Throughout the history of this country, the music of African-Americans has remained a strong influence upon our society and culture. Beginning with the music carried over from Africa with the slaves, up until now, with the new styles created by urban youth today, African-Americans have retained certain elements within their music which makes it unique from any other musical form. Some of the musical forms which were created from, and/or were strongly influenced by afro-centric musical characteristics are: Hymnals, Gospel, Spirituals, Ragtime, the blues, and R&B. While many of these musical forms are still popular today amongst Blacks and Non-Blacks, jazz and hip-hop are arguably the two most widespread and popular forms of Black music ever created. As both forms of music were created strictly by black musicians, these musical forms are most popular amongst both the younger and the older generations of African-Americans. Outside the race, jazz has become a medium listened to and performed by people of all ages. Hip-Hop, on the other hand, has enjoyed the majority of it's popularity within younger circles, while it's opposition comes mostly from the older generations. Jazz is known to have it's main influence from ragtime, and the street music of New Orleans. There were two types of street music from which jazz derived it's style; these are the string and percussion bands which also sang in small groups to the music they made. The other was the brass bands of earlier years which imitated white marching bands, adding a twist of afrocentric quality. The first and most primitive jazz ensembles were called archaic jazz bands. These bands retained many of the afrocentric characteristics of earlier forms of black music such as spirituals and the blues (Blesh, 160). The wide assortment of instruments used by blacks were made accessible and affordable during the reconstruction period, due to the disbanding of numerous confederate bands in New O...
