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Will the Circle Be Unbroken?: The Sacred Music of the African American Diaspora

W. C. Handy circa mid 1930s

W.C. Handy was one of the most influential songwriters and blues musicians in the United States. Handy did not create the blues genre but was the first to publish music in the blues form, adapting the blues he heard on the street into a series of compositions that helped spark America’s first blues craze, including “Memphis Blues,” “Yellow Dog Blues,” “Beale Street Blues,” and “St. Louis Blues.”

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2. Gary Clark, Jr.
3. Ella Fitzgerald at the Downbeat Club in New York. Dubbed "The First Lady of Song," Ella Fitzgerald was the most popular jazz singer in the United States for more than 50 years. With an unparalled vocal range and exceptional tone and phrasing, she sang everything from ballads to “scat songs” for a global audience, sold 40 million records, and won 13 Grammy awards. Photo by William P. Gottlieb, courtesy of the United States Library of Congress's Music Division
4. BB King B.B. King is possibly the most well known blues musician in the world. He was part of the early blues scene on Beale Street in New York in the 1940s and was instrumental in the evolution and definition of the genre. A virtuoso guitarist, King developed a sophisticated and distinctive playing technique, integrating elements from early blues guitarists like Blind Lemon Jefferson to create a unique style that influenced many later blues and rock guitarists. Photo by John Shearer/The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty Images
5. Beyonce Knowles Beyoncé Knowles-Carter is a singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. She rose to fame as the lead singer of Destiny's Child, one of the best- selling girl groups of all time. As a solo artist, she has become one of the world’s bestselling music artists and an outspoken advocate for social justice issues. She has been listed among Time's 100 most influential people and ranked as the most powerful woman in entertainment. Photo courtesy of Theo Wargo/Getty Images for TIDAL.
6. Mahalia Jackson performs at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam
7. Marian Anderson at the Easter Concert at the Lincolm Memorial
8. Cabinet Card of the Fisk Jubilee Singers
9. Ma Rainey
10. Thomas A. Dorsey
11. Yolanda Adams
12. W. C. Handy circa mid 1930s W.C. Handy was one of the most influential songwriters and blues musicians in the United States. Handy did not create the blues genre but was the first to publish music in the blues form, adapting the blues he heard on the street into a series of compositions that helped spark America’s first blues craze, including “Memphis Blues,” “Yellow Dog Blues,” “Beale Street Blues,” and “St. Louis Blues.”
13. Kendrick Lamar
14. NWA The rap group NWA is widely considered one of the greatest and most influential groups in the history of hip hop music. They were among the earliest pioneers of the gangsta rap genre. Drawing on their experiences with racism and excessive policing, NWA wrote intensely political music, with depictions of drugs, crime, and women that caused considerable controversy. Their sharp, staccato style and raw, authentic lyrics led the genre in new directions and continue to impact the development of hip-hop.

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From Spirituals to Soul
African American music has always been characterized by the ever-changing circumstances of African American life. Africans brought to the United States as slaves brought their musical traditions with them. Many of their activities, from work to worship, were rooted in song. As African American slaves were Christianized, their songs evolved to incorporate Christian hymns and psalms, resulting in the spiritual, which served as a way to express the community's new faith, as well as its sorrows and hopes. After the Civil War, as freed African Americans moved north and west to work in the industrial and railway industries, the agricultural songs of the slave era developed to suit these situations. These new songs eventually gave birth to the gospel and the blues, whose influence can be heard across genres from soul to rock’n’roll and R&B. In the early 20th century, the melding of African American musical traditions with music from other parts of the world led to an explosion of musical styles, including ragtime, jazz, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, funk, and disco. During the 80s and 90s, the emergence of hip-hop and rap took African American musical traditions in new directions, drawing on the legacy of old forms to create a distinctive art form as grounded in social protest as the early spirituals. Modern African American artists and musicians continue to rediscover, remix, and reinvent their musical history in ways that have a profound impact on the shape of musical culture of the United States.