The Historiography of African-American Music

Historians have written on African-American music, and its related genres for quite some time. Since the publication of Amiri Barakas great work, Blues People, historians, as well as ethnomusicologists and cultural theorists, have discussed the essentialist qualities against the malleability of music. In this analysis I will present his work, its importance, and its impact and how modern scholars use it or move away from it when writing on these genres. The newest genre in the form of Hip-Hop culture, mostly through Rap music, is the same, yet its also new as a post-Civil Rights and Black Power Era music with a whole new breath of interpretation.