Black music charts
Black music charts
Black music charts include compsotions from jazz, gospel, reggae, disco, soul, club music and other musical genres produced by black artists. In other words, music created by black artists is called black music. In the 1950’s Black Music was not of a very good standard - there were may singers, but all were not of a very huge standards - one thing that was good was that seminal artistes were not all located in one genre . Ella Fitzgerald was involved in recording for quite some time but actually reached a peak in the 1950’s. In the year 1956, she began recording songs with Norman Granz - all her good work rewarded her with two Grammys two years later. Many singers have tried to copy her style but have not trally succeeded and she remained quite original. If one is considering seminal music, then the first musician who comes to mind is McKinley Morganfiled who also went by the name of Muddy Walters - this musician also came to be known as the Boss of Chicago for his lowdown blues. He was associated with some very good Blue singers such as Pinetop Williams, Willie Dixon, Little Walter,Otis Spann and also wih some very famous rock and roll singers. In fact, the name Rolling Stones was derived from a song which Muddy Walters sang. He was also instumental in influencing Hendrix, Paul Rogers and Mojo Nixon - no doubt, Paul Rogers and Mojo Nixon may not have been among the very best of their genre but these examples only show the influence Muddy Walters had on singers of various genres. When one is speaking about rock and roll, one cannot forget certain labels that did their part in promoting Black Music charts - there was Chess records with one musican who was at the forefront of rock and roll and that was Bo Diddley. But Bo was not the only singer who was popularising rock and roll - others who were also responsible were Chuck Berry and the revolutionalary Little Richard who was imitated by the Beatles. Much before Sun Records had a Million Dollar Quartet, it featured artistes such as Rufus Thomas, whose sonh ‘Bear Cat’ rose to the No 3 position of the black music charts in the year 1953. Little Milton, Junior Parker, Rufus Thomas and his Sun label co-musicians may not be as popular as Chuck Berry but if one listens carefully to Rufus one will realise that he certainly was responsible, to some extent, in the evolution of rock and roll . Today, one can listen to the Black Music charts of the 1950’s and still not get tired - it still gives us immense joy and satisfaction.










