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  • Essay / African music as part of the social and cultural context

    In today's world, most of the music we hear is trash, like rap, pop or any other music in the United States. The only culture that hasn't changed much is African music; The African music genre has remained true to its culture and roots and is still popular today among many genres. Due to the rise of modern music in America, such as hip-hop, this essay will illustrate how African musical culture has impacted the world in such a way that Africans can claim the authenticity of these musical genres . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay African music is better known as African American music in today's society; he brought many different types of musical genres to America since the transatlantic slave trade. One such type of music is Afrobeat which was founded by Fela Kuti and was also responsible for bringing a polyrhythmic sound. One of the first journeys of Africans to America was that of a variety of different ethnic groups with a history of African musical traditions. When they arrived, some of these Africans were allowed to bring their instruments and others made a new instrument. An example of this is the "Banja", now known as the banjo, which was one of the first African instruments imported to America and it is still played in America to this day. The beginnings of traditional African American music began in the 19th century: "In the 1830s, the Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian fundamentalism, particularly among African Americans." At this time, African Americans were slaves, but they also began performing a variety of spiritual and Christian songs. Many of these were code for them to eventually escape slavery. In the 1800s, the black population was growing and much African American music was banned by the colonies. But what the colonizers failed to realize was that the primary instrument of these African Americans was their voice. But besides their voices, the most common and well-known instrument of African Americans was the violin, guitar, and banjo. According to Michael Fitch, instruments are usually combined together and form a string group. Other instruments they used were the Mouth Bow, which was mainly used when they were slaves. The Diddley bow is a single-stringed instrument that influenced the sound of the blues and the sink bass, an instrument used in American folk music that uses a metal wash tub as its base. Compared to African American music and sub-Saharan African instruments, they are different. The traditional African instrument is the “Membranophone”, an instrument that produces sound by vibrating a stretched membrane. Gankogui is an African bell; which is a wrought iron percussion instrument. When stuck with a wooden stick, it produces two different sounds, gang and gong. The fact is that African music and African-American music have a lot in common. They are both well known for their drumming and rhythms, which is no coincidence as this is a culture that was separated from its origins by colonial powers during the era of colonization. What makes African music so unique? “The uniqueness of African music is that the melodies are simple and short but they are repeated over and over again, which makes the rhythm of the rhythm exciting.”..