How the US Exported A Cultural Hegemony Through Music
Recipe: Cultural Melting Pot Introduction & Background A merican music first borrowed from European classical music tradition and has been a force to reckon with globally since the US decided to become their own superpower – coincidentally a part of the reason they broke off from the UK, but I’ll digress at a later time. The first American music that was made styled itself off of the music that colonists knew the best: European classical music at the time. All of their new music, whether it was John Sousa or Francis Scott Key, would go on to be a continuation of the soundscapes of Europe until the revolutionary war. Then we see poor folks in the boonies start making music that’s loosely based on European music, but without the training or proximity they relied on the influences of the musics that surrounded them to create something new. The only other influences nearby were Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans, both of whom were actively having their culture repressed either...
