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Preface
This Web site explores the blending of musical traditions that occurred in early America when African traditions met European. It is generally accepted that African musical tradition was a major influence in relatively recent genres, such as jazz and rock and roll. However, the assertion is made here that the African influence on American music may be traced back as far as the 17th century.
A Few Words About Navigation
All pictures on this site link to pages that contain larger, higher resolution versions of those pictures as well as additional information related to the subject of the picture.
Each song description on the Music Samples pages includes links to two different wav file recordings of that song. The short versions are excerpts which download quickly. The long versions are full length stereo recordings that are superior in quality to the short versions, but that also take longer to download. If your browser is capable of playing wav files, you will be able to listen to either version, or both. For more information on wav file formats, see Guidelines for readers and writers, Audio.
Click on footnotes and song title numbers to view complete reference information in a small pop-up window. The pop-up window may be left open for the duration of your visit.
About the Author
Tod Shacklett is a graduate student in library and information science who knows nothing about ethnomusicology. He was allowed to publish his work here because he is also the technical editor.
[Preface] [Introduction] [Life in EarlyAmerica] [EuropeanElements] [AfricanAttributes] [Instruments] [MusicSamples-Folk] [MusicSamples-Sacred] [MusicSamples-Blues] [Conclusion]