How has West African music and dance influenced us today?
People still perform traditional dance
. West African music has influenced gospel, jazz, blues, rock and roll, and rap. … They reflect the living conditions of the dancers.
How has African music influenced Western music?
Sub-saharan African traditions
have had a–a tremendous impact on the popular music of the Western world. … So, it’s the–the rhythmic quality, the sound quality, and then the emphasis of those two in many musics over the melodic aspect. And an example there would be rap. Much rap doesn’t emphasize melody.
Does African music influenced the music of today?
African has been and will continue to influence many other types of music. Varying from
rock and roll, jazz, the blues, and even modern pop
, African music has traces in all kinds of music. In fact, there are not many genres that do not have even just a little bit of African ancestry.
How did African music influence the popular music?
Many genres of popular music, including blues, jazz and rumba, derive to varying
degrees from musical traditions from Africa, taken to the Americas by enslaved Africans
. These rhythms and sounds have subsequently been adapted by newer genres like rock, soul music, and rhythm and blues.
What role did music and dance play in West African society?
What role did music and dance play in West African society? Music and dance were
used to honor and celebrate people and events
.
How does African music relate to dance?
Dance is a very important aspect of African music as can be seen in the
close relationship between body movement and music
. In the dance arena it is natural for performers and listeners to move rhythmically. … It is the patterning of the human body in time and space in order to give expression to ideas and emotions.
How is African music different from Western music?
– Western Music is, broadly speaking, expressed with emphasis on the downbeat, whereas
African music seems to emphasise the rhythm on the upbeat
. Sometimes, to the untrained ear, African music appears deceptively easy to reproduce, but once you try it, there seem to be layers beneath layers of rhythm.
How did African music influence American music?
African-American musicians developed related styles such as
rhythm and blues
in the 1940s. In the 1960s, soul performers had a major influence on white US and UK singers. In the mid-1960s, Black musicians developed funk and they were many of the leading figures in late 1960s and 1970s genre of jazz-rock fusion.
What makes African music unique from other music?
African singers use a wide variety of sounds. The melodies are short, repeated over and over, also
include whistles and yodels
which is peculiar to African style of music. Soloist often improvises new melodies while the chorus continuous with the original melody creating a polyphonic structure.
How did African music influence jazz?
From these early days of jazz, all the musical principles and aesthetic values of African music are evident and continued to be influential:
interlocking and percussive rhythms, syncopation, density of sound or polyphony, ostinatos, improvised variations, and call and response
.
Why is music important in West Africa?
Music plays a key role in West Africans’ daily lives for dance, healing,
storytelling
, and religious practice.
What is the importance of African dance?
In Africa, as with other parts of the world, ceremonial dance tells a story. More than mere entertainment, it recounts history,
conveys emotion, celebrates rites of passage, and helps to unify communities
. “African dance” is usually associated with sub-Saharan and Western Africa.
How did African art influence other artists?
Movements such as
Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism
were influenced by African art, incorporating elements like dissonant colors, geometric forms, and fractured or distorted human forms.
What could be the possible reasons why African music is the most influential music in the world?
1. Most African music
has scales very similar to those of European music
and thus we are arguably considering a unified and indeed accessible style. 2. Many African musics emphasize rhythms and rhythm is arguably the most universal element of music and thus it is relatively easy to export.
Why is music and dance important to African culture?
Music and dancing is an integral part of many traditional African societies. Songs and dances
facilitate teaching and promoting social values
, celebrating special events and major life milestones, performing oral history and other recitations, and spiritual experiences.
What is the importance of music and dance in Africa’s daily life?
Since the beginning of time, music and dancing have played a
vital role in people’s ability to communicate
, and celebrate events, with an array of sounds announcing important ceremonies. In Africa, music is a social activity in which almost everyone participates.
Dance
needs music to set the mood, drop the beat, and create the motivation needed to start moving
. Music has that ability to make us feel a certain way, which is why it plays such an immense role in dance. Different styles of music create various types of beats, which all correspond to a specific dance style.
How do the African and European musical traditions differ?
African music was very rhythmic
, with poly rhythms and based around more drums and call-and-response. European music was based more around classical and instrumentation, with music theory in the basis of what was being played.
How is Western music different?
Western classical music is
composed
, Indian classical music is improvised. All Western classical music compositions are formally written using the staff notation, and performers have virtually no latitude for improvisation.
What makes Western music unique?
The short answer is: Western music is
generally tonal
, based on major or minor scales, using an equal temperament tuning, in an easy-to-recognize meter, with straightforward rhythms, fairly strict rules on harmony and counterpoint, and not much improvisation.
How does dance influence popular culture?
For example, dance in popular culture is utilised
in music videos, movies and television shows
(for example; reality and talent shows, such as ‘Dance moms’ and ‘So you think you can dance’), social media, and there has been a rise of audience members for dance performances.
How has African culture influenced the world?
Africans have, since the early settlement of America,
influenced the nation’s language, manners, religion, literature, music, art, and dance
. … In the midst of this, America must deal with a considerable African presence in the United Nations.
What role did music play during slavery?
Music was
a way for slaves to express their feelings whether it was sorrow, joy, inspiration or hope
. Songs were passed down from generation to generation throughout slavery. These songs were influenced by African and religious traditions and would later form the basis for what is known as “Negro Spirituals”.
What is African music used for?
Music is an integral part of African ethnic life, accompanying many kinds of events, including
childbirth, marriage, hunting, and even political activities
. Many cultures use song and dance to ward off evil spirits, and pay respects to good spirits, the dead, and ancestors.
How African musical instruments are obtained from the environment?
Materials for the instruments are usually
from nature
, like wood, gourds, turtle shells, animal horns or skin. Other materials might be recycled from man-made objects, like scrap metal from old cars or oil drums. Blacksmiths or artists trained in instrument making create them for important people and groups.
What term is used to describe the fusion of West African with black American music?
| Afrobeat term used to describe the fusion of West African with black american music | Axe fuses the Afro-Caribbean styles of reggae, marcha and calypso | Jit hard and fast percussive Zimbabwean dance music played on drums with guitar accompaniment |
|---|
How did slavery influence jazz?
While working in the fields, slaves
sang work songs that combined African tribal chants with Christian hymns incorporated from
the Southern Baptist Church. Together, these influences created Negro spirituals that had strong, percussive beats and were accompanied by intense physical dancing.
How has African art influenced artists in the West?
1905, when artists began to recognize the aesthetic value of African sculpture. Such artists as Vlaminck, Derain, Picasso, and Modigliani were influenced by
African
art forms. Interest in the arts of Africa has flourished, and many modern Western artists have rediscovered the enduring qualities of African art.
How has West African visual art influenced modern art and culture?
Common style of music in weat africa. … How has west African visual arts influences modern art and culture?
Ancient designs are in everyday modern cultures like utensils,furniture, baskets, storage containers and pottery
.
What influenced jazz music?
Jazz is a distinctively American style of music that developed in the early decades of the 20th century. Its roots include many
Afro-American folk music traditions
, such as spirituals, work songs, and blues. It also borrowed from 19th century band music and the ragtime style of piano playing.
Which African music trait became a part of jazz music?
An emphasis on improvisation and spontaneity is a further shared trait of different African musical cultures, and these too have figured prominently in
—
and, to some extent, have come to define–the later jazz tradition.
What is the importance of Western art?
During the middle ages, western art reflected a lot of
religious sentiments and symbols
. Western art is great for becoming more knowledgeable about world history, important figures, technological advancements, and more.
What is West African music and dance?
The music of West Africa is characterized by two main aspects:
rhythm and melody
. The rhythm is generally the most important, and West African songs are polyrhythmic featuring two or more conflicting rhythms. … Rhythms are often played by percussion instruments, but also from the sounds of dancing.
How is West African music Learnt?
Traditionally music is
passed on through oral tradition
and is not usually written down.
Why music is important to world cultures?
In all different languages, at its most basic level music can help us learn. Music also helps us
communicate
and it’s how we express ourselves. Communication is key in all cultures and by putting on a show and song it can help to express how people really feel. Communication can become easier with the power of music.
What influenced African dance?
African rhythms expanded from Africa to America, mostly through the forced migrations of Africans taken as slaves. The influences are especially strong in
the Caribbean and South America
. Rhythms like salsa, Afro-Cuban jazz, Brazilian samba, Colombian cumbia, Venezuelan drums, and many others have African roots.
How does African music express the feelings and life of the entire community?
It expresses the mood of the people and evokes emotion. The beat of the African drum is the “heartbeat of the community” and its rhythm is what holds the dancers together. …
Dance
is used to express emotion, whether joyful or sorrowful and it is not limited to just the dancers.
How has African dance evolved?
Evolution of African Dance
Through Slavery
Africans brought dance with them to these new lands, and in places such as Europe and South America, where slaves were given more freedom to practice their traditions, their dances merged with the preexisting dance styles to form new dances.
In what way has music become important to the lives of African migrants?
From a musical point of view, this migration brought
Gospel and blues music to a wider audience
, and northern and western cities became a place for African American musical innovation. The search for a better life also led to changes in the way performers chose to present themselves.
