black music, African-American music

music created by African-American musicians; early forms were songs that had a melodic line and a strong rhythmic beat with repeated choruses

• blues — a type of folk song that originated among Black Americans at the beginning of the 20th century; has a melancholy sound from repeated use of blue notes
• soul — a secular form of gospel that was a major Black musical genre in the 1960s and 1970s
• rap, rap music — genre of African-American music of the 1980s and 1990s in which rhyming lyrics are chanted to a musical accompaniment; several forms of rap have emerged
• rhythm and blues, R and B — a combination of blues and jazz that was developed in the United States by Black musicians; an important precursor of rock 'n' roll

• music genre, musical genre, genre, musical style — an expressive style of music