U.S. History Unit 5 Db - Essay Example

U.S History U.S. History Unit 5 Db African Americans came to the land of opportunitiesas slaves and initially settled in the south where they worked in sugarcane plantations. This ethic group brought with it rich cultural heritage that has to this date transformed the entire American way of life (Woods, 1956). The modern hip hop culture that has taken over America is an outstanding contribution of the African Americans. They invented the blues and made New Orleans the capital of blues and this genre later evolved to contemporary hip hop.

This culture has transformed the language and fashion trends in America and around the world with new ‘hip’ way of talking, dressing and general lifestyle. The American music industry that had previously exhibited diversity is presently converging around hip hop with country music, rock and jazz artists producing music that has significant inputs of hip hop. Since music has major influence on culture, hip hop genre of music has propelled the African American way of life into the centre of American culture.

Consumers of this music have grown from the traditionally African American community to the conservative circles of Caucasians that were not thought to have been possible audience in the past years (George, 1998). The core concept of the melting port and American Mosaic is the immigration and its contribution on the immigrants to the overall national American culture. The hip hop culture for example was initiated by African Americans but has over the years incorporated the input of elements of Caucasian and Latino cultures with leading figures in the Hip hop music genre transforming into sleek businessmen and diversifying their investment portfolios to sectors beyond the music industry (Stoute & Rivas, 2011).

The concept of immigration is the best describer of what has caused the evolution of the various cultures among the ethnic groups of America. African American culture for example has been shaped by interactions with other cultures during the process of immigration and so are other mainstream elements of the American culture. References George, N. (1998). Hip hop America. New York: Viking. Stoute, S., & Rivas, M. E. (2011). The tanning of America: how hip-hop created a culture that rewrote the rules of the new economy.

New York: Gotham Books. Woods, F. J. (1956). Cultural values of American ethnic groups. New York: Harper.