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African Americans sold in the early slave markets of the New World were brought mostly from West Africa where the arts were highly developed. Their languages were articulated with such controlled variations of tone and timing that spoken words could easily be made into songs which gained rhythm from measured repetition a universal folk-device which we know in the blues and spirituals.
African American music has influenced musical tastes around the world. Africans introduced Americans to musical rhythms and instruments quite different from the musical traditions of Europeans or Native Americans. In some cases, African musical traditions have blended into American culture with little notice. The banjo, now associated primarily with the bluegrass music popular among white Southerners, was originally an instrument used in African religious ceremonies.
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