if i do a list of the top of my head of what black music represents to me and the things i have learned from it...
blithe sophistication (e.g. george benson)
ecstactic religious communion (gospel tradition)
spiritual seeking and aspiration (eg coltrane)
Rebel Music (eg Bob Marley)
the Stag o' Lee archetype
Technical excellence. mastery of musicianship
afro-futurism
humanist compassion (eg curtis mayfield)
emotional literacy and expressiveness
righteous anger...
dovetailing into political militancy
extreme altered states and psychedelic voyaging (eg george clinton)
conceptual continuity (clinton again, wu tang)
occulted and hermetic wisdom (wu, sun ra)
libidinal energy and and sexual liberation
ache of unrequited desire
gleeful ignorance/immaturity/id
highbrow, high art, high concept avant gardism (cecil taylor etc)
shameless cornball sentimentality (lionel richie)
warm, organic, natural, unaffected, soulful (on the one hand)
cold, posthuman, hard, uncompromising (on the other)
continuity of tradition and respect for the ancestors (on the one hand)
uncompromising pursuit of the future (on the other)
sophisticated, urbane, louche (on the one hand)
raw, untutored, passionate (on the other)
taken as a whole black music expresses and embodies every potential of the human spirit,
unsuprisingly, given that, taken as a whole, it represents one of the major creative achievements
of civilization. one of the strongest and most vital of all artistic lineages.
but it's not reducible to any one aspect. it can, and does, do everything.