NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC ISSUES FIRST STATE OF BLACK MUSIC ADDRESS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 1, 2018)� To celebrate the proclamation of June as Black Music Month (African American Music Appreciation Month), the National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM) has issued the first State of Black Music address. “Black music is America’s music,” said Henry Beecher Hicks, president of the NMAAM. “It’s global music. It crosses boundaries of culture and race and geography, bringing us together in moments of joy, celebration, challenge and contemplation.
Black music is, in a word, transcendent, and it may be that the State of Black Music is stronger than ever.”For the first time in the history of Nielsen Music measurement, hip-hop/R&B claimed the largest share of overall volume sales … as the top genre in American music,” Hicks said. “It’s hard to believe; but in the span of one generation, rap has come to define the sound of popular music.”Hicks gave his address on WPRT-FM in Nashville, where the museum is set to open in 2019.
The NMAAM will be the only museum in the country solely dedicated to educating, preserving and celebrating the influence African Americans have had on music, told through the artifacts, artists and stories that have defined American music.
and transcript of speech: listen below
About NMAAMThe National Museum of African American Music, set to open in 2019, will be the only museum solely dedicated to educating, preserving and celebrating the influence African Americans have had on music. Based in Nashville, Tenn., the museum will share the story of the American soundtrack by integrating history and interactive technology to bring musical heroes of the past into the present. For more information, please visit www.nmaam.org.