American Music at the Turn of the 20th Century Essay -- Art Music Hist

To understand whether an American music emerged out of traditions in the turn of the 20th century, we need to focus on the depot American and what musical genres fall under that category. For one, America, in a cultural sense, is seen as one huge melting pot, an amalgamation of cultures, ethnic traditions, beliefs and styles of music. It is very difficult to label one genre under the category of American music, as a vast amount of styles, in historical terms, have bring forth about from a mixture of styles such as Jazz and Country music. Influences from a variety of ethnic backgrounds provided the chance for the growth and commercialism of genres and made them to a greater extent mainstream. With the focus beingness on jazz and Country, it is made clear that these genres came from an array of ethnic traditions formed from their provenance regions. The idea of music in America being diverse can identify genres as indeed American and that indeed an American music emerged from trad itions that entered the twentieth century.Ethnically, blacks can be credited as emergent the Jazz traditions from Blues roots and other sub-genres such as ragtime, but on a regional front, despite New Orleans being the birthplace of Jazz, it wasnt made popular and in my opinion, American, until it spread into other cities, thanks to White musicians and composers.When exploring Jazz music, it is essential to explore its roots in Blues Music. Derived from the regional traditions of the south and ethnic traditions surrounding the slaving culture of the 1800s, Blues music can be traced back to the Mississippi Delta plantations and industries that demanded heavy manual labour for Blacks (Crawford, 2001b, 557). The blues providential jazz at the end of the nineteenth century and i... ...aditions, primarily from the south, created a musical diversity and with that, an American music.Works CitedCandelaria, L. & Kingman, D., 2007. American Music A Panorama, ternary Concise Edition, Calif ornia, Clark Baxter, Thomson-SchirmerCrawford, R., 2001a. Americas Musical Life A History, New York, W. W. Norton & Company Inc. Crawford, R., 2001b. An Introduction to Americas Music, New York, W. W. Norton & Company Inc.Ferris, J., 1990 2006. Americas Musical Landscape, Fifth Edition, New York, McGraw-HillMalone, B. C., 1968 2000. Country Music USA Revised, Texas, University of TexasMauk, D. & Oakland, J., 1995 2009, American Civilisation An Introduction, Fifth Edition, New York, RoutledgeTaylor, F. J. 2005. Black Music and Musicians in the Nineteenth coke in The Western Journal of Black Studies, 29.3 (2005), 615-620