Emily B. Ward Music has always been an integral part of culture.
Folk music helps to define the history of a people.
Some people say that the Blues was born the moment the African coast slipped below the horizon, others when it was finally put on paper. The general consensus among historians is that it evolved from gospel and African-American slave music sometime in the 1890s. But what popular music today cannot deny is the importance of early Blues music on everything that came after it. Through music, then, Handy played his name into American culture. Despite Handy's ultimate importance in music, his love for it was not originally nurtured by his family.