What Is American Music Without Black Music? The Whitewashing Of Our Voices

Music is a universal language, and American music has influenced cultures across the globe. Its sounds and styles are celebrated worldwide, but many fans don’t know the true origins of their favorite genres. The foundation of American music is deeply rooted in Black creativity. Since our ancestors arrived on this soil, our sound has been used, celebrated, and appropriated. Without Black music, what would American music even look or sound like? Imagine American music without the rhythm and emotion born from Black artistry. To understand our impact, we have to start at the beginning.

Long before bodies were forced onto ships destined for the unknown, music thrived in African traditions. Voices and handmade instruments were woven into every facet of life. For those who survived the Middle Passage, their mind and voices were all they had. Even then, musical expression was seen as resistance—something to be silenced or confined. Field songs and spirituals gave voice to both suffering and resilience. This rich oral tradition laid the groundwork for the Blues, the root from which countless genres would grow. Golden Scissors explains, “Examples of notable field songs can be traced back to this period, influencing the development of the blues. “Hammer Ring,” a work song commonly sung during labor, exemplified the coding of messages within its lyrics. Another profound example is “Steal Away,” a spiritual that echoed themes of escape and longing for freedom. Moreover, the sorrowful tones of “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” found their way into numerous blues compositions, encapsulating the emotional depth that persists in contemporary music.” Legends like Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Howlin’ Wolf, and Lead Belly fought to stay true to themselves in an industry that prized profit over personhood. Their work introduced musical devices like the Blues scale, call-and-response, and swing rhythm—core elements that would soon define America’s first true art form, jazz.

Jazz

Jazz, born in the Black neighborhoods of New Orleans, fused the musical traditions of Africa, the West Indies, Southern church culture, and the soul of the Blues. The BBC thoroughly explains how this fusion came to be, “The particular mix of African-style drumbeats and the Caribbean rhythm, found in this song [Livery Stable Blues by the Original Dixieland Jass Band] but so common to jazz as a whole, points to the time from 1817 to 1843, when black slaves – some from Africa, some from the Caribbean, some from the interior of the American South – would gather on Sundays in New Orleans’ Congo Square to play music and cross-pollinate their traditions. New Orleans Creoles of colour, who were the mixed-race descendants of black and white ancestors, typically identified more with European culture than with Africa’s. After the Jim Crow laws of 1890 classified the city’s mixed-race Creoles as ‘black’, they were only allowed to play with other black musicians and this brought a greater musical fluency and technical skill to black music because many Creoles of colour were trained in classical music. Jazz emerged from this merger of forms”. Black musicians reimagined brass sounds once used in degrading minstrel shows, giving them new life and dignity. As white performers caught wind of the infectious style of music, the sound became marketable to white audiences. Yet the innovations were ours: improvisation, syncopation, scatting, popularized by Ella Fitzgerald, and swing music. Artists like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis helped turn the genre into a global force that redefined musical complexity and expression. Without their brilliance, the evolution of American classical music would have followed an entirely different path.

Rock

Just as jazz revolutionized history, rock music carried that energy forward, though often without acknowledgment of its roots. Today, rock is largely seen as a genre for white audiences, but its origin is unmistakably Black. The high-energy sound we associate with rebellion was shaped by pioneers like Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Big Mama Thornton, and Louis Jordan. These artists influenced everyone from The Rolling Stones to The Beatles. They laid the groundwork for Jimi Hendrix, Lenny Kravitz, and the rock/funk groundbreakers Sly and the Family Stone. White audiences loved “race music” but devalued its people. Watching a clip of Frankie Lymon sing “Little Bitty Pretty One” on live television in 1960 captures that concept on film in real time. The industry’s treatment of Black artists during Rock’s rise was exploitative. White record labels routinely hired Black talent as uncredited writers or underpaid session musicians. Songs like Ball ‘n’ Chain were written and originally recorded by Big Mama Thornton, not simply written for Janis Joplin. Elvis Presley built his empire on the backs of Black songwriters and performers. Global News explains, “Thornton wrote Ball n’ Chain, one of Joplin’s hits, and originally recorded Presley’s Hound Dog in 1952, among her many contributions to the genre. She gained some recognition for her Hound Dog performance, but saw very little, if any, profit from it. The song’s origins as a female empowerment tune disappeared after Presley’s version was released”. Black creativity also gave us rock’s subgenre, funk music. Without funk, we wouldn’t have the heavily influential genius James Brown, the P-funk nation of George Clinton and the Parliament, or the unparalleled charisma of Morris Day and The Time.

Country

Like rock, country music carries Black roots that are often buried under whitewashed narratives. The banjo came from West Africa. Black cowboys existed long before Hollywood told otherwise. Country music as we know it is the offspring of soulful Blues and our view of country living. Artists like Charley Pride, Linda Martell, DeFord Bailey, and Lesley Riddle were pivotal in shaping the genre, yet remain marginalized in mainstream narratives. You won’t find them on Nashville’s Country Music Mural, and their presence in the Country Hall of Fame is scarce. ABC News explains, “Despite the contributions of Black artists to the roots of the genre, research shows that Black artists have largely been shut out of the industry. For example, in 19 years of country radio programming, only 13 Black artists were represented among the 11,484 songs played by major country stations, according to a study from the Black Music Action Coalition. Only three Black artists have been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame since 1964”. A key brick in the foundation of country music is the art of storytelling, and Black people are born storytellers. That same storytelling gave rise to folk traditions, and without our influence, the careers of Bob Dylan and Joan Baez might look very different.

Hip-Hop

Then there’s hip hop—the one genre that remains unmistakably Black. While it has been heavily appropriated, it has never been fully whitewashed. Black struggle and innovation gave the world hip hop culture. Hip hop gives the world a glimpse into the highs, lows, and in between of the Black experience. Pioneers DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash, and Afrika Bambaataa are the reason we have icons like Missy Elliot, Tupac Shakur, Kendrick Lamar, and Biggie Smalls. The Kennedy Center reminds us that “Hip hop believes that people can take control of their lives through self-knowledge and self-expression. Knowledge influences style and technique and connects its artists under a collective hip-hop umbrella. It engages the world through hip hop’s history, values, and ideas, and adds intellectual muscle to support and inform its music and moves and its poetry and art. Most importantly, it allows for a shared experience against an uncertain world”. Black innovation is also responsible for the rap/rock genre crossover. If Run DMC and Aerosmith didn’t walk this way, then Jay-Z and Linkin Park never would have been on a collision course, and Lil Wayne never would have had a rebirth. Hip hop’s influence continues to prove how the world loves the things we produce while despising the humans we are.

Pop

Pop music also has Black fingerprints all over it. Though often framed as “mainstream” or “universal,” it leans heavily on Black vocal styles, rhythms, and production. Pop stars have long appropriated Black culture to boost their image and sales, only to return to their original selves over time. Even the hottest dance tracks of the 1990s were sung by Black women. Journalist Danyel Smith says, “For Black artists caught up in the cycle of white artists being rewarded for mimicking Black artists and Black artists being maligned or short-sold for trying to sound like white artists, who are trying to sound like them, it’s easy to succumb to existential gloom. It’s Elvis Presley slicking his hair into a pompadour like Little Richard or Chuck Berry, who had straightened their hair to look like the silkened white boy thatch held up by Americans as superior to glossy coils. It’s the fact that blackness has more value coming from white artists.” Too often, our contributions are the engine—rarely the headline. Black musicians are some of pop’s biggest stars. Icons like Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Prince, Whitney Houston, and Rihanna have redefined pop sound, fashion, and stage presence. Without our innovation, pop music would be hollow.

Black musicians have long been the heartbeat of American music, but their contributions are too often overlooked, erased, or credited to others. From spirituals to hip hop, rock to country, our voices built the soundtracks of this nation. To truly honor American music, we must honor Black music and its creators. It’s not enough to enjoy the rhythm; we must acknowledge the roots. Giving credit where it’s due isn’t just about setting the record straight. It’s about recognizing the brilliance, resilience, and cultural legacy that Black artists have poured into the soul of American sound. The truth has always been in the music.