ABSTRACT
It is, by now, common knowledge that African Americans have provided the most signifi cant cultural inputs in the development of American music. African Americans have created, innovated, performed, and otherwise participated in the process of music-making since the United States was a colony. Their cultural contributions have been historically undervalued and/or assigned to others less deserving, and they have had to overcome systematic discrimination within the music industry itself. Still the music remains as vital and pathbreaking as ever.
