'With the growth of new migrant communities black musical life and popular culture took root in new settings'

Black music has established itself as a dominant theme in Western culture – live, on record and in film. It is music, more than any other factor, that has broken loose the taboos of interracial mingling.

From first encounters with exotic, far-flung lands, Europeans' reactions to local habits and cultures ranged from the amazed to the uncomprehending. The 'discovery' of the wider world invoked a natural curiosity to alien cultures, sometimes instilled by explorers' and merchants' tales, described in sometimes imagined detail. Family and sexual life, social arrangements, cultural habits, all and more regularly dominated the accounts of visitors to Africa and the Caribbean islands.

At first, white people resisted the idea that black society had cultures comparable to Europeans. In time, however, they came to accept the distinctiveness and attractiveness of the African aesthetic.

Music played a central role in slave and post-slave society. It provided a release from back-breaking work and family life. Holidays and high days were organised around music-making and dance. Whites liked to join in their slaves' musical fun, and hired black musicians for their own festivities.

Indeed, blacks came to be thought of as especially musical. John Wesley seized upon this musical zeal in his Methodist cause, believing evangelical hymns would offer the same attraction. In some ways this belief became a caricature encouraged by whites. Blacks figured large, for example, as musicians in military regiments on both sides of the Atlantic.

The interest and contribution of black music increased dramatically in the 20th century, especially jazz. This brought white visitors to local black communities like New York's Harlem and from there black musicians found a place in white theatres and clubs. In the US, however, the integration was superficial for many years; the musicians had their own entrances and could not stay in the same hotels as white musicians and singers.

Nonetheless, with the growth of new migrant communities – in all the major North American cities, and in Europe – black musical life and popular culture took root in new settings. West Indians transplanted their cultural forms from the islands to Western Europe, most notably carnival and reggae. Black musicians and singers established themselves as major international figures – few more important or global than Jamaica's Bob Marley. And for a new generation of white teenagers, black rap music provides a new raw language, the height of cool.

Africa has entered the cultural bloodstream of the world at large.