American Music - Forgotten Americans

AMERICAN MUSIC HISTORY

Father of Rock and Roll - Johnny Johnson King of Rock and Roll - (many say) Elvis Presley. I struggle with this one because he was a total rip-off of black music. He could sing and he brought black music to the attention of mainstream America, but he also made some very, very racist statements. What's your opinion? Go to the community page and give us your thoughts. Father of the Blues - W.C. Handy Ladyday - Billie Holiday Empress of the Blues - Bessie Smith Pine Top Perkins Last of the great Mississippi bluesmen still performing. This man is 94 years Old and still playing that piano! Rissi Palmer A Fresh New Face. This African American Country Singer has taken the country and western scene by surprise--open your mind for a second and give her a listen.

COMMENT I created this section because while many white, yellow and brown Americans try to discount the importance of this sector of American history and industry, it is in fact a Multi-Billion dollar business. An industry that has contributed millions and millions of dollars to the bottom line of companies like Sony and United Artists and created millions of jobs (for mostly white people). To me its an oxymoron because much of their profits are based upon African American music and black peoples influence on American music. People of color (black people in particular) need to gain more understanding of this issue and eventually gain more financial control of it; this is necessary and imperative in order that we as people of color get fair and equitable access to jobs and ownership of our creative gifts. DB Broussard, MBA

ENJOY SOME OF MY OLD SCHOOL FAVORITES

(Come on now, break away from the Rap and Pop for a minute or two. Enjoy some historical music for a little while, with an nice glass of Merlot, hummmm, oh yel I got the feeling going now.)

African Heritage in Classical Music
While pop and hip-hop is the current rage, I would ask that many of you who visit our website check this website out for a few minutes. Its yet more proof that Black people also participate in all types of cultural development as much as all other races. Its too bad that the main stream media does not even think to cover this side of black people; in fact its a tragedy and one that we must promote ourselves for the betterment of black people as well as all races.

Etta-James
I simply love her music, to me its the real deal. Her voice and how she sings the blues lets me never forgot the struggles that our folks before us had to endure. As hard as it it for many of us today, "back in the day"-----it must have been a living nightmare.

I am grateful for her music, my children have come to appreciate her music and the blues as much as they like rap. They know that the blues are part of the core foundation of African-American culture and history. Thus when listening to a part of our history and its soulful stories of struggle and love, it helps them understand what their great grandfather experienced as he tried to raise a family shoveling dirty coal into a hot furnace for 40 years. He knew he had no chance of advance but was grateful he had job and was able to feed his 7 children.

Miles Davis
The original Mr. Cool. He changed the landscape of Jazz. I hope we never forget the greatest of this man. While we move into new arenas of music, I believe in order to maintain our history, culture and self esteem, we cannot forget the great ones; i.e., Miles Davis.