race music

African American music (also called black music, formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of music and musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the population of the United States. They were originally brought to North America to work as enslaved peoples, bringing with them typically polyrhythmic songs from hundreds of ethnic groups across West and sub-Saharan Africa. In the United States, multiple cultural traditions merged with influences from polka, waltzes and other European music. Later periods saw considerable innovation and change. African American genres, which have developed independent of African traditions from which they arise more so than any other immigrant groups, including Europeans; make up the broadest and longest lasting range of styles in America; and have, historically, been more influential, interculturally, geographically, and economically, than other American vernacular traditions (Stewart 1998, p.3). African American music and all aspects of African American culture are celebrated during Black History Month in February of each year in the United States.
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