Sam Cooke : A Vision Of Change

Sam Cooke was an African American singer that became the voice of the Civil Rights Movement. Sam took the spirit of the Black church into popular music. He became the first African American artist to reach #1 on both R&B and pop charts. His music was risky, but he won over white listeners and kept is church followers intact.

Pathos is used in order to link the essay with the reader’s emotions and ethos is used to show the writers moral character. For example, pathos is used when Kozol speaks to a student of a Bronx high school, “Think of it this way,” said a sixteen-year-old girl. “If people in New York woke up one day and learned that we were gone…how would they feel?...I think they’d be relieved.” (Kozol 205) This part of the essay really made me feel sad for this girl who lives in a society where she has grown up feeling like now one cares about her or others of her race.

Pathos is used very effectively in Seth Davis’s article. By using pathos he is helping to expose the purpose of the article in a way that you wouldn’t think of before. Davis states “As the father of three children under the age of eight, I can only pray that someone “exploits” my sons someday

Sam Cooke was one of the most important soul singers in history -- he was the inventor of soul music. Cooke was one of the most popular performers in both the black and white communities. He was also among the first modern black performers and composers to venture into the business side of the music business, when he founded both a record label and a publishing company as an extension of his careers as an addition to being a singer and composer. Like many artist before him Cooke tackled issues including the struggle over civil rights. Some may even say the intensity of which followed an arc that paralleled Cooke's emergence as a star -- his own career bridged gaps between black and white audiences that few had tried to surmount, much less

B.B. King or ‘The King of Blues’ was born in Itta Bena, Mississippi. His young parents unfortunately divorced, and his mother passed away when he was 9 years old which left him to be raised by his grandmother. King attended school until the 10th grade when he dropped out of school and started to work at a cotton gin near his hometown. Despite dropping out of school he continued to teach himself math and different languages well into his later life. He worked at the cotton gin earning a penny a pound and singing gospel music on street corners. His musical career started when he was studying under his cousin Bukka White. King met a woman and was married at 17 years old. “I guess I was looking for love, because I never had anybody I believed truly loved me” (B.B. King). The marriage quickly came to end when they got a divorce months later. “Since my early childhood, I had a problem trying to open up. Please open me up. Look inside!

Knowing that this will provoke the reader's emotions and pull them in. She relies on using pathos, because she knows that if she reaches out to the audience's heart that she will be able to persuade them easier. Another area where she used pathos is when she claims“the horror of creeping depression or delusions that of peer derision, the sound of the C word in the hallways: crazy, man, he’s crazy, haven’t you seen him, didn’t you hear?” speaking of how us and others respond to mental illnesses. She uses the rhetorical device of pathos to make her claim seem more convincing and

Pathos is the appeal to emotions. The major moments of pathos in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" comes in the parts about the suffering of the African American community. King wrote, “when your first name becomes nigger”, which “nigger” is a powerful and insulting word. He also stated, “Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.” African Americans were treated horrendously, and he addresses his pain throughout the whole letter, not just a mere statement. This continued application of pathos throughout the entire letter shows his audience just how bad the situation was. By continually bringing the suffering and inequality to the eyes of the audience, King is able to effectively make his audience realize how big of an impact the inequality has on the African American

In Greek Pathos is said to mean suffering or experience which gives the emotional appeal to the reader. With Pathos you can use vivid or emotional language , and sensory details to give imagery and emotionally appeal the reader. Pathos can be used to change the audience opinion to whatever the author wants in the argument. In Fast Food Nation : The Dark Side Of All-American Meal by Eric Schlosser , Pathos is used to improve his argument and persuade the opinions of others.

The blues have deep roots embedded within American history—particularly that of African American history. The history of the blues originated on Southern plantations in the 19th century and was created by slaves, ex-slaves, and descendants of slaves. They were created by individuals who endured great hardship while performing endless hours of arduous labor and blues served as a form of escapism. To these individuals, songs provided them with the strength to persevere through their struggles. Blues songs depicted individuals who persevered in the face of adversity. They were symbols of hope to those squandering in the depths of oppression. In relations to the blues, every song has a story behind it and within every story, there is something to be said. Blues artists, through their struggles, detail how they overcame hardship and laughed at the face of oppression. They defied the rules and in doing so, showed African Americans that they too are beacons of hope for the hopeless. The best blues is instinctive, cathartic, and intensely emotional. From irrepressible bliss to deep sadness, no form of music communicates more genuine emotion than that of the blues. Like many bluesmen of his day, Robert Johnson applied his craft as a lonely traveling musician on street corners and in juke joints. He was a lonely man whose songs romanticized that existence. With Johnson’s unique vocal style, haunting lyrics, and creative guitar techniques, Johnson’s innovation embodied the essence of

As a young boy living on cotton plantations, Robert witnessed the harsh treatment of fellow black African Americans. The cruel treatment of the plantation owners continued into daily life where Johnson was received as inferior by the white general public. He received unjust segregated treatment as a result of his black skin. As a small child he watched in amazement to the powerful music of the bluesmen. In beautiful song they captured the pain of injustice which Robert, as well as most other African Americans of the time, had been forced to endure all their lives. Young Robert was intrigued by these men, and dreamed of one day singing the blues himself.

On the other hand, Blues were basically from work songs of African Americans slaves at the time. “It is a native American music, the product of the black man in this country, or, to put it more exactly the way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives”(pp.17), said Jones and Baraka. In Jazz – A History, Frank Tirro wisely analyzes and explains the relationship between the unique background and

In the midst of a time where black Americans were facing extreme ridicule and fighting for their rights, Sam Cooke arose from the Gospel music style and merged into the music known as Soul, a genre that spoke to the socially crumbling nation about peace and civil rights changes. Through his smooth style, velvety voice, handsome appearance, and appeal to black and white audiences alike, Sam Cooke made a difference in the lives of Americans in the 1960s by singing with pure emotion and soul, like in "A Change is Gonna Come." Through this genre’s sincere singing with lyrics full of emotion, a sense of understanding was brought to the people of America about the

This judgment began unexpectedly to spread as African American music, especially the blues and jazz, became a worldwide sensation. Black music provided the pulse of the Harlem Renaissance and of the Jazz Age more generally. The rise of the “race records” industry, beginning with OKeh’s recording of Mamie Smith’s

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.

The early Rock & Roll period which also was a racial issues era, rock-and-roll was believed to have emerged during the American racial conflict. At the time, blacks in the United States were constantly resisting the apartheid policies and racial discrimination. At this time, a new musical form which mixed with white and black music elements and can be able to incite strong emotions, regardless of ethnicity. The first song that I want to explain is “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” written in 1956, which inspired Chunk Berry about a Hispanic man being arrested by Police in African-American and Hispanic areas in California. Chuck Berry used metaphor to out-spoken criticize racial problem by using so called “Brown Eyed”, but actually is “Brown Color Skinned”.