Guided trail
The Sound of a People: Black Music
From African rhythms carried through slavery to the blues, jazz, gospel, soul, Motown, and hip-hop — how Black Americans created the soundtrack of the modern world.
- 1ThreadAfrican Kingdoms & Heritage
The rhythms and call-and-response of West Africa, carried across the Middle Passage.
- 2EventW.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues"
The blues is published and the music of the rural South goes national.
- 3PersonBessie Smith
The Empress of the Blues becomes the highest-paid Black performer of the 1920s.
- 4PersonLouis Armstrong
Jazz is born, and Armstrong makes the soloist its hero.
- 5ThreadThe Harlem Renaissance
In Harlem, the music meets a flowering of Black art and letters.
- 6EventMotown Records is founded
Berry Gordy builds the sound of young America from a Detroit house.
- 7PersonAretha Franklin
Soul fuses gospel and R&B; Aretha demands "Respect."
- 8EventHip-hop is born in the Bronx
In the Bronx, a DJ's breakbeat launches hip-hop — now the world's dominant sound.
- 9EventKendrick Lamar wins the Pulitzer
Hip-hop wins the Pulitzer Prize; the music is recognized as major American art.