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African-American music

African-American music is a broad term covering a diverse range of musical genres largely developed by African Americans and their culture. Its origins are in musical forms that developed as a result of the enslavement of African Americans prior to the American Civil War. It has been said that "every genre that is born from America has black roots."

White slave owners subjugated their slaves physically, mentally, and spiritually through brutal and demeaning acts. White Americans considered African Americans separate and unequal for centuries, going to extraordinary lengths to keep them oppressed. African-American slaves created a distinctive type of music that played an important role in the era of enslavement. Slave songs, commonly known as work songs, were used to combat the hardships of the physical labor. Work songs were also used to communicate with other slaves without the slave owner hearing. The song "Wade in the Water" was sung by slaves to warn others trying to leave to use the water to obscure their trail. Following the Civil War, African Americans employed playing European music in military bands developed a new style called ragtime that gradually evolved into jazz. Jazz incorporated the sophisticated polyrhythmic structure of dance and folk music of peoples from western and Sub-Saharan Africa. These musical forms had a wide-ranging influence on the development of music within the United States and around the world during the 20th century.

Analyzing African music through the lens of European musicology can leave out much of the cultural use of sound and methods of music making. Some methods of African music making are translated more clearly though the music itself, and not in written form.

Blues and ragtime were developed during the late 19th century through the fusion of West African vocalizations, which employed the natural harmonic series and blue notes. "If one considers the five criteria given by Waterman as cluster characteristics for West African music, one finds that three have been well documented as being characteristic of Afro-American music. Call-and-response organizational procedures, dominance of a percussive approach to music, and off-beat phrasing of melodic accents have been cited as typical of the genre in virtually every study of any kind of African-American music from work songs, field or street calls, shouts, and spirituals to blues and jazz."

The roots of American popular music are deeply intertwined with African-American contributions and innovation. The earliest jazz and blues recordings emerged in the 1910s, marking the beginning of a transformative era in music. These genres were heavily influenced by African musical traditions, and they served as the foundation for many musical developments in the years to come.

As African-American musicians continued to shape the musical landscape, the 1940s witnessed the emergence of rhythm and blues (R&B). R&B became a pivotal genre, blending elements of jazz, blues, and gospel, and it laid the groundwork for the evolution of rock and roll in the following decade.

Historic traits
Most slaves arrived to the Americas from the western coast of Africa. This area encompasses modern-day Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Gambia and parts of Sierra Leone. Harmonic and rhythmic features from these areas, European musical instrumentation, and the chattel slavery forced upon Black Americans all contributed to their music.

Many of the characteristic musical forms that define African-American music have historical precedents. These earlier forms include: field hollers, beat boxing, work song, Spoken Word, rapping, scatting, call and response, vocality (or special vocal effect: guttural effects, interpolated vocality, falsetto, melisma, vocal rhythmization), improvisation, blue notes, polyrhythms (syncopation, concrescence, tension, improvisation, percussion, swung note), texture (antiphony, homophony, polyphony, heterophony) and harmony (vernacular progressions; complex, multi-part harmony, as in spirituals, Doo Wop, and barbershop music).

American composer Olly Wilson outlines "heterogeneous sound ideals" that define traditional and common patterns in African Music, such as the use of timbre, pitch, volume and duration, and the incorporation of the body in making music. His findings include uses of call-and-response and the importance of interjections from the audience to express satisfaction or dissatisfaction. These heterogeneous sound ideals are also found in many other types of music.

White people sometimes taught black slaves to play Western instruments such as the fiddle and violin.

18th century
In the late 18th century folk spirituals originated among Southern slaves following their conversion to Christianity. Slaves reinterpreted the practice of Christianity in a way that had meaning to them as Africans in America. They often sang the spirituals in groups as they worked the plantation fields. African-American spirituals (Negro Spirituals) were created in invisible churches and regular Black churches. The hymns, melody, and rhythms were similar to songs heard in West Africa. Enslaved and free blacks created their own words and tunes. Themes include the hardships of slavery and the hope of freedom.

Spirituals from the era of slavery are called Slave Shout Songs. These shout songs are sung today by Gullah Geechee people and other African Americans in churches and praise houses. During slavery, these songs were coded messages that spoke of escape from slavery on the Underground Railroad and were sung by enslaved African Americans in plantation fields to send coded messages to other slaves, unbeknownst to the slaveholders. According to musicologist and historian Eric Sean Crawford who published Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands, Gullah music influenced all genres of American music. Crawford said: "All genres of music have been influenced by Gullah Geechee spirituals. This music's bent notes, syncopated rhythms, and improvisational qualities heavily influenced gospel and country music. These musical traits found a secular home in the blues, jazz, and even later popular styles like hip hop". Scholar LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant explained Gullah spirituals are sacred music that connects Black Americans to ancestral spirits. She said: "I am suggesting that low country sacred music simultaneously takes on a cyclical and linear quality, which is best exemplified in the use of the low country clap, and the repetition of verses that literally push a song forward to invoke The Spirit. The rhythmic practices and theological motifs of this music suspend and push time by connecting with past traditions, while denoting a spiritual bond that is simultaneously ancestral, communal, and divine". Slaves also used drums to communicate messages of escape. In West Africa, drums are used for communication, celebration, and spiritual ceremonies. West African people enslaved in the United States continued to make drums to send coded messages to other slaves across plantations. The making and use of drums by enslaved Africans was outlawed after the Stono Rebellion in South Carolina in 1739. Enslaved African Americans used drums to send coded messages to start slave revolts, and white slaveholders banned the creation and use of drums. After the banning of drums, slaves made rhythmic music by slapping their knees, thighs, arms and other body parts, a practice called pattin Juba. The Juba dance was originally brought by Kongo slaves to Charleston, South Carolina, and became an African-American plantation dance performed by slaves during gatherings when rhythm instruments were prohibited. Folk spirituals, unlike much white gospel, were often spirited. Slaves added dancing (later known as "the shout") and other body movements to the singing. They also changed the melodies and rhythms of psalms and hymns, by speeding up the tempo, adding repeated refrains and choruses, and replacing texts with new ones that often combined English and African words and phrases. Originally passed down orally, folk spirituals have been central in the lives of African Americans for more than three centuries, serving religious, cultural, social, political, and historical functions.

Folk spirituals were spontaneously created and performed in a repetitive, improvised style. The most common song structures are the call-and-response ("Blow, Gabriel") and repetitive choruses ("He Rose from the Dead"). The call-and-response is an alternating exchange between the soloist and the other singers. The soloist usually improvises a line to which the other singers respond, repeating the same phrase. Song interpretation incorporates the interjections of moans, cries, hollers, and changing vocal timbres, and can be accompanied by hand clapping and foot-stomping.

The Smithsonian Institution Folkways Recordings have samples of African American slave shout songs.

19th century
The influence of African Americans on mainstream American music began in the 19th century with the advent of blackface minstrelsy. The banjo, of African origin, became a popular instrument, and its African-derived rhythms were incorporated into popular songs by Stephen Foster and other songwriters. Over time the banjo's construction adopted some European traditions such as a flat fingerboard. Some banjos had five strings, in contrast to the West African three-string version. This resulted in the creation of several different types of banjos in the United States.

In the 1830s, the Second Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian revivals, especially among African Americans. Drawing on traditional work songs, enslaved African Americans originated and performed a wide variety of spirituals and other Christian music. Some of these songs were coded messages of subversion against slaveholders, or signals to escape. For example, Harriet Tubman sang coded messages to her mother and other slaves in the field to let them know she was escaping on the Underground Railroad. Tubman sang: "I'm sorry I'm going to leave you, farewell, oh farewell; But I'll meet you in the morning, farewell, oh farewell, I'll meet you in the morning, I'm bound for the promised land, On the other side of Jordan, Bound for the Promised Land."

During the period after the Civil War, the spread of African-American music continued. The Fisk University Jubilee Singers first toured in 1871. Artists including Jack Delaney helped revolutionize post-war African-American music in the central-east of the United States. In the following years, professional "jubilee" troops formed and toured. The first black musical-comedy troupe, Hyers Sisters Comic Opera Co., was organized in 1876. In the last half of the 19th century, barbershops often served as community centers, where men would gather. Barbershop quartets originated with African-American men socializing in barbershops; they would harmonize while waiting their turn, singing spirituals, folk songs and popular songs. This generated a new style of unaccompanied four-part, close-harmony singing. Later, white minstrel singers stole the style, and in the early days of the recording industry their performances were recorded and sold. By the end of the 19th century, African-American music was an integral part of mainstream American culture.

Early 20th century (1900s–1930s)

In a groundbreaking moment in 1898, Broadway witnessed the debut of the first musical created by African Americans, courtesy of Bob Cole and Billy Johnson. The musical landscape saw another milestone in 1890 with the first recording by black musicians—Bert Williams and George Walker—highlighting music from Broadway productions. Theodore Drury played a pivotal role in nurturing black talent in opera, establishing the Drury Opera Company in 1900. Despite its short run until 1908, the company left an indelible mark as the pioneer in black participation within opera. Fast forward to 1911, where Scott Joplin's trailblazing ragtime-folk opera, Treemonisha, took center stage, adding a unique and vibrant chapter to the history of African American contributions to the musical realm.

The early part of the 20th century saw a rise in popularity of blues and jazz. African-American music at this time was classed as "race music". Ralph Peer, musical director at Okeh Records, put records made by "foreign" groups under that label. At the time "race" was a term commonly used by the African-American press to speak of the community as a whole with an empowering point of view, as a person of "race" was one involved in fighting for equal rights. Ragtime performers such as Scott Joplin became popular and some were associated with the Harlem Renaissance and early civil rights activists. White and Latino performers of African-American music were also visible. African-American music was often altered and diluted to be more palatable for white audiences, who would not have accepted black performers, leading to genres like swing music.

By the turn of the 20th century African Americans were becoming part of classical music as well. Originally excluded from major symphony orchestras, black musicians could study in music conservatories that had been founded in the 1860s, such as the Oberlin School of Music, National Conservatory of Music, and the New England Conservatory. Black people also formed symphony orchestras in major cities such as Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. Various black orchestras began to perform regularly in the late 1890s and the early 20th century. In 1906, the first incorporated black orchestra was established in Philadelphia. In the early 1910s, all-black music schools, such as the Music School Settlement for Colored and the Martin-Smith School of Music, were founded in New York.

The Music School Settlement for Colored became a sponsor of the Clef Club orchestra in New York. The Clef Club Symphony Orchestra attracted both black and white audiences to concerts at Carnegie Hall from 1912 to 1915. Conducted by James Reese Europe and William H. Tyers, the orchestra included banjos, mandolins, and baritone horns. Concerts featured music written by black composers, notably Harry T. Burleigh and Will Marion Cook. Other annual black concert series include the William Hackney's "All-Colored Composers" concerts in Chicago and the Atlanta Colored Music Festivals.

The return of the black musical to Broadway occurred in 1921 with Sissle and Eubie Blake's Shuffle Along. In 1927, a concert survey of black music was performed at Carnegie Hall including jazz, spirituals and the symphonic music of W. C. Handy's Orchestra and the Jubilee Singers. The first major film musical with a black cast was King Vidor's Hallelujah of 1929. African-American performers were featured in the musical Show Boat (which had a part written for Paul Robeson and a chorus of Jubilee Singers), and especially all-black operas such as Porgy and Bess and Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts of 1934.

The first symphony by a black composer to be performed by a major orchestra was William Grant Still's Afro-American Symphony (1930) by the New York Philharmonic. Florence Beatrice Price's Symphony in E minor was performed in 1933 by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1934, William Dawson's Negro Folk Symphony was performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Mid-20th century (1940s–1960s)
Billboard started making a separate list of hit records for African-American music in October 1942 with the "Harlem Hit Parade", which was changed in 1945 to "Race Records", and then in 1949 to "Rhythm and Blues Records".

By the 1940s, cover versions of African-American songs were commonplace, frequently topping the charts while the original versions did not reach the mainstream. In 1955, Thurman Ruth persuaded a gospel group to sing in the Apollo Theater. This presentation of gospel music in a secular setting was successful, and he arranged gospel caravans that traveled around the country playing venues that rhythm and blues singers had popularized. Meanwhile, jazz performers began to move away from swing towards music with more intricate arrangements, more improvisation, and technically challenging forms. This culminated in bebop, the modal jazz of Miles Davis, and the free jazz of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.

African-American musicians in the 1940s and 1950s were developing rhythm and blues into rock and roll, which featured a strong backbeat. Prominent exponents of this style included Louis Jordan and Wynonie Harris. Rock and roll music became commercially successful with recordings of white musicians, however, such as Bill Haley and Elvis Presley, playing a guitar-based fusion of black rock and roll and rockabilly. Rock music became more associated with white artists, although some black performers such as Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley had commercial success. In 2017, National Public Radio wrote about the career of Sister Rosetta Tharpe and concluded with these comments: Tharpe "was a gospel singer at heart who became a celebrity by forging a new path musically ... Through her unforgettable voice and gospel swing crossover style, Tharpe influenced a generation of musicians including Aretha Franklin, Chuck Berry and countless others ... She was, and is, an unmatched artist."

As the 1940s came to a close, other African Americans endeavored to concertize as classical musicians in an effort to transcend racial and nationalistic barriers in the post-war era. In 1968 Henry Lewis became the first African-American instrumentalist in a leading American symphony orchestra, an early "musical ambassador" in support of cultural diplomacy in Europe, and the first African-American conductor of a major American symphonic ensemble in 1968.

The term "rock and roll" had a strong sexual connotation in jump blues and R&B, but when DJ Alan Freed referred to rock and roll on mainstream radio in the mid 50s, "the sexual component had been dialed down enough that it simply became an acceptable term for dancing".

R&B was a strong influence on rock and roll, according to many sources, including a 1985 Wall Street Journal article titled, "Rock! It's Still Rhythm and Blues". The author states that the "two terms were used interchangeably", until about 1957.

Fats Domino was not convinced that there was any new genre. In 1957 he said: "What they call rock 'n' roll now is rhythm and blues. I've been playing it for 15 years in New Orleans". According to Rolling Stone, "this is a valid statement ... all Fifties rockers, black and white, country born and city bred, were fundamentally influenced by R&B, the black popular music of the late Forties and early Fifties". Elvis Presley's recognition of the importance of artists such as Fats Domino was significant, according to a 2017 article: the "championing of black musicians as part of a narrative that saw many positives in growing young white interest in African American-based musical styles". At a press event in 1969, Presley introduced Fats Domino, and said, "that's the real King of Rock 'n' Roll" ... a huge influence on me when I started out".

By the mid-1950s, many R&B songs were getting "covered" by white artists and the recordings got more airplay on the mainstream radio stations. For example, "Presley quickly covered "Tutti Frutti" ...So did Pat Boone", according to New Yorker. "In 1956, seventy-six per cent of top R.&.B. songs also made the pop chart; in 1957, eighty-seven per cent made the pop chart; in 1958, it was ninety-four per cent. The marginal market had become the main market, and the majors had got into the act."

The 1950s marked a significant uptick in the allure of blues, captivating audiences both in the US and across the pond in the UK, reminiscent of early 20th-century styles. Alongside this blues resurgence, Doo-wop center stage, enchanting listeners with its unique blend of vocal group harmonies, playful nonsense syllables, minimal instrumentation, and straightforward lyrics. Doo-wop, often featuring solo artists with backing groups, emphasized lead singers who played a prominent role in the musical arrangement. Simultaneously, a secularized version of American gospel music, known as soul ,emerged in the mid-1950s, led by trailblazers like Ray Charles, Jackie Wilson and Sam Cooke. This soulful wave had a profound impact, influencing not only surf music but also paving the way for chart-topping girl groups like The Angels and The Shangri-Las. In a dance revolution, 1959 saw Hank Ballard releasing a song tailored for the new dance craze, "The Twist," which would become a sensation defining the early '60s.

In 1959, Berry Gordy founded Motown Records, the first record label to primarily feature African-American artists, which aimed at achieving crossover success. The label developed an innovative, and commercially successful, style of soul music with distinctive pop elements. Its early roster included The Miracles, Martha and the Vandellas, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, and The Supremes. Black divas such as Aretha Franklin became '60s crossover stars. In the UK, British blues became a gradually mainstream phenomenon, returning to the United States in the form of the British Invasion, a group of bands led by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones who performed blues and R&B-inspired pop with both traditional and modern aspects. WGIV in Charlotte, North Carolina, was one of a few radio stations dedicated to African-American music that started during this period.

The British Invasion knocked many black artists off the US pop charts, although some, like Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin and a number of Motown artists, continued to do well. Soul music, however, remained popular among black people through new forms such as funk, developed out of the innovations of James Brown. In 1961, 11-year-old Stevland Hardaway Morris made his first record under Motown's Tamla label as Stevie Wonder.

In 1964 the Civil Rights Act outlawed major forms of discrimination towards African Americans and women. As tensions began to diminish, more African-American musicians crossed over into the mainstream. Some artists who successfully crossed over were Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Ella Fitzgerald in the pop and jazz worlds, and Leontyne Price and Kathleen Battle in classical music.

By the end of the decade, black people were part of the psychedelia and early heavy metal trends, particularly by way of the ubiquitous Beatles' influence and the electric guitar innovations of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix was among the first guitarists to use audio feedback, fuzz, and other effects pedals such as the wah wah pedal to create a unique guitar solo sound. Psychedelic soul, a mix of psychedelic rock and soul began to flourish with the 1960s culture. Even more popular among black people, and with more crossover appeal, was album-oriented soul in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which revolutionized African-American music. The genre's intelligent and introspective lyrics, often with a socially aware tone, were created by artists such as Marvin Gaye in What's Going On, and Stevie Wonder in Songs in the Key of Life.

1970s
In the 1970s, album-oriented soul continued its popularity while musicians such as Smokey Robinson helped turn it into Quiet Storm music. Funk evolved into two strands, a pop-soul-jazz-bass fusion pioneered by Sly & the Family Stone, and a more psychedelic fusion epitomized by George Clinton and his P-Funk ensemble. Disco evolved from black musicians creating soul music with an up-tempo melody. Isaac Hayes, Barry White, Donna Summer, and others helped popularize disco, which gained mainstream success.

Some African-American artists including The Jackson 5, Roberta Flack, Teddy Pendergrass, Dionne Warwick, Stevie Wonder, The O'Jays, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Earth, Wind & Fire found crossover audiences, while white listeners preferred country rock, singer-songwriters, stadium rock, soft rock, glam rock, and, to some degree, heavy metal and punk rock.

During the 1970s, The Dozens, an urban African-American tradition of using playful rhyming ridicule, developed into street jive in the early '70s, which in turn inspired hip-hop by the late 1970s. Spoken-word artists such as The Watts Prophets, The Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron and Melvin Van Peebles were some innovators of early hip-hop. Many youths in the Bronx used this medium to communicate the unfairness minorities faced at the time. DJs played records, typically funk, while MCs introduced tracks to the dancing audience. Over time, DJs began isolating and repeating the percussion breaks, producing a constant, eminently danceable beat, over which MCs began rapping, using rhyme and sustained lyrics. Hip-hop would become a multicultural movement in a youthful black America, led by artists such as Kurtis Blow and Run-DMC.

1980s
Michael Jackson had record-breaking success with his 1980s albums Off the Wall, Bad, and the best-selling album of all time, Thriller. Jackson paved the way for other successful crossover black solo artists such as Prince, Lionel Richie, Luther Vandross, Tina Turner, Whitney Houston, and Janet Jackson (Michael's sister). Pop and dance-soul of this era inspired new jack swing by the end of the decade.

Hip-hop spread across the country and diversified. Techno, dance, Miami bass, post-disco, Chicago house, Los Angeles hardcore and Washington, D.C. Go-go developed during this period, with only Miami bass achieving mainstream success. Before long, Miami bass was relegated primarily to the Southeastern US, while Chicago house had made strong headway on college campuses and dance arenas (i.e. the warehouse sound, the rave). Washington's Go-go garnered modest national attention with songs such as E.U.'s Da Butt (1988), but proved to be a mostly regional phenomena. Chicago house sound had expanded into the Detroit music environment and began using more electronic and industrial sounds, creating Detroit techno, acid, and jungle. The combination of these experimental, usually DJ-oriented, sounds with the multiethnic NYC disco sound from the 1970s and 1980s created a brand of music that was most appreciated in large discothèques in large cities. European audiences embraced this kind of electronic dance music with more enthusiasm than their North American counterparts. From about 1986, rap entered the mainstream with Run-D.M.C.'s Raising Hell, and the Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill. Licensed to Ill was the first rap album to enter the No.1 Spot on the Billboard 200 and opened the door for white rappers. Both of these groups mixed rap and rock, appealing to both audiences. Hip-hop took off from its roots and the golden age hip hop flourished, with artists such as Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Big Daddy Kane, and Salt-N-Pepa. Hip-hop became popular in the United States and became a worldwide phenomenon in the late 1990s. The golden age scene would end by the early 1990s as gangsta rap and G-funk took over, with West Coast artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Warren G and Ice Cube, East Coast artists Notorious B.I.G., Wu-Tang Clan, and Mobb Deep, and the sounds of urban black male bravado, compassion, and social awareness.

While heavy metal music was almost exclusively created by white performers in the 1970s and 1980s, there were a few exceptions. In 1988, all-black heavy metal band Living Colour achieved mainstream success with their début album Vivid, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, thanks to their Top 20 single "Cult of Personality". The band's music contained lyrics that attack what they perceived as Eurocentrism and racism in America. A decade later, more black artists like Lenny Kravitz, Body Count, Ben Harper, and countless others would start playing rock again.

1990s, 2000s, 2010s, and today
Contemporary R&B, the post-disco version of soul music, remained popular throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Male vocal groups such as The Temptations and The O'Jays were particularly popular, as well as New Edition, Boyz II Men, Jodeci, Dru Hill, Blackstreet, and Jagged Edge. Girl groups, including TLC, Destiny's Child, SWV, and En Vogue were also highly successful.

Singer-songwriters such as R. Kelly, Mariah Carey, Montell Jordan, D'Angelo, Aaliyah, and Raphael Saadiq of Tony! Toni! Toné! were also popular during the 1990s. Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, and BLACKstreet popularized a fusion blend known as hip-hop soul. The neo soul movement of the 1990s, with classic soul influences, was popularized in the late 1990s and early 2000s by such artists as D'Angelo, Erykah Badu, Maxwell, Lauryn Hill, India.Arie, Alicia Keys, Jill Scott, Angie Stone, Bilal, and Musiq Soulchild. A record review claimed that D'Angelo's critically acclaimed album Voodoo (2000) "represents African American music at a crossroads ... To simply call [it] neo-classical soul ... would be [to] ignore the elements of vaudeville jazz, Memphis horns, ragtime blues, funk and bass grooves, not to mention hip-hop, that slips out of every pore of these haunted songs." Blue-eyed soul is soul music performed by white artists, including Michael McDonald, Christina Aguilera, Amy Winehouse, Robin Thicke, Michael Bolton, Jon B., Lisa Stansfield, Teena Marie, Justin Timberlake, Joss Stone, George Michael, and Anastacia. Blue-eyed soul, typically executed by Caucasian musicians, is known for its infectious hooks and melodies. It emerged from a blend of rockabilly influenced by white artists Elvis Presley and Bill Haley, as well as doo wop inspired by Dion and The Four Seasons. Notable artists in this genre include Righteous Brothers, Hall & Oates, The Rascals, Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels, Dusty Springfield, Boy George, and George Michael. David Bowie's Young Americans album is considered a significant late contribution to blue-eyed soul.

Along with the singer-songwriter influence on hip-hop and R&B, there was an increase in creativity and expression through Rap music. Tupac, The Notorious B.I.G. ("Biggie"), N.W.A, Lil' Kim, Snoop Dogg, and Nas broke into the music industry. '90s rap introduced many other subgenres including Gangsta rap, Conscious rap, and Pop rap. Gangsta rap focused on gang violence, drug dealing and poverty. It was also a major player in the East Coast–West Coast hip hop rivalry. Main players in this rivalry were Tupac and Suge Knight on the West Coast and The Notorious B.I.G. and Diddy on the East Coast.

By the early 2000s R&B began to emphasize solo artists with pop appeal, including Usher, Beyoncé, and the Caribbean-born Rihanna. This music was accompanied by creative and unique music videos such as Beyoncé's "Crazy in Love", Rihanna's "Pon de Replay", and Usher's "Caught Up". These videos helped R&B become more profitable and more popular than it had been in the 1990s. The line between hip-hop, R&B, and pop was blurred by producers such as Timbaland and Lil Jon, and by artists like Missy Elliott, T-Pain, Nelly, Akon, and OutKast.

Hip-hop remains a genre created and dominated by African-Americans. In its early years the lyrics were about the hardships of being black in the United States. White-owned record labels controlled how hip-hop was marketed, resulting in changes to the lyrics and culture of hip-hop to suit white audiences. Scholars and African-American hip-hop creators noticed this change. Hip-hop is used to sell cars, cell phones, and other merchandise.

The hip-hop movement has become increasingly mainstream as the music industry has taken control of it. Essentially, "from the moment 'Rapper's Delight' went platinum, hiphop the folk culture became hiphop the American entertainment-industry sideshow."

In the early 2000s, 50 Cent was one of the most popular African-American artists. In 2005, his album The massacre sold over one million albums in its first week. In 2008, Lil Wayne's album Tha Carter III also sold more than a million copies in its first week.

Within a year of Michael Jackson's unexpected death in 2009, his estate generated $1.4 billion in revenues. A documentary containing rehearsal footage for Jackson's scheduled This Is It tour, entitled Michael Jackson's This Is It, was released on October 28, 2009, and became the highest-grossing concert film in history.

In 2013, no African-American musician had a Billboard Hot 100 number one, the first year in which there was not a number-one record by an African-American in the chart's 55-year history. J. Cole, Beyonce, Jay Z, and half-Canadian Drake, were all top-selling music artists this year, but none made it to the Billboard Hot 100's number one, leading to much debate.

Black protest music went mainstream in the 2010s. Beyoncé, her sister Solange, Kanye West, Frank Ocean, and Rihanna released black protest albums. Beyoncé released her first "black protest" album Lemonade in 2016.

In the late 2010s, mumble rap which originated from African-American vernacular English became popular with artists such as 21 Savage, Lil Uzi Vert, Young Thug, and Lil Baby. Mumble rap focuses on the melody of the song rather than on the lyrics, and has a big instrumental base. In a conversation with well-known mumble rapper HipHopDx, Future said: "When I freestyle I know there are bits you don't really understand, but that's what you like it for – that's what its all about to me, that's art."

Cultural impact
Through the hybridization of African, European, and Native American cultural elements, African American music has made itself "a distinctly American phenomenon".

Jim Crow & Civil Rights Eras (early to mid 20th century)
The music made during the Jim Crow and Civil Rights era awakened "the passion and purposefulness of the Southern Civil Rights Movement" that "provided a stirring musical accompaniment to the campaign for racial justice and equality". African-American men, women, and children from across the nation came together in social settings such as marches, mass meetings, churches, and even jails and "conveyed the moral urgency of the freedom struggle". African-American music served to uplift the spirits and hearts of those fighting for civil rights. Guy Carawan referred to the Civil Rights Movement as "the greatest singing movement this country has experienced".

"We Shall Overcome"
Often called "the anthem of the Civil Rights Movement", "We Shall Overcome" was a hymn from the 19th-century that was used as a protest labor song in a labor strike against American Tobacco in Charleston, South Carolina in 1945–1946. It was overheard by Zilhpia Horton in a Tennessee tobacco field on a picket line in 1946, and a worker by the name of Lucille Simmons changed the original wording of "I Will Overcome" to "We Will Overcome", which made it more powerful for the Civil Rights Movement.

In 1947, Horton added some verses to the song and taught Pete Seeger her version. Seeger revised the song from "We will" to "We shall". In April 1960 at Raleigh, North Carolina, folk singer Guy Carawan sang the new version at the founding convention of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), starting its quick spread throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Seeger, Carawan, and Frank Hamilton copyrighted the song to prevent it from becoming a "commercialized pop song".

"We Shall Overcome" continued to spread rapidly as the Civil Rights Movement gained supporters and momentum. Protestors across the nation sang the song as they marched for rights, were beat up, attacked by police dogs, and sent to jail for breaking segregation laws. "We Shall Overcome" and many other protest songs during the Civil Rights movement became its soundtrack. Outside of the U.S., the song has been used in freedom movements around the world. In India, the song is known as "Hum Honge Kaamyaab", which is a song that most school children in India know by heart.

Harlem Cultural Festival (1969)
The Harlem Cultural Festival was a series of music concerts held in Harlem's Mount Morris Park in New York City. This festival "celebrated African-American music and culture and promoted the continued politics of Black pride". At 3 pm on Sundays from June 29, 1969, to August 24, 1969, artists would perform to an audience of tens of thousands of people. Such artists that performed were Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, B.B. King, Sly and the Family Stone, The 5th Dimension, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, and many others.

Economic impact
Record stores played a vital role in African-American communities for many decades. In the 1960s and 1970s, between 500 and 1,000 black-owned record stores operated in the American South, and probably twice as many in the United States as a whole. According to The Political economy of Black Music By Norman Kelley,"Black music exists in a neo-colonial relationship with the $12 billion music industry, which consist of six record companies." African-American entrepreneurs embraced record stores as key vehicles for economic empowerment and critical public spaces for black consumers at a time that many black-owned businesses were closing amid desegregation. Countless African Americans have worked as musical performers, club owners, radio deejays, concert promoters, and record label owners. Many companies use African-American music to sell their products. Companies like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Pepsi have used African-American music in advertising.

International influence
Jazz and hip-hop traveled to Africa and Asia and influenced other genres of African and Asian Music. Many state that without African-American music, there would be no American music. The songs that Africans brought to America created a foundation for American music. The textural styles, slang and African-American Vernacular English influenced American pop culture and global culture. The way African Americans dress in hip-hop videos and how African Americans talk is copied in the American market and the global market. White Australian rapper Iggy Azalea culturally appropriates black music and uses black speech in her music. White Canadian singer Justin Bieber has admitted to be influenced by black culture and black music.

Afrobeat
Afrobeat is a Nigerian music genre created by Nigerian artist Fela Kuti. Afrobeat began during the early twentieth century from Nigeria with a combination of Highlife, Yoruba music and jazz. The years between the wars (1918–1939) were a particularly fertile time for the formation of pan-West African urban musical traditions. Kuti fused traditional West African music with African-American music of Jazz, R&B, and other genres of West African and African-American music. James Brown's funk music, dance style, and African-American drumming influenced Afrobeat. In London, Kuti joined jazz and rock bands, and returned to Nigeria, creating Afrobeat by fusing African-American and traditional Yoruba music with Highlife music. In 1969, Kuti toured the United States and became inspired by the political activism of African Americans. He studied the life of Malcolm X and was inspired by his pro-black speeches. This resulted in a change in Kuti's message as he began discussing the political issues in Africa and Nigeria. In contrast, "Afrobeats" is a term applied to a large range of genres popular all over Africa. Music referred to as Afrobeats, in contrast to Kuti, is frequently upbeat, digitally generated, and sung in English, West African, and pidgin languages. Kuti's music was characterized by its political content and orchestral style whereas Afrobeats took influence from many musical themes found in R&B and Hip-Hop/Rap (Love, sex, drugs, money, hard times, fame).

Racial appropriation and insensitivity in K-pop music
Hip-hop came to Korea in the 1990s and developed into Korean hip-hop and Korean K-pop music. Some Korean artists have appropriated African-American vernacular and other aspects of Black culture. Groups like the girl group Mamamoo have been known to dress in blackface, and others speak in "blaccents" and wear their hair in ethnic styles. Artist Zico has used the n-word in his music, and has claimed that he has a "black soul." As of 2020, within "K-pop, blackface, mouthing or saying racial slurs, and purely aesthetic uses of Black culture and hairstyles" were still common, without necessarily understanding, honoring or crediting their African-American roots. According to sources cited in a 2020 Guardian article, many K-pop artists do not show support for African-American social justice issues. "[M]any international fans are waiting for the industry to develop a more sensitive, globalized understanding of race." In Korean there are phrases that have been misconstrued to sound like the a racial slur. These include the phrase "because of" (니까), pronounced 'nikka' and the word "you" or "you're" (니가), pronounced 'neega'.

title: African-American music


text:
Greater Romania

The term Greater Romania (România Mare) usually refers to the borders of the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period, achieved after the Great Union. It also refers to a pan-nationalist idea.

As a concept, its main goal is the creation of a nation-state which would incorporate all Romanian speakers. In 1920, after the incorporation of Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia and parts of Banat, Crișana, and Maramureș, the Romanian state reached its largest peacetime geographical extent ever (295,049 km2). Today, the concept serves as a guiding principle for the unification of Moldova and Romania.

The idea is comparable to other similar conceptions such as the Greater Bulgaria, Megali Idea, Greater Yugoslavia, Greater Hungary and Greater Italy.

Ideology
The theme of national identity had been always a key concern for Romanian culture and politics. The Romanian national ideology in the first decades of the twentieth century was a typical example of ethnocentric nationalism. The concept of "Greater Romania" shows similarities to the idea of national state. The Romanian territorial claims were based on "primordial racial modalities", the essential goal of them was to unify the biologically defined Romanians. The nation-building based on the French model of a unitary nation-state became an all time priority especially in the interwar and the Communist periods.

Before World War I

The union of Michael the Brave, who ruled over the three principalities with Romanian population (Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia) for a short period of time, was viewed in later periods as the precursor of a modern Romania, a thesis which was argued with noted intensity by Nicolae Bălcescu. This theory became a point of reference for nationalists, as well as a catalyst for various Romanian forces to achieve a single Romanian state.

The Romanian revolution in 1848 already carried the seeds of the national dream of a unified and united Romania, though the "idea of unification" had been known from earlier works of Naum Ramniceanu (1802) and Ion Budai-Deleanu (1804). The concept owes its life to Dimitrie Brătianu, who introduced the term "Greater Romania" in 1852. The first step in unifying Romanians was to establish the United Principalities by uniting Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859, which became known as Romania since the 1866 Constitution and turned into a Kingdom in 1881, after gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire. However, before the Austro-Hungarian Compromise, the elite of the Transylvanian Romanians did not support the concept of "Greater Romania", instead they wanted only equality with the other nations in Transylvania. The concept became a political reality when, in 1881, the Romanian National Party of Transylvania gathered Romanians on a common political platform to fight together for Transylvania's autonomy. According to Livezeanu the creation of Greater Romania with "a unifying concept of nationhood" started to evolve in the late 1910s. World War I played a crucial part in the development of Romanian national consciousness.

World War I
The Treaty of Bucharest (1916) was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 (Old Style)/17 (New Style) August 1916 in Bucharest. The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary. The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.

"Romanians!

''The war which for the last two years has been encircling our frontiers more and more closely has shaken the ancient foundations of Europe to their depths.

It has brought the day which has been awaited for centuries by the national conscience, by the founders of the Romanian State, by those who united the principalities in the war of independence, by those responsible for the national renaissance.

It is the day of the union of all branches of our nation. Today we are able to complete the task of our forefathers and to establish forever that which Michael the Great was only able to establish for a moment, namely, a Romanian union on both slopes of the Carpathians.

For us the mountains and plains of Bukowina, where Stephen the Great has slept for centuries. In our moral energy and our valour lie the means of giving him back his birthright of a great and free Rumania from the Tisza to the Black Sea, and to prosper in peace in accordance with our customs and our hopes and dreams. (...)

Part of the proclamation by King Ferdinand, 28 August 1916"

Lucian Boia summarised the territorial extent of the nationalist dream as following:

 * The phrase "De la Nistru pana la Tisa" (From Dniester to Tisza) is well known to Romanians, it defines the limits of an ideal Romania, though we should note that the Romanian population extends in the east beyond the Dniester, while both banks of the Tisza are completely Hungarian for most of the river's length. To the south, the Danube completes the symbolic geography of Romania: an enclosed space between 3 rivers, with an area of 300.000 sq km, comparable to that of Italy or the British Isles. Rivers then are perceived as natural borders, separating Romanians from Others.

Interwar Romania
The concept of "Greater Romania" materialized as a geopolitical reality after the First World War. Romania gained control over Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania. The borders established by the treaties concluding the war did not change until 1940. The resulting state, often referred to as "România Mare" or, alternatively, as România Întregită (roughly translated in English as "Romania Made Whole," or "Entire Romania"), was seen as the 'true', whole Romanian state, or, as Tom Gallagher states, the "Holy Grail of Romanian nationalism". Its constitution, proclaimed in 1923, "largely ignored the new ethnic and cultural realities".

The Romanian ideology changed due to the demographic, cultural and social alterations, however the nationalist desire for a homogeneous Romanian state conflicted with the multiethnic, multicultural truth of Greater Romania. The ideological rewriting of the role of "spiritual victimization", turning it into "spiritual police", was a radical and challenging task for the Romanian intellectuals because they had to entirely revise the national identity and the destiny of the Romanian nation. In accordance with this view, Livezeanu states that the Great Union created a "deeply fragmented" interwar Romania where the determination of national identity met with great difficulties mainly because of the effects of the hundred years of political separation. Due to the inability of the government to solve the problems of the Transylvanian Romanians' integration and the effects of the worldwide and national economic depression, "the population gradually lost its faith in the democratic conception of Greater Romania".

The Great Depression in Romania, which started in 1929, destabilised the country. The early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances, the Romanian government violently repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike in Valea Jiului and the strike in the Grivița railroad workshops. In the mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the industry grew significantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in agriculture. French economic and political influence was predominant in the early 1920s but then Germany became more dominant, especially in the 1930s.

Bessarabia
Bessarabia declared its sovereignty as the Moldavian Democratic Republic in 1917 by the newly formed "Council of the Country" ("Sfatul Țării"). The state was faced with the disorderly retreat through its territory of Russian troops from disbanded units. In January 1918, the "Sfatul Țării" called on Romanian troops to protect the province from the Bolsheviks who were spreading the Russian Revolution. After declaring independence from Russia on 24 January 1918, the "Sfatul Țării" voted for union with Romania on 9 April 1918. Of the 138 deputies in the council, 86 voted for union, 3 against, 36 abstained (mostly the deputies representing minorities, 52% of the population at the time) and 13 were not present. The United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan recognized the incorporation of Bessarabia through the Treaty of Paris. The United States and the Soviet Union however refused to do so, the latter maintaining a claim to the territory for the whole interwar period. Furthermore, Japan failed to ratify the treaty, which therefore never entered into force.

Bukovina
In Bukovina, after being occupied by the Romanian Army, a National Council voted for union with Romania. While the Romanian, German, and Polish deputies unanimously voted for union, the Ukrainian deputies (representing 38% of the population according to the 1910 Austrian census) and Jewish deputies did not attend the council. The unification was ratified in the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.

Transylvania
On 1 December 1918, the Great National Assembly of Alba Iulia proclaimed the union of Transylvania and other territories with Romania in Alba Iulia, adopted by the Deputies of the Romanians of Transylvania, and supported one month later by the vote of the Deputies of the Saxons of Transylvania. The Hungarians of Transylvania, about 32% at the time (including the Hungarian-speaking Jewish community), and the Germans of Banat did not elect deputies upon the dissolution of Austria-Hungary, since they were considered represented by the Budapest government of Hungary, nevertheless on 22 December 1918 the Hungarian General Assembly in Cluj (Kolozsvár) reaffirmed the loyalty of Hungarians from Transylvania to Hungary. In the 1920 Treaty of Trianon, Hungary was forced to give up all claims over Transylvania and the treaty set the new borders between the two countries.

World War II losses

In 1940, the Romanian state agreed to cede Bessarabia to the Soviet Union, as provided for by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between the Soviet Union and Germany. It also lost Northern Bukovina and the Hertsa region, which were not mentioned in the pact, to the Soviet Union. It lost Northern Transylvania to Hungary, through the Second Vienna Award, and the Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria by the Treaty of Craiova. In the course of World War II, Romania, which was allied with the Axis Powers, not only re-annexed Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, but also took under administrative control lands to the east of Dniester (parts of recently formed Moldavian SSR, and of Odessa and Vinnytsia oblasts of Ukrainian SSR), creating Transnistria Governorate. Despite clear Ukrainian majority in the governorate's ethnic composition, demonstrated by a census conducted in December 1941, Romanian government hoped to annex it eventually as a "compensation" for Northern Transylvania lost to Hungary.

These territories were lost again when the tide of the war turned. After the war, Romania regained the Transylvanian territories lost to Hungary, but not territory lost to Bulgaria or the Soviet Union. In 1948 a treaty between the Soviet Union and Soviet-occupied Communist Romania also provided for the transfer of four uninhabited islands to the Soviet Union, three in the Danube Delta and Snake Island in the Black Sea.

After World War II
After the war, the concept was interpreted as "obsolete" because of the Romanian defeat. However, even the Communist politicians between 1944 and 1947 plainly supported the re-establishment of Greater Romania. Gheorghe Apostol's reminiscence strengthens the view for the nationalist argument of the Communists at the negotiations with Stalin about the future of Northern Transylvania. In contrast with this view, Romsics quotes Valter Roman, one of the heads of the Romanian Communist Party, as writing in his memo of April 1944: "the two parts of Transylvania should be reunited as an independent state."

The Romanian Communist politicians' behavior were depicted as nationalist, and this circumstance brought about the concept of National Communism, which amalgamated elements of Stalinism and Fascism. According to Trond Gilberg the regime needed the strongly nationalist attitude because of the social, economic and political challenges. After the retreat of the Soviet troops from Romania in 1958, the national ideology was reborn, however it raises questions about its reconcilability with internationalist communism. Nicolae Ceaușescu fancied the idea that the creation of Greater Romania was the fruit of the end of the nation-formation process."The setting up of the (Romanian) unitary national state six and a half decades ago was a brilliant historic victory of the long heroic struggle of the masses for creating the Romanian nation and the coming true of the age old dream of all Romanians to live in unity within the borders of the same country, in one free and independent state."

Recent developments
The fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union and the economic downturn accompanying it led to a resurgence of nationalism in the region. Romania and Moldova, state comprising the bulk of Bessarabia which had become independent after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, confronted with their eastern neighbor, Ukraine. Bucharest and Chișinău announced territorial claims on Ukrainian lands (on parts of Chernivtsi and Odessa regions). Bulgaria surmised that the concept of Greater Romania stood behind Romanian foreign policy toward Moldova therefore expressed concerns about possible developments on Dobruja.

In 1992, the issue on unification of Moldova and Romania was negotiated between the Romanian and Moldovan governments and they wanted to achieve it by the end of the year. However, the "unionists" lost their dominance in Moldova in the middle of the year. Bucharest admitted the existence of the two Romanian states (Romania and Moldova) and defined priorities in reference to this matter: "the creation of a common cultural space; the creation of an economically integrated zone; and gradual political integration". The Moldovan Snegur government became more pragmatic and realized that the nationalist propaganda from Bucharest did not help their aims especially on the problem of "Soviet annexed Bessarabia". The Romanian organizations ignored the result of the Moldovan referendum on independence because the referendum did not ask Romanians in Romania. Romanian politicians blamed Russia and the Moldovan regime that unification became unreal. According to Edward Ozhiganov (Head of the Division for Ethnopolitical Research at the Analytical Center of the Federation Council in Russia), the armed conflict in Moldova was due to the Romanian ethnic nationalism, in other words, "the attempt to create a unitary, ethnic state with power concentrated in the hands of ethnic nationalists in what was actually a multiethnic society." Furthermore, Bucharest's behavior toward Ukraine did not change until 1997 when Romanian politicians realized that resolving border disputes was a precondition for NATO membership.

Present-day Romanian irredentists (such as members of PRM) aim to take possession of territories of northern Bukovina and Bessarabia. These regions currently belong to Ukraine and Moldova. The Russian presence and the tense political situation in Moldova also inflame their demands. Nevertheless, radicals make territorial demands on Hungary too. The Greater Romania Party (Partidul România Mare – PRM) is an emblematic representative of the aforesaid concept, though the conception is fostered also by other right-wing groups (e.g. the organisation of the New Right –Noua Dreaptă). Today, the phrase "Bessarabia, Romanian land" (Basarabia, pământ românesc, with several variations) is commonly used in Romania, and it poses territorial claims over the region of Bessarabia. It is also used in Moldova.

As of 2024 Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) supports the unification of Moldova and Romania. While S.O.S. Romania leader Diana Iovanovici Șoșoacă proposed a law in 2023 for a project on the Romanian Parliament for the annexation by Romania of Northern Bukovina, the Hertsa region, Budjak, Northern Maramureș and Snake Island from Ukraine, as they were "historical territories" that belong to Romania as stated in the law project. In retaliation, Ukraine announced it would impose sanctions against Iovanovici Șoșoacă, labeling her as a threat to Ukrainian national security.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Greater Romania


text:
Ardfert

Ardfert is a village and civil parish in County Kerry, Ireland. Historically a religious centre, the economy of the locality is driven by agriculture and its position as a dormitory town, being only 8 km from Tralee. The population of the village was 749 at the 2016 census.

Origin
The village's name signifies, according to Sir James Ware, "a wonderful place on an eminence", or as some interpret it, "the hill of miracles." Ardfert has also been considered a corruption of Ard Ert, "the high place of Ert or Erc", so called after the fifth century Irish Bishop Saint Erc, who made the place a bishop's seat. Ardfert was written by the Four Masters as Ard-ferta, the height of the grave.

History
Ardfert is a parish in the Barony of Clanmaurice, County Kerry, Ireland, anciently in the territory of Ui Fearba/Hy Ferba, of which the O'Laeghain (O'Leyne, Leen or Lane) were once the Gaelic Lords, until Norman invasion of Ireland. Ardfert is the home of St. Brendan's Ardfert Cathedral, which was destroyed in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and the birthplace of St. Brendan the Navigator, who was educated about the year 500 AD. He founded a monastery there in the sixth century, but both town and monastery were destroyed by fire in 1089, and again in 1151.

The Norman influence can still be seen not only in the architecture, but also in local family surnames such as the Cantillons (Barons de Ballyheigue), and Fitzmaurices, and in place names, such as Ballintobeenig, a nearby townland below Mt. Crusline called after St. Aubin. Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Baron Kerry founded a Franciscan friary there in 1253, and Nicholas, the 2nd Lord Kerry, built a leper house there in 1312. It was the seat of a bishopric until 1660.

The Crusader Knights Hospitaller of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (later known as Knights of Malta), also had some rights in Ardfert, although there is a record of a dispute between them and the Franciscans in 1325 about the market cross and pillory. They had already been established in the area in c. 1200 when Meiler FitzHenry, grandson of King Henry I of England, and Justiciar of Ireland under King John, established a preceptory at Rattoo under a Fra' William from Dublin. Under the terms of a royal grant in letters patent of James I of England on 6 July 1612, the Lord of Kerry (FitzMaurice) could hold courts baron and leet.

The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, recount how in 1601, Prince Hugh Roe O'Donnell, on his way to the Battle of Kinsale, sent some of his kinsmen troops there to reconquer Ardfert, Lixnaw, and Ballykeally for his ally FitzMaurice. En route, he visited and venerated a relic of the True Cross (Holy rood) on the Feast of St. Andrew, on 30 November 1601, at Holy Cross Abbey, near Thurles, County Tipperary, which was a rallying point for the defence of religious freedom and for Irish sovereignty. From there he sent an expedition to Ardfert, to win a quick victory and recover the territory of his ally, Fitzmaurice, Lord of Kerry, who had lost it and his 9-year-old son, to Sir Charles Wilmot. The expedition captured Caislean Gearr (Short Castle, of which no trace remains), adjacent to the Cathedral in Ardfert. An O'Donnell from Tyrconnell remained behind in stewardship to hold it, according to "The Life of Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyrconnell"written by Lughaidh O'Cléirigh, circa 1603 in Gaelic.

A large tomb in the grounds of the cathedral was built much later by John O'Donnell (1803–1879), the most prominent descendant two centuries later, and whose own direct male descendant was the late Patrick Denis O'Donnell (1922–2005), the Irish military historian. He owned the summit overlooking Ardfert (Mt. Crusline, Ballintobeenig, from where his ancestral O'Donnell of Tyrconnell, under authority of Prince Hugh Roe O'Donnell would have launched the battle to regain Ardfert for Lord Kerry in 1601). The family seat of John O'Donnell, at Tubrid mentioned by Samuel Lewis in his 1837 Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, passed through a female line to the O'Carrolls. The house expanded by John O'Donnell in Tubridmore was listed as an intended "protected structure" in the archaeological monuments section of the draft Kerry County Development Plan 2015–2021.

In the early 19th century, the Earl of Listowel (Hare) was Lord of the Manor and held court every three weeks in Ardfert, through an appointed Seneschal, having bought those rights from the Earl of Kerry, Fitzmaurice.

The area's archaeological heritage includes the medieval cathedral, St. Brendan's, and associated churches, Temple na Hoe (Church of the young Virgin) and Temple na Griffin. Several have these have become heritage tourism attractions in the Kerry area due to their central location. The 13th century Franciscan Friary, to the north east of the village, was once an integral part of Ardfert Abbey - not an abbey at all but the name of the Talbot-Crosbie mansion destroyed by fire in 1922 by the IRA.

Five other structures included on the Record of Protected Structures (RPS) are located in Ardfert; St Brendan's Catholic Church (consecrated in 1855), the Old Gates of the Earl of Glandore's Demesne, the Talbot-Crosbie Memorial, the Ardfert Parish Room (now a site registered as derelict by Kerry County Council) and Brandon House. There are also many other structures within the village which are not included in the RPS, but are considered to be of considerable architectural and heritage value, such as the Ardfert Retreat Center. Also nearby are the surviving estate walls which contribute to the character and identity of the village.

Geography and development
From the 17th century (possibly 1639) until 1800 the area was a borough constituency. The borough corporation (its local council) elected two members of the Irish House of Commons. The borough was disenfranchised by the Act of Union 1800, and from 1801 the area was represented as part of the county constituency of Kerry. Ardfert lost borough status under section 13 of the Municipal Corporations (Ireland) Act 1840. It was one of fifty-eight borough corporations dissolved on 25 October 1840. At this time, about a half-mile east of the cathedral, Ardfert Abbey was the home of the Crosbies, Baron Brandon, and contained the ruins of the old Franciscan Abbey. They also maintained a well-stocked deer-park and gardens.

In the 20 years between the 1996 and 2016 census of Ireland, the population of Ardfert village increased from 648 to 749 inhabitants.

It is located within an agricultural area, surrounded by flat and low-lying land. The main Tralee-Ballyheigue road bisects the village in an east–west axis, with road width restrictions on the western side of the village. To the north of the village, the Tyshe River traverses the village road network. The village settlement pattern is radial and dispersed and consists of a mixture of single site depth development along radial roads interspersed with housing estates. Within the core of the village there is a mix of dwelling types of various traditional designs. More modern design predominates in the one-off housing on the radial routes. The development of a central retail and social node has been constrained to some extent by need to protect historic buildings and monuments within the village.

Economy and amenities
The village provides a number of goods and services to the local area and surrounding agricultural hinterland. Other developments have increased its role as a dormitory suburb for Tralee. The village also acts as a convenience stop for tourist and local through traffic. The village is served by social and retail services, including a Garda station, An Post post office, health centre, garage, petrol station and a number of retail outlets and public houses. In addition there is a Roman Catholic Church, a school and a community centre with gym and launderette. Planning permission for residential development has recently been permitted on the existing Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) grounds, with replacement facilities planned elsewhere on the periphery of the village.

Transport
Ardfert is located on the R551 regional road from Tralee to Ballyheigue. The village centre is located at a crossroads between the R551 and several local roads. The traffic is increased by the quarry to the north east of the village which generates HGV traffic movements through the village. During the summer months, the situation is exacerbated by tourist traffic to coastal locations. The Tralee-Ballyheigue road at the northern end of the village sees bottleneck delays in traffic into and out of the village.

Ardfert railway station, on the line from Limerick to Tralee via Newcastle West, opened on 20 December 1880. The station closed to passengers on 4 February 1963, and to freight on 2 June 1978. The track was lifted in 1988.

Gaelic games
Ardfert GAA, the local Gaelic football club, won the All-Ireland Junior Club Football Championship in Croke Park on 19 February 2006 beating Loughrea of Galway. The club's accomplishments also include winning the 2007 All-Ireland Intermediate Club Football Championship, defeating Derry and Ulster Champions Eoghan Rua, on 10 March 2007 again in Croke Park.

The local hurling club is St Brendan's, Ardfert. They have won the Kerry Senior Hurling Championship on 8 occasions, most recently in 2013.

Other sports
A short lived greyhound racing track was opened in the village on 21 August 1929. The venture run by the Kingdom Greyhound Racing Club and only lasted until Wednesday 25 September 1929. The last race was the Ardfert Stake which was won by Captain Off, the even money favourite. The main reason for the closure was the fact that a larger track called Oakview Park (to the south in Oakview Village) was due to open.

The eventing horse "Village Gossip", ridden between 1976 and 1985 by British team rider Lucinda Green (née Prior Palmer), was born and bred in Ardfert. He completed Badminton Horse Trials on several occasions, placing second in 1978 and was the fastest competitor at the World Three Day Event in Lexington, Kentucky, the same year.

title: Ardfert


text:
The Church of God (Charleston, Tennessee)

The Church of God (Charleston, Tennessee) or TCOG is a Holiness Pentecostal denomination of Christianity. It is based in the United States. The church's actual name is The Church of God; however, the parenthetical phrase Charleston, Tennessee is added to distinguish it from similar-sounding organizations. The Church of God was organized in 1993 after a schism in the Church of God of Prophecy. Its headquarters is in Cleveland, Tennessee but its postal address is in Charleston, Tennessee. As of 2007, The Church of God operates in 48 countries and territories.

Origins
In August 1886, Richard Spurling (1810–1891), an ordained Baptist minister, became dissatisfied with what he believed were overly creedal approaches to New Testament Christianity. Spurling collaborated with seven members from Missionary Baptist churches in Monroe County, Tennessee and Cherokee County, North Carolina. In 1903, these small fellowships organized the Christian Union with the stated intent to unite on the principles of the New Testament without reference to restatements of the faith in creedal form.

Ultimately, the Christian Union under leadership of Spurling's son Richard Spurling Jr, and others including a former Quaker and Bible salesman named Ambrose Jessup Tomlinson, experienced remarkable growth in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Appalachian foothills. By 1907, Tomlinson had become the acknowledged leader of these Christian believers whose faith was driven by Wesleyan beliefs of personal holiness and reported Pentecostal experiences of being filled with the Holy Spirit and glossolalia. Many small congregations were planted and organized under the common name adopted in 1907, Church of God. In 1909, Tomlinson was elected General Overseer of the fledgling church. He held that position until 1923.

Contrary to its desire to be free from creedal restatements of faith, this body was soon disrupted by competing restatements of biblical teachings from within its own ranks. An ensuing division in 1923 resulted in two primary splinter groups, called respectively Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) and the Church of God over which A.J. Tomlinson is General Overseer. The latter, led by Tomlinson, was court-ordered in 1951 to assume the name Church of God of Prophecy which is still in use. A. J. Tomlinson's son, Milton Ambrose Tomlinson, succeeded him as General Overseer in 1943, and served until age-related disability prompted his retirement in 1990.

Reorganization
Upon the election of M. A. Tomlinson's successor that year, yet another schism occurred. One group within the Church of God of Prophecy, declared that the selection process was a departure from what had historically been perceived as "theocratic government" within the body's governing structure and procedure.

In 1993, this group which at the time referred to themselves as "The Concerned" called for a "solemn assembly", borrowing an Old Testament term for corporate devotion to prayer to rhetorically emphasize its earnestness. The "solemn assembly" resulted in the formation of The Church of God. The church places particular emphasis upon the word The in its title as a statement of this reorganization, believing it is the singular exclusive embodiment of the New Testament Christian church. Robert J. Pruitt was chosen to be the new overseer, and he remained so until 2006, when age-related disability prompted his retirement.

A meeting of TCOG's leadership during the summer of 2006 ended with the selection of Stephen Smith as the interim General Overseer to replace Pruitt. During the TCOG General Assembly of 2006, Smith was confirmed as the General Overseer. A faction within the church disagreed with how Smith was selected, and his rank of Bishop. As a result, this group withdrew and formed The Church of God under the leadership of Bishop James C. Nabors.

In June 2015, Smith died, leaving the office of General Overseer vacant. A meeting of the presbytery unanimously chose Bishop Oscar Pimentel to serve as the Interim General Overseer until a more permanent selection could be made at the annual Genera Assembly. In August, during the annual General Assembly, Pimentel was accepted unanimously by the membership present to serve in the office of General Overseer.

Beliefs
The Church of God is a Pentecostal church in the Wesleyan Holiness tradition. It believes that one is saved or born again as a result of repentance, justification and regeneration. After one is saved, a second work of grace (sanctification) makes living a holy life possible along with the doctrine of Christian perfectionism. The church is opposed to the use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs; opposed to membership in secret societies; opposed to wearing jewelry and other ornamentation; and against divorce and remarriage. It also condemns the swearing of oaths. The church believes it is possible to lose salvation, or fall from divine grace, if one goes back into sin.

The Church of God believes all the gifts of the Spirit are in operation in the church and that speaking in tongues is the initial evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. TCOG holds the following three ordinances: water baptism by immersion, the Lord's Supper reserved for sinless and consecrated Christians, and feet washing. Tithing is also practiced. This body is premillennial in eschatology.

It believes the observance of Sabbath was a requirement of Jewish law and as such was not carried over into the Grace Dispensationundefined. Sunday is not Christian Sabbath but is merely a day set aside to give special attention to the worship of God. Instead of keeping only Sabbath holy, we are required in this dispensation to keep every day holy. Jewish Shabbat is a type of Christ, who is our rest, rather than the day.

An important belief which distinguishes it from many other Holiness-Pentecostal churches is its belief that it is the true church. It believes the Christian Church was established before Pentecost around A.D. 28 and was plunged into apostasy in A.D. 325. TCOG holds that the true church was restored in North Carolina on June 13, 1903, and that this restoration is a fulfilment of the Isaiah 60:1-5 prophecy. The Church of God experienced disruptions in 1923 and 1993 but, according to the TCOG, it is the true church of God.


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Talk:Prix Médicis

1968
I just wanted to state that Elie Wiezels's book A Beggar in Jerusalem was the winner for the French Prix Medici in 1969, not 1968. —the preceding comment is by 64.78.110.176 - 2003-12-08T06:48:41: Please sign your posts!
 * This is probably the longest reply (13 years) .. but I did some research and am unable to confirm. Everything points to 1968. Example. -- Green  C  13:53, 16 December 2015 (UTC)

Untitled
There seems to be no real logic for the names of works in the foreign lit section: is anything gained by keeping the titles in French translation (where they haven't already been changed)? my impulse would be to list the actual titles in the original language and parenthesize the English translation (if applicable). —the preceding comment is by Sighrik - 2006-08-11T03:16:59: Please sign your posts!

title: Talk:Prix Médicis


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Abundance of the chemical elements

The abundance of the chemical elements is a measure of the occurrence of the chemical elements relative to all other elements in a given environment. Abundance is measured in one of three ways: by mass fraction (in commercial contexts often called weight fraction), by mole fraction (fraction of atoms by numerical count, or sometimes fraction of molecules in gases), or by volume fraction. Volume fraction is a common abundance measure in mixed gases such as planetary atmospheres, and is similar in value to molecular mole fraction for gas mixtures at relatively low densities and pressures, and ideal gas mixtures. Most abundance values in this article are given as mass fractions.

The abundance of chemical elements in the universe is dominated by the large amounts of hydrogen and helium which were produced during the Big Bang. Remaining elements, making up only about 2% of the universe, were largely produced by supernovae. Elements with even atomic numbers are generally more common than their neighbors in the periodic table, due to favorable energetics of formation, known as the Oddo–Harkins rule.

The abundance of elements in the Sun and outer planets is similar to that in the universe. Due to solar heating, the elements of Earth and the inner rocky planets of the Solar System have undergone an additional depletion of volatile hydrogen, helium, neon, nitrogen, and carbon (which volatilizes as methane). The crust, mantle, and core of the Earth show evidence of chemical segregation plus some sequestration by density. Lighter silicates of aluminium are found in the crust, with more magnesium silicate in the mantle, while metallic iron and nickel compose the core. The abundance of elements in specialized environments, such as atmospheres, oceans, or the human body, are primarily a product of chemical interactions with the medium in which they reside.

Abundance values
Abundance of each element is expressed as a relative number. Astronomy uses a logarithmic abundance scale for abundance $$\epsilon_X$$ of element X relative to Hydrogen, defined by $$\log \epsilon_X \equiv \log(N_X/N_H) + 12.00 $$ for number density $$N$$; $$\epsilon_H = 12.00$$ on this scale. Another scale is mass fraction or, equivalently, percent by mass.

For example, the abundance of oxygen in pure water can be measured in two ways: the mass fraction is about 89%, because that is the fraction of water's mass which is oxygen. However, the mole fraction is about 33% because only 1 atom of 3 in water, H2O, is oxygen. As another example, looking at the mass fraction abundance of hydrogen and helium in both the universe as a whole and in the atmospheres of gas-giant planets such as Jupiter, it is 74% for hydrogen and 23–25% for helium; while the (atomic) mole fraction for hydrogen is 92%, and for helium is 8%, in these environments. Changing the given environment to Jupiter's outer atmosphere, where hydrogen is diatomic while helium is not, changes the molecular mole fraction (fraction of total gas molecules), as well as the fraction of atmosphere by volume, of hydrogen to about 86%, and of helium to 13%. Below Jupiter's outer atmosphere, volume fractions are significantly different from mole fractions due to high temperatures (ionization and disproportionation) and high density where the Ideal Gas Law is inapplicable.

Universe
The abundance of chemical elements in the universe is dominated by the large amounts of hydrogen and helium which were produced during the Big Bang. Remaining elements, making up only about 2% of the universe, were largely produced by supernovae and certain red giant stars. Lithium, beryllium, and boron, despite their low atomic number, are rare because, although they are produced by nuclear fusion, they are destroyed by other reactions in the stars. Their natural occurrence is the result of cosmic ray spallation of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen in a type of nuclear fission reaction. The elements from carbon to iron are relatively more abundant in the universe because of the ease of making them in supernova nucleosynthesis. Elements of higher atomic numbers than iron (element 26) become progressively rarer in the universe, because they increasingly absorb stellar energy in their production. Also, elements with even atomic numbers are generally more common than their neighbors in the periodic table, due to favorable energetics of formation (see Oddo–Harkins rule), and among the lightest nuclides helium through sulfur the most abundant isotopes of equal number of protons and neutrons.

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe; helium is second. All others are orders of magnitude less common. After this, the rank of abundance does not continue to correspond to the atomic number. Oxygen has abundance rank 3, but atomic number 8.

There are 80 known stable elements, and the lightest 16 comprise 99.9% of the ordinary matter of the universe. These same 16 elements, hydrogen through sulfur, fall on the initial linear portion of the Table of Nuclides (also called the Segrè plot), a plot of the proton versus neutron numbers of all matter both ordinary and exotic, containing hundreds of stable isotopes and thousands more that are unstable. The Segrè plot is initially linear because (aside from hydrogen) the vast majority of ordinary matter (99.4% in the Solar System ) contains an equal number of protons and neutrons (Z=N). To be sure, 74% ordinary matter exists as mononucleonic protons (hydrogen). But when nucleons combine to form stable nuclides, they combine in a ratio of one part proton to one part neutron in 99.4% of ordinary matter. The structural basis of the equality of nucleon numbers in baryonic matter is one of the simplest and most profound unsolved mysteries of the atomic nucleus.

The abundance of the lightest elements is well predicted by the standard cosmological model, since they were mostly produced shortly (i.e., within a few hundred seconds) after the Big Bang, in a process known as Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Heavier elements were mostly produced much later, inside of stars.

Hydrogen and helium are estimated to make up roughly 74% and 24% of all baryonic matter in the universe respectively. Despite comprising only a very small fraction of the universe, the remaining "heavy elements" can greatly influence astronomical phenomena. Only about 2% (by mass) of the Milky Way galaxy's disk is composed of heavy elements.

These other elements are generated by stellar processes. In astronomy, a "metal" is any element other than hydrogen or helium. This distinction is significant because hydrogen and helium are the only elements that were produced in significant quantities in the Big Bang. Thus, the metallicity of a galaxy or other object is an indication of stellar activity after the Big Bang.

In general, elements up to iron are made by large stars in the process of becoming supernovae, or by smaller stars in the process of dying. One type of Iron, Iron-56, is particularly common, since it is the most stable nuclide (in that it has the highest nuclear binding energy per nucleon) and can easily be made from alpha particles (being a product of decay of radioactive nickel-56, ultimately made from 14 helium nuclei). Elements heavier than iron are made in energy-absorbing processes in large stars, and their abundance in the universe (and on Earth) generally decreases with increasing atomic number.

The table shows the ten most common elements in our galaxy (estimated spectroscopically), as measured in parts per million, by mass. Nearby galaxies that have evolved along similar lines have a corresponding enrichment of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The more distant galaxies are being viewed as they appeared in the past, so their abundances of elements appear closer to the primordial mixture. Since physical laws and processes are apparently uniform throughout the universe, however, it is expected that these galaxies will likewise have evolved similar abundances of elements.

As shown in the periodic table, the abundance of elements is in keeping with their origin. Very abundant hydrogen and helium are products of the Big Bang. The next three elements in the periodic table (lithium, beryllium, and boron) are rare, despite their low atomic number. They had little time to form in the Big Bang. They are produced in small quantities by nuclear fusion in dying stars or by breakup of heavier elements in interstellar dust, caused by cosmic ray spallation. In supernova stars, they are produced by nuclear fusion, but then destroyed by other reactions.

Heavier elements, beginning with carbon, have been produced in dying or supernova stars by buildup from alpha particles (helium nuclei), contributing to an alternatingly larger abundance of elements with even atomic numbers (these are also more stable). The effect of odd-numbered chemical elements generally being more rare in the universe was empirically noticed in 1914, and is known as the Oddo–Harkins rule.

The following graph (note log scale) shows abundance of elements in the Solar System.

Relation to nuclear binding energy
Loose correlations have been observed between estimated elemental abundances in the universe and the nuclear binding energy curve (also called the binding energy per nucleon). Roughly speaking, the relative stability of various atomic nuclides in withstanding the extremely energetic conditions of Big Bang Nucleosynthesis (BBN) has exerted a strong influence on the relative abundance of elements formed in the Big Bang, and during the development of the universe thereafter. See the article about nucleosynthesis for an explanation of how certain nuclear fusion processes in stars (such as carbon burning, etc.) create the elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.

A further observed peculiarity is the jagged alternation between relative abundance and scarcity of adjacent atomic numbers in the estimated abundances of the chemical elements in which the relative abundance of even atomic numbers is roughly 2 orders of magnitude greater than the relative abundance of odd atomic numbers (Oddo–Harkins rule). A similar alternation between even and odd atomic numbers can be observed in the nuclear binding energy curve in the neighborhood of carbon and oxygen, but here the loose correlation between relative abundance and binding energy ends. The binding energy for beryllium (an even atomic number), for example, is less than the binding energy for boron (an odd atomic number), as illustrated in the nuclear binding energy curve. Additionally, the alternation in the nuclear binding energy between even and odd atomic numbers resolves above oxygen as the graph increases steadily up to its peak at iron. The semi-empirical mass formula (SEMF), also called Weizsäcker's formula or the Bethe-Weizsäcker mass formula, gives a theoretical explanation of the overall shape of the curve of nuclear binding energy.

Sun
Modern astronomy relies on understanding the abundance of elements in the Sun as part of cosmological models. Abundance values are difficult to obtain: even photospheric or observational abundances depend upon models of solar atmospherics and radiation coupling. These astronomical abundance values are reported as logarithms of the ratio with hydrogen. Hydrogen is set to an abundance of 12 on this scale. The Sun's photosphere consists mostly of hydrogen and helium; the helium abundance varies between about 10.3 and 10.5 depending on the phase of the solar cycle; carbon is 8.47, neon is 8.29, oxygen is 7.69 and iron is estimated at 7.62.

Earth
The Earth formed from the same cloud of matter that formed the Sun, but the planets acquired different compositions during the formation and evolution of the Solar System. In turn, the natural history of the Earth caused parts of this planet to have differing concentrations of the elements.

The mass of the Earth is approximately 5.97 kg. In bulk, by mass, it is composed mostly of iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%); with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements.

The bulk composition of the Earth by elemental-mass is roughly similar to the gross composition of the solar system, with the major differences being that Earth is missing a great deal of the volatile elements hydrogen, helium, neon, and nitrogen, as well as carbon which has been lost as volatile hydrocarbons.

The remaining elemental composition is roughly typical of the "rocky" inner planets, which formed in the thermal zone where solar heat drove volatile compounds into space.

The Earth retains oxygen as the second-largest component of its mass (and largest atomic fraction), mainly from this element being retained in silicate minerals which have a very high melting point and low vapor pressure.

Crust

The mass-abundance of the nine most abundant elements in the Earth's crust is approximately: oxygen 46%, silicon 28%, aluminium 8.3%, iron 5.6%, calcium 4.2%, sodium 2.5%, magnesium 2.4%, potassium 2.0%, and titanium 0.61%. Other elements occur at less than 0.15%. For a complete list, see abundance of elements in Earth's crust.

The graph at right illustrates the relative atomic-abundance of the chemical elements in Earth's upper continental crust—the part that is relatively accessible for measurements and estimation.

Many of the elements shown in the graph are classified into (partially overlapping) categories:

 * 1)  rock-forming elements (major elements in green field, and minor elements in light green field);
 * 2)  rare earth elements (lanthanides (La–Lu), Sc, and Y; labeled in blue);
 * 3)  major industrial metals (global production >~3×107 kg/year; labeled in red);
 * 4)  precious metals (labeled in purple);
 * 5)  the nine rarest "metals" – the six platinum group elements plus Au, Re, and Te (a metalloid) – in the yellow field. These are rare in the crust from being soluble in iron and thus concentrated in the Earth's core. Tellurium is the single most depleted element in the silicate Earth relative to cosmic abundance, because in addition to being concentrated as dense chalcogenides in the core it was severely depleted by preaccretional sorting in the nebula as volatile hydrogen telluride.

There are two breaks where the unstable (radioactive) elements technetium (atomic number 43) and promethium (atomic number 61) would be. These elements are surrounded by stable elements, yet their most stable isotopes have relatively short half lives (~4 million years and ~18 years respectively). These are thus extremely rare, since any primordial initial fractions of these in pre-Solar System materials have long since decayed. These two elements are now only produced naturally through the spontaneous fission of very heavy radioactive elements (for example, uranium, thorium, or the trace amounts of plutonium that exist in uranium ores), or by the interaction of certain other elements with cosmic rays. Both technetium and promethium have been identified spectroscopically in the atmospheres of stars, where they are produced by ongoing nucleosynthetic processes.

There are also breaks in the abundance graph where the six noble gases would be, since they are not chemically bound in the Earth's crust, and they are only generated in the crust by decay chains from radioactive elements, and are therefore extremely rare there.

The eight naturally occurring very rare, highly radioactive elements (polonium, astatine, francium, radium, actinium, protactinium, neptunium, and plutonium) are not included, since any of these elements that were present at the formation of the Earth have decayed away eons ago, and their quantity today is negligible and is only produced from the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium.

Oxygen and silicon are notably the most common elements in the crust. On Earth and in rocky planets in general, silicon and oxygen are far more common than their cosmic abundance. The reason is that they combine with each other to form silicate minerals. Other cosmically common elements such as hydrogen, carbon and nitrogen form volatile compounds such as ammonia and methane that easily boil away into space from the heat of planetary formation and/or the Sun's light.

Rare-earth elements
"Rare" earth elements is a historical misnomer. The persistence of the term reflects unfamiliarity rather than true rarity. The more abundant rare earth elements are similarly concentrated in the crust compared to commonplace industrial metals such as chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, molybdenum, tin, tungsten, or lead. The two least abundant stable rare earth elements (thulium and lutetium) are nearly 200 times more common than gold. However, in contrast to the ordinary base and precious metals, rare earth elements have very little tendency to become concentrated in exploitable ore deposits. Consequently, most of the world's supply of rare earth elements comes from only a handful of sources. Furthermore, the rare earth metals are all quite chemically similar to each other, and they are thus quite difficult to separate into quantities of the pure elements.

Differences in abundances of individual rare earth elements in the upper continental crust of the Earth represent the superposition of two effects, one nuclear and one geochemical. First, the rare earth elements with even atomic numbers (58Ce, 60Nd, ...) have greater cosmic and terrestrial abundances than the adjacent rare earth elements with odd atomic numbers (57La, 59Pr, ...). Second, the lighter rare earth elements are more incompatible (because they have larger ionic radii) and therefore more strongly concentrated in the continental crust than the heavier rare earth elements. In most rare earth ore deposits, the first four rare earth elements – lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, and neodymium – constitute 80% to 99% of the total amount of rare earth metal that can be found in the ore.

Mantle
The mass-abundance of the seven most abundant elements in the Earth's mantle is approximately: oxygen 44.3%, magnesium 22.3%, silicon 21.3%, iron 6.32%, calcium 2.48%, aluminium 2.29%, nickel 0.19%.

Core
Due to mass segregation, the core of the Earth is believed to be primarily composed of iron (88.8%), with smaller amounts of nickel (5.8%), sulfur (4.5%), and less than 1% trace elements.

Ocean
The most abundant elements in the ocean by proportion of mass in percent are oxygen (85.84%), hydrogen (10.82%), chlorine (1.94%), sodium (1.08%), magnesium (0.13%), sulfur (0.09%), calcium (0.04%), potassium (0.04%), bromine (0.007%), carbon (0.003%), and boron (0.0004%).

Atmosphere
The order of elements by volume fraction (which is approximately molecular mole fraction) in the atmosphere is nitrogen (78.1%), oxygen (20.9%), argon (0.96%), followed by (in uncertain order) carbon and hydrogen because water vapor and carbon dioxide, which represent most of these two elements in the air, are variable components. Sulfur, phosphorus, and all other elements are present in significantly lower proportions.

According to the abundance curve graph, argon, a significant if not major component of the atmosphere, does not appear in the crust at all. This is because the atmosphere has a far smaller mass than the crust, so argon remaining in the crust contributes little to mass fraction there, while at the same time buildup of argon in the atmosphere has become large enough to be significant.

Urban soils
For a complete list of the abundance of elements in urban soils, see Abundances of the elements (data page).

Human body
By mass, human cells consist of 65–90% water (H2O), and a significant portion of the remainder is composed of carbon-containing organic molecules. Oxygen therefore contributes a majority of a human body's mass, followed by carbon. Almost 99% of the mass of the human body is made up of six elements: hydrogen (H), carbon (C), nitrogen (N), oxygen (O), calcium (Ca), and phosphorus (P). The next 0.75% is made up of the next five elements: potassium (K), sulfur (S), chlorine (Cl), sodium (Na), and magnesium (Mg). Only 17 elements are known for certain to be necessary to human life, with one additional element (fluorine) thought to be helpful for tooth enamel strength. A few more trace elements may play some role in the health of mammals. Boron and silicon are notably necessary for plants but have uncertain roles in animals. The elements aluminium and silicon, although very common in the earth's crust, are conspicuously rare in the human body.

Below is a periodic table highlighting nutritional elements.

title: Abundance of the chemical elements


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Hinterland

Hinterland is a German word meaning "the land behind" (a city, a port, or similar). Its use in English was first documented by the geographer George Chisholm in his Handbook of Commercial Geography (1888). Originally the term was associated with the area of a port in which materials for export and import are stored and shipped. Subsequently, the use of the word expanded to include any area under the influence of a particular human settlement.

Geographic region

 * An area behind a coast or the shoreline of a river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the hinterland is the inland region lying behind a port and is claimed by the state that owns the coast.
 * In shipping usage, a port's hinterland is the area that it serves, both for imports and for exports.
 * The term is also used to refer to the area around a city or town.
 * More generally, hinterland can refer to the rural area economically tied to an urban catchment area. The size of a hinterland can depend on geography, or on the ease, speed, and cost of transportation between the catchment area and the hinterland.
 * In colonial usage, the term was applied to the surrounding areas of former European colonies in Africa, which, although not part of the colony itself, were influenced by the colony. By analogous general economic usage, hinterland can refer to the area surrounding a service from which customers are attracted, also called the market area.
 * In German, Hinterland is sometimes used more generally to describe any sparsely populated area where the infrastructure is underdeveloped, although Provinz (analogous to province) is more common. In the United States, and particularly in the American Midwest (a region of German cultural heritage located far from ocean ports), it is this meaning and not the one relating to ports that predominates in common use. Analogous terms include "the countryside", "the sticks", "the boonies", backcountry, boondocks, the Bush (in Alaskan usage), the outback (Australia), and the sertão (Brazil).
 * In Italy, hinterland is used to describe the metropolitan area of a city, especially Milan, outside of the main municipality.

Breadth of knowledge
A further sense in which the term is commonly applied, especially by British politicians, is in talking about an individual's depth and breadth of knowledge (or lack thereof), of matters outside politics, specifically of academic, artistic, cultural, literary and scientific pursuits. For instance, one could say, "X has a vast hinterland", or "Y has no hinterland". The spread of this usage is usually credited to Denis Healey (British Defence Secretary 1964–1970, Chancellor of the Exchequer 1974–1979) and his wife Edna Healey, initially in the context of the lack of hinterland—i.e., interests outside of politics—of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

title: Hinterland


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User talk:Mit2b

Hi Mit :) I hope you like the place and choose to stay.

Some links that may be of use:
 * Welcome, newcomers
 * How to edit a page
 * Village pump - ask questions you may have here, or leave a message on my talk page

You may want to check out what exactly is not too - Writing an Extemp Speech may not be an appropriate article for inclusion in the encyclopedia.

Thanks, and keep contributing! :) Dysprosia 04:58, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

I've replied on my talk page. Dysprosia 08:00, 8 Dec 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:Mit2b