African Music: The Rhythm of the World

by AJ Johnson

American styles of music, from rock and roll and jazz to country, are as much influenced by African music as are popular Latin American styles such as Rumba and Salsa. In the last three centuries migration, often forced, has taken African music across the globe. These styles have become the foundation of many of the most popular music in the world today. Ironically, much of the music that grew out of those rhythms and styles has recently gone full circle back to Africa. Today many of the most popular African musicians play blues, salsa, jazz and myriad other styles that came out of the music their ancestors took with them around the world. In addition to these modern influences, there are still places in the countryside of Africa where people sing and play drums and other percussion instruments every day as part of a lifestyle that has existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. African music, with its diversity of styles, has captured the heartbeat of the earth and integrated it into the driving rhythm that makes up the backbone of the music. Multiple rhythms are interwoven and play off of each other, creating sounds that are extremely complex. Despite the modernization of different African styles of music, the sound continues to be unique. Artists have adapted music from elsewhere to their own, and as a result will ensure that African music stays vibrant even as other styles peak and drop in popularity.

This pathfinder can be found at http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~vlibrary/edres/pathfinders/ajohnson2/index.html. It is designed to add to a virtual library of resources for pre-service teachers at the Northwest Indian College in Lummi, Washington. All sources listed in the pathfinder are available for free on the Internet. So many different styles and types of African music exist that this pathfinder cannot provide in-depth coverage of African Music as a whole. Instead, it will offer an overview of online resources covering a broad spectrum of African music Web sites. Sites are included that contain everything from biographies of modern African musicians to instructions on making your own instruments. Many styles of music around the world are considered African-based (e.g. Afro-Caribbean, Afro-European, Afro-Celtic, etc.), but this pathfinder concentrates on musicians from the African continent.

I located most of the sources for this pathfinder using the Internet search engine Google. Keywords included basic terms, such as "Africa," "music" and "rhythm," along with proper names such as "South Africa" and "Youssou N'Dour." Other pages were linked from these sites, and I found still more through an 'African Web ring,' which is a series of linked Web sites about African music. Most sources come from organizations (their address ends in .org) or educational institutions (ending in .edu), because they are usually more informative. Upon evaluation of content, I also included several informative sources that are commercial Web sites (.com).

I evaluated each Web site using multiple criteria. I checked each site to see how accurate, objective and current the content is, and whether it is published. I also looked to see if I could find information about the author(s), and if their sponsorship appears to influence their content. The specific sites that were picked to be in this pathfinder are a good representation of the mass of information available on the Internet about African music and musicians. These sites provide an introduction to the music of Africa, comprehensive information for those who are already fans, and can even provide in-depth information to researchers and devotees of the music.