American Music Quotes

• 

  Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

  Maya Angelou

  Inspirational, Music, Lonely

  Twitter post from Oct 02, 2015

  144 Copy quote

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• 

  If you have to ask what jazz is, you'll never know.

  Louis Armstrong

  Music, Jazz, Asks

  "Jazz Giants of the 20th Century/ Taglines". www.imdb.com. 2007.

  95 Copy quote

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• The way to write American music is simple. All you have to do is be an American and then write any kind of music you wish.

  Virgil Thomson

  Writing, Simple, Wish

  Quoted in Machlis Introduction to Contemporary Music (1963).

  23 Copy quote

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• I believe the history of American music is just as important as anything political because it's changed generations of people.

  Dave Grohl

  Believe, People, Political

  "Dave Grohl: The ‘Sonic Highways’ Exit Interview". Interview with Jason Newman, www.rollingstone.com. December 8, 2014.

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• I'm weird - I don't really listen to American music while I'm writing. I do occasionally get an anthem song, but generally speaking, when I write, I only listen to Japanese and Hawaiian music.

  Violet Duke

  Song, Writing, Anthem

  Source: happyeverafter.usatoday.com

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• It is from the blues that all that may be called American music derives it most distinctive characteristics.

  James Weldon Johnson

  Music, May, Characteristics

  James Weldon Johnson “The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• What is American music? The most satisfying answer I've come across is that it was a kind of natural comfort with the vernacular which is diverse and regional; it's not one particular set of sounds.

  Carlisle Floyd

  Sound, Comfort, Answers

  6 Copy quote

• African American music can't happen in Germany or in Italy or in Mumbai. If America disappeared off the face of the Earth today, the greatest single cultural loss would be blues, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, rock-and-roll.

  David Simon

  Loss, Rocks, Rock And Roll

  Source: progressive.org

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• I like Celtic folk music, Native American music, and any kind of early music. There isn't a lot of music that I don't like... except for Show Tunes.

  Terri Windling

  Music, Native American, Tunes

  6 Copy quote

• I wanna show that gospel, country, blues, rhythm and blues, jazz, rock 'n' roll are all just really one thing. Those are the American music and that is the American culture.

  Etta James

  Country, Rocks, Rhythm And Blues

  FaceBook post by Etta James from Jun 16, 2012

  37 Copy quote

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• The blues will always be because the blues are the roots of all American music.

  Willie Dixon

  Roots

  Willie Dixon, Don Snowden (1989). “I am the blues: the Willie Dixon story”

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• The extent of his influence across jazz, across American music, and around the world has such continuing stature that he is one of the few who can easily be mentioned with Stravinsky, Picasso and Joyce. His life was the embodiment of one who moves from rags to riches, from anonymity to internationally imitated innovator. Louis Daniel Armstrong supplied revolutionary language that took on such pervasiveness that it became commonplace, like the light bulb, the airplane, the telephone.

  Stanley Crouch

  Moving, Airplane, Light

  6 Copy quote

• The blues are the roots and the other musics are the fruits. It's better keeping the roots alive, because it means better fruits from now on. The blues are the roots of all American music. As long as American music survives, so will the blues.

  Willie Dixon

  Music, Mean, Roots

  64 Copy quote

• I think America concedes that true American music has sprung from the Negro.

  William Christopher Handy

  Thinking, America, Sprung

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• Bill Monroe spoke of bringing 'ancient tones' into his music with echoes of British and Irish fiddle and bagpipe music, while also delving deeply into American blues, gospel, folk hymnody, and hill country dance music. To that gumbo, he added the invigorating rhythms and harmonies of hot jazz. It was a new kind of American music, named in honor of his band The Blue Grass Boys to be known, simply, as bluegrass.

  Paul Zollo

  Music, Country, Boys

  11 Copy quote

• I've hosted the Soul Train awards, the American Music Awards... and I had my own talk show. So if I can't host by now, what the hell can I do?

  Queen Latifah

  Awards, Soul, Host

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• I visited New York in '63, intending to move there, but I noticed that what I valued about jazz was being discarded. I ran into `out-to-lunch' free jazz, and the notion that groove was old-fashioned. All around the United States, I could see jazz becoming linear, a horn-player's world. It made me realize that we were not jazz musicians; we were territory musicians in love with all forms of African-American music. All of the musicians I loved were territory musicians, deeply into blues and gospel as well as jazz.

  Joe Sample

  New York, Moving, Player

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• I'm still kind of a hapless character in my everyday life. But when it comes to the writing, my influences are very old influences. I love American music of absolutely all stripes, including show tunes, advertising jingles, theme tunes from quiz shows, all kinds of American music.

  Nick Lowe

  Writing, Character, Stripes

  Source: www.gq.com

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• I did a little bit to raise the dignity and recognition of the greatness of African-American music.

  Ahmet Ertegun

  Greatness, African American, Littles

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• I think the women - Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu - are doing new conceptual things and using their voices to create new American music.

  Boz Scaggs

  Thinking, Voice, Hills

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• Irving Berlin has no place in American music -- he is American music.

  Jerome Kern

  Berlin

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• I enjoy writing songs that could have been written before [my time]. When I feel like I'm tapping into a deep vein in the body of American music, it gives me strength as a writer, like I'm dipping my pen into a deep ink well. That's the folk music tradition. Like Pete Seeger said, 'Everyone's a link in the chain.' It's a strong chain, so rely on it. ... I believe it takes all those great songs in the past to make your song even a little bit good.

  Ketch Secor

  Song, Strong, Believe

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• I didn't grow up watching film but as a Ukrainian-American, music and stories and dance are crucial.

  Vera Farmiga

  Inspirational, Dance, Growing Up

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• I grew up with the Blind Boys' music. My family owns a music store in Claremont, California, called The Claremont Folk Music Center. I grew up with a heavy diet of gospel, folk, and blues because those are kind of the cornerstones of traditional American music.

  Ben Harper

  Boys, California, Kind

  "Give Till It’s Gone: A Conversation with Ben Harper". Interview with Mike Ragogna, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 16, 2011.

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• It's a really unfair world because life is, where I am; all day long we listen to American music. So I don't see why the radios in the U.S. cannot even put aside one hour a day just to play music that is not American.

  Miriam Makeba

  Play, Long, World

  10 Copy quote