Did Black people really create or influence most forms of popular American music? How so?
YES IT IS TRUE! Blacks in the Americas (meaning all Blacks in America, the Carribean and South America drawing from African traditions) did create the Blues, Rock, Jazz, Funk, R&B, Reggae, Calypso and Gospel (Spirituals too) as well as influencing Samba, Bossa Nova, etc. rhythmically. Country music is heavily influenced by Black Gospel and Blues as well as some other European folk traditions as mentioned by Bassmeister before. Some of the melodic and harmonic elements came from European classical music also (many early Black Jazz composers studied Bach). Popular culture has always borrowed heavily from the Black sense of style in music, personal attitude, fashion and other areas in America and has influnced the world in the most profound and amazing ways and continues to do so to this day. Blues, Gospel and Jazz have each contributed a great deal to the melodic approaches common in most American popular music whether it be in the form of “Blue notes, the Blues Scale, the Bebop scale or
