Harlem Stride Piano: The Harlem Renaissance's Artifact Movement

1832 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Harlem Renaissance impact on classical music

Nima Mirzai
Cultural Artifact Project
Harlem Stride Piano
The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural movement in the African American community during the 1920’s where music, art, and literature prospered. A migration of African Americans from the south to the north created a cultural eruption. Harlem was one of the meccas that attracted artists and writers from all across the country to head north, and one of its most famous products was the Harlem Stride Style piano. I will look to further investigate this artifact of music, and delve into its role regarding how it not only contributed to the uniting of African Americans, but also to the discourse between African American musicians, and white audiences. My goal is that at the end of this essay “you” the reader will be able to realize the cultural significance of this artifact, how it shows the clash of multiple cultures in the United States during the 1920’s, and its impact on our culture today.
During the 1920’s we saw the first major public recognition of African-American culture. Prior to the 1920’s African Americans in the south were still struggling to find an identity, as Jim Crow laws were constantly oppressing them. With the United States involvement in WWI, and the lack of cheap European immigrant labor in the north there was a great opportunity for African Americans to escape the south. This migration of southern blacks carried with it many southern cultural influences, especially in music. Harlem Stride style piano was a result of this clash of culture and musical styles, and is a significant artifact in regards to how it represents the forward movement of African American culture as well as the integration and clash of white and black culture. I will now look cl...

... middle of paper ...

... and percussion instruments were intertwined. This new style was played predominately in clubs and attracted white audiences from all around. This then created another dialogue and narrative of whites appreciating black culture and entertainment recognizing and further realizing the mass appeal and potential for these artists. In all this along with the other cultural contributions of the Harlem Renaissance played part in creating a cultural shift. Not only were African Americans more united, but their status it would seem in regards to the arts was raised as well. Even though Harlem Stride style piano and Jazz music may not be the sole reason that the Harlem Renaissance was able to revive African American pride and culture, it did however keep the spirit of the movement alive and allowed African American musicians to have a lasting effect on American society.

Show More
Related

  • Harlem Renaissance and Jessie Redmon Fauset

    728 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harlem soon became known as the “capital of black America” as the amount of blacks in this community was very substantial. Many of the inhabitants of this area were artists, entrepreneurs and black advocates with the urge to showcase their abilities and talents. The ...

    Read More

  • The Impact Of Louis Armstrong's Influence On American History

    1133 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout history, and even today, music has shaped America’s culture, society, and even politics. One of the most outstanding and enduring musical movement has been from African American artists, ranging from bebop to jazz to hip-hop to rap. During the 1920’s , jazz artists stepped into the limelight and began their impact on American and even world history. Louis Armstrong was one of the most influential leaders during the Harlem Renaissance and his jazz legacy and impact of American history is everlasting. A master of his craft, Armstrong and his music heavily influenced America’s white and black populations from the 1920’s and up until his death.

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    "The Harlem Renaissance - Boundless." Boundless. Ed. CC-BY-SA 3.0. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

    Read More

  • Nathan Irvin Huggins: Culture And Identity Crisis In The Harlem Renaissance

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Harlem Renaissance by Nathan Irvin Huggins, the author doesn’t answer just one general question, but instead questions the culture and identity crisis that enveloped this movement. He successfully brings

    Read More

  • Music And Racial Identity

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Together the matrices of race and music occupied similar position and shared the same spaces in the works of some of the most lasting texts of Enlightenment thought..., by the end of the eighteenth century, music could embody differences and exhibit race…. Just as nature gave birth and form to race, so music exhibited remarkable affinities to nature” (Radano and Bohlman 2000: 14). Radano and Bohlman pointed out that nature is a source of differences that give rise to the different racial identities. As music embodies the physical differences of human, racial differences are not only confined to the differences in physical appearances, but also the differences in many musical features, including language, tonality and vocal expression. Nonetheless, music is the common ground of different racial identities. “In the racial imagination, music also occupies a position that bridges or overlaps with racial differences. Music fills in the spaces between racial distinctiveness….” (Radano and Bohlman 2000:8) Even though music serves as a medium through which different racial identities are voiced and celebrated individually, it establishes the common ground and glues the differences

    Read More

  • Music Played Key Role in US Civil Rights Movement

    3700 Words  | 8 Pages

    Music nurtured the African American tradition and their struggle towards equality in the same century.... ... middle of paper ... ... Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds Pub. Carter, D. (2009).

    Read More

  • Rock n Roll & 20th Century Culture

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to Albert Murray, the African-American musical tradition is “fundamentally stoical yet affirmative in spirit” (Star 3). Through the medium of the blues, African-Americans expressed a resilience of spirit which refused to be crippled by either poverty or racism. It is through music that the energies and dexterities of black American life are sounded and expressed (39). For the black culture in this country, the music of Basie or Ellington expressed a “wideawake, forward-tending” rhythm that one can not only dance to but live by (Star 39).

    Read More

  • Music of the Harlem Renaissance

    692 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance enriched America through its music. Countless African Americans became key figures in music during this time. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of African American expression in art, music, and literature. The Harlem Renaissance was instigated by the migration of African Americans to northern cities that was taking place in America at that time. (Hutchinson) The music of the Harlem Renaissance brought about a sense of equality among black and white Americans and was a sense of inspiration, which was made possible through African American migration and led to civil rights movement of the 1960s.

    Read More

  • Impact of Music of the Harlem Renaissance Upon the Artists of Today

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    By the end of World War I, Black Americans were facing their lowest point in history since slavery. Most of the blacks migrated to the northern states such as New York and Chicago. It was in New York where the “Harlem Renaissance” was born. This movement with jazz was used to rid of the restraints held against African Americans. One of the main reasons that jazz was so popular was that it allowed the performer to create the rhythm. With This in Mind performers realized that there could no...

    Read More

  • The Negative Impacts of the Harlem Renaissance

    1138 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance did not redefine African-American expression. This can be seen through the funding dependence on White Americans, the continued spread of racism and the failure to acknowledge the rights of poor Southern African-Americans. Harlem provided a source of entertainment for many people. With its Jazz Clubs and poetry readings, it was the “hip” place to be. This was a shock to many African-American’s, who had never before had the opportunity to perform in such affluent surroundings.

    Read More

  • The Harlem Renaissance

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Harlem Renaissance refers to a prolific period of unique works of African-American expression from about the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Although it is most commonly associated with the literary works produced during those years, the Harlem Renaissance was much more than a literary movement; similarly, it was not simply a reaction against and criticism of racism. The Harlem Renaissance inspired, cultivated, and, most importantly, legitimated the very idea of an African-American cultural consciousness. Concerned with a wide range of issues and possessing different interpretations and solutions of these issues affecting the Black population, the writers, artists, performers and musicians of the Harlem Renaissance had one important commonality: "they dealt with Black life from a Black perspective." This included the use of Black folklore in fiction, the use of African-inspired iconography in visual arts, and the introduction of jazz to the North.[i] In order to fully understand the lasting legacies of the Harlem Renaissance, it is important to examine the key events that led to its beginnings as well as the diversity of influences that flourished during its time.

    Read More

  • Sonny's Blues

    1744 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jazz music prospered in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Jazz was created by African Americans to represent pain and suffering and also represented the adversity that racial tension brought. (Scholastic) African American performers like Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie “Bird” Parker came to be recognized for their ability to overcome “race relati...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Nightlife

    691 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1940’s the world found itself entangled in World War II. However, in the United States, a movement known as the Chicago Renaissance flushed through Illinois. An era of black literature, music and culture began. Specifically, jazz music became increasingly popular and was the popular hit of most hotspots located in Chicago and may other cities in the nation. In the painting Nightl...

    Read More

  • Black Music in Toni Morrison's Jazz

    1730 Words  | 4 Pages

    As it mentioned above, the title itself, draws attention to the world-renowned music created by African Americans in the 1920s’ as well as to the book’s jazz-like narrative structure and themes. Jazz is the best-known artistic creation of Harlem Renaissance. “Jazz is the only pure American creation, which shortly after its birth, became America’s most important cultural export”(Ostendorf, 165). It evolved from the blues

    Read More

  • My Cultural Identity

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Powell, A. (2007). The Music of African Americans and its Impact on the American Culture in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Miller African Centered Academy, 1. Retrieved from http://www.chatham.edu/pti/curriculum/units/2007/Powell.pdf

    Read More

More about Harlem Stride Piano: The Harlem Renaissance's Artifact Movement

Open Document