African American music

In 1871, the Fisk University singers embarked on a tour that introduced white Americans to a Black sound that would reshape the nation.

One of the US's newest national parks has put West Virginia in the spotlight, but there's a deeper history to discover about its African American coal communities.

An interactive visualization of the remarkable diversity of African American music, with essays on the characteristics of each genre and style.

The Czech composer came to New York with the conviction that African-American melodies would be the ‘seedbed’ for their nation’s 20th-century music.

Don Cornelius had faith that Black culture would attract a mass audience, and a belief that Black culture should be in the hands of Black people.

The Club Manhattan could hold about 250 people. They did not know it at the time, but they were the earliest witnesses to the rise of the Queen of Rock & Roll.

Gladys Knight and the Pips have always been more beloved by fans than by music historians, but they are essential to the evolution of soul.

The story of the first major black-owned record label and the mystery behind the man who created it.

Two new movies emphasize the singer’s spirit of defiance and political courage.

Harmony Holiday dreams of a Black sound unfettered by white desire.

From the moment DeFord Bailey stepped onto a stage in Nashville, country music would never be the same. Decades after his death he finally got his due.

Dark was the night, cold was the ground, and brilliant is that song drifting through space.

Thirty years ago today, Janet Jackson released “Rhythm Nation 1814," her most topical album yet and one inspired by a horrifying mass shooting.

A songwriter-historian weighs in on the controversy over Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit.

The summer's hit songs offered a glimpse into the changing views of Black America.

And how the Rolling Stones, a band in love with black music, helped lead the way to rock’s segregated future.

From the beginning of the recording industry, many voices have been suppressed and significant cultural history has been lost to prudery and censorship.

Beyoncé is following in the footsteps of many Black musicians before her.

Minstrel shows were an American invention, but they also found success in the United Kingdom, where audiences were negotiating their relationships with empire.

In 1990, scholars found a Sierra Leonean woman who remembered a nearly identical version of a tune passed down by a Georgia woman’s enslaved ancestors