Hist 390 History of Genre

A brief aspect of music discussed in class was how whites handle beats different from blacks. In music, beats typically follow a 1, 2, 3, 4 pattern. Traditionally, Afro-Americans clapped on beats 2 and 4 which were more in-sync with the rhythm. On the other hand, whites historically clapped on beats 1 and 3 which gave off the impression that they were always clapping off-beat. Another aspect of music were Race Records which came about in the 1920’s. Here, music was only made by blacks, but was played by different races. The music was racially divided to the point where the top charts were separated by the music being categorized as a Race Record or not.

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