Our Music, Dance, & Fashion
Some popular music created exclusively by our people Includes:
Jazz (all forms), Ragtime, Scat, Bebop, Blues, Gospel Music (all forms), Soul, Neo-Soul, Rock n' Roll, Funk, Human Beatboxing, Rhythm & Blues (R & B), Urban Blues, Negro Spirituals, Blue Grass, Rap, Hip-Hop, Freedom Songs, Disco, House Music, New Jack Swing, Big Bands, Swing Bands, Swing Music (all forms) HBCU Band Music, Zydeco Music, and more!
Original African American dances are improvised and characterized by ongoing changes and development over the past 500 years.
Some popular dances created our people influencing American popular culture includes:
Tap Dance, Blues Dance, Moon Walk, Electric Slide, Zydeco, Lindy Hop, Krumping, Harlem Shake Down, Breakdancing, The Bump, Disco, Bounce, Funky chicken, Hip Hop, Cake Walk, Slop, Disco, Black Ballet, Moon Walk, Camel Walk, Poppin' and Lockin', The Twist, The Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, and more!
Some of our popular Historical Music & Dance Ensemble Traditions Include:
HBCU (Historical Black College University) Marching Bands
The Dance Theater of Harlem - (ballet company founded in 1969 in Harlem, NY)
African American Dance Ensemble- (founded in Durham, NC by Chuck Davis in 1983)
African/Black American Family Reunion Line Dancing Tradition
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater - (founded by Alvin Ailey in 1958)
Some popular fashion created by & influenced exclusively by our people includes:
Headwraps & turban styles created by OAA women during slavery due to a combination of cultural practices & racist laws against black women's hair, turned into modern day fashion.
Urban Fashion & Denim Trends created by and influenced by our community
Kente Cloth & African Print Infused American Garments
Athleisure - (Athletic & Casual Clothing worn together)
Harlem Renaissance Fashion - (Well-tailored, dignified, men, women, & children's garments & grooming of Harlem, NY between the 1910's to 1930's)
Louisiana Creole Fashion - (Elegant men & women's fashion of 18th & 19th century Louisiana combining West African, French, & Spanish style, as well as a racist "Tignon" headwrap law of 1786 meant to diminish black women's beauty & visibility that backfired, & was turned by us into a beautiful, regal style later admired & appropriated by French women).
Original African Americans © 2025 by Nayima Sharif
