Music is an art form that has been around for centuries as a form of expression, ritual, tradition, and more. Now, it has transformed from art into a business. Today, the music industry
is a $43 billion industry according to Maeve McDermott (2018) in the news article, “The music industry is booming” (McDermott, 2018, para.1). With this industry comes an array of different
music styles and artistry. One of them being black music artists who have dominated the industry since the beginning of Motown and maybe even before then. Every year new black music
emerges such as Beyonce, Childish Gambino, Kanye West, Drake, Travis Scott, Sza, and many more.
This research study was conducted to look at the history of black music and artistry of today and compare it to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s and the Hip-Hip Revolution of the 1980’s and 1990’s. Along with this historical and cultural analysis was a survey, which was handed out to participants to see the result to how people responded to black music artists. In the end, the discovery of this research became much more than about music, because it
showed how we consume music as a society and what appeals to us. The survey and interviews conducted in this research have shown that different racial and ethnic groups such as whites,
blacks/African-American, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian/Asian-Americans, and others are listening to
black music artists with interest and at a high percentage. The results of the this study explores the appeal of black music artists to different audiences and shows the progression of black popularity to a wider audience.