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Why is african american studies important
Religious and spiritual practices of the slaves
The Importance of Music
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African American Culture
Music
Spirituals
This is a religious song sung by the black people in the southern part of the US and are often influenced by African melodies. The spirituals are typical working songs and often content stories and persons from the Bible. Many of the slaves, in fact, thought of themselves as modern children of Israel who were looking for freedom. The songs first become well-known outside the southern states when the slaves were set free from slavery.
Blues
The blues is extremely various type of music, and it has many different musical expressions. The musicians often created an individual style of blues when they performed. It has also given a lot to the development to jazz and it's not rare that jazz musicians bring an element of blues into their music. In addition to this, some of the classical, and many rock, folk and country music compositions also show traces of blues.
The blues lyrics are well-known for their reflection on loneliness and sorrow, but humorous reactions to life's trouble is also common.
Blues probably developed after the Civil War from short solo calls which were called field hollers. These field hollers were used as communication among the black workers on the plantations in the South. Later, a "down-home" blues developed from this into the blues we know today.
When the blues became more popular in the early 1900's, W.C. Handy began to perform blues songs in public. Bessie Smith, of the 1920's, is counted one of the most talented blues singers, and she and other famous singers, helped the blues reach a larger audience.
Jazz
The history of jazz began on the late 19th century and it was influenced by black American music, African rhythms and European harmonies.
One of the most important factors in jazz is improvisation, to create a song impulsively. This is a skill held high of the characteristic jazz musician. The musician isn't just a performer, he is a composer too, and this is what makes every performance of jazz different.
Syncopation is another key word in jazz, the musicians break up the regular patterns; they make them uneven and mix the parts of the song in unexpected ways.
In the beginning the jazz was preformed by black Americans who had little experience in playing western music. Later, as the popularity grew, the sound was influenced by musicians with other backgrounds, like classical or formal. The development of new instruments and different techniques has also done a great deal for the sound of jazz.
Blues has played an extreme role in todays’ music. The music genre of blues, helps us express ourselves in which you can feel it from the ubiquitous in the jazz to the blues scale and the specific chord progressions. To start off, the blues is musically originated by African Americans in the deep South of the United States. Growing up in a southern household, I was used to listening to a variety music, but blues was always most listened to. Every time I listen to blues, the lyrics often deal with personal adversity, and it goes far beyond pity.
Perhaps the blues was representation of optimism and faith for the entire city of Harlem and all of African-American descent. Music is portrayed fluently and abundantly throughout the entire story of “Sonny’s Blues”. Despite the fact that Sonny frequently plays the piano, there is always a juke box playing, the “humming an old church song”, a “jangling beat of a tambourine”, a tune being whistled, or a revival meeting with the singing of religious words (Baldwin 293-307). The repetition of music in the short story is a realistic portrayal of how regular the blues, musically and emotionally, was present in an African-American’s life during the era of racial discrimination. Flibbert explains that the rooted, burdensome emotion felt by African Americans is difficult to put to words, other than describing it as the blues. He best defines the blues as “a mental and emotional state arising from recognition of limitation imposed-in the case of African-Americans-by racial barriers to the community” (Flibbert). Though a definite definition exists, the blues cannot simply be construed. To cope with this unexplainable feeling of blue, the African-American folk genre of jazz music was created. Finally, the blues was something African-Americans owned and that the white man could not strip them of. Though music appears to show up at the most troublesome times in “Sonny’s Blues”, it brings along “a glimmer of life within the
Jazz was introduced directly after World War I by African-Americans (Boundless.com par. 1). Although jazz was composed by many different African-Americans the main founder of jazz was Ethel Waters (McCorkle par. 8). Jazz was first played in New Orleans, but as the African-Americans moved north, white citizens caught on and tuned jazz into a new craze (Lindop 107). Even though jazz was created in New Orleans, Chicago became the home of jazz music (Bingham 8). The first jazz players derived the tune from a mixture of Latin American, African, and European rhythms, making it very popular among many different types of people (“Latin Jazz” par. 1). Jazz was so well-liked because it gave the artists the opportunity to make the predetermined tune their own (“What is jazz par. 1). When listening to jazz the same song is never heard twice because the band members each put their own spin on the way they play their instrumen...
The influences of Jazz music came from African Americans and Europeans. The African American influences to jazz provided a call and response to jazz music.
Although folk music played a big role in most of these artists’ performances, folk links back to the blues, and is similar...
...ey cannot deny that the Blues has influenced different genres from the cotton fields to the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame.
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...
For the author, the blues are more universal than a specific type of music. The narrator describes that the blues are "the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph." With this quote, the story "Sonny's Blues" is actually a blues piece: it starts with the suffering that the two brothers face, continues with their developing communion, and ends with brotherly love and triumphs over loneliness and suffering. The story "Sonny's Blues" is like Sonny's actual music, because it tries to bring people together and, through that link of grace and understanding, to relieve suffering. The author is not playing the blues but actually putting it down in writing. The title "Sonny's Blues" doesn’t describe the music Sonny plays but it tells Sonny's story of suffering and overcoming his obstacles, through his music.
Jazz culture to be exact, is the topic at hand. Jazz culture expands throughout many genres and is expressed in many ways. The many genres of jazz are Big Band, jazz funk, modern jazz, smooth jazz, Latin jazz, and jazz fusion. Each of these comes with its own unique sound and origin. Latin jazz, for example, employs rhythms from both African and Hispanic backgrounds. The sound is particularly up tempo with divided eight beat patterns. Jazz artists who have portrayed these qualities of jazz to the world are at the very core of its culture. Many people who are in places of power in this society or are held in some form of esteem have had some exposure to the arts, whether it is classical or jazz. This is due to a desire to be culturally diverse which is a quality held in high esteem in regards to a more worldly point-of-view. There are many aspects of Jazz music that could be approached, but there is one point in particular that must be expressed in detail. The influence on the genre ...
Jazz is referred as “America’s classical music,” and is one of North America’s and most celebrated genres. The history of Jazz can be traced back to the early era of the 20th century of the U.S. “A History of Jazz” presents From Ragtime and Blues to Big Band and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. A strong rhythmic under-structure, blue notes, solos, “call-and response” patterns, and
The evolvement of jazz throughout the years has been an interesting one. Blues and Ragtime are just two simple innovations that has allowed for many variations in the jazz genre. Both of these genres have their similarities and differences in how they influenced jazz music through: improvisation, syncopation, and experimentation.
Around the time period of the Civil War, Gospel Music started to become more and more popular within the soundscape of the south. While Spiritual music focused more on traditional sense of folk songs, Gospel was gained inspiration from spiritual and focused its aesthetics on congregations and hymns with references referring back to its roots. Not only did Spiritual music have an effect on the progression of Gospel music, this lead to the creation of Blues and Jazz. Blues is typically associated with music that had evolved from African spirituals, chants, work songs and hymns that expressed through trials and tribulations from the heart of the folksongs. Jazz evolved and grew to be a popular phenomenon from the fundamentals and the premise of the Blues and instilled a genre that would become one of America most recognized genres of
The blues, a uniquely American art form, was born on the dusty street corners of the Deep South in the late 1800s. An evolution of West African music brought to the United States by slaves, created the blues which was a way for black people in the south to express their hardships, heartbreaks, religion, passion, and politics that they experienced in their day-to-day lives. The majority of blues songs were never written down, let alone recorded, but instead, were passed on from one musician to another and played on a variety of instruments including a number of stringed instruments, harmonicas, and horns. Once blues songs began to be officially recorded in the 1920s, the most frequently found instruments were guitars and pianos. However, the basic 12-bar style and three.-chord progression have remained the same throughout the years and continue to be key components of the blues.
Now a days, many believe that jazz is not that important of music genre, but with our history, jazz plays a big role. “Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but it is a gift that America has given to the world.”, quoted by Ahmad Alaadeen. Jazz in the 1920’s opened the eyes of whites and invited them into African American culture; it evolved Americans to where we are today since it brought a change to the music scene, an acceptance of African Americans, and a change of lifestyles.
The first country blues that was written and published was "Memphis Blues" by W.C. Handy in the early 1900's. The first recorded blues was " Crazy Blues" by Mamie Smith in 1915. Most country blues were played with an acoustic guitar and with someone singing. It also has a definite call and response between the voice and guitar.