MUSIC IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

How many different kinds of music do you know?

How big is the family tree of American rock music?

Now listen to these songs. How many kinds of music can you recognise?

The music of the United States reflects the country's multiethnic population. The country's most famous kinds of music are hip hop, gospel, blues, country, rhythm and blues (R ‘n’ B), jazz, pop, techno and house, rock and roll and heavy metal. The United States has the world's largest music market and we can hear its music all around the world. American music has influenced many cultures all over the world. Many American cities and towns have a strong music identity and they produced particular styles of music. For example cities like Philadelphia, Seattle, New York City, San Francisco, New Orleans, Detroit, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville and Los Angeles.the country's multiethnic populationhip hop bluescountryrhythm and bluesjazz poprock and rolllargest music market PhiladelphiaSeattleNew York CitySan FranciscoNew OrleansDetroitChicago AtlantaNashvilleLos Angeles

Native Americans were the first inhabitants of North American. All the different people who came to America after the Native Americans brought their music. From the 17th century immigrants from Europe arrived and African slaves came with their musical traditions. The first white European settlers came from England, Scotland and Ireland and they wrote folk music in English. The word “folk” means “of the common people”. These European immigrants played the guitar, the mandolin, the banjo, the harmonica, the piano and the drum.Native Americans immigrantsAfrican slavesguitarmandolinbanjo harmonicapiano

Oh Susanna

The song “Oh Susanna” was written by Stephen Collins Foster in It is one of the most popular American songs of all times. In 1949 it became a sort of anthem for the pioneers that travelled to the Wild West during the Gold Rush. Most of them were gold diggers who were going to California and to the Rocky Mountains to look for gold. While they were travelling they listened and sang this song.

In the first line we read that the singer comes from “Alabama”, a rural state in the south of the USA, where in 1860 one million people lived. Half of them were black slaves from Africa. Then we read that the singer carries a banjo on his knee”. A banjo is a musical instrument of African origins that was easy to play and easy to carry around because it was light. It had 3, 4 or 5 strings. Today in the USA it is still popular in country and folk music. banjo

The singer is going to “Louisiana”. This state was called after the name of the French King Louis XIV, who colonized this area in the 17th century. The capital of this state is New Orleans, still famous for its French Quarter and the typical French (European) Carnival called in French “Mardi Gras”. Napoleon sold this state to the USA in Later the singer says “I come from Dixieland”. The word “Dixie” is a nickname for the southern United States. This name comes from the French word “dix” (that means “10”), that was written in French on a 10 dollar bill in a bank in New Orleans.

The word "Dixie" today also refers to the 11 Southern States that during the Civil War (or Secession War, ) got separated from the rest of the USA to form the Confederate States of America.Southern StatesConfederate States of America These states were: South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Tennessee.South Carolina MississippiFloridaAlabamaGeorgia LouisianaTexasVirginiaArkansas North CarolinaTennessee

Some lyrics in the song are nonsense: “ It rain'd all night the day I left, The weather it was dry, The sun so hot I froze to death...” and later “ I shut my eyes to hold my breath...”

The original version of this song is also offensive to black people. In fact this was one of the first songs in history with the the word “nigger”. The singer sang “And I killed five hundred niggers”. Today the word “nigger” is extremely rude and offensive in English speaking countries. In the USA people use the word “coloured” or more often the word “black” or “African American”.

However you can often hear the word “nigger” (or “nigga”) among black teenagers and young people in the USA, especially in hip hop and rap songs. But be careful, only black people, not white people, can use this word for their “brothers” or, as they call themselves, their “bros” ! ….You don’t want to end up like Bruce Willis in the film “Die Hard” !?

If you ever visit the black neighbourhood Harlem in New York, just don’t do this…

Clementine

The song “Oh my darling Clementine” (1884) is sung by a man who is talking about the loss of his darling, the daughter of a miner in the 1849 California Gold Rush. The Americans bought the state of California from Mexico in In 1849, when they discovered gold mines, it became the fastest growing state in North America. The small port village of San Francisco in northern California, not far from the mines in the mountains, in a couple of years became a city with people and today it has over people. California Gold Rush

However this song isn’t a real sad romantic ballad but it is a parody of a sad ballad and there are many funny moments. “Clementine's feet are so big that she has to wear boxes instead of shoes (because there aren’t any size 9 shoes). What’s size 9 in Italy?

Another funny fact is that her "tragic demise" is caused by a splinter in her toe that makes her fall and drown – clearly a ridiculous accident. Finally, at the end of the song, the lover forgets his lost love after one kiss from Clementine's "little sister".

John Brown's body In 1859 John Brown transformed his farm in West Virginia into a fortress, where white and black people could live together. He stole a lot of weapons from the Army, he took many hostages and he declared that all black slaves in America should be set free. He fought for one day against the American Army but then he surrendered. He was hung.Still today some people see him as a crazy terrorist. Some other people see him as the first man who fought for the abolishment of slavery.

Two years after his death, in 1861 the American Civil War (Secession War) started when the Southern slave states declared their secession from the USA and formed the Confederate States of America (called "Confederacy" or "South"). This war began because the southern stated didn’t want slavery to be abolished, since they made a lot of money in the plantations where African slaves grew cotton, tobacco, rice, cocoa, coffee, sugar cane. The war finished in 1865 when the Confederacy was defeated and slavery abolished.slave statessecessionConfederate States of America The northern soldiers used this song about John Brown as their anthem.