Music In African American Culture

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

Negro spirituals was a “genre” of music introduced by African American slaves in response to their lives and treatment by the white race. It gave many slaves the voice of opposition that they never had and allowed them to subliminally speak against their masters without fear of consequences. Said to have originated from slaves who were “Unable to read the Bible for themselves and skeptical of their masters’ interpretation of it…” (Raboteau). These songs were “… the message of the Christian gospel… translated… into

The roots of modern american rock and roll music, are firmly planted in Africa. As the native Africans were torn apart from their family’s and brought to the new world their lives were immediately and drastically changed forever. Finding themselves immersed in a completely new environment with a foreign culture, they thankfully persevered and carried on with their own traditions and most importantly to this paper, musical ones. Most American slaves originated from Western and Central Africa. The West Africans carried a musical tradition rich with long melody lines, complicated rhythms (poly rhythmics) and stringed instruments CITATION. The West Africans music was also strongly integrated into their everyday lives. Songs were preformed for religious ceremonies and dances and music was often a

Throughout the history of this country, the music of African-Americans has remained a strong influence upon our society and culture. Beginning with the music carried over from Africa with the slaves, up until now, with the new styles created by urban youth today, African-Americans have retained certain elements within their music which makes it unique from any other musical form. Some of the musical forms which were created from, and/or were strongly influenced by afro-centric musical characteristics are: Hymnals, Gospel, Spirituals, Ragtime, the blues, and R&B. While many of these musical forms are still popular today amongst Blacks and Non-Blacks, jazz and hip-hop are arguably the two most widespread and

In his seminal book, Blues People, Leroi Jones (AKA Amiri Baraka) indicated that at any given time in history you can tell exactly what’s going on in the African American community by listening to their music. This observation was written back 1963 when Black music was still subject to the musicians who drew their much of their inspiration from their life experiences, creating soul-stirring music that connected their listeners on various levels. On a visceral level, music served as a form of primal therapy that allowed the African American community (particularly the poor and working class element of the community) a much needed chance to relieve the stress of living in a world hostile to their existence. On a cerebral level, Black music was a form of communication connecting various groups of people to one another and re-affirming their life-experiences by telling their story through notes, vocal intonations that produce a catharsis. In a sense, the music becomes the audience’s ultimate witness I and lyrics that bared witness to our plight in the emotional court of human drama.

In the nineteenth century, European countries expanded their interest in foreign music globally. Through world fairs like the 1889 Universal Exposition, cultural and material riches were displayed, which sparked widespread interest in exotic cultures and music, especially the Indonesian gamelan. Exotic music was ranked on a spectrum of exoticism, ranging from pure exoticism to transcultural composing. The term exoticism represents a non-Western object referred to as “Othering, where one group is discriminated from one’s own group due to self definition. Exotic music evokes “cultural and geographical Otherness” and should be perceived as different from home, both by the composer and by the audience.1 On the other side of the spectrum, transcultural transposing incorporates certain styles and conventions of another culture’s music and “merge musical elements that the composer and audience would recognize as our own with those of the distant other culture”.2 Some pieces, such as Colin McPhee’s Tabuh-Tabuhan, were easier to place on the spectrum, while others, such as Benjamin Britten’s opera Death in Venice, were harder to decide. Through the characteristics, and overall purpose of the opera, although Britten integrates exotic gamelan music in Death in Venice to represent homosexuality, which was prohibited in English society, Death in

Race has had a very interesting effect on American popular music. In many respects I believe the creativeness of black Americans although tortured has in the end created many opportunities for Black Americans to move out of the shadow of slavery and racism. Music has allowed the mainstream white American to experience their culture and creativeness, allowed Americans to be exposed to them and either accept them or deny them. In many cases Americans denied them, but the ones that did eventually created societal change that allowed the black American’s and white American’s who accepted them to move beyond the narrow minded deniers. We can give example after example of this. Jazz was epitomized by many conservative Americans as music of the

The start of the Negro music began with slaves. Because “[s]laves identified with Jesus Christ; they thought that he would help them because they were in bad times as he was” (Jones). The slaves probably based most of their songs off of the bible or some other sort of biblical ties. The slaves, assumably, did this thinking that God would hear their songs and help them in their time of need. “When the ‘Emancipation Proclamation freed the slaves, they distanced themselves from the music they created” (Jones). They did this because it reminded them of when they were slaves and what happened to them during those days. Some people are presumably confused on why they did not abandon that religion all together because it was the religion and belief of their old masters. The slaves used the music to cope, contend, and grapple with the hard times they had to

Rap, hip hop, jazz, gospel and spirituals are all extremely influential genres toward popular music today, especially in America. Such musical genres, which are derived from African music traditions, were not widely accepted until very recently in history. This process of acceptance is stretched out through several centuries and it dates back to the era of Atlantic slave trade which began in the 16th century. Even though African culture is severely suppressed in America during those times, the traditions found various means to assimilate into the European-American ways through multiple channels, one of which, is music. How has music from Africa influenced Western music in America due to the trans-Atlantic slave trade from 16th-19th century, and what were the social repercussions of such cultural hybridization which may have rippled to even the modern day? Countless slaves were shipped across the Atlantic to the New World for such cause. Due to the sheer number of slave of African origin, over the centuries, some of their traditions, including music, has found

The history of African-American music is a long and variegated one which originated from the West and sub-Sahara regions of Africa. The origins of this artistic style is due to the slave trade that prevailed in the Americas during the 17th, 18th and 19 centuries. Thus, over time, captured slaves utilized their own cultural roots, which included folk and tribal songs, to sing and communicate amongst one another while working in the fields. The slaves were converted to Christianity by white slave owners. The verses were expressions of spiritual thoughts, feelings and prayers experienced under cruel conditions on the plantation. The reality of an existence that demanded the need to prevail entire lifetimes under an institution of harsh and cruel

The roots of black music were from the church. You saw some of this in to kill a mockingbird the finch family as they went to the church and a linen was speaking the next line because African americans didn't have enough money

African music or better known as black music brought a lot of different types of music to America. Such as Afrobeat founded by Fela Kuti and many bringing over a polyrhythm sound. One of the very first Africans to America were a variety of different ethnic groups with a long history of African musical traditions. When arriving some were allowed to bring their instrument and other made new instrument. An example of this is the “Banja” or “banshaw” now known as the banjo were one of the very first African instrument brought over and is still today being played and built in America. The beginning of mainstream African American music began in the 19th century, “In the 1830s, the Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian fundamentalism, especially among African Americans”. At the time African Americans were slaves but during that time they started performing a variety of spiritual and christian songs. Many of the songs were code for escape. By the 1800’s the black populations has been growing and many Africans American music was being banned

The traditional music of Africa, given the vastness of the continent, is historically ancient, rich and diverse, with differentregions and nations of Africa having many distinct musical traditions.

Music was very important for slaves at the time period. From my previous knowledge I knew stepping was a popular form of creating music. Slaves would create music by singing or stomping to lighten the mood. To see Simon and John do this often throughout the film depict that they were slaves, even though they had it much better than most.The sound of the storm in the background during the play played off the emotion of the characters.During an intense conversation, the thunder or rain would sound louder and more intense. From the very beginning of the play, the rain was very prominent from when Caleb first arrived at the house. The rain was also very prominent at the end of the play as Simon was leaving Caleb and John alone in the house. I

African music is not just music is based on cultural and their background to where they are from in Africa. Durning their ceremony of traditioning dancing and singing they show how their music has meaning to their music. Drums in Africa music symobolize mostly every part of African song because they put effort on making music by making their own drums to make music.