Timeline of African American Music: Production

FAIN: MN-277069-21

Carnegie Hall (New York, NY 10019-3210)
Christopher Amos (Project Director: June 2020 to March 2024)

Production of a website and interactive timeline on the history of African American music.

Carnegie Hall requests Digital Projects for the Public Production support to produce a fully-functional interactive digital timeline of the history of African American music for broad distribution to a general audience. The primary goal of the project is to create an engaging and innovative digital resource that makes humanities content on African American music, culture, and history accessible to a broad public audience. Continued funding will allow Carnegie Hall to build upon NEH support for the discovery and prototyping phases of the project, completing production and launching the new digital timeline in 2021.

Associated Products

Timeline of African American Music (Web Resource)
Title: Timeline of African American Music
Author: Dr. Portia Maultsby
Abstract: The Timeline of African American Music represents decades of scholarship conducted and led by Dr. Portia K. Maultsby, a pioneer in the study of African American music, as well as the contributions of numerous scholars. From the earliest folk traditions to present-day popular music, the timeline is a detailed view of the evolution of African American musical genres that span the past 400 years. This celebration of African American musical traditions reveals the unique characteristics of each genre and style, while also offering in-depth studies of pioneering musicians who created some of America’s most timeless artistic expressions.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/timeline

Timeline of African American Music (Article)
Title: Timeline of African American Music
Author: Carnegie Hall
Abstract: Encompassing the earliest folk traditions to present-day popular music, the new Timeline of African American Music is a detailed view of the evolution of African American musical genres that span the past 400 years. This exploration of African American musical traditions reveals the unique characteristics of each genre and style, while offering in-depth studies of pioneering musicians who created some of America’s most timeless artistic expressions.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: http://www.carnegiehall.org/Explore/Articles/2022/01/11/Timeline-of-African-American-Music
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Music Educators' Workshop - Introduction to the Timeline of African American Music (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Music Educators' Workshop - Introduction to the Timeline of African American Music
Abstract: xxxx
Author: Dr. Fredara Hadley
Date: 05/14/2022
Location: Carnegie Hall

Afrofuturism in Black Music: Timeline of African American Music (Exhibition)
Title: Afrofuturism in Black Music: Timeline of African American Music
Curator: Carnegie Hall
Abstract: Online multimedia exhibit on the Google Arts and Culture platform. The text is an abridged version of an essay written by Tony Bolden, Ph.D., originally published on Carnegie Hall's Timeline of African American Music.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/afrofuturism-in-black-music-carnegie-hall/sgXhsoeJyYSrQQ?hl=en
Primary URL Description: Online multimedia exhibit, Afrofuturism in Black Music, on Google Arts & Culture.

Afrofuturism in Black Music (Article)
Title: Afrofuturism in Black Music
Author: Tony Bolden
Abstract: This article traces the origins of Afrofuturism as a genre and its expression through music.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/?story=afrofuturism-in-black-music
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Defining Genre in Jazz (Article)
Title: Defining Genre in Jazz
Author: Douglas Henry Daniels
Abstract: Histories present music as if it is fundamentally linear in its evolution. This, at best, tells only half of the story because musical evolution is also circular. Jazz musicians cross genre boundaries as they explore new ideas, experiment with advanced technologies, and engage with current trends.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/?story=defining-genre-in-jazz
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Global Jazz (Article)
Title: Global Jazz
Author: Douglas Henry Daniels
Abstract: The influence of jazz, along with rock and roll and reggae, is extensive and profound, as witnessed in the formation of jazz bands around the globe that imitated, reinterpreted and localized the jazz style. Created and performed primarily by African Americans, jazz nonetheless has been international since its early years. In fact, the roots of this music—spirituals, minstrel songs, and ragtime—influenced European and South American musicians in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/?story=global-jazz
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Caribbean and Latin Connections in Jazz (Article)
Title: Caribbean and Latin Connections in Jazz
Author: Paul Austerlitz
Abstract: Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin music has blended with Black North American music for centuries. This interaction is based in shared African-influenced musical characteristics such as rhythmic focus, a percussive quality, and links to dance. Caribbean and Afro-Latin influences brought new musical elements, such as polyrhythms, African-derived percussion instruments, and Spanish-inflected melodies, to North America. At the same time, African American music from the United States had an influence in the Caribbean and Latin America. This musical dialogue gained momentum during the 20th and 21st centuries, fostering rich new forms of creativity.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/?story=caribbean-and-latin-connections-in-jazz
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

African Origins and Adaptations in African American Music (Article)
Title: African Origins and Adaptations in African American Music
Author: Portia Maultsby
Author: Earl Stewart
Abstract: Experienced both as collective and individual expression, African American music-making displays a shared set of African-derived cultural values and aesthetic practices that distinguish African American music from that of European cultures.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/?story=african-origins-and-adaptations-in-african-american-music
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Media, Technology, and the African American Music Business (Article)
Title: Media, Technology, and the African American Music Business
Author: Reebee Garafalo
Abstract: African Americans have participated in all aspects of music-making in the United States since before it became a country. Their talent, creativity, technological know-how, business acumen, and organizational skills have survived systematic discrimination at every stage of development from the Industrial Revolution to the digital age.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/stories/media-technology-and-the-african-american-music-business
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Musical Exchange Across the “Black Atlantic” (Article)
Title: Musical Exchange Across the “Black Atlantic”
Author: Michael Veal
Abstract: From the moment the first African slaves arrived on the shores of the Americas in the 16th century, a process of cross-cultural musical dialogue was set into motion that has continued to the present. From the United States to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, a constellation of African musical traditions has blended with musical practices of Western European and Native American origin to form the foundations of the music cultures of the African diaspora. Meanwhile, these hybridized, diasporic reformulations of African music have played a central role in Africa’s musical modernity.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/stories/musical-exchange-across-the-black-atlantic
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Black Composers and Concert Artists (Article)
Title: Black Composers and Concert Artists
Author: Tammy Kernodle
Abstract: Histories on African American music rarely include the cultural expressions of performers or composers defined as part of concert or classical music. The reason most often cited for this exclusion is that their expressions represent a Western European aesthetic, and, thus, fall outside the cultural and musical framework of Black culture. While this interpretation has merit, it ignores the cultural hybridity embodied in many forms of musical expression considered to be “Black music.”
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/stories/black-composers-and-concert-artists
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

Revolutionary Concepts in African American Music (Article)
Title: Revolutionary Concepts in African American Music
Author: Stephanie Shonekan
Abstract: Since slavery, African Americans have infused their musical expression with revolutionary messages indicative of their unique and troubled journey in the New World. African Americans creatively have resisted oppression by organizing revolutionary movements focused on social and economic equality, voting rights, political power, complete citizenship, and access on every level and in every arena. The music of African Americans has served as the inspirational soundtrack of these movements, evolving from one era to another, and reflecting their revolutionary response to each new challenge for justice, progress, and equality.
Year: 2022
Primary URL: https://timeline.carnegiehall.org/stories/revolutionary-concepts-in-african-american-music
Format: Other
Publisher: Carnegie Hall

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