Cross-over music combines two or more different music styles so that various people can enjoy it. The band named “Chic” brought
different musical aesthetics, and their music combined blues, pop, and disco and ranked on top in all those genres. The remix incorporated different instruments and music into one sound. African and European elements are combined to produce the mixing of rhythms and sounds. Africanist aesthetic manifest in hip-hop. As mentioned in Gottschild’s reading, the “mask-like face of the drummer or dancer whose body
and energy may be working face, hard, and hot, but whose face remains cool"
[1]
can be observed in African music is also presented in hip-hop dances.
Many artists engaged political and social concerns through music and dance. They used their performance to remind people what social issues the US currently faces: racism, oppression, guns,
materialism, etc. Kendrick Lamar showed an image of the age of mass black incarceration. Beyonce used her performance to express the oppression that black females currently face. Gambino and Jay Z also used symbolism in their music videos to deliver black rights that are still not been improved.
African culture affected American cultures greatly. African aesthetics are shown in many music and dances in America, and black rights remain an unsolved problem. Looking at all the examples of
African influence on America, I feel like Africanistic aesthetics and culture are one of the keys to understanding American culture.
Reference
[1]
Gottschild, First Premises of an African Aesthetic, “Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance,” Connecticut: Greenwood Press 1996 
