Around 1840s Black people couldn’t market their music because it wouldn’t sell due to racism. They had to use white people on the cover of their albums as stand-ins. Eventually, because they had to collaborate with whites, their music got rebranded as white music, and the white musicians get more play than the people they stole the music genre from. In reality, just like most popular music genres, country music in the U.S. began with Black People.
More specifically, the story of country begins with the banjo. The modern-day banjo is a descendant of a West African instrument, made from gourds, called the Akonting. When enslaved persons were taken from Africa to America, their instruments came with them. For four hundred years, enslaved people created their own music, hymns, spirituals, and field songs—all with roots in African music. Accordingly, in the 1840s, the banjo was seen as an exclusively Black instrument; it was unheard of for a wh*te person to play the banjo.
Jimmie Rodgers, the fake father of country music worked with Black musicians, combined the blues, gospel, jazz, cowboy, and folk styles in his songs.
#History #Countrymusic #Blackhistory
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