African American Culture and Music explores African American music traditions and cultural values reflected in its multiple genres, plus the unique contributions of many notable figures throughout its history.

The principal goal of the On African American Music course is to provide students with an accurate history of the pivotal role music has played in shaping the lives of African Americans throughout American history. Those utilizing its resources and materials will be provided the opportunity to wade through the waters of American music with places to pause, reflect upon, and gain an understanding of the many voices who have told stories of pain, joy, and perhaps most importantly, an unrelenting hope for the future.

In this lesson, Rhythm and Blues is an umbrella term that describes a "variety" of African American popular music, urban-based forms that appeared during World War II and the immediate post-war years. It derived from jazz with its instrumentation (rhythm section and brass and woodwind instruments) and swing rhythm, blues, boogie-woogie, and gospel and was inextricably tied to demographic shifts during World War II as hundreds of thousands of African Americans moved from the country to the city.

While the heading rhythm and blues encompass a variety of sub-genres, most of these utilized musical and lyrical practices at least partially based on the twelve-bar blues form/progression.