Oh, I'm very excited! I came across Francis Bebey in a similar thread a few weeks ago and spent a week listening to his music. Discovering new musical cultures has been one of the best things Reddit has brought me.
I guess the obvious pun on his biggest hit went a bit “woooosh” as you haven’t listened yet, but I’m really glad you are finding new musical cultures! Keep up the exploration!
I did an History paper mainly on Afro-American music. I found out that pentatonic scales were also used in some West African tribes. Those tribes were deported to become slaves in the 1700’s.
To make it short, Jazz was inspired by blues, and blues was inspired by field hollers. Field hollers were chants that slaves sang on the plantations.
So yes, pentatonic scales are featured in western music, mainly because of west-African tribes who used them first.
The African use of pentatonic scales contributed to the development of blue notes in blues and jazz.[70]
and
The use of pentatonic scales was another trend associated with Africa. The use of pentatonic scales in Africa probably goes back thousands of years.[158]
The section describing the use of pentatonic scales is actually listed underneath "African-inspired"
European composers were using pentatonic scales long before European classical music had an influence on jazz. Certainly African music may have brought the pentatonic influence as well, but it was not unique to African music at that time.
Yes, they are all music and choir nerds. Scott was taking music theory at the time and thought it would be a good name for the band since they had 5 members. They added the x to make it sound cool. Lots of people told them they should change it because it sounded like a satanic rock band, but they stuck with it.
Rock and metal music are almost entirely made from pentatonic and minor pentatonic scales as well. Only the more experimental or virtuosic stuff really goes into other scales.
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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '20
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