Which+ethnic+groups+influenced+the+music+during+your+assigned+decade(s)?

The main genres of music in the 40s and 50s was influenced by african people. The blues, jazz and also the rock n' roll (that was created in a mix of other genres) have a lot of african history.

"The blues has deep roots in American history, particularly African-American history. The blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th Century. Its inventors were slaves, ex-slaves and the descendants of slaves - African-American sharecroppers who sang as they toiled in the cotton and vegetable fields. It's generally accepted that the music evolved from African spirituals, African chants, work songs, field hollers, rural fife and drum music, revivalist hymns, and country dance music. The blues grew up in the Mississippi Delta just upriver from New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz. Blues and jazz have always influenced each other, and they still interact in countless ways today. Unlike jazz, the blues didn't spread out significantly from the South to the Midwest until the 1930s and '40s. Once the Delta blues made their way up the Mississippi to urban areas, the music evolved into electrified Chicago blues, other regional blues styles, and various jazz-blues hybrids. A decade or so later the blues gave birth to rhythm 'n blues and rock 'n roll." (http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18724#.UchB89hknHU)

I am also reading something about Jazz in here: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/timeline.htm


 * "Jazz** is an American music style which originated around the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the south from a mix of African and European music traditions. The word jazz began as a West Coast slang term of uncertain derivation and was first used to refer to music in Chicago in about 1915." (http://www.acesandeighths.com/genres.html)

Rock and Roll

The Rock and Roll is primarily consisted of musical genres like: rhythm and blues and country. Like jazz, the rhythm blues and consequently the Rock and Roll have the influence of the African slaves. Elvis Presley for example, one of the big names of the 1950’s, energized interpretations of songs, many from African American sources.

[]

[]

Country Music

The country music is one of the best definitions of the “American people”. It has the influence of the African slaves with their war cries; the religious thought of the south of the USA; and the camp workers. The Irish people contributed with the addiction of the ‘banjo’, which helped in the rhythm and in the typical American country dance.

[]