Little documentation exists of colonial-period African American music, when kinds, songs, and instruments from across West Africa commingled with European types and devices in the melting pot of slavery. By the mid-nineteenth century, a distinctly African American people tradition was well-identified and widespread, and African American musical methods, devices, and images grew to become part of mainstream American music by way of spirituals, minstrel reveals, and slave songs.

Slaves and their descendants created the blues by adapting the sphere shouts and hollers, turning them into passionate solo songs. When combined with the Christian religious songs of African American churches and revival meetings, blues grew to become the idea of gospel music. Modern gospel started in African American church buildings in the Twenties, in the form of worshipers proclaiming their faith in an improvised, often musical method (testifying). Composers like Thomas A. Dorsey composed gospel works that used parts of blues … Read More