American Music Quotes:

I try to put a lot of our music in my music - by that I mean of American music.

- Wynton Marsalis

source: Source: www.pbs.org

topic: Mean, Trying, American Music

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

- Maya Angelou

topic: Music, Loneliness, Space, Notes Music, Spiritual Music

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

- Louis Armstrong

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

topic: Music, Jazz, Jazz And Blues, Jazz Band, Jazz Musician

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

- Dave Grohl

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

topic: Believe, People, Political, American Music

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

source: Quoted in Machlis Introduction to Contemporary Music (1963).

topic: Writing, Simple, Wish, American Music

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

topic: Song, Writing, Anthem, Hawaiians, American Music

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

- James Weldon Johnson

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

topic: Music, May, Characteristics, Jazz And Blues, Blues Music

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

source: FaceBook post by Etta James from Jun 16, 2012

topic: Country, Rocks, Culture, American Music, Rhythm And Blues

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

topic: Sound, Comfort, Answers, American Music

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

source: Source: progressive.org

topic: Loss, Rocks, Rock And Roll, Mumbai, African American Music

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

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

topic: Mean, Roots, Long, Blues Music, American Culture

Louis Armstrong is quite simply the most important person in American music. He is to 20th century music (I did not say jazz) what Einstein is to physics.

- Ken Burns

source: Geoffrey C. Ward, Ken Burns (2000). “Jazz: a history of America's music”, Knopf

topic: Important, Jazz, Physics, Armstrong, Most Important Person

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

topic: Music, Native American, Tunes, Celtic, Folk Music

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

- Willie Dixon

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

topic: Roots, American Music

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

topic: Moving, Airplane, Light, Armstrong, Rags To Riches

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

- William Christopher Handy

topic: Thinking, America, Sprung, American Music

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

topic: Music, Country, Boys, Bluegrass, Gumbo

American music is something the rest of the world wants to listen to. Our job is to make sure they pay for it.

- Jason Michael Berman

topic: Jobs, World, Want, American Music

I'm not a comedian. I'm not a show host. I'm a musician. That's why I've turned down offers to host the Grammy Awards and the American Music Awards. Is it really entertaining for me to get up there and crack a few weak jokes and force people to laugh because I'm Michael Jackson, when I know in my heart that I'm not funny?

- Michael Jackson

topic: Heart, Awards, People, American Music

I started playing piano with a little band in high school. I was terrible. I thought I had absolutely no talent. I couldn't keep time. I only got into McGill, which was a lousy music school, because they were taking American music students.

- Burt Bacharach

topic: School, Piano, Band, American Music, Playing Piano

The blues. It runs through all American music. Somebody bending the note. The other is the two-beat groove. It's in New Orleans music, it's in jazz, it's in country music, it's in gospel.

- Wynton Marsalis

topic: Running, Country, Two, American Music

Since I was a kid, I've had an absolute obsession with particular kinds of American music. Mississippi Delta blues of the Thirties, Chicago blues of the Fifties, West Coast music of the mid-Sixties - but I'd never really touched on dark Americana.

- Robert Plant

topic: Kids, Dark, Chicago, Mississippi Delta, Delta Blues

I think that American music, for me, it's a synthesis of a lot of different things. But for me growing up in North Carolina, the stuff that I was listening to, the things that I was hearing, it was all about Black music, about soul music.

- James Taylor

source: "The Tavis Smiley Show", www.pbs.org. January 17, 2013.

topic: Growing Up, Thinking, Soul, American Music, Black Music

The Blues? It's the mother of American music. That's what is is - the source.

- B. B. King

topic: Music, Mother, Source, American Music

Because the blues is the basis of most American music in the 20th century. It's a 12-bar form that's played by jazz, bluegrass and country musicians. It has a rhythmic vocabulary that's been used by rock n' roll. It's related to spirituals, and even the American fiddle tradition.

- Wynton Marsalis

topic: Inspiring, Country, Rocks, Bluegrass, American Music

There was always a lot of American music in England until, obviously when the Beatles came around, then there was a shift towards English music, but before then American music was the main thing.

- John Deacon

source: Interview with Jim Ladd, queenarchives.com. 1977.

topic: England, English Music, American Music

Britney and I wore matching denim outfits [to the 2001 American Music Awards]. Yeah, another bad choice. I'd probably pay good money to get some of those pictures off the internet.

- Justin Timberlake

source: "Playboy Interview: Justin Timberlake". Interview with David Hochman, www.playboy.com. June 13, 2011.

topic: Awards, Choices, Denim, Outfits, American Music

You certainly don't hear any country music on pop radio today. But for a while you did, and it was a lovely thing to have all the different genres of music cohabitating the Top 40 - the folk sound, The Beatles, the British sound, the Motown sounds, that kind of light country - it was a welcome relief after a few hard rock records. Everyone was sharing the airwaves, and I think it was a beautiful time for American music.

- Jimmy Webb

topic: Music, Beautiful, Country, Lovely Things, Different Genres Of Music

It's an honor for me to close out Mysteryland. In American music history this is hallowed ground. I think electronic music has a lot in common with the spirit of rock and roll and what Woodstock had going on at the time. We are kind of the new kids on the block and this music isn't accepted by everyone so we are still kind of getting into pop culture and I think its appropriate that this festival is here and kicking down the door.

- Kaskade

topic: Block, Kids, Thinking, Woodstock, Electronic Music

Michael Jackson fundamentally altered the terms of the debate about African American music.

- Michael Eric Dyson

topic: African American, Debate, Term, African American Music, American Music

My general take on American music since 1969 is that it's just getting stiffer and people are getting more uptight - audience, performance, and palace guard.

- Iggy Pop

source: Interview with Bret Gladstone, pitchfork.com. August 13, 2007.

topic: People, Palaces, Uptight, American Music

In fact, a lot of critics seemed to consider R.E.M. the first American music since the '60s to break out on its own and develop a stand-alone sound.

- Michael Stipe

topic: Firsts, Facts, Sound, American Music

It is a cultural tradition that makes New Orleans what it is. It also represents the roots of American music and an important part of the African-American community in New Orleans. It unites people in some of the poorer neighborhoods of the city. It is absolutely critical to continue.

- Bill Taylor

topic: New Orleans, Cities, Roots, American Music

I started with rock n' roll and...then you start to take it apart like a child with a toy and you see there's blues and there's country...Then you go back from country into American music...and you end up in Scotland and Ireland eventually.

- Elvis Costello

topic: Country, Children, Rocks, American Music

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

- Jerome Kern

topic: Berlin, American Music

I didn't like any British music before The Beatles. For me, it was all about black American music. But then I became a successful pop singer, even though the kind of music I liked was more elitist, which is what I'm trying to get back to.

- Lulu

topic: Successful, Black, Trying, American Music, British Music

It's not just hip-hop that's dead. Mostly every form of American music is dead. It's been dead. R&B isn't really good.

- Nas

source: Interview with Ryan Dombal, pitchfork.com. December 6, 2006.

topic: Hip Hop, Hips, Form, Great Guy, American Music

One of the most memorable live performances of my career took place on the 2002 American Music Awards show when I had to the opportunity to sing with Elton John. I was moved by the way he played the piano onstage.

- Tim McGraw

topic: Memorable, Opportunity, Careers, Most Memorable, Live Performance

I never set out now to get a Grammy, or get an American Music Award, but it still is nice to be recognized.

- Ginuwine

source: Source: www.parlemag.com

topic: Nice, Awards, Grammy, American Music

What city has given the world more in terms of American culture than New Orleans? There is none. Not New York. Not L.A. Not Chicago. Not anywhere, in the sense that African American music has gone around the world twenty times over, and it's continuing to evolve. It is our greatest cultural export.

- David Simon

source: Source: progressive.org

topic: New York, New Orleans, Cities, African American Music, American Music

Of course when you are a kid you listen to what your parents had around. A lot of gospel, jazz. Now when I started to listen to music on my own it was around the time of the birth of rock and roll. Shortly thereafter I started to get into more blues and more traditional rootsy American music.

- Jorma Kaukonen

source: Interview with Scott Preston, www.cincygroove.com. April 3, 2008.

topic: Kids, Rocks, Rock And Roll, American Music

I was interested in a whole range of music that I used to play, popular music -- particularly American music -- that I heard a lot of when I was a teenager," "I think at a certain point it dawned on me that myself playing this music wasn't very convincing. It was more convincing when we played music that came from our own stock of tradition. ... I certainly feel a lot more comfortable playing so-called Celtic music.

- John Renbourn

topic: Teenager, Thinking, Play, Celtic Music, American Music

It's going to be years and years before most people realize how greatly he contributed to American music.

- B. B. King

topic: Years, People, Realizing, American Music

Ray Charles, in his own way, it's like at the beginning, Ray Charles changed American music, not once but twice.

- Taylor Hackford

source: Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

topic: Way, Rays, Changed, American Music

Patty Griffin is iconic, and there's no other word to really describe her. She is iconic for a lot of people - not only for me but for a lot of fans. Her voice is one of a kind, and she's such an important figure in the American music scene.

- Dierks Bentley

topic: Voice, People, Important, One Of A Kind, Iconic

Hip hop is the new rock n' roll, you know what I mean? And anybody who doesn't think that is just sort of living in the past. It's all just American music, really, when you get right down to it.

- Dan Auerbach

topic: Mean, Thinking, Past, American Music

The biggest problem with American music right now, is that kids don't listen. They come by it honestly, Americans don't listen anyway. When people go to concerts, they say I'm going to see... not, I'm going to hear.

- Branford Marsalis

topic: Kids, America, People, American Music

Above all else, [Benny Goodman] was a great player, one of the greatest American music has produced. He brought his absolute talent and his invincible love of music to the fore every time he played. There are many other things connected to society and ethnicity that are often mentioned in a discussion of Benny Goodman but all of them are connected to his overwhelming affection for the art of the music and the fairness it should be allowed to express.

- Stanley Crouch

topic: American Music, Goodman

Paste may be the last great American music magazine left.

- Patterson Hood

topic: Magazines, May, Lasts, American Music

I'd been listening to African-American music since the first record I ever bought, which was by Sam Cooke. And it sounds more like my private thoughts that I never thought I would be able to articulate - I never thought I would be able to express publicly.

- David Toop

source: Source: thequietus.com

topic: African American, Listening, Records, Sam Cooke, African American Music