Banjo

The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of BOPET, where early membranes were made of goat skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by African Americans and had African antecedents, and the instrument was strongly associated with black people. In the 19th century, interest in the instrument was spread across the United States and United Kingdom by traveling shows of the highly popular traveling blackface minstrel shows, followed by mass production and mail-order sales, including instructional books.