Fifth Grade Listening to the Beats

5th graders in music class are learning about how the “Beats” we hear in pop music today have been influenced by a long history. We can hear similar syncopated rhythms that were popular in Swing music from the 1930s and 1940s. This swing music drew on rhythmic ideas from African American Spirituals which claims roots from traditional African music from many Centuries ago. Next time you turn the radio on and hear music, imagine how deep the roots of those sounds have grown!