Week 10 Question

The most amazing thing about music is America is the amount of diversity that is present. As a result, many music historians have found it difficult to identify a distinct national music for America. Dvorak attempted to create a symphony that was distinctly American by drawing upon many musical aspects of American-Indians. In this 9th Symphony, Dvorak even quotes a "Hiawatha" theme which was prevalent in American Indian music.
Like most other music historians, I too will find it difficult to describe music that is distinctly American because American music is defined by its diversity. Despite this diversity, however, there is still a strong case for jazz as a representation of American music. Jazz is specifically unique to America because it emerged and started in America in New Orleans with styles such Dixieland. Jazz, however, uses many rhythms and stylistic characteristics that are common in African music, so to say that it is distinctly American is not the complete truth. In fact almost all, if not all, American music has been heavily influenced from outside sources to become what it is today. Hip-hop music in America demonstrates this same quality in that many of the rhythms that are used in the background tracks are extremely influenced by African rhythms and African lyricism. For example, rap, which is apart of the hip-hop culture in America, has been heavily influenced by griots, who were West African poets and musicians who passed on their repertoire of music through oral tradition. In addition many rap songs also use many percussive aspects that are typically heard in traditional African music.
From looking at these three styles of music which exist in America today, it seems that American music has indeed been heavily influenced by African music. Because of the diversity of music within the United States there are numerous other influences of musical cultures that have embedded themselves into American music. However, African music seems to be one of the most, if not the most influential styles that has established American music as it is today.