%22Jazz and the White Critic%22 Homework Questions
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North Carolina A&T State University *
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Course
209
Subject
English
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
Pages
3
Uploaded by DeaconFangPelican26
English 209—
DUE 28 AUGUST 2023 NO LATER THAN 11:59P
Name: Nyasia Parker
Class: English 209 / 9:30 am class
Completely answer EACH part of the question with a Well-Developed Response.
The parts of the prompt in
BOLD
PRINT
need to be especially addressed in your response. Answer EACH part of the question.
1. Explain how the
opening sentence relates to the study of hip hop
.
The opening sentence introduces a problem that a lot of the audience has already known as true for almost the beginning of
time. The genre appropriation and whitewashing started due to racial discrimination because since the rise of the recording
industry, which began during segregation, labels sidelined black artists while promoting white ones who borrowed their sounds
and aesthetics. Even though this excerpt focuses on Jazz , any sound that is led by black artists has always had white people find
a way to invade in these spaces and that includes in hip hop.
2. Explain what the author means by “jazz was collected among
the numerous skeletons the middle-class black man
kept
locked in the closet of his psyche”.
How does the previous statement relate to the study of hip hop?
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. But Jazz isn't only just music , jazz musicians use jazz as an outlet to
express their everyday problems that they suppress due to the pressure of their environment and racial oppression. That is what
the author was speaking about when they wrote “jazz was collected among
the numerous skeletons the middle-class black
man
kept locked in the closet of his psyche”. This same statement follows over to the study of hip hop because rappers do the
exact same thing that jazz musicians do but in a different genre and they still deal with the same pressures in life that come with
being a member in the black community.
3. Explain what author means by the following: Explain what author means by the following: “
Most jazz critics
began as
hobbyists or boyishly brash members of the American petite bourgeoisie
, whose
only claim to any understanding about
the music was that they knew it was different; or else they had once been brave enough to make a trip into a Negro slum
to hear their favorite instrumentalist defame Western musical traditions.”
The author describes the qualities of the average white critic of jazz music and where their self proclaimed education of the genre
usually comes from.
4. Explain what the author means by
“middle-brow American culture”.
Note: The essay provides some insight. Your
response should define the term using what YOU THINK Baraka means in this essay. Your answer should be based on
Baraka’s use of the term.
The goal of middle-brow culture was to introduce unevenly educated adults to somewhat diluted versions of high
culture in accessible, engaging and unthreatening ways. The author states in the excerpt “
As one Howard University
philosophy professor said to me when I was an undergraduate, "It's fantastic how much bad taste the blues contain!" But it is just
this "bad taste" that this Uncle spoke of that has been the one factor that has kept the best of Negro music from slipping sterilely
into the echo chambers of middle-brow American culture.”. The author uses the phrase “middle-brow american culture”, to label
the white american’s standards for american culture.
5. Explain the significance of the following line
as it pertains to “middle brow” and the critiques of Black art:
“As one
Howard University philosophy professor
said to me when I was an undergraduate, "It's fantastic how much bad taste the blues
contain!"
That remark alone substantiates my claim in question 4 that middle-brow culture served as a means of exposing uneducated
adults to watered-down copies of high culture in approachable, entertaining, and non threatening ways. And since Jazz doesnt fit
those watered down standards , it's said it has “bad taste” in it , and is constantly judged by white critics.
6. Explain the significance of the following line: “…this music cannot be completely understood (in critical terms) without
some
attention to the attitudes which produced it
.”
I personally believe that the following line explains how white critics will almost never understand jazz and any other black
music because , a lot of black music especially Jazz is an emotional outlet for members in the black community , white critics
would never understand the emotion that goes into the music and “some attention to the attitudes which produced it” because
they are apart of the black community.
7. Explain the significance of the following line: “Most jazz critics were (and are) not only white middle-class Americans, but
middle-brows as well. The irony here is that because
the majority of jazz critics are white middlebrows, most jazz criticism
tends to enforce white middle-brow standards of excellence as criteria
for performance of a music that in its most profound
manifestations is
completely antithetical to such standards; in fact, quite often is in direct reaction against them
.”
Even though Jazz is a genre created by the black community , and the genre is made from black experiences , white middle class
americans and middle-brows seem to find a way to judge this genre from their standards of excellence.
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