Rooted in the Negro spiritual, Blues was unpolished and just what America needed to understand the anger, lust and praise of African-American people in the 1920s.
In 1955, Marian Anderson became the first Black person to perform at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. With her bellowing contralto and indefatigable spirit, she broke down racial barricades in America.
After the glitter of Disco, music was in need of revitalization. In the mid-1970s, a rebel yell ripped through America. Punk was young America’s refusal to lie down to an establishment that praised complacency.
Beginning in the mid-1970s in the South Bronx, hip-hop was America’s wake-up call to the plight of Black and Latino youth. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, hip-hop transformed American culture through its fashion, attitude and message.
Despite the trash television that it’s become, American culture owes a great deal to MTV. It was the first sign that music was more than just something to listen to. It became a visual masterpiece.