The cultures of newly freed African Americans have had one of  the greatest impacts on the music industry to date. The cultures they carried from their ancestors and their plantation families aided the impact they had on jazz.These cultures not only opened up opportunities for blacks but it allow for whites to seek interest in the same musical style. 

The new opportunities were brought over to the United States when slavery first became popular in the mid 18th century. These opportunities were brought to the table when African American music roots were exposed on plantations and even after the end of the slave trade. Their musical cultures consisted of a lot of different features that the United States hadn't particularly heard before the beginning of Jazz in the late 19th century.

Jazz after its initial debut was seen as out of the ordinary. However, with time it gained a huge following of African Americans and even whites, The importance of its huge success was the cultural diversity within its listeners and performers, Whites and Blacks were often not allowed to view things the same or even be in the same room therefore allowing for performance of jazz to be difficult. Hence why Black and Tan bars became a thing after the prohibition arose as well as stricter segregation laws.  Blacks and Whites  came together to create underground bars for live performances and to have the availability of alcohol. 

The importance of African Americans and whites coming together during this allowed for the cultures of  their music to flourish and to be exposed to society. When allowing for this exposure it lead for whites to listen, understand and see how much people enjoyed the sounds of the African American music scene.