Best American Music Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“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.”

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

People Years Realizing American Music

Author:B. B. King

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

Berlin American Music

Author:Jerome Kern

“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.”

Thinking Voice Hills Mary American Music Conceptual Thinking Mary J Blige

Author:Boz Scaggs

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

Littles Bits Greatness Little Bit Dignity Raises Recognition African American American Music African American Music

Author:Ahmet Ertegun

“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.”

Way Writing Kind Wish Simple Music Is American Music

Author:Virgil Thomson

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

Thinking America Sprung American Music

Author:William Christopher Handy

“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.”

“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.”

Mean Long Music Alive Musician Roots Fruit American Culture American Music Blues Music

Author:Willie Dixon

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

Roots American Music

Book:I am the blues: the Willie Dixon story

Source: I am the blues: the Willie Dixon story

“Ray Gomez is truly an unsung hero in American music.”

Hero Rays American Music Unsung Hero

Author:Stanley Clarke

“Miles Davis was doing something inherently African, something that has to do with all forms of American music, not just jazz.”

Form Music Jazz Miles American Music

Author:Cassandra Wilson

“Since the age of 12, all my musical thinking has been influenced by Afro-American music.”

Thinking Has Beens Age Musical American Music Afros

Author:Alexis Korner

“I've never set out consciously to write American music. I don't know what that would be unless the obvious Appalachian folk references.”

Knows Writing Would Be Folks Obvious American Music Appalachia

Author:Carlisle Floyd

“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.”

Kind Sound Natural Answers Particular Comfort Satisfying Diverse American Music Vernacular

Author:Carlisle Floyd

“The blues has been the foundation of all other American music since the beginning.”

Has Beens America Foundation American Music

Author:Willie Dixon

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

“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.”

Persons Important Century Jazz Physics 20th Century Armstrong American Music Important Person Most Important Person

Book:Jazz: a history of America's music

Source: Jazz: a history of America's music

“Grammys, American Music Awards, successful albums, I'd pick my kids any day over any of it.”

Kids Successful Picks Albums Awards American Music

Author:Toni Braxton

“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.”

Kind Shows Music Folks Native Tunes Native American Folk Music Celtic American Music Show Tunes

Author:Terri Windling

“I was into playing American music, especially the blues.”

American Music

Author:Mark Knopfler

“I quite like American music, like The Fray - I'm a massive fan of them - and The Killers. I also like more acoustic stuff like Ed Sheeran; I like this English songwriter James Morrison and another singer called Ben Howard.”

Stuff Fans Singers Massive Killers Songwriters Acoustics Fray American Music

Author:Louis Tomlinson

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

Inspirational Stories Film Grows Growing Up Dance Crucial Ukrainian American Music

Author:Vera Farmiga

“New Orleans is of such key importance to American music because historical factors combined to make it the strongest center of African musical practice in the United States, and, cliches aside, that practice really did travel up the Mississippi and did spread overland.”

States United Practice United States Keys Music Is Importance Historical Musical Spread Factors Strongest New Orleans Cliche Mississippi American Music

Author:Ned Sublette

“The whole path of American music has been so much about the recognition of stylistic diversity, and the recognition of the importance of music which was from one of the vernacular traditions.”

Has Beens Whole Path Diversity Tradition Importance Recognition American Music Vernacular Importance Of Music

Author:Michael Tilson Thomas

“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.”

Thinking Knows Mean Past Rocks Hip Hop Hips Hops Rock N Roll Living In The Past American Music

Author:Dan Auerbach

“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.”

People Kind Important Voice Fans Figures Scene Iconic One Of A Kind American Music

Author:Dierks Bentley

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

Way Changed Rays American Music

Author:Taylor Hackford

“The standardization of world culture, with local popular or traditional forms driven out or dumbed down to make way for American television, American music, food, clothes and films, has been seen by many as the very heart of globalization.”

World Way Heart Has Beens Film Form Culture Television Clothes Driven Locals Traditional Globalization American Music Standardization American Television

Book:Valences of the Dialectic

Source: Valences of the Dialectic

American Music Quotes

Related topics

American Music Quotes