The African Influence on America's Music

A Movie/Lecture by Richard Beil



In this video, Parlor Songs Academy Director Richard Beil narrates the story of the African influence on America's music and on the songwriters and composers of American popular music. Though the video is prepared in celebration of Black History Month, teachers will find it useful in classrooms year 'round. This video is copyright © 2012 by Richard Beil and The Parlor Songs Academy It is free for use in an educational setting however may not be used in any other setting or republished elsewhere without the written permission of the author or a corporate officer.

Note To Teachers From the Author:

This video was prepared principally with high school students in mind.  However, teachers at many different levels may find this helpful.  My 9-year old grandson (3rd Grader) watched it, said it was really interesting and entertaining and that his classmates will like it too.  Of course, each teacher must decide how to present the material.  One suggestion is to solicit questions from the students during the lecture and be prepared to pause the video for class discussion at that point. Should anyone have questions, feel free to contact me via email.

Additional notes: This web page presentation is in Windows movie format (wmv)..We realize that there may be schools that do not have the ability to connect a computer to a large viewing screen for presentation.  And, having 20 or more students gathered around a computer would not be an attractive option. Therefore, we will make this presentation available in DVD format at our cost of $6. To order the DVD contact us at admin@parlorsongs.ac.

This article published September, 2011 and is Copyright © 2011 by The Parlor Songs Academy. Text, images or music may not be reproduced in part or in total without express written permission of the author or a an Academy Director. Though the songs published on this site are often in the Public Domain, MIDI renditions are protected by copyright as recorded performances.

Thanks for visiting us and be sure to come back again later to see our next issue or just to read some or all of our over 130 articles about America's music. See our resources page for a complete bibliography of our own library resources used to research this and other articles in our series.



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If you would like to submit an article about America's music for us to publish, go to our submissions page for information about writing articles for us. We also welcome suggestions for subjects for future articles.

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A great deal of work and effort has gone into these pages. The concept, design, images, written text and performance (MIDI and other recordings) of these works, the web pages, custom images and original content are Copyright © 1997-2024 by Richard A. Reublin or Richard G. Beil. Before using any of these images, text or performances (MIDI or other recordings), please read our usage policy for standard permissions and those requiring special attention. Thanks.

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