African American Popular Music Essay

American history was radically changed when President Abraham Lincoln gave the very famous Emancipation Proclamation. This lead to the freedom of millions of African Americans who sought the same liberty and equality that was promised to everyone under the United States constitution. These liberties, of course, were not achieved right away. During the Reconstruction era, which is the decade right after the Civil War, many of the recently freed slaves did not have money, property, or credit. They could not buy the necessary things to enjoy their freedom, which lead to sharecropping, a glorified form of slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner lets a tenant use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land (Sharecropping).. Added on to this, facilities were segregated to prevent the black man from enjoying the same things as the white man due to Jim Crow laws which were enacted after the Reconstruction era. The struggle for equality and rights continued during the Gilded Age (1873-1900), the Progressive Era (1900-1920s), the Great Depression (1930s), WWII (1939-1945), the beginning of the Cold War (1947), up until the Civil Rights movement (1954-1968). At this point in history, African Americans fought for their rights and changed the course of American history. Music was a very important tool used by African Americans that helped achieve this. Ever since the slavery times, music was a big part of their culture

Over the years, African American Music has developed as not only as cultural but also artistic phenomenon affecting the world. The music takes its own stand of being dominant as well of having a prevailing means of expression through the use of the lyrics. The lyrics of many songs tend to use a specific type of language in order to create that connection between the listeners. This certain style of language helps the listeners to think on a deeper level about the real meaning behind the lyrics.

During my early years of school, I remember being taught white accomplishments and wondering if blacks and other people of color had made any significant contributions to today's world. I noticed that television consist of all white people. Throughout my research paper I hope to cover certain aspects of African American heritage. Aspects such as blacks making up the largest minority group in the United States, although Mexican-Americans are rapidly changing that. The contributions blacks have provided to our country are immeasurable. Unfortunately though rather than recognizing these contributions, white America would rather focus on oppressing and degrading these people. As a consequence American

Slavery began in the late 16th century to early 18th century. Africans were brought to American colonies by white masters to come and work on their plantations in the South. They were treated harshly with no payments for all their hard work. In addition, they lived under harsh living conditions, and this led to their resistance against these harsh conditions. The racism towards the African Americans who were slaves was at its extreme as they did not have any rights; no civil nor political rights.

Many Renaissance writers felt some hesitancy about the use of the black lingo as well as an onus to maintain the separation between high and low art, an issue that continues to be debated. How to confront questions of race commonly had to be more nuanced and subtle as well. Advances in black music were somewhat more efficacious because of the high demand for black talented artistes like Count Basie, Ethel Waters, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong. New York nightclubs regularly featured black musicians, whose innovations in jazz embodied America 's first original music form. Black women vocalists also found success as the music industry quickly discovered the commercial advantages of race music.

Charlie Pride did it in 1971. Darius Rucker did it in 2009. That’s it. Two black men, spanning thirty-eight years, are the only black artists to win a Country Music Association Award. With country music rooted in bluegrass and rhythm and blues, why aren’t there more black country music stars? When considering the roots of country music, and how closely related country is to blues, bluegrass and honky tonk music, an examination of what happened to all the black musicians seems warranted, no? This paper examines the dearth of black artists in country music and the careers of one of the few black artists who has had commercial success in this genre of music.

“In less than a minute, the death wail went up out of every cabin in the Quarters, and Brother Ezekial began the death chant: Soon one morning, Death come knocking at my door…. Oh, my lord, What shall I do” (Walker 17)? Death was common for slaves. They routinely died from disease, beatings and accidents on the plantation, and they expressed their sorrow in the form of song. “I see death around the corner, gotta stay high while I survive, … Keep my finger on the trigger, no mercy in my eyes” (“Death Around”). Death is still common in the African American society. “Black males ages 15-19 die from homicide at 46 times the rate of their white

Throughout the late 19th century, African Americans did not have the same rights as white people, which led towards the establishment of Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks from whites in a political, educational, and social setting, which created unfair treatment towards people of color. In Devil in the Grove, four African American boys, known as the Groveland Boys, were falsely accused of raping a white woman in Florida, which was known as the Groveland case. Thurgood Marshall, who was a part of The National Association of Advancement for Colored People (NAACP), helped to solve the Groveland case, as he was an advocate in fighting against Jim Crow segregation. The labor force, vigilante groups, and legal precedents led towards the establishment of Jim Crow policies by segregating black people from white people in public areas. African Americans contested these policies by creating legal organizations that overturned cases supporting segregation laws and using music as a way to protest against the Jim Crow policies.

Up until the 20th century music in North America showed a clear distinction between race and social class. The music from then has since evolved into many diverse forms and backgrounds of origin. The most significant impact on music concerning race in the 20th century was African Americans and the musical traditions, they brought to the music world adapted through the life of slavery. Before the time era of the 20th century began, blues music was spreading very rapidly throughout. “Blues is a vocal and instrumental musical form which evolved from African American spirituals, shouts, work songs and chants.” (Twentieth-century music, n.d.) Blues was a way for people to sing about their hardships as a way of venting. “The origins of Jazz during

African American music has influenced every genre in the music industry today. From Jazz music all the way to Rap, it has cultivated different cultures throughout the world in a very unique way. African Americans have produced music, beginning with the transition through the transatlantic slave trade, to slavery in the “New World”, the Civil Rights era, and to the modern society of today, that enabled so many genres to actually even exist. Even though each time period focused on a specific issue during that time, it is evident the suffrage and the overall experience of Blacks molded artist of the past and those of today. The music produced in the past is very much so different from that of today, however, it is clearly shown that many present

Blacks never let their voices be silenced even with the racism in the world around them. Music, dance, and clothing were all influenced by African Americans in the 70s and 80s. The hit music genre of the 70s was disco, it’s never before heard sound waves made it such a huge hit. Glenda in our interview told a story about how big music was in her community, “We had house parties and my brother had all the records set up on his turntables. We would invite everyone from the block our age and enjoy the party in our basement” . Music brought communities together and helped create another break from cruel society around them. It also built a stronger bond in communities and helped try to steer the youth in the direction away from drug use which becoming

We can’t just get ride of racism so quick, in order to control or tame racism we need to learn how to control our actions. But how does this retain to music. During the time of music started, music was meant for calm and peace with the mind and body. It gives us the reason to live and know what you want through enjoyment within which category of music you desire to listen to. Music expresses ideas and emotions in a significant way through elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color. Knowing that music can make your life better than normal, does it have its down falls? Since 1900s racism has began to be recognized as an issue after many years of discrimination and hatred. It has evolved to be a “culture” between whites and blacks, especially as it applied to the growing jazz industry. As jazz got popular, both an economy and music style has problems because of race identity. According to blogspot.com, “In the very beginning, the music that predated jazz was primarily for entertaining small groups of black slaves and allowed them to alleviate the hardships of oppression. Jazz itself developed out of a musical rebellion against the control of the white man.” Racism lives everywhere we

Rhythm and blues, also known today as “R & B”, has been one of the most influential genres of music within the African American Culture, and has evolved over many decades in style and sound. Emerging in the late 1940's rhythm and blues, sometimes called jump blues, became dominant black popular music during and after WWII. Rhythm and blues artists often sung about love, relationships, life troubles, and sometimes focused on segregation and race struggles. Rhythm and blues helped embody what was unique about black American culture and validate it as something distinctive and valuable.

while people of color resided and continued to reside in cities. During the early 80’s as a

By its name, Black Music is to be used as a case in point. Because it is easy to identify, its contributions to popular culture are omnipresent. A good example of how this might be is in the performance of Black Creative Music (Jazz). Before we move further we must explain what we intend to examine when we use the term Black Creative Music.