The tempos of these songs are usually slow. Some influential African American blues artists were W.C. Handy (the father of the blues), Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith just to name a few of the early pioneers.
Another style of music that has the black influence is gospel music. Gospel music had its origin in the South. It developed in the African American Baptist churches during the 1930's. By the 1940's and 1950's radio stations all over the country played songs sung by gospel singers as Rosetta Tharpe and Mahalia Jackson. Lyrics are based on the gospels and personal experiences. I cannot talk about gospel music without mentioning the father of gospel " Thomas A. Dorsey. Dorsey was the composer of the song "Precious Lord Take My Hand." Dorsey's style of music wasn't accepted at first because of its blues influence. People felt that the blues sound should not be mixed with religious music. Does that sound familiar? Kirk Franklin certainly feels the sting, from his critics for mixing popular music with religious music.
Mixing different styles of music can be heard in jazz. Jazz is a mixture of ragtime, blues, and gospel music. Jazz began in New Orleans around 1900. In jazz, the musicians improvise. This means that they take a melody and change it as they are playing or singing. They express what they feel, that moment the music is being performed. The father of jazz was Louis Armstrong; yet another black man.
But here's one style of music that all of us in this room can relate to personally. A form of popular music that is sung and performed primarily by black musicians, having .
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roots in all the styles that I have introduce so far. That style is Soul music. The term, soul music, was first used in the 1960's to describe music that combined rhythm and blues, gospel, jazz, and rock and that was characterized by intensity of feeling and earthiness. This style was found also in the South, and like slaves after the civil war, the music migrated north.