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This Is My Song: How Black Artists Changed American Music

This Is My Song: How Black Artists Changed American Music

Last updated on: June 18, 2026 at 8:18 pm by Ginny Baxter

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This Is My Song: How Black Artists Changed American Music 2026-06-18T20:18:08-04:00 Ginny Baxter

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Black churches and musicians have played a crucial role in the development of modern music from gospel to jazz, rock, R&B and more. (AI image created by Alana Jordan for Pixabay)

The Religious Roots of Today’s Music

I love music! June is Black Music Month, and it’s a perfect time to talk about the remarkable contributions Black artists have made to music in the U.S. and around the world. How have Black artists changed music? What role did African American churches play in the revolution of music? Who are some of the Black music legends, past and present?

Wired for Music

“Our brains are wired for music,” according to the Clay Center for Young Healthy Minds at Massachusetts General Hospital. Music connects and motivates us, boosts our energy and lifts our spirits. It can even help us draw closer to God.

The National Library of Medicine explains that “music is an essential part of human life…. Plato characterized music as a guide toward goodness as it could touch the soul.” That’s quite a statement, but I think it’s true. Music reaches us in ways nothing else does.

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician,” Albert Einstein once said. “I often live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” Well said. Louis Armstrong may have said it better, “Music is life itself. What would this world be without good music? No matter what it is, context-wise, it’s a language that the whole world understands.”

“We all build walls to protect ourselves from pain,” the National Institutes of Health explains. “Music has a way of seeping through the cracks in those walls.” It changes our brain and our state of mind.

Music has played a significant role in Black history. We will hit some of the highlights in this article, but if you’re interested in digging deeper than one article can go, you might start with the four-part PBS documentary called “The Black Church: This is Our Story. This is Our Song.” hosted by professor, historian and filmmaker Henry Louis Gates Jr. (You may recognize Gates as the long-time host of “Finding Your Roots” on PBS.)

American Music’s Debt to Black Artists

But let’s get back to how Black artists changed music in America and beyond. Their influence is strong, perhaps stronger than most people realize, given the fact that African American music is the foundation for numerous genres, including these:

Gospel
Soul
Blues
Jazz
Swing
R&B
Rock
Rap
Hip hop
Funk
And perhaps others

Black Pioneers in Music

The list of influential Black musicians is long, and African American music offers something for a wide range of tastes. Music is subjective, and people will never agree on the “greatest,” “best,” or “most influential” song or performer, but here’s my list of some of the top African American musicians:

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) is considered a musical genius, and experts rank him as one of the greatest musicians of all time. Here, he showcases his distinctive gravelly voice in “Go Down Moses.” Armstrong influenced several generations of jazz musicians as a singer, trumpeter, and composer, and transformed jazz from an ensemble-based genre to one that features soloists. Nicknamed “Satchmo,” he was one of the first Black musicians to become a major star in mainstream white music. He had a spectacular range and rhythmic drive, according to numerous sources. His vocal style and phrasing influenced numerous Black music icons, including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra.
Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) is considered one of the most influential singers of the 20th century. Her voice has been called a force of nature, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture has said, “It moves with the power of a tornado and soothes with the tenderness of a spring rain.” Jackson took sacred music from the sanctuaries of Black churches to stages across the world, performing at Carnegie Hall, President John F. Kennedy’s inauguration and Dr. Martin Luther King’s funeral. She toured Europe, Japan, India, Israel, and Africa from 1940 to 1971 and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Aretha Franklin (1942-2018) was known as the “queen of soul.” The singer-songwriter blended various genres and, in the process, empowered women and Black musicians. She sold more than 75 million records worldwide and had 112 singles on the U.S. Billboard charts, including “Respect” and “You Made Me Feel Like a Natural Woman.” Here, she sings “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” Franklin received 18 Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005 and the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation posthumously in 2019.
Michael Jackson (1958-2009) was surrounded by controversy toward the end of his life. He was accused of sexually abusing a child in 1993, although the case was settled out of court. But whether you like him or not, Jackson is widely considered one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th century, and many rank him the greatest entertainer of all time. He broke down racial barriers, revolutionized music videos, set fashion trends and popularized street dance moves such as the moonwalk, anti-gravity lean and the robot. He paved the way for other Black musicians on predominantly white MTV and sold an estimated 500 million+ records as a solo artist. His 1982 “Thriller” album is still the best-selling album. He also helped raise millions of dollars for famine relief in Africa and donated approximately $500 million to AIDS research, children’s welfare, disaster relief, and other causes.

The Roots of Modern American Music

Modern American music has deep roots in African American history. Enslaved Africans from central and western Africa brought music featuring drums and chanting. Africans from the Sahel region, south of the Sahara Desert, were heavily influenced by Muslim music, which featured flutes and string instruments. And these sounds found their way into modern American music.

Although white slave owners used Christianity as a way of controlling slaves, enslaved people found ways to use their faith, prayers, church teachings, songs, and dancing to survive. Their spirituals, for example, could be more than mere music at times. “Go Down Moses” and “Swing Low Sweet Chariot,” for instance, were profoundly Black religious songs, but when secret codes were added, this music helped 19th-century enslaved people escape bondage in the American South.

Gospel music is rooted in 19th-century Black churches, but its official birth didn’t occur until early 20th-century Chicago. During that time, America experienced a major population shift called the Great Migration (1910-1970), according to the National Archives. This shift saw approximately six million Black Americans leave the rural South for cities in the Northeast, Midwest and West. And their religious music began to blend with Pentecostal music.

Can You Imagine?

Can you imagine listening to gospel legend Mahalia Jackson or soul icon Aretha Franklin perform without being moved? It would have been nearly as impossible to sit still for a performance by superstars James Brown and Tina Turner. And what about listening to jazz masters Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, and rock legends Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Little Richard or Chuck Berry. The Black influence is everywhere.

But let’s not forget Black classical composers and singers such as Florence Price (1887-1953), who blended European music traditions with Black spirituals and folk tunes; William Grant Still (1895-1978), who was the first Black person to conduct a major symphony orchestra, namely the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Leontyne Price (b. 1927), whose commanding voice made her one of the greatest sopranos of the 20th century; and the amazing soprano Jessye Norman.

The legendary Marian Anderson (1897-1993) sang everything from spirituals to opera and broke down major racial barriers when she sang at the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. The performance took place after the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to let her sing before a mixed audience at the DAR’s Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from the DAR and helped arrange Anderson’s concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

Black artists have quite a legacy in music, wouldn’t you agree?

Check out these R&B hits.

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