Their music consisted mostly of beats from all kinds of drums, dancing about to the pure rhythm. But after the pioneers came and took them away with them to American, and enslaved them, their up beat happy beats became slowed and sad.
Forced to labor long and hard on the plantations against their will, African slaves would sing and chant in their native tongues as they worked. They would take turns 'calling out' in song, to which the other laborers would 'respond' in unison. This "call and response" technique in their songs, known as "field hollers", would sadly tell of the loss of their homelands and families they would never see again. They would also use these songs to communicate information about escaping, because the slave owners could not understand the "slaves' language". .
With the Civil War came the freedom of slaves in America. During this time a new style of singing and playing acoustic guitar become popular. Named Delta Blues, after the "Mississippi Delta" region where the majority of blacks in America lived on plantations, it was some of the first blues to ever be recorded. "Pioneers such as Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Mississippi Fred McDowell helped to create a unique and powerful sound that is still popular today." (Lee) .
Widely recognized as the "Father of Rock and Roll", Blues music is one of America's great contributions to the world. "It was created in the days of slavery in America, when a black person was still an African in America, not an African-American. It emerged from under the great weight and strain of years of oppression and cruelty as a shining pearl and testament to the intelligence and creativity of this race of people." (Lee) They would sit on their porch and sing of their day, life, hardships, or even joy in a beat of "da-na da-na na-na na-na" (repeat).
It could be argued that if there had been no Blues, there could not have been Rock and Roll Music.