The Merging of European and African Influences in American Popular Music

Paper Summary:

This paper describes the origins of American popular music in European and African culture. The author claims that In effect, American music is a hybrid of musical movements from blues and spirituals to European folk music.

From the Paper:

"Much of American culture bears the mark of the melting pot effect. Essentially a land of immigrants, America has served, in many ways, as a palette from which popular culture draws an innumerable array of shades. As such, popular social trends often are a reflection of the hybrid mainstream instinct. Pop music, in its incubational phases, is highly indicative of that notion. This is particularly evident in ostensibly indigenous musical movements like blues/folk music and spirituals, both of which employ extensive European and African influences, social imports that create a tapestry of globally unique and distinctively American sounds."

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