User:Kylemalik20/sandbox

Billboard started making a separate list of hit records for African-American music in October 1942 with the "Harlem Hit Parade", which was changed in 1945 to "Race Records", and then in 1949 to "Rhythm and Blues Records". By the 1940s, cover versions of African-American songs were commonplace, and frequently topped the charts, while the original musicians found success among their African-American audience, but not in the mainstream. In 1955, Thurman Ruth persuaded a gospel group to sing in a secular setting, the Apollo Theater, with such success that he subsequently arranged gospel caravans that traveled around the country, playing the same venues that rhythm and blues singers had popularized. Meanwhile, jazz performers began to push jazz away from swing, a danceable popular music towards more intricate arrangements, improvisation, and technically challenging forms, culminating in the bebop of Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, the cool sounds and modal jazz of Miles Davis, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.

African-American musicians in the 1940s and 1950s were developing rhythm and blues into a genre called rock and roll, which featured a strong backbeat and whose prominent exponents included Louis Jordan and Wynonie Harris. However, it was with white musicians such as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, playing a guitar-based fusion of black rock and roll with country music called rockabilly, that rock and roll music became commercially successful. Rock music thereafter became more associated with white people, though some black performers such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had commercial success.

The 1950s also saw increased popularity of hard blues in the style from the earliest part of the century, both in the United States and United Kingdom. The 1950s also saw doo-wop style become popular. Doo-wop had been developed through vocal group harmony with the musical qualities of different vocal parts, nonsense syllables, little or no instrumentation, and simple lyrics. It usually involved ensemble single artists appearing with a backing group. Solo billing was given to lead singers who were more prominent in the musical arrangement. A secularized form of American gospel music called soul also developed in the mid 1950s, with pioneers like Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke leading the wave. Soul and R&B became a major influence on surf, as well as the chart-topping girl groups including The Angels and The Shangri-Las, only some of whom were white. In 1959, Hank Ballard releases a song for the new dance style "The Twist" which became the new dance crave from the early 60's into the 70's.

In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, the first record label to primarily feature African-American artists aimed at achieving crossover success. The label developed an innovative—and commercially successful—style of soul music with distinctive pop elements. Its early roster included The Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, The Supremes, and others. Black divas such as Aretha Franklin became '60s crossover stars. In the UK, British blues became a gradually mainstream phenomenon, returning to the U.S. in the form of the British Invasion, a group of bands led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones who performed blues and R&B-inspired pop, with both traditional and modernized aspects. WGIV in Charlotte, North Carolina was amongst a few radio stations dedicated to African-American music that started during this period. In 1961, a young boy named Stevland Hardaway Morris recorded his first record under Motown's Tambla record at the age of 11 as Stevie Wonder and that was the start of his great career.

In 1964, when the Civil Rights Act outlawed major forms of discrimination towards African Americans and women. As tensions started to die down there was more African American musicians crossing over some artist who successfully crossed over was Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ella Fitzgerald. In the pop and jazz worlds Leontyne Price, and Kathleen Battle for the classical music realm.

The British Invasion knocked many black artists off the US pop charts, although some, among them Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett and Aretha Franklin and a number of Motown artists, continued to do well. Soul music, however, remained popular among black people through highly evolved forms such as funk, developed out of the innovations of James Brown.

By the end of the decade, Black people were part of the psychedelia and early heavy metal trends, particularly by way of the ubiquitous Beatles' influence and the electric guitar innovations of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was among the first guitarists to use audio feedback, fuzz, and other effects pedals such as the wah wah pedal to create a unique guitar solo sound. Psychedelic soul, a mix of psychedelic rock and soul began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popular among black people and with more crossover appeal, was album-oriented soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which revolutionized African-American music. The genre's intelligent and introspective lyrics, often with a socially aware tone were created by artists such as Marvin Gaye in What's Going On, and Stevie Wonder in Songs in the Key of Life.

In the 1970's, you see the emergence of hip hop in cities like New York, Chicago,and Los Angeles. They provided groups like NWA, Run DMC, and Public Enemy that drew on old African American music it is a distinctive art form based on social protest and spoken word poetry.Through the styles of groups/musicians like NWA, Tupac, and Biggie Smalls a new style of music was created known as Gangsta Rap this changed the style of music around this time in cities like Los Angeles, Detroit, and Chicago the black community was feuding with the police in the aftermath of the Rodney King incident. After the incident NWA came out with their hit song F*** The Police and changed the way music would grow in the future.

In the early 2000's and 2010's saw the musical styles of Lil Wayne, J Cole, Kendrick Lamar, Drake, and some of the greatest African- American artist the music industry has ever seen.