Some thoughts on Much of Modern Music History: Part 1

April 3, 2011 by DaleR
Filed under: Blues History

When I look at most of the music that I hear today I can trace the roots of that music right back to an African-American heritage. Well all right. I don’t think that there is much African-American heritage in Opera but then again I don’t listen to Opera of my own free will. I do listen to Classical Music more than occasionally and ,with some exceptions, there is not much African-American influence there.

Let’s take a look at some other styles of music. Of course, earlier Rock and Roll music has the black sound leaping out at you. I have read that Sam Phillips was looking for a white singer that sounded like a black man when he met Elvis Presley. It is difficult to determine where the Blues leaves off and Rock and Roll begins. Of course as Rock and Roll evolves, there seems to be less and less obvious influence but it will always be there and sometimes it is blatantly 12 bar Blues.

I listen to a lot of Bluegrass and you have to listen pretty closely to find the blues influence in Bluegrass, but I know a lot of people who say the can hear it. Bluegrass comes directly out of Old-Time Music . It seems to me that the people who were developing the Old-Time Music sound would have had contact with black musicians and had borrowed some of their sound for their music. Bluegrass music was developed by Bill Monroe with help from his brother Charlie. By all accounts, Bill Monroe was a very serious man. I have heard it said that Bill Monroe once said that if he hadn’t developed Bluegrass, he would have become a Blues musician. I don’t think he was kidding when he said that.

Next post, I will cover some other musical genres that have obvious African-American influences and maybe some that are not so obvious. As I think about it, I guess that by influence I actually mean music that has come right out of the African-American experience

Your ideas are welcome.