The Africian American role In the American folk Music World

 In folk music there is not just one set of folk, there are many folk ranging from all races and living all around the world. The folk in this cause are African Americans who were forcefully brought over from Africa to America by slave traders. These folk when brought to America lived in the southern region in states such as Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia,and North Carolina. With them they brought their folkways from the mother land of Africa which was greatly based on music. This form of music that they brought with them was fused with  Anglo-American music and  themes to their music that  expressed the struggled they faced as a folk. Their music in the per-twentieth century can be categorized into two distinct groups Gospel and secular folk music each having their own subsets and particular sounds. In the African American community there was a "...need for social cohesiveness and leadership that was particularly pressing...during the decades of legalized slavery" (Lornell 143). One thing common between these two categories, both of them brought a sense a community to a people that had been oppressed and continued to be oppressed b their white counter parts. The music brought a sense of belonging between a people that had been neglected and morally abused. It allowed them to evoke inner emotion of turmoil and struggle in a land where they were not wanted.

Religious music has a "...clear stronghold for traditional music in the African American community" (Lornell 143). Not only did the church allow for them to congregate for a common belief in God, it also was a place that "...served as social services networks, rallying points for civil rights, and public spokes persons" (Lornell 143). While such social gathers were held music was a way to express social problems, their religious belief, and as a means of cultural unity. The integration of African Americans churches in American was sparked off by the fire of the Second Great Awakening (1790-1830). Camp meetings would be held in which large crowds would attend (black and white) to hear sermons that would last days. The Africans Americans in attendance would stay up through the night and sing, it provided them with a "...forum for experimentation not previously available to them..." (Lornell 145). These singers eventually began to "...to shift their singing away from camp meeting hymns" (Lornell 142) to form their own churches and write their own songs of belief. Spirituals are one form of African American Gospel music, they are often "...characterized as sad or even sorrowful" (Lornell 149). They are often "...performed by a small group that accompanied and supported its leader" (Lornell 149) and were typically call and response while written in four part harmonies. A ring shout is "...one of the earliest forms of African American religious practice" which "...combines physical movement with song" (Lornell 150).  It is "...reminiscent of some West African religious ceremonies and African folk culture" (Lornell 150) and participants communicate through spontaneous movement and singing.  Both men and women use body percussion while accompanied by a band of clappers, hand drums, and tambourines. These subsets of African American Gospel have been influenced by American music and that of their ancestral  heritage while having their sounds and styles.
Gospel music was not the only foundation of African American music, "...slavery's legacy left so many Africa American in rural southern areas, most of this music originated in the South" (Lornell 171) which formed African American secular folk music. This category of African American music gave birth to such genres of music as jazz, blues, ragtime and consisted of simplistic genre such as work songs. Work songs are songs performed by works to help them carry out their mundane  and monotonous tasks. They were domain of African American laborers out working in the fields. It consisted of unison singing or call and response and they were  "... based on secular themes, often escape or freedom of movement" (Lornell 172).  Songs like these brought together laborers and gave them an outlet of hope and monetary joy to the community. Down home blues was also used as an outlet for African Americans to cope with the moral struggles of the Jim Crows of the segregated South and the activity of white supremacists groups like the Ku Klux Klan. Guitars were greatly used in blues music including Bottleneck blues guitar which could imitate the voice of a singer, They were played with the"... primary cords of I, IV, and V" (Lornell 189). Even though Gospel music was the corner stone of African American music Secular folk music was one of the powerful and diverse category of African American music.
From these two distinct categories of African American music, you learn that that the African American folk were greatly influenced from their American surrounds and the African heritage. From this stems a large range of diverse music that spread through America while also influence American music as a whole. Other cultures that have come to America such as Irish and German immigrants have similar distinctions in American by diffusion their folkways into the American folk stream. African American culture have been a huge influence on American folk by incorporating racial struggles, American influence and African heritage into their works.

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