America’s Culture

“Jazz is America’s classical music.” “Jazz is America’s (first/ foremost / most original) cultural export.” “Rhythm and blues music was appropriated by Whites, who renamed it “rock and roll.” Or, as W.E.B. DuBois famously put it in 1935, “Literature, art and music are curiously dominated by the Negro…. Southern music is Negro music. Yet Negroes themselves are seldom recognized….”

Agree or not, African culture is an essential enriching part of U.S. American culture, and world culture and commerce. Hear—and see and enjoy—some examples of the evolution here. And use this site to share your own thoughts and case-studies.