In much African music-making repetition is regarded as an aesthetic strength, and many forms are constructed of short phrases that recur in a regular cycle;
2) interlocking of multiple repeating patterns to form dense polyrhythmic; and 3) in contrast to the aesthetics of Western art music, in which a "clear" tone is the ideal, African singers and instrumentalists make use of a wide palette of timbres. Buzzing tones are created by attaching a rattling device to an instrument, and singers frequently use growling and humming effects, a technique that can also be heard in African-American genres such as blues, gospel, and jazz. (Starr and Waterman, nd)
Latin music has also integrated in American popular music as did early music of the American South which was greatly influenced by black gospel music. Country music which is produced in Nashville has also influenced popular American music and has wound its way with its crystal clear and supremely clean sound into the heart of many generations of Americans.
II. TODAY'S POPULAR MUSIC in AMERICA
Popular music in America in contemporary times is highly diverse and includes elements from all of the different forms of music reviewed in the previous section of this study. Today's 'Gansta Rap' carries influences...
As well today's music may be in the form of a ballad or may be a form of blues which is known to vary and is labeled according to its form as either being the: (1) Delta; (2) Chicago; or (3) Memphis blues.
SUMMARY & CONCLUSION
The most interesting thing about today's popular American music are the many varied and diverse forms which musical composition takes with one composition having many movements, similar to the movements founding classical music, which may include within one composition or song, movements that constitute the blues, jazz, rock-n-roll, and hip-hop all rolled together in what is lively and energetic popular songs that have been derived from a plethora of interactions on the culture and ethnic level by those who comprise the populations known as 'Americans'.
Bibliography
Starr, Larry and Waterman, Christopher (nd) American Popular Music. Online available at http://www.america.gov/media/pdf/books/american-popular-music.pdf#popup
Shaw, Arnold (1986) Black Popular Music in America: From the Spirituals, Minstrels, and Ragtime to Soul, Disco, and Hip-Hop. Simon and Schuster 1986.
