely popular African American musicians prior to the 1960s, Motown soul was the most consistently chart-topping genre until Disco and later, hip-hop. In contrast to previous genres of black popular music, Motown soul used African-American performers instead of grooming white musicians for crossover fame. It was also continued the tradition of African-American popular music moving beyond simple lyricisms into the realm of socio-political topics, allowing for a wide range of African-American viewpoints to be expressed in song.

The Motown Sound was also defined by the use of orchestration, string sections, charted horn sections, carefully arranged harmonies and other more refined pop music production techniques. It was also one of the first styles of pop music of that era wherein girl groups--including The Supremes, Martha & the Vandellas and The Marvelettes--were showcased as an act, as opposed to individual female artists.

The Motown producers and the Funk Brothers band used a number of innovative techniques to develop the Motown Sound. Many tracks featured two drummers instead of one, either overdubbed or playing in unison, and three or four guitar lines as well. Bassist James Jamerson often played his instrument with only his index finger, and created many of the bubbling basslines apparent on Motown songs such as "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes. While the Funk Brothers had exclusive contracts with Motown, they often secretly recorded instrumental tracks for outside acts, most notably "Cool Jerk" by The Capitols and "Agent Double-O Soul" by Edwin Starr.

The style was also showcased by the work of non-Motown artists, including Dusty Springfield and British band The Foundations. On a side note, Great Britain was also the scene where the Motown Sound (and that of numerous smaller record companies) was kept alive by the northern soul movement, so called due to the fact that it was centered in the northern parts of England.

According to Smokey Robinson, the Motown Sound had little to do with Detroit: "People would listen to it, and they'd say, 'Aha, they use more bass. Or they use more drums.' Bullshit. When we were first successful with it, people were coming from Germany, France, Italy, Mobile, Alabama. From New York, Chicago, California. From everywhere. Just to record in Detroit. They figured it was in the air, that if they came to Detroit and recorded on the freeway, they'd get the Motown sound. Listen, the Motown sound to me is not an audible sound. It's spiritual, and it comes from the people that make it happen. What other people didn't realize is that we just had one studio there, but we recorded in Chicago, Nashville, New York, L.A.--almost every big city. And we still got the sound".

The sound was saluted in a Rod Stewart song, "The Motown Song" in 1991.

See also

• List of musical genres of the African diaspora