Does suffering have a 4/4 rhythm, a I-IV-V chord progression, and a song structure involving alternating verses, choruses, and bridges? Does it use a pentatonic scale?
I don't know, but I suspect that -- given that slaveowners tried to wipe out traces of African tribal cultures, and hence African music, in their slaves -- "Black" music was derived almost totally from 19th-century "White" Southern folk and church music. Since that is the only stuff black people would have heard.
--- ravi <ravi at platosbeard.org> wrote:
And if, as I
> asked, a significant contributor to the birth of
> Black music (say the
> blues) is the suffering meted out to blacks by
> whites, then that
> negative influence would cancel out (if not
> overwhelm) any "roots"
> claims, wouldn't it?
>
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