The Timeline of African American Music explores the evolution of African American musical genres spanning the past 400 years.

Discover the Timeline

Learn more about the artists whose voices served as the musical backdrop to jazz.

Featured performers

Dizzy Gillespie

Miles Davis

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers

Max Roach

John Coltrane

Wynton Marsalis

Abbey Lincoln

Herbie Hancock

Dee Dee Bridgewater

Learn more about the diverse musical expressions tied to jazz.

Featured genres

Cool jazz resulted from the desire of musicians to innovate and to provide an alternative to the complexities of bebop. In the “cool era,” jazz musicians moved jazz closer to classical music and inspired the development of a European classical-oriented jazz form labeled “Third Stream.” This concept, advanced by musician and historian Gunther Schuller, became associated more with white jazz than Black musicians.Intended for the concert hall rather than the dance hall, cool is characterized by a lyrical melodic shape, softer tonal colors, sparse harmonies, and rhythmic restraint as illustrated in <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:413,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Autumn in New York&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;275469384&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Autumn In New York&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;The Modern Jazz Quartet&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Django&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1953-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music\/5e\/f2\/21\/mzi.ksvzrczk.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1440,&quot;height&quot;:1440,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;f5ffff&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;0d0c10&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;232124&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;3c3d40&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;4d4e50&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/08\/e7\/a8\/08e7a80c-7d25-0bee-7659-e9271adb9c2b\/mzaf_8805343573995354052.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Autumn in New York,”</a> on the album Django (1956) by Modern Jazz Quartet. Cool jazz ensembles generally consist of three to eight players and often include unexpected instruments such as flute, French horn, oboe, cello, flugelhorn, and vibraphone, heard in recordings by Miles Davis with arranger Gil Evans, such as <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:409,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Miles Ahead&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;200301301&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Miles Ahead&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Miles Davis&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Miles Ahead&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1957-10-21&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Features114\/v4\/63\/8c\/19\/638c19cd-3ec2-fbe5-4378-0067fdd026b6\/dj.crartotp.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;facf0f&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;241815&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;28251b&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;4e3d14&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;524718&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/2b\/31\/d5\/2b31d550-8c15-542f-79bd-11a28ca142fd\/mzaf_1489259445961327272.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">Miles Ahead</a> (1957), <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:410,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Pory and Bess (Summertime)&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;282213303&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Summertime&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Miles Davis&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Porgy and Bess&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1958-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Features114\/v4\/81\/a2\/25\/81a225b3-f40b-170f-5e26-230a1cf1f0ca\/dj.ueirgdtz.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1473,&quot;height&quot;:1473,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;1b1013&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;fbfbef&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;eac57a&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;ceccc3&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;c0a165&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/7e\/68\/2e\/7e682e63-7d41-e312-052f-9cd070be2b6a\/mzaf_16173365323321558007.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">Porgy and Bess (Summertime)</a> (1959), and <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:141,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Sketches of Spain&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;780405182&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Con el Alma (Instrumental)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Tavito Vasquez y su Saxo De Oro&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Su Saxo de Oro (Instrumental)&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;2013-12-06&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is3-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music6\/v4\/da\/7a\/17\/da7a17fd-8fde-31f7-3c05-c8588a3181c4\/888003946859.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;4d4f4e&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;fce8a2&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;ecab55&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;d9c991&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;cc9853&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/f7\/d3\/32\/f7d332e3-56b8-543d-032c-e0247455cfd0\/mzaf_13947617846170556068.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sketches of Spain</a> (1960).Record companies and journalists coined the term “cool,” although musicians of this era disliked any labeling of their music. Nevertheless, the concept of “cool” extended beyond music, referencing a behavior and an attitude widely adopted by artists and intellectuals. Idealized by popular culture of this period, being “cool” became a shield against racial oppression.

Some musicians attribute the post-war development of cool jazz to Miles Davis, citing his Birth of the Cool, a compilation of recordings made in 1949 and 1950. The arrangements by Gil Evans and baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan introduced instruments associated with the European classical tradition, including tuba and French horn. Musicians also credit Lester “Pres” Young with this creation. His sidemen maintained that, while they were not sure what cool was, whatever it was, Young started it. His Kansas City Six recordings from 1938 (<a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:412,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Pagin\u2019 the Devil&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1444218686&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Pagin&#039; the Devil (Take 1)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Lester Young &amp; The Kansas City Six&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The \&quot;Kansas City\&quot; Sessions&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1997-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music118\/v4\/de\/fa\/e9\/defae9ab-eac8-acf4-7f3d-bcbe14f3864c\/00011105040228.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;0c110a&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;f4905d&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;ef863b&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;c6764d&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;c26e31&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview118\/v4\/a7\/5a\/15\/a75a15eb-efca-175e-2ac5-6dd60ac1fdf4\/mzaf_786603195981903064.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Pagin’ the Devil”</a>) with Eddie Durham on electric guitar, Freddie Green on acoustic guitar, Wilbur “Buck” Clayton on trumpet, Jo Jones on drums, and bassist Walter Page are often cited as an early example of cool. During the 1950s, <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:407,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Bag\u2019s Groove&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;81898900&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Bags&#039; Groove (feat. Sonny Rollins)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;The Modern Jazz Quartet&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The Modern Jazz Quartet at Music Inn with Sonny Rollins, Vol. 2&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1959-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is3-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music\/y2005\/m10\/d05\/h02\/mzi.grzggblo.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;12110c&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;eae0cd&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;d6d8d7&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;bfb6a6&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;aeb0ae&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/5c\/ae\/96\/5cae9698-40cb-f050-ce18-1d9d3b51cc78\/mzaf_16216037170180247439.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Modern Jazz Quartet</a> exemplified the influences of European classical music on cool jazz.Frequently, jazz histories explain cool jazz as a West Coast or California trend whose combos often performed at Hermosa Beach’s the Lighthouse Cafe. The club featured a house band, Lighthouse All-Stars. They played many songs at slow tempos, which some claimed reflected the relaxed California lifestyle. Drummer Shelley Mann, baritone saxophonist Gerry Mulligan, and trumpeter Milton “Shorty” Rogers were among the best known in the group of California cool jazz musicians associated with Hermosa Beach.

Cool jazz placed emphasis on arrangements and compositions rather than complex, improvised solos. The concept of cool in jazz was conveyed by the calm, subdued, soft, or light tonal qualities. The musicians played with little or no vibrato and they favored the middle registers, unlike bebop musicians, who exploited the whole range of the instrument. They no longer only played in 4/4 or 2/4 time; meters such as 3/4, 5/4, and 9/4 became more common. Some composers of the cool era adopted classical European forms such as rondos and fugues.

Bags' Groove (feat. Sonny Rollins)

Bag’s Groove

Free Jazz/Avant-Garde

Bebop

Drums

Electric Guitar

Guitar

Horn

Other Percussion

Strings

Trumpet

Woodwinds

Arrangement

Instrumentals

Meter

Form

Cool Jazz

The Modern Jazz Quartet

Lester Young

Gerry Mulligan

Gil Evans

Boplicity

Miles Ahead

Summertime

Pory and Bess (Summertime)

Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio)

Pagin' the Devil (Take 1)

Pagin’ the Devil

Autumn In New York

Autumn in New York

Cultural Influences

Racism/Discrimination

Secular Instrumental

﻿The highly charged, gospel vocal stylings of Aretha Franklin, the driving rhythms of James Brown, and the mellow harmonies of the Impressions inspired new expressions in jazz, labeled “soul jazz.” Extending its roots from hard bop, soul jazz digs deeply into the spirit and flavor of gospel through its offspring, soul. Organists Jimmy Smith, with “Respect” and “Funky Broadway,” and Brother Jack McDuff with “A Change Is Gonna Come” and “Wade in the Water,” recorded many such songs that blend aspects of soul, jazz, rhythm and blues, and other African American folk traditions. At the same time, they and other soul jazz musicians remained anchored in the tradition of hard bop, performing that repertoire as well as their own compositions.

The Black Power movement in the 1960s, in concert with the Civil Rights Movement, galvanized African American communities to social and political action. Jazz musicians contributed to this process, developing soul jazz out of hard bop. Songs by jazz musicians such as Ramsey Lewis with <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:359,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The \u201cIn\u201d Crowd&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1434906251&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;The \&quot;In\&quot; Crowd (Single Version)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Ramsey Lewis Trio&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Priceless Jazz 18: Ramsey Lewis&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1998-02-10&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music128\/v4\/91\/21\/cf\/9121cfce-e8a9-c7cb-6c92-7e4c12bbbba8\/00602567824527.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;faf9f7&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;120c0c&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;342e27&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;403b3b&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;5c5751&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/58\/82\/c1\/5882c164-d338-2b83-49d2-b77826fa1065\/mzaf_6084714404816597867.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“The “In” Crowd”</a> and <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:358,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Wade in the Water&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1437948233&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Wade In the Water&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Ramsey Lewis&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Wade In the Water&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1966-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music128\/v4\/2d\/83\/02\/2d830279-cb33-5809-8d6f-90a450348727\/00602577039768.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:3000,&quot;height&quot;:3000,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;dbe7db&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;070a07&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;482413&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;313631&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;664b3b&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/73\/a4\/f0\/73a4f082-207f-86eb-78a7-4717f5ad38d4\/mzaf_2234459749865977782.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Wade in the Water,”</a> “Cannonball” Adderley with <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:357,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Mercy, Mercy, Mercy&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;723778431&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Cannonball Adderley Quintet&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live at &#039;the Club&#039;)&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1966-10-20&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/f7\/b6\/85\/f7b685e7-9827-ac33-47fd-50a9882f15ca\/00724382991557.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1400,&quot;height&quot;:1400,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;0c070b&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;fed955&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;1fa8ea&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;ceaf46&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;1b88bd&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/f9\/c8\/f7\/f9c8f767-6678-bce3-78ab-a563d9cfdd52\/mzaf_7350938049173999200.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”</a> and Brother Jack McDuff with “Let My People Go,” could be heard blaring from car radios, stereo and 8-track recorders, and jukeboxes in public venues. The music was danceable and evoked a familiar sound.

Soul jazz, in contrast to hard bop, emphasizes melodic hooks and repetitive rhythmic grooves, including a bass line played in the syncopated tradition of rhythm and blues, as heard in “Cannonball” Adderley’s <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:357,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Mercy, Mercy, Mercy&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;723778431&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Cannonball Adderley Quintet&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live at &#039;the Club&#039;)&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1966-10-20&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/f7\/b6\/85\/f7b685e7-9827-ac33-47fd-50a9882f15ca\/00724382991557.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1400,&quot;height&quot;:1400,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;0c070b&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;fed955&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;1fa8ea&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;ceaf46&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;1b88bd&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/f9\/c8\/f7\/f9c8f767-6678-bce3-78ab-a563d9cfdd52\/mzaf_7350938049173999200.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Mercy, Mercy, Mercy”</a> (1966). As in hard bop, soloists follow the chord progressions, and the bass line—often played by an organist/pianist—maintains a strict four-to-the-bar walking bass line pattern. The musicians build their accompaniment around the bass line that flows under strong melodies played with a soul-inspired feeling.

Soul jazz is primarily an instrumental style. Although some soul jazz musicians include vocals in their repertoire, they assume a secondary place in the broader tradition.

Soul

Midnight Special

Jazz Fusion

Hard Bop

Organ

Piano

Syncopation

Repetition

Rhythms

Vocals

Soul Jazz

Jimmy Smith

Julian “Cannonball” Adderley

Wes Montgomery

Horace Silver

Stanley Turrentine

Freddie Hubbard

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (Live)

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy

Wade In the Water

Wade in the Water

The "In" Crowd (Single Version)

The “In” Crowd

The Sidewinder (Remastered)

The Sidewinder

Got My Mojo Workin'

Got My Mojo Workin’

The Sermon

Black Power/Pride

Entertainment

Political Issues/Activism

In the early 1980s, hard bop inspired the artistic directions of a new group of young musicians who opposed the new developments—fusion and avant-garde—of the 1960s and 1970s. Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Billy Pierce, Charles Fambrough, and Mulgrew Miller advocated a return to hard bop and joined forces with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in “Falling in Love With Love.”

Jazz Trumpeter and Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center

Another group of young musicians known as “Young Lions” or “New Traditionalists” continued to draw inspiration from former traditions, merging concepts from bebop, cool, and hard bop with their own innovations. Roy Hargrove in “Proclamation” (1989), along with Terence Blanchard, Marcus Roberts, Jeff Watts, and Christian McBride, are a part of this group. With yet other aspirations, Wynton Marsalis continued his mission to preserve the nation’s jazz heritage through his work with Jazz at Lincoln Center, which he co-founded in 1987. In 1991, he became the artistic director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, organized in 1988. His focus on the classic repertoire from the pre-1960s eras and the exclusion of avant-garde, free jazz styles, and more contemporary expressions has generated some criticism.

﻿This music returns to the style and features associated with the pre-1960s tradition.

Back to Basics

Bass

Saxophone

Riffs

Traditional Jazz

Branford Marsalis

Mulgrew Miller

Roy Hargrove Quintet

Terence Blanchard

Marcus Roberts

Jeff “Tain” Watts

Christian McBride

Gettin' to It

Gettin’ to It

Hesitation

Simply Stated

Royal Garden Blues

Black Nile

New Orleans Blues

Whisper Not

The Vibe

The term smooth jazz is best understood as a marketing label that symbolizes the commercialization of jazz as popular music. An outgrowth of soul jazz (1960s) and jazz fusion (1970s), smooth jazz arose and gained prominence in the late 1980s when record labels experimented with new approaches to further expand the audience for jazz. Smooth jazz artists draw inspiration and repertoire from easy listening pop music and R&amp;B ballads. Influenced by the jazz fusion styles of trumpeter Miles Davis, pianist Herbie Hancock, guitarist George Benson, and saxophonists Grover Washington, Jr., and David Sanborn, smooth jazz musicians Gerald Albright, Najee, Kenny G, Boney James, George Howard, Dave Koz, and Norman Brown are among the popularizers of this style.

Profiting from the crossover success of jazz fusion in the 1970s, record labels sought ways to keep jazz relevant, especially given the growing popularity of R&amp;B and hip-hop in the mainstream. Producers began recording jazz artists performing covers of popular R&amp;B songs, such as Norman Brown’s cover of Janet Jackson’s <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:378,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;That\u2019s the Way Love Goes&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1440760856&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;That&#039;s the Way Love Goes&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Norman Brown&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The Very Best of Norman Brown&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1994-05-16&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music124\/v4\/82\/26\/01\/8226015d-9b0c-08be-03c7-73876de06c3a\/00602498867617.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1422,&quot;height&quot;:1414,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;160b1b&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;d2c193&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;cfa865&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;ad9c7b&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;aa8856&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/e9\/e1\/b5\/e9e1b571-33b9-d7e8-3b2e-8d9260b8df39\/mzaf_6032156739032601605.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“That’s the Way Love Goes”</a> (1994) and George Howard’s cover of Patti Austin and James Ingram’s <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:376,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Baby, Come to Me&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1443553626&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Baby Come to Me&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;George Howard&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The Very Best of George Howard&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;2002-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music124\/v4\/b8\/3d\/6f\/b83d6f64-6b2e-c891-fd67-421a478bb459\/00602498621004.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1422,&quot;height&quot;:1418,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;dceaf7&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;1e2436&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;1d3147&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;444c5c&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;43566a&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/cd\/15\/c3\/cd15c3e4-d940-9496-3a30-279491dd7916\/mzaf_16707720812540899939.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Baby, Come to Me”</a> (1992).

These artists also perform original songs modeled on the relaxed beat of easy listening pop songs and R&amp;B ballads, such as Boney James’s <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/49/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:377,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;It\u2019s All Good&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1576791460&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;It&#039;s All Good&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Boney James&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Sweet Thing&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1997-05-27&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is1-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music115\/v4\/71\/c8\/b0\/71c8b035-6179-20aa-9b94-76bc67206ece\/18CRGIM05991.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:3000,&quot;height&quot;:3000,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;ffffff&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;030600&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;211614&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;353833&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;4d4543&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/fb\/fd\/82\/fbfd82e2-3646-864d-fac0-87bf720afb91\/mzaf_14656580612611411407.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“It’s All Good”</a> (1997), as well as songs with an R&amp;B groove, as heard in George Howard’s “Red, Black ‘N’ Blue” (2000) and the Yellowjackets’ <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/49/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:455,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Anticipation&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1085961305&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Anticipation&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Yellowjackets&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Cohearence&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;2016-04-22&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is5-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music49\/v4\/be\/88\/bd\/be88bd12-8b7b-c796-0ca6-114a1c79a126\/dj.qovfojla.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;8c6100&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;fdfef6&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;e7f7ff&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;e6dec4&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;d4d9cb&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/02\/d4\/15\/02d41541-6957-39fe-eb09-23781539a64b\/mzaf_7877784421859662279.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Shades</a> (1986). Smooth jazz musicians collaborated with R&amp;B vocalists, as Kenny G did with Lenny Williams on <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/49/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:379,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Don\u2019t Make Me Wait for Love&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;391710648&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Don&#039;t Make Me Wait for Love&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Kenny G&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The Essential Kenny G&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1986-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music\/39\/ab\/f4\/mzi.nvxsqycg.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:600,&quot;height&quot;:600,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;000201&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;dbdbdb&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;c6bdbd&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;afafaf&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;9e9897&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/f6\/12\/05\/f6120511-b73b-578d-8d5c-2359a0cad078\/mzaf_3298408283126262770.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Don’t Make Me Wait for Love”</a> (1986). Many also tour with and play on studio recordings of R&amp;B and pop artists.The emergence of alternative radio formats such as “adult alternative,” ”easy listening” and their spin-offs “urban contemporary adult,” “smooth jazz” and “quiet storm” made possible the continued air-play of smooth jazz artists, although jazz purists do not consider these musicians to be representative of the jazz tradition.

Smooth jazz musicians borrow musical elements from R&amp;B. Songs, for example, center on a “groove” (a syncopated and repetitive foundation established by the bass and drum), and they often feature lead and/or background vocals. Improvisation is de-emphasized, although some smooth jazz artists occasionally incorporate the blues and the improvisational style of traditional jazz—for example, David Sanborn on Another Hand (1991) and Closer (2005), and Fourplay on <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:456,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Between the Sheets&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1306537322&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Between the Sheets (feat. Chaka Khan &amp; Nathan East)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Fourplay&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Between the Sheets&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1993-08-13&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music115\/v4\/bb\/57\/01\/bb57019b-bf05-afa4-8a99-bb66f2a9e302\/4897012132944_3000.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:3000,&quot;height&quot;:3000,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;1e1f21&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;ffffff&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;fad1b6&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;d1d2d2&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;cead98&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/33\/b8\/dc\/33b8dca8-aef8-c4ab-8114-14160a2e612c\/mzaf_18212865046488683318.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">Between the Sheets</a> (1993).

R&amp;B vocalists such as Lenny Williams, Eric Benet, Heather Headley, and Phil Perry have appeared on smooth jazz recordings as guest performers. Jazz-oriented R&amp;B singers, including Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, and Sade are programmed on easy listening, contemporary adult, smooth jazz, and quiet storm radio formats.

Funk

It's All Good

It’s All Good

Ballad

Groove

Smooth Jazz

David Sanborn

Kenny G

George Howard

Najee

Boney James

Anita Baker

Sade

That's the Way Love Goes

That’s the Way Love Goes

Don't Make Me Wait for Love

Don’t Make Me Wait for Love

Baby Come to Me

Baby, Come to Me

Anticipation

Between the Sheets (feat. Chaka Khan & Nathan East)

Between the Sheets

Love/Relationships

Jazz hip-hop fusion is a fusion of hip-hop beats, samples, scratching, and rap lyrics blended with the techniques of jazz improvisation. It became popular in the 1990s and continues to evolve in the 21st century with the innovations of a new generation of jazz and hip-hop musicians.

Origins and Early CollaborationsIn London’s club scene in the 1960s and 1970s, DJs began mixing rare jazz tracks, largely from the Blue Note catalogue, with psychedelic styles, funk, and other popular genres along with percussion tracks to produce a groove (a syncopated and repetitive foundation established by the bass and drum) labeled “acid jazz.” In the 1980s, club DJs began adding elements of hip-hop to the mix and emphasizing the rhythmic component by incorporating live musicians—drummers, percussionists, and horn players—who played over pre-recorded music to create a new type of danceable jazz. Simultaneously, in the US, hip-hop DJs teamed up with jazz artists to produce a jazz–funk–hip-hop fusion style. Working with DJ Grand Mixer D.ST, jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, for example, experimented with the art of scratching on the hit <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:374,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Rockit&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;153624895&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Rockit&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Herbie Hancock&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The Essential Herbie Hancock&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1983-01-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is5-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/ca\/33\/c1\/ca33c117-0019-208b-8265-8812d1f6e36c\/827969459324.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1412,&quot;height&quot;:1412,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;e5e4e2&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;0b0d0b&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;191a19&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;373836&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;414241&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/45\/c2\/e9\/45c2e9c4-c3b6-2bd3-a581-487392cd3e04\/mzaf_5703566645168058789.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“Rockit”</a> (1983).

The fusion of jazz and hip-hop evolved into a distinctive style when rappers began sampling jazz melodies and rhythms from recordings of Dizzy Gillespie, Lonnie Liston Smith, Donald Byrd, Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey, and Roy Ayers, among others, and later collaborating with jazz musicians. Stetsasonic’s <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:368,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Talkin\u2019 All That Jazz&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1604620738&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Talkin&#039; All That Jazz&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Stetsasonic&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;In Full Gear&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1988-06-15&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is3-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music112\/v4\/ff\/8b\/fa\/ff8bfa2a-c099-826a-bcf2-4605a7d03c9f\/603497989997.png\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1400,&quot;height&quot;:1400,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;e1dbdb&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;0c0904&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;233050&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;36332f&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;49526b&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview116\/v4\/b3\/d0\/4a\/b3d04a8a-2c57-28a3-658e-a5408293734f\/mzaf_6366675842342212284.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Talkin’ All That Jazz”</a> from In Full Gear (1988) samples jazz breaks from Lonnie Liston Smith’s “Expansions” and Donald Byrd’s “(Fallin’ Like) Dominoes.”Gang Starr was the first rap group to work directly with jazz musicians, recording <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:369,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Jazz Thing&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;193655024&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Jazz Thing&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Gang Starr&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Mo&#039; Better Blues (feat. Terence Blanchard)&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1990-07-31&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is5-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music\/77\/57\/85\/mzi.fkqdlgcp.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:600,&quot;height&quot;:600,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;030200&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;f2b233&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;e4689e&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;c28f28&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;b7547e&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/b3\/5d\/1e\/b35d1e6c-0a56-4edd-ba21-9c6a81cabcdf\/mzaf_17798410902596152278.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Jazz Thing”</a> with Branford Marsalis for Spike Lee’s movie Mo’ Better Blues (1990)—a song derived from Gang Starr’s “Jazz Music” (1989). Most jazz musicians, nevertheless, did not recognize the potential of rap for musical experimentation until after 1990.Saxophonist Greg Osby was the first to collaborate with rappers, resulting in a musical hybrid he called <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:373,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Street Jazz&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1444026687&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Street Jazz&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Greg Osby&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;3-D Lifestyles&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1993-05-04&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is1-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music128\/v4\/6e\/55\/8f\/6e558f6b-5fa0-355f-aee9-33ac9d294425\/00602537864690.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1404,&quot;height&quot;:1404,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;ffffff&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;151512&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;282e4f&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;444342&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;535872&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview128\/v4\/a0\/92\/88\/a09288a0-87f9-12e6-ec75-876337647f06\/mzaf_6223541728316362193.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Street Jazz.”</a> Working with Ali Shaheed Muhammad of A Tribe Called Quest and Eric Sadler of Public Enemy, Osby demonstrated the compatibility of the two idioms in 3-D Lifestyles (1993), which fuses rap rhymes, hip-hop rhythms, scratching, R&amp;B samples, and multilayered textures with the improvisations and vocabulary of jazz. The commercial success of Osby’s productions resulted in similar collaborations between jazz musicians and rap, R&amp;B, and pop music artists.Hip-Hop’s Influence on Established Jazz MusiciansIn 1992, jazz musician Roy Ayers recorded Double Trouble, which featured funk vocalist Rick James and raps by Ayers. That same year, Miles Davis, guided by rap producer Easy Mo Bee, recorded Doo-Bop, which was released posthumously. <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:370,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The Doo Bop Song&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;828607061&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;The Doo-Bop Song&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Miles Davis&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Doo-Bop&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1992-06-30&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/56\/a2\/f4\/56a2f46e-b3ab-6650-75ab-bb2ff5664a64\/075992693899.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1417,&quot;height&quot;:1411,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;1a1a1c&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;ffffff&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;e0a631&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;d1d1d1&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;b88a2c&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview122\/v4\/b5\/00\/f9\/b500f97d-1c57-7766-75a9-3151df61fa82\/mzaf_13816813116073750321.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“The Doo Bop Song,”</a> a standout on this recording, includes samples from “Summer Madness” by the funk group Kool and the Gang. Rapper Guru, of Gang Starr, produced a session in 1993 with jazz musicians Roy Ayers, Donald Byrd, Ronny Jordan, Courtney Pine, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gary Barnacle, Zachary Breaux, Simon Law, Carleen Anderson, and N’Dea Davenport. The outcome was the album Jazzmatazz, an experimental fusion of hip-hop and jazz. Digable Planets recorded Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) that same year. In 1994, Branford Marsalis recorded Buckshot LeFonque, an eclectic album that drew from and combined various popular styles with jazz. The track <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/more/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:371,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The Scratch Opera&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;192760282&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Some Shit @ 78 BPM (The Scratch Opera)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Buckshot LeFonque&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Buckshot Lefonque&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1994-08-02&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is1-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music124\/v4\/1f\/ef\/94\/1fef941c-6c65-6664-0a07-5665ef37d2e4\/mzi.vezkwqsn.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:600,&quot;height&quot;:600,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;0b0000&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;fff09e&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;f3edd9&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;cebf7e&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;c4beae&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/be\/ea\/ed\/beeaed72-b2b2-6223-3280-74095c3c9727\/mzaf_12437493253302964453.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“The Scratch Opera”</a> employs many production techniques and elements from rap, such as sampling, scratching, rapping, and poly-texturing.Jazz and Hip-Hop IntertwineIn the early 1990s, hip-hop artists primarily rapped over looped samples of a jazz melody. By the late 1990s, however, jazz musicians explored new ways to intertwine the languages of jazz and hip-hop. Trumpeter Russell Gunn, for example, on his 1999 album Ethnomusicology, incorporated live instrumentation, improvisation, DJs scratching, and MCs rapping. Key tracks on the album include “The Blackwidow Blues” and <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:375,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Shiva&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;358527532&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Shiva&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Russell Gunn&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Ethnomusicology&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1999-02-12&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is2-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music\/e9\/7d\/1d\/mzi.rsajlrun.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1425,&quot;height&quot;:1425,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;ecded3&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;0e0b07&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;452013&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;3a3530&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;66463a&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/Music\/bf\/82\/07\/mzm.vlehdjds.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Shiva.”</a> At around the same time, jazz trumpeter Roy Hargrove began working with the Soulquarians, a loose collective of neo-soul and hip-hop artists that also included Erykah Badu, Common, Questlove, and D’Angelo. Hargrove appeared on influential neo-soul and hip-hop albums including Common’s Like Water for Chocolate, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun, and D’Angelo’s Voodoo. Hargrove began incorporating elements of hip-hop and neo-soul into his own music, leading him to form his hip-hip–soul–jazz fusion group The RH Factor in the early 2000s. Hargrove’s work with The RH Factor, in particular, would eventually help to define the trajectory of jazz–hip-hop fusion in the early 21st century.The RH Factor released its first album, Hard Groove, in 2003. The band’s recording debut features guest appearances from Hargrove’s fellow Soulquarians Erykah Badu, Common, and D’Angelo. Key tracks on Hard Groove include <a href="https://admin.cms.timeline.carnegiehall.org/genres/59/" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:372,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Common Freestyle&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;1443070857&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Common Free Style (feat. Common)&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Roy Hargrove&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Hard Groove&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;2003-05-20&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is1-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/75\/59\/63\/755963ab-32b0-66e2-1ac7-e998993b1f8a\/00044006519227.rgb.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1422,&quot;height&quot;:1418,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;e3c528&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;0b0c12&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;3a1a16&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;363116&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;5c3c19&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/3b\/f3\/f7\/3bf3f7da-12f4-337d-d3dc-ff542a94f964\/mzaf_17370041442509323099.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">“Common Freestyle,”</a> which features rapping by Common backed by members of The RH Factor, and “Poetry,” which features Erykah Badu and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest. Hargrove would record another pair of albums with The RH Factor, including 2004’s Strength and 2005’s Distractions. The RH Factor’s innovative fusion of jazz, hip-hop, and contemporary R&amp;B made a major impact on young musicians—most notably Robert Glasper and the members of Snarky Puppy—who were fluent in jazz improvisation but maintained strong connections to other styles of African American music including hip-hop, soul, and contemporary gospel.Together with Hargrove, the other major influence on the development of jazz–hip-hop fusion in the early 2000s was alternative hip-hop producer James “J Dilla” Yancey. J Dilla, like Hargrove, was a member of the Soulquarians collective. His distinctive production style is marked by his intricate layering of very short samples—often drawn from classic jazz recordings—and his use of hand-played drumbeats. Instead of utilizing a process called quantization, which automatically subdivides beats into a standardized loop, Dilla often used a drum machine to perform his beats by hand. This process gave his beats a loose and flexible feeling that captured the attention of drummers in both hip-hop and jazz. The Dilla-produced Slum Village album Fantastic, Vol. 2 provides many good examples of his style. On the track “Get Dis Money,” for instance, Dilla combines a Herbie Hancock sample with his trademark drumbeats. Dilla’s production style was a key influence on D’Angelo’s classic album Voodoo, and his work eventually became foundational to jazz hip-hop fusion artists including Steven “Flying Lotus” Ellison and Robert Glasper.Jazz Hip-Hop Fusion in the 2010sAfter the important contributions of Hargrove and Dilla, the next decade and a half would see a wave of important jazz hip-hop fusion recordings as the language of hip-hop became increasingly embedded in the work of young jazz musicians. Pianist Robert Glasper was among the most influential of the next generation. He had toured with The RH Factor and spent time observing J Dilla influences on Glasper’s own work. Glasper’s key contribution was adapting the distinctive beats and loops of hip-hop production to the instrumentation of the jazz piano trio. For example, a key track on his 2007 album In My Element is “J Dillalude,” which features Glasper’s arrangement of a string of J Dilla beats for his piano trio. Glasper continued down this path with the formation of the Robert Glasper Experiment, whose 2012 jazz hip-hop fusion album Black Radio won a Grammy for Best R&amp;B Album and featured guest appearances from Mos Def and Lupe Fiasco.

The 2010s brought other celebrated jazz hip-hop fusion projects from an array of musicians. Drummer Karriem Riggins, who had spent the 1990s and early 2000s as a sideman for artists ranging from Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown to Common and J Dilla, released Alone Together, his first solo album, in 2012. Riggins had worked closely with Dilla before the latter’s death, and Alone Together is an album of short, impressionistic sketches that is heavily inspired by Dilla’s album Donuts. Like Dilla, Riggins mixes eclectic samples with live instrumentation. Key tracks on Alone Together include “Water” and “K. Riffins,” both of which feature Riggins’s drumming layered with jazz-inflected samples.Chicago-based jazz trumpeter Marquis Hill, who won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Trumpet competition in 2014, recalled Robert Glasper in his simultaneous grasp of post-bop jazz improvisation and alternative hip-hop. On recordings with his Blacktet, in particular 2014’s Modern Flows EP, Vol. 1 and 2018’s Modern Flows Vol. 2, Hill blends straight-ahead jazz playing with rap and spoken word passages. The track “King Legend” on Modern Flows Vol. 1, for example, combines ensemble accompaniment from the Blacktet with a rap verse from MC King Legend. Modern Flows Vol. II features another guest appearance from King Legend on “Legend’s Outro III,” along with spoken word contributions from M’Reld Green on “Prayer for the People” and “Herstory.”The development of jazz hip-hop fusion demonstrates that jazz musicians have retained a strong commitment to traditional styles, even while forging new musical trends. The recordings of these artists place elements of the jazz tradition in dialogue with newer techniques drawn from hip-hop producers and MCs.

Jazz hip-hop fusion is distinguished from other jazz styles by its fusion of hip-hop beats, samples, scratching, and rap lyrics blended with the techniques of jazz improvisation. Most early experimentation with hip-hop merely layered freestyle rapping over a live jazz instrumental track that incorporated scratching (Guru’s Jazzmatazz, 1993). As the genre evolved, jazz artists drew from a broader pool of aesthetic possibilities, weaving together disparate elements into the fabric of the jazz track, rather than simply layering them. For example, hip-hop’s “hardcore” aesthetic is embedded in Greg Osby’s tracks of “Mr. Gutterman” and “Street Jazz” from his 3-D Lifestyle (1993). The sound is aggressive, polytextured, polyrhythmic, and polysonic. It samples sound effects associated with this aesthetic, including excerpts from political speeches, sirens, gunshots, babies crying, screams, and street noises—all of which capture the ethos, chaos, tension, anger, and despair common in inner-city life. Jazz hip-hop fusion artists of the 2000s and 2010s, like Robert Glasper, found new ways to adapt the musical language of hip-hop production to traditional jazz ensemble instrumentation. For example, Glasper’s track “Dillalude #2” from his album Black Radio Recovered incorporates techniques including sampling, quotation, and looping to transform a series of J Dilla beats into a seamless instrumental suite for the Robert Glasper Experiment. The work of 21st-century jazz hip-hop fusion artists sometimes evokes the jazz-influenced spoken word style of artists like Gil Scott Heron and the Last Poets. Lupe Fiasco, for example, dedicates his spoken word outro on Glasper’s recording of “Always Shine” (from Black Radio) to “my hero Heron, Gil Scott.” M’Reld Green’s spoken-word critique of gentrification on “Prayer for the People” (from Marquis Hill’s Modern Flows Vol. 2) recalls the overtly political spoken word recordings of the 1960s and 1970s.

The lyrics associated with jazz hip-hop fusion run the gamut. They range from themes of romance, life experiences, and world events to social commentary on the historical past, conditions of poverty, and other issues that negatively impacted the lives of African Americans.

Rap/Hip-Hop

Neo Soul

Talkin' All That Jazz

Talkin’ All That Jazz

Voice

Improvisation

Electronic Sounds

Polyrhythms

Sampling

Texture

Beat

Jazz Hip-Hop Fusion

Greg Osby

Lonnie Liston Smith

Gang Starr

A Tribe Called Quest

Stetsasonic

The Roots

Russell Gunn

Roy Hargrove

The RH Factor

Karriem Riggins

Marquis Hill

Robert Glasper Experiment

Jazz Thing

The Doo-Bop Song

The Doo Bop Song

Some Shit @ 78 BPM (The Scratch Opera)

The Scratch Opera

Common Free Style (feat. Common)

Common Freestyle

Street Jazz

Rockit

Shiva

Daily Life

Economics/Poverty

Social Consciousness

Dippermouth Blues

Africa

Grazing in the Grass

Jody (Whoever You Are)

Bitches Brew (feat. Wayne Shorter, Bennie Maupin, John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Joe Zawinul, Dave Holland & Harvey Brooks)

Bitches Brew (1969)

New Orleans-Style Jazz

Global Jazz

Prior to the invention of sound recording, the primary medium for the distribution of music was sheet music, and publishers were the dominant force in the music business. In the 1880s, publishing companies began to converge in an area of New York City that came to be known as Tin Pan Alley, initially without a single African American firm among them. The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), founded in 1914 to reap the fruits of the Copyright Act of 1909, generally skewed its membership toward composers of pop tunes and semi-serious works. Of the society’s 170 charter members, only six were African American. Most Black artists were excluded from the Society and thereby denied the full benefits of copyright protection.Sound recording proceeded on a different path. Early demonstrations of Thomas Edison’s “talking machine” recorded people whistling, singing, telling stories, and playing musical instruments. Many ethnic groups—their humor, folklore, and cultural values—were introduced to each other and to the mainstream public through the medium of sound recording. Nearly 40 African American artists, ranging from minstrels and touring vaudevillians to notable quartets, representing blues, jazz, ragtime, cabaret and classical music, recorded during the formative years of sound recording (1890-1919). Many of these recordings have only recently been recovered as part of the history of African American music.Things changed in 1920 when Mamie Smith’s recording of “Crazy Blues” started selling 7,500 copies per week. Known as “race records,” these records ushered in an era of classic blues recordings (also known as <a href="/genres/vaudevilleclassic-blues" rel="noopener noreferrer">vaudeville blues</a>) by African American women, followed by country blues recordings by African American men. The initial success of the “race market” encouraged the formation of a handful of Black-owned independent labels, including Sunshine in Los Angeles and Meritt in Kansas City. Harry Pace and W. C. Handy started Black Swan in 1921. Mayo “Ink” Williams founded Black Patti in 1927. Notably, not a single Black-owned label survived the Great Depression intact.

As African Americans were making headway as recording artists, the birth of commercial broadcasting in 1920 threatened the survival of the recording industry as a whole. Because radio offered free live music, record sales plummeted from an all-time high of $106 million in 1921 to a low of $6 million in 1933, at the height of the Depression.Early radio was dominated by three national networks—NBC, ABC, and CBS—and virtually all the music heard on radio was either in the public domain or licensed by ASCAP. By 1939, ASCAP had alienated radio with its excessive licensing demands, so the National Alliance of Broadcasters formed its own performing rights organization—Broadcast Music Incorporated. BMI challenged ASCAP’s monopoly on copyrighted music by signing up blues and country writers, including scores of African American artists writing and performing rhythm and blues. Their blues-based sound, with honking sax players and blues shouters at the mike, presented a more raucous energy than the big swing bands of the era and deviated significantly from the smooth and melodic sound of mainstream Black pop.Ignored by the major companies, a number of independent R&amp;B labels came into existence in New York (Atlantic), Newark (Savoy), Cincinnati (King), Chicago (Chess), Houston (Peacock), and Los Angeles (Modern, Imperial, and Specialty). Don Robey’s Peacock label was the only Black-owned R&amp;B company until it was joined by Chicago’s Vee-Jay Records in 1953, owned by Vivian Carter and James C. Bracken.The introduction of television in the late-1940s hobbled network radio by attracting most of the national advertising. This encouraged the formation of hundreds of locally programmed, independent radio stations, which, collectively, brought <a href="/genres/rhythm-blues" rel="noopener noreferrer">rhythm and blues</a> to a national audience. By this time, DJs spinning records had become the staple of radio programming, as it provided an inexpensive alternative to the live studio orchestras that remained in residence at the network stations.<a href="http://www.alanfreed.com/wp/on-the-air-audio-2/audio-wjw/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">With both Black and white DJs, R&amp;B radio soon flourished nationwide and proved to be popular with white as well as Black audiences</a>. WOKJ in Jackson, Mississippi, reached more than 100,000 Black listeners. At 50,000 watts, WDIA in Memphis could broadcast to nearly 10 percent of the country’s 12 million African Americans.

The eruption of <a href="/genres/rock-n-roll" rel="noopener noreferrer">rock ‘n’ roll</a> in the mid-1950s encouraged a tilt toward African American cultural sensibilities and performance styles, as numerous African American artists “crossed over” into mainstream culture. While Tin Pan Alley recordings favored bland performances and production values, rock ‘n’ roll incorporated the capabilities of the technology into the creative process itself, using echo, editing, overdubbing, and other technical effects to distort or enhance the live performance.As this relationship deepened in the 1960s, it served to separate Black artists from white rockers. Black music was built around the hit single, at a time when white rockers had begun promoting extended compositions, psychedelic influences, and concept albums. Rock artists now labored over every cut in the studio, experimenting with new sounds, adding special effects, and layering, multitracking, overdubbing, crossfading, and mixing to perfection. A whole new radio medium—FM rock radio—opened up to accommodate these new sounds. Only a few Black acts—notably, <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:109,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Family Affair&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;216547171&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;Family Affair&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Sly &amp; The Family Stone&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;There&#039;s A Riot Goin&#039; On (Bonus Tracks Edition)&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1971-11-20&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is4-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music115\/v4\/91\/01\/9f\/91019f68-fbc9-5620-d49a-88043d75371e\/828767591124.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:3000,&quot;height&quot;:3000,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;000000&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;f6ebe5&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;ede1df&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;c5bcb7&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;bdb4b2&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview115\/v4\/d4\/05\/aa\/d405aa04-2234-0c30-1068-6ab6a602c007\/mzaf_12694696185505644862.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">Sly and the Family Stone</a> and the <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:110,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;Jimi Hendrix (The Best of... Album)&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;344799727&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;All Along the Watchtower&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;The Jimi Hendrix Experience&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;Experience Hendrix: The Best of Jimi Hendrix&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1968-09-21&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is5-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/53\/e9\/b9\/53e9b9f0-97f4-aac7-ee5b-12c2f2007ad3\/884977413878.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;1c121a&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;f2c246&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;ea5134&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;c79f3d&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;c1452f&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview125\/v4\/6c\/70\/60\/6c7060e0-1b0b-615e-ffe0-bfab12e00670\/mzaf_17356466504016539125.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">Jimi Hendrix Experience</a>—found a ready home on FM rock radio. By the early 1970s, about 80 percent of each sales dollar was in albums, and album-oriented rockers with more access to the new medium were much more likely to reap the benefits.Throughout this period, the televised dance party American Bandstand provided national exposure for rock ‘n’ roll stars, Black and white, who also made regular appearances on family variety shows like the Ed Sullivan Show. Into the 1960s, shows like Shindig and Hullabaloo also provided some exposure to African American artists. Soul Train, the brainchild of writer, producer, and host Don Cornelius, debuted in 1970 as a Black variation of Bandstand in Chicago. One year later it went into national syndication. By 2005, it had become television’s longest running show in first-run syndication, with 1.25 million viewers in 105 markets. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fiuCvEU5fs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Soul Train archives</a> have become a veritable treasure trove of African American cultural history.

Reach Out, I'll Be There

Don Cornelius and The Staple Singers on Soul Train (1974)

If rock had turned toward art, <a href="/genres/disco" rel="noopener noreferrer">disco</a> embraced artifice—shimmering polyester outfits, stylized dance moves, machine-made music by independent producers playing and/or programming synthesizers and drum machines. Systematically ignored by radio, disco initially owed its primary exposure to the creative genius of club DJs, who relied on these bass-heavy, extended-play recordings to “peak” an audience to communal dance ecstasy. Club DJs organized themselves into “record pools” for the distribution of new releases and word-of-mouth promotion. These grassroots efforts not only bypassed the entrenched airplay marketing structure of the music business, they also created a new market for 12-inch singles and remixed releases, which provided the foundation for hip-hop recordings in the next decade and continues to thrive to this day.Beginning with this bottom-up strategy, the disco phenomenon soon reverberated throughout the music industry. By the mid-1970s, the pop charts were bursting with disco acts, most of whom were Black or integrated groups. Following the overwhelming popularity of the Saturday Night Fever (1977) film and soundtrack, radio (including Black radio) could no longer ignore disco. By 1979, there were two hundred all-disco stations broadcasting in almost every major market. Syndicated television programs like Disco Magic and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9dyhvwcmsc" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dance Fever</a> provided national exposure. Some 36 million adults thrilled to the musical mixes of 8,000 professional disco DJs, who serviced the estimated 20,000 disco clubs. At its height, disco spawned a sub-industry whose annual revenues ranged from $4 billion to $8 billion.

By the 1980s, technological advances had brought into being the most powerful music promotion outlet ever—MTV. Initially, its programming brought acts of racial exclusion to new heights. Fully two years after its launch, People magazine reported that “on MTV’s current roster of some 800 acts, 16 are Black.” New music video outlets formed in reaction to MTV’s restrictive programming policies. Black Entertainment Television (BET) and the longstanding Soul Train provided the primary video exposure for Black talent in the early 1980s.It wasn’t until videos accompanying Michael Jackson’s Thriller (1982) broke the color line on MTV that the video music channel began airing African American artists with any regularity. MTV began programming hip-hop around 1987. Although at first buried in a late-night weekend slot, Yo! MTV Raps soon moved to a daily afternoon schedule and became one of the channel’s most popular programs.

Michael Jackson’s Thriller

Hip-Hop, Didn’t Stop: Transforming Equipment into Instruments

<a href="/genres/rap-hip-hop" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hip-hop</a> began in the 1970s as a South Bronx street culture comprising DJing, MCing (rapping), break-dancing, and graffiti art. In hip-hop, creative artists and consumers transformed existing tools of reproduction—notably, the turntable and the cassette deck—into productive technologies that served the creative process directly. Hip-hop DJs turned dual turntable rigs into full-fledged musical instruments through the use of techniques such as scratching and back-spinning. Double-cassette-deck boom-boxes became localized radio stations of the street, capable of recording, duplicating, and disseminating the music long before official recognition by the industry.Early hip-hop DJs began their careers by hard-wiring their turntable rigs into power from the street lamps of public parks and soon moved into New York’s downtown club scene. MCs, initially part of a DJ’s crew for purposes of announcements and crowd control, began <a href="" data-song-json="{&quot;id&quot;:76,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;The Message&quot;,&quot;apple_music_song_id&quot;:&quot;59389711&quot;,&quot;song_file&quot;:null,&quot;apple_music_attributes&quot;:{&quot;name&quot;:&quot;The Message&quot;,&quot;artist_name&quot;:&quot;Grandmaster Flash &amp; The Furious Five&quot;,&quot;album_name&quot;:&quot;The Message&quot;,&quot;release_date&quot;:&quot;1982-07-01&quot;,&quot;artwork&quot;:{&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/is5-ssl.mzstatic.com\/image\/thumb\/Music125\/v4\/c2\/34\/48\/c234484e-a6f3-4355-6d41-24275da82c74\/s06.kststhcn.jpg\/{w}x{h}bb.jpg&quot;,&quot;width&quot;:1500,&quot;height&quot;:1500,&quot;bgColor&quot;:&quot;13120d&quot;,&quot;textColor1&quot;:&quot;f6fbfe&quot;,&quot;textColor2&quot;:&quot;dcdbd6&quot;,&quot;textColor3&quot;:&quot;c9ccce&quot;,&quot;textColor4&quot;:&quot;b4b3ae&quot;},&quot;preview_song_url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com\/itunes-assets\/AudioPreview112\/v4\/2c\/92\/4e\/2c924e39-b475-d6cb-16c5-3a90ac729e5f\/mzaf_2434711652222157158.plus.aac.p.m4a&quot;},&quot;video_file&quot;:null}" rel="noopener noreferrer">“rapping”</a> their own spoken-word poetry over the DJ’s turntable gymnastics. The practice of superimposing spoken-word lyrics over a particular segment of an existing song provided the template for hip-hop recordings. In this way, “sampling” (incorporating segments of existing sound files into a recording), along with the construction of a rhythmic backing track, became integral parts of hip-hop production. Hip-hop production became ever more sophisticated and complex in the digital age with the introduction of digitally produced samples and percussion grooves and the addition of R&amp;B-inflected vocals. The practice of sampling remained a staple of hip-hop, even as it became a legal minefield with respect to copyright violations, clearance issues, and licensing fees.

Although critics regularly predicted its early demise, hip-hop style proceeded to influence everything from ballet and modern dance to fashion design and studio art, pop, rock, funk, soul, and jazz. In the new millennium, hip-hop became the dominant sound of US popular music culture, supplanting rock as the new paradigm for popular music.

Media, Technology, and the African American Music Business