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Music as an art form can seemingly come from any place, at anytime, from anyone. The roots of modern music have grown deep into the American tradition. This tradition has been developed by artist from generation to generation. Passed down through families, education and most of all passion. Today's music is so much influenced by the United States' earliest inhabitants, we can track beats all the way back to them. To understand the diversity of music today, one would have to understand the simplicity and purpose of the Negro spirituals.

During the time of the expansion of the slave trade and the growth of plantation farming, there came a beat from another place. Africans were rounded up and shipped off to the Americas not knowing where they would end up. They were then sold to the individual plantation owners. After some time, a culture developed from these imported people and with them they carried the tradition of music from their native lands. Attempts at expressing this tradition were quickly suppressed by banned use of a drum, which was a common instrument used in African ceremonies. The plantation owners did not want them emulating their carried culture because of fears that would become too powerful as a whole. The music tradition would have to go into secret.

Within their plantation communities, slaves would find time to gather where they would not be found. A typical spiritual would consist of people sitting in a circle. There would be a few people that would keep the rhythm (usually with a walking stick and hitting it one the ground) while each member would take their turn in the circle to express themselves. As the person would say something, the rest of the circle would repeat it back creating a bound among the community. Spirituals were often times a source of release, where slaves would take the opportunity to work out some of their anguish and pain. They were also used to express code about when the next underground railroad was leaving and where to meet it. Spirituals were a way for slaves to connect, communicate and bond with each other amid horrible suppression.

It was not before the tradition expanded into the local instruments. One of the first was the banjo. Normally it was a five string banjo that was finger picked. A common technique dating back to Africa was to work two rhythms at once. This was carried on in the spiritual by multiple people adding in rhythms and the beat would progress. Soon the banjo technique was transferred onto a

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