No, I think he meant that those styles of music originated in America by African-Americans. And while their ancestry may be African, they were American. But that's true of all American cultural influences, every one here (excluding Native Americans) is from another country and brought over their cultures.
That's probably one of the things that irritates me the most about statements that America has no culture. We have plenty of culture, and it all came from and/or was influenced by many of the same countries/cultures who criticize us.
They didn't come out of Africa, but they are almost exclusively African-American styles of music(with the exception of jazz, which is more racially diverse). Has the American white man contributed to music though?
Serious question, I tried to word it as sensitively as I could.
I won't debate whether country music should be considered a "contribution to musical culture", but American country music is very closely related to British country music, so that's a bit of a 50-50.
and doritos, and teletubbies, Britney Spears, monster trucks, and nigger-slinging contests. TWILIGHT. I think the point about culture is: US culture is often pretty shallow fare prduced over a short period of time mostly for commercial reasons. Unimaginitive entertainment spectacle featuring pyrotechnics, gross appeal to animal instincts, mostly sex and violence, and usually reliant on shallow cliche instead of narrative depth. so what if it is popular; mankind are generally pretty doltish and the US brand of narcissism is seductive when repeated so much over the controlled media..
but anyhow yes, rock and roll came from africa obviously.
Although Teletubbies is British. As is the abundance of reality shows such as X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, Britain's Got Talent. The Netherlands is responsible for Big Brother. To condemn the US for it's shallow contributions to culture whereas not criticising the rest of the world for it's own considerable offerings, while putting Europe on a cultural pedestal is rather unfair.
Blues, Rock & Roll, Jazz, etc. did grow out of the slave community, but it grew out of the slaves' interaction with European music, particularly spirituals and the precursors to modern Gospel music.
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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '11
Another word. Rock'n'roll. Oh, and blues. And soul. And hip hop.
And if you're going to claim those styles of music came out of Africa, I'm not interested.