<P> Historically, several factors have influenced the tribal music of Africa . The music has been influenced by language, the environment, a variety of cultures, politics, and population movement, all of which are intermingled . Each African tribe evolved in a different area of the continent, which means that they ate different foods, faced different weather conditions, and came in contact with different tribes than other societies did . Each tribe moved at different rates and to different places than others, and thus each was influenced by different people and circumstances . Furthermore, each society did not necessarily operate under the same government, which also significantly influenced their music styles . </P> <P> Although African American music is widely known and loved, and much popular North American music emerged from it, White American music also has strong African roots . The musical traditions of the Irish and Scottish settlers merged with African - American musical elements to become old - time and bluegrass, among other genres . </P> <P> African music has been a major factor in the shaping of what we know today as Dixieland, the blues and jazz . These styles have all borrowed from African rhythms and sounds, brought over the Atlantic Ocean by slaves . African music in Sub-Saharan Africa is mostly upbeat polyrhythmic and joyful, whereas the blues should be viewed as an aesthetic development resulting from the conditions of slavery in the new world . </P> <P> On his album Graceland, the American folk musician Paul Simon employs African bands, rhythms and melodies as a musical backdrop for his own lyrics; especially Ladysmith Black Mambazo . In the early 1970s, Remi Kabaka, an Afro - rock avant - garde drummer, laid the initial drum patterns that created the Afro - rock sounds in bands such as Ginger Baker's Airforce, The Rolling Stones, and Steve Winwood's Traffic . He continued to work with Winwood, Paul McCartney, and Mick Jagger throughout the decade . </P>

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