One of the greatest inventions in American history is Black music. The rhythms, cadences, creative vision, and unique sensibility of Black musical expression has transformed, sampled, grown, has been recursive, and expansive but most importantly, as an art form, Black music has stood the test of time. Whether it’s a party to spread Black joy or the soundtrack to a social movement Black music has been the common denominator of our success and of our struggles.

In his essay, The Conversation of the Races, W.E.B. DuBois brilliantly explained the impact of Black music. “We are that people whose subtle sense of song has given America its only American music, its only American fairy tales, it's only touch of pathos and humor amid its mad money-getting plutocracy.”

The African Roots Of Black Music

Black music traces its roots back to the continent of Africa, as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and the enslavement of Africans in the United States. Enslaved Africans brought their musical abilities with them including call-and-response vocals and instrumentation like drums and string instruments. That ingenuity led to the creation of the spiritual.

Dr. Mathew Knowles, entertainment executive, university professor, a producer of the hit Broadway play A Wonderful World, and author of “The Emancipation of Slaves Through Music", spoke about the early development of Black music by enslaved Africans.

“The slaves weren't allowed to have drums because the slave masters were frightened that messaging would be done with the drums,” Knowles said to BET.com. “So what the slaves did was create sorrow songs that became the spirituals. These songs would help get them through terrible days of slavery. As the music slowly changed to the spirituals they would say, ‘Go to the river’ which meant to wash the scent off of your body so the dogs wouldn't catch you. Or Canaan meant to follow the moon to Canada So a lot of these songs had messages for the slaves to be free.”

Following spirituals and sacred music, came folk music and juke joints. According the National Museum of African American History and Culture, "African American folk music links back to African cultural traditions. Stemming from field hollers, work chants and game songs, folk music bursts with social commentary. Popular folk protest music spread in the 1960s, and its influence is still found within hip-hop today."

Juke Joints: Spaces of Resistance

Even against the dehumanizing reality of enslavement, Black creativity could not be chained. Black folks built juke joints out of the sight of the white gaze. There they created music that embodied their truth. According to the Mississippi Encyclopedia, published by the Center for Study of Southern Culture, "During slavery, African Americans were not permitted to gather; in some cases, dancing and singing also were not allowed. Despite these constraints, music played an important role in the development of the African American community. As blues music gained popularity in the Jim Crow South, juke joints became safe places for African Americans to gather."

Harlem Renaissance novelist Zora Neale Hurston wrote in her 1934 essay, "The Characteristics of Negro Expression", “Musically speaking, the Jook is the most important place in America.” Without question, juke joints were spaces where Black folks enjoyed a semblance of freedom from violence and where audiences first heard the blues in community.

Hurston continued, "For in its smelly, shoddy confines has been born the secular music known as blues, and on blues has been founded jazz. The singing and playing in true Negro style is called 'jooking'. The songs grow by incremental repetition as they travel from mouth-to-mouth and from Jook to Jook for years before they reach outside ears. Hence the great variety of subject-matter in each song." The juke joint was the unofficial club, and that ethos is still alive today.

The Blues 

Following the Civil War, in the Mississippi Delta, blues music was being developed as an expression of Black pain. Building on African roots and spiritual songs, the blues would eventually become an all encompassing genre.

The genre expanded with artists like Charley Patton, who is considered the "Father of Delta Blues”, Blind Lemon Jefferson brought  Texas blues to the forefront, Robert Johnson was an impeccable guitar player whose life is shrouded in mystery, Bessie Smith, known as the "Empress of the Blues," achieved widespread commercial success, and Ma Rainey was a renowned vocalist. Eventually, artists such as Muddy Waters, Ruth Brown, Etta James, B.B. King, Albert King, Freddie King, and many others took blues to the mainstream and ultimately around the world.

Race Music: R&B, Rock & Roll, and Funk

As the creation of music transformed into an industry, the term "race music" was used in the early 20th century to describe music made by and marketed to Black folks. Perpetrated and put to use by record labels such as Okeh Records, the term was effective in keeping the works of Black artists out of the mainstream. In 1949, Jerry Wexler, a Billboard journalist at the time, suggested the term "rhythm and blues" instead of “race music." The genre of R&B produced megastars such as Nat King Cole, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and Aretha Franklin.

When it comes to Rock & Roll, the true originators are Little Richard, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley but Elvis Presley, who borrowed heavily from each one, is often credited as the “King.” In 1994, Ray Charles was interviewed by Bob Costas and he did not mince any words about Presley. 

“To say that Elvis was so great and so outstanding like he’s the king…the king of what?” Charles said. “I know too many artists that are far greater—singers like Nat King Cole, who got assaulted by white audiences for performing rock music.  He [Presley] was doing our kind of music. So what the hell am I supposed to get so excited about?”

A variation on R&B and Rock & Roll, funk music came to prominence in the late 60s.  Funk often emphasizes the first beat of the measure or what James Brown, the progenitor of the genre called "the one.” “Funk is the root of the blues,” James Brown shared in a 1988 SPIN interview. “It’s soul, jazz, and gospel. Funk is coming down on the one. If it’s on the one, then it’s funky." Brown’s “Cold Sweat”, an influential jam, is often cited as the first funk song. Brown, along with Sly and Family Stone and George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic helped define the genre. And that genre would be the seedbed for rap music.

Hip-Hop Started in the Park

On August 11, 1973, in the Bronx, Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc  and his sister Cindy Campbell threw a back-to-school party. Little did they know, this function would be the jump-off that launched hip-hop. Herc’s innovative techniques of using the breaks found in funk records gave birth to an entirely new genre of Black music and expression. Along with DJing, other elements of MCing, breakdancing, and graffiti--hip hop was born.

Artists such as Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Funky Four Plus One, The Sugar Hill Gang, Treacherous Three, MC Sha-Rock, Kurtis Blow, Roxanne Shanté, RUN-DMC, LL COOL J, and many more brought rap music from New York City to the world.

Without question, hip-hop music is the most popular genre of music across the globe. Its growth and influence is undeniable.  At the 2025 Grammys, industry legend Kendrick Lamar took home the Album of the Year Award for “Not Like Us” and four-time Grammy-nominated, emerging rapper Doechii made history by becoming the third woman ever to win Best Rap Album for her mixtape Alligator Bites Never Heal. These and many, many more accolades show the genre’s ongoing impact.

Although hip-hop culture still has dimensions that can be misogynistic and homophobic, at its best, the culture has the potential to speak truth to power. Dr. Tricia Rose, a professor and pioneering scholar of hip-hop studies argued that hip-hop can be a conduit to bring change to society.

“I think that music shouldn’t be understood as carrying the burdens of a social movement. I think it’s detrimental to the creative power of music and culture to make it serve a social movement. So, creativity should be free, but no one gets a license to disregard or debase, demean, or refuse to respect,” Dr. Rose shared in an interview.

Further, she posited that the hip-hop genre can be a poetic force for a social movement, “I think Hip Hop has the potential to be an agent of change, and there is a segment of hip-hop that does an enormous level of agitation."

Whether in the service of activism or a space for our blues, or a joint that gets funky and poetic--whether in call and response or as a spiritual and sacred place to lay our burdens--until the end of time, Black Music will remain one of the most transformative forces in the world.