African-American music studies: gospel & blues

In this module you will explore the development and interaction of two of the most musically and socially powerful forms in black American vernacular music - gospel and blues.

Areas covered will range from the forced migration of African slaves to the Americas, through their encounter with white religious and folk music genres, to the rise and influence of black American music within the expanding broadcasting and commercial recording industries. You will also look at how these styles were assimilated by the largely white-dominated popular music styles from the mid-1950s.