The main features of African music:

First, the rhythm of multiple lines. Multi-line rhythm is talking, such as six people and six rhythms, but also improvisation, never chaotic. With this sense of rhythm, it brings a very strong and unrestrained power to music. The complex and changeable rhythm is the soul of African music.

An important feature of the rhythm of African music is the compound rhythm, in which many rhythms with different beats of different lengths are played in parallel, or the rhythms of the same beats with the same length are staggered, which will produce wonderful rhythm and harmony.

second, vocal music echoes, and one person sings the harmony of all people, which is one of its characteristics, either in turn or overlapping, forming a multi-voice part.

Third, I prefer percussion instruments, drums and marimba.

fourthly, seven tones are adopted, and there are quite a number of five tones.

Fifth, African folk music has a strong function, which is closely related to daily life and religious etiquette. It even has satirical songs and litigation songs, and even sings in court.

Extended information:

Africa has a vast territory and abundant resources, diverse nationalities and different beliefs, so African music is complex. According to the classification of ethnomusicologists, African music can be divided into four categories: ancient Egyptian music, Andalusian music in North Africa, Ethiopian and sub-Saharan black music (referring to East Africa, West Africa, Central Africa and South Africa).

African music is a collection concept that includes a variety of musical cultures, and the African music we are talking about here is all kinds of traditional black music originating from

sub-Saharan Africa.

the influence of African music

The spread of African music culture mainly depends on African residents-blacks.

The development of the African continent has been relatively backward, and African blacks have joined the society of other countries and regions as slaves, which has created the possibility for the spread of African music culture. In the process of labor, they preserved the African music tradition in their own way, and made this tradition continue and develop.

In this process, the musical features of African black music were integrated into the music of other countries, which promoted the development of local music and spread African music, so that African music could be preserved and circulated.

Therefore, many countries are influenced by African music to a certain extent, especially the music in North and South America and Latin America. As a whole, they are influenced by black music, among which American music is the representative.

We all know that American pop music is the most representative of American music, and American jazz

music is the most representative of American pop music. Before jazz came into being, there were similar black soul songs, blues,

ragtime, etc. Jazz originated from black dance music, and the two main sources are black songs "blues" and "ragtime".

African music is strong, unrestrained and has great vitality. The primitive, simple, original jungle and dynamic music

blended with other countries' music cultures, and at the same time produced more distinctive music cultures, which influenced and promoted the development of world music and made great contributions to the development of world music culture.

China Net-"Wonderful and Magical Foreign Folk Songs"