Peeking Through a Window

BLACK MUSIC

A Cultural Listening Experience

ROOTS

GROOVE

REVOLUTION

LINEAGE

Curated by Kristan Bush

A Cultural Listening Experience

Black music is not a genre.
It is the blueprint.

From 1927 to today, Black artists have shaped the rhythm, structure, innovation, and emotional language of American music — and global sound. Blues became rock. Gospel became soul. Funk became hip-hop. House became pop. Country circled back home.

This is not background music.

This is lineage.
This is reclamation.
This is a living syllabus.

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We host the story here. Platforms are simply how you listen. We provide listening links for accessibility. If you prefer not to use a specific streaming service, use the companion guide to search and listen in the way that aligns with your values. The purpose lives here — in context, lineage, and reflection.

A Letter from Kristan

Music has always told the truth before we were ready to hear it.
Before textbooks caught up.
Before institutions acknowledged it.
Before, credit was fairly assigned.
Black music is not a sidebar in American history. It is the foundation.

It is the church and the juke joint.
It is protest and celebration.
It is grief and joy existing in the same breath.
This collection is not exhaustive. It is intentional.

It traces lineage — how gospel became soul, how blues became rock, how funk became hip-hop, how country circled back home. It reminds us that culture is not static. It moves. It evolves. It resists erasure.

I invite you not to skim this list.

Sit with it.
Listen for the throughline.
Notice what you thought you knew.

And when you hear a familiar sound — ask yourself where it truly began.

How to Experience This Journey

This collection spans nearly 100 years of music. Don’t rush it.

Choose your tempo:

20 Minutes a Day
Listen to one song. Read the context. Reflect.

One Era Per Week
Move through the sections chronologically. Notice how each era builds the next.

Host a Listening Circle
Gather your team, your family, your community. Press play together. Ask better questions.

Reflection prompts:

What genre did you assume started somewhere else?
Where do you hear this influence in today’s music?
What emotions show up in your body?
Who received credit — and who didn’t?
What does cultural ownership mean?

The Roots — Where American Music Begins (1927–1968)

Blues, gospel, country, folk, early rock — the bedrock beneath everything else.

First star of the Grand Ole Opry. Black country music at the origin point.
The DNA of blues-rock. Clapton, the Rolling Stones, and modern guitar trace here.
One of the first protest songs in American popular music.
Often cited as the first rock and roll record.
The vocal blueprint for soul and modern pop powerhouses.
Invented soul by fusing gospel with R&B.
The Big Bang of rock and roll.
Chicago blues that shaped British rock and beyond.
The vocabulary of rock guitar begins here.
The best-selling jazz album in history reshaped modern harmony.
Redefined what electric guitar could be.

Soul, Motown & Crossover (1964–1979)

When Black music became America’s popular music.

The moral spine of soul music.
Pop heartbreak perfected.
Black women dominating pop radio.
Protest, gospel, and jazz in one body.
Raw emotional architecture.
Stagecraft that reshaped performance.
Funk power, sampled for generations.
Romantic soul at its peak.
Joy as musicianship.
The groove that still echoes in pop.
Disco-funk bridge to global superstardom.

Funk, Gospel & The Groove (1969–2005)

The sample library for modern music.

The most sampled drum break in history.
The birth of slap bass and psychedelic funk.
Danceable protest.
The foundation of G-funk and Afrofuturism.
Genre-defying minimal funk.
A bassline that crossed decades.
Universal celebration.
Modern gospel enters mainstream charts.
Hip-hop production meets worship.
Jazz-funk sampled endlessly.

Hip-Hop: From the Bronx to the World (1979–2025)

An art form becomes the global language.

Hip-hop goes mainstream.
Street reporting as poetry.
Broke MTV’s color barrier.
Changed cultural and political conversation.
Revolution on wax.
Jazz meets hip-hop innovation.
A protest anthem that still resonates.
Storytelling and flow at its peak.
Southern hip-hop reshapes pop.
Economics, race, and legacy.
The anthem of a generation.
The future, fully aware of its roots.

Continuum & Reclamation (1987–2026)

The sound keeps expanding — and circling home.

Vocal power without borders.
Performance precision as protest.
R&B, hip-hop, pop convergence.
Neo-soul shifts the culture.
A new era begins.
Political artistry at the Super Bowl.
Country reclamation.
Genre boundaries collapse.
Country crossover rewritten.
Trap’s architect returns.

Before You Close This Page

What did you hear differently?

What did you realize was always there?

What genre did you think began somewhere else?

Black music is not a sidebar in American history.

It is the architecture.

Let it reshape how you listen.

We design immersive learning experiences that move people from awareness to behavior change — through dialogue, art, music, and story.

The listening journey is just the beginning.

Connect With Our Team

BLACK MUSIC

A Cultural Listening Experience

A Cultural Listening Experience

A Letter from Kristan

How to Experience This Journey

The Roots — Where American Music Begins (1927–1968)

DeFord Bailey — “Pan American Blues” (1927)

Robert Johnson — “Cross Road Blues” (1936)

Billie Holiday — “Strange Fruit” (1939)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe — “Strange Things Happening Every Day” (1944)

Mahalia Jackson — “Move On Up a Little Higher” (1947)

Ray Charles — “I Got a Woman” (1954)

Little Richard — “Tutti Frutti” (1955)

Muddy Waters — “Mannish Boy” (1955)

Chuck Berry — “Johnny B. Goode” (1958)

Miles Davis — “So What” (1959)

Jimi Hendrix — “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” (1968)

Soul, Motown & Crossover (1964–1979)

Sam Cooke — “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1964)

Smokey Robinson & the Miracles — “Tracks of My Tears” (1965)

Diana Ross & The Supremes — “Stop! In the Name of Love” (1965)

Nina Simone — “Sinnerman” (1965)

Otis Redding — “Try a Little Tenderness” (1966)

Tina Turner — “Proud Mary” (1971)

Aretha Franklin — “Rock Steady” (1971)

Al Green — “Let’s Stay Together” (1972)

Stevie Wonder — “Sir Duke” (1977)

Marvin Gaye — “Got to Give It Up” (1977)

Michael Jackson — “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough” (1979)

Funk, Gospel & The Groove (1969–2005)

James Brown — “Funky Drummer” (1970)

Sly & the Family Stone — “Thank You…” (1969)

Curtis Mayfield — “Move On Up” (1970)

Parliament — “Flash Light” (1977)

Prince — “Kiss” (1986)

Rick James — “Super Freak” (1981)

Earth, Wind & Fire — “September” (1978)

The Clark Sisters — “You Brought the Sunshine” (1981)

Kirk Franklin — “He Reigns/Awesome God” (2005)

Roy Ayers — “Everybody Loves the Sunshine” (1976)

Hip-Hop: From the Bronx to the World (1979–2025)

Sugarhill Gang — “Rapper’s Delight” (1979)

Grandmaster Flash — “The Message” (1982)

Run-DMC — “Walk This Way” (1986)

N.W.A. — “Straight Outta Compton” (1988)

Public Enemy — “Fight the Power” (1989)

A Tribe Called Quest — “Can I Kick It?” (1990)

Tupac Shakur — “Changes” (1998)

The Notorious B.I.G. — “Hypnotize” (1997)

OutKast — “SpottieOttieDopaliscious” (1998)

Jay-Z — “The Story of O.J.” (2017)

Kendrick Lamar — “Alright” (2015)

Doechii — “Anxiety” (2025)

Continuum & Reclamation (1987–2026)

Whitney Houston — “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” (1987)

Janet Jackson — “Rhythm Nation” (1989)

TLC — “Waterfalls” (1995)

Lauryn Hill — “Doo Wop (That Thing)” (1998)

Beyoncé — “Crazy in Love” (2003)

Beyoncé — “Formation” (2016)

Beyoncé — “Texas Hold ’Em” (2024)

Lil Nas X — “Old Town Road” (2019)

Shaboozey — “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” (2024)

T.I. — “Let ‘Em Know” (2026)

Before You Close This Page

We design immersive learning experiences that move people from awareness to behavior change — through dialogue, art, music, and story.

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