African American Impact on Rock'n'Roll Music has always been evolving with new ideas and techniques from the beginning of time, going from the earliest string instruments to all electronic disc jockeys that are very popular across the world today. Inside all of this, however, is the way this music has been passed between artists and through time. Clearly not all music was discovered in the same place it is popular today, although much of their roots are still visible in these places. People pass information between each other and are always looking and listening for the next big thing, and with the great rock ‘n’roll boom during the mid-20th century, the idea didn’t come to artists like Elvis out of nowhere. The musical origins of the genre started from other popular music at the time, and for rock’n’roll, much of this came from Southern African American musicians. Much credit is given to artists like Elvis for his outstanding musical talent, but it would be naïve to think that only white artists were popular for their music at the time. Despite his image as one of the best musical talents, Elvis was not the only great rocker of his time. Throughout the 1950’s, many different artists contributed to the top songs of the decade, many of which happened to be African American. Artists such as Ray Charles, Fats Domino and Nat King Cole played significant roles in bringing black musicians to the mainstream. Their contributions have stood the test of time, considering most people born any time before 2000 know of them, but Helen Kolawole’s remark about their music being looked over by people in favor of the white artists of the time definitely has some truth to it. A big component of this has to be the lack of rights given to African Americans at the time, and their public view as second class citizens. Much of these artists hard