African music and European music combined most notably in the Caribbean. Black slaves performed the music on plantations for The Minuet, cotillion, and quadrille. I believe African-Americans started the practice of quadrille prompting around 1820 which later became square dance calling.
Whites in the U.S. began to understudy black music and dance. We got cakewalks, spirituals, ragtime, dixieland, blues, jazz, bebop, boogie woogie, swing, rock & roll, soul, rhythm & blues, Motown, and hip hop. These came about from heavy influence of African folk culture on European art forms. It developed into something new and uniquely American. Knowledge of this will help you understand the songs on this website.
If not for African-American music, we in the U. S. would still be dancing the Minuet.