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Final Essay: Banjo-Kaphooey
Cultural appropriation is a great injustice that is plagued throughout the history of music. As humans began to settle down into communities and civilizations, people now had time to focus on activities and studies other than those needed for basic survival. All over the world, humans began making music and art. Each group of people developed their own musical instruments, as well as their own guidelines and expectations of what music was and should be. As time went on and these civilizations began to convolve, so did their music. Some composers in Europe heard compositions from Asia and took influence from their styles and techniques, and vice versa. On the surface this seems quite harmless, and I admit that it is in this circumstance. However, it wasn’t always this just.
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When Americans began enslaving Africans, they brought more than people back to North America.
They brought large chunks of African culture along with them. These may not have been physical objects, but these ideas and traditions were alive in the minds of those brought into the country. Throughout their first years as slaves, bits and pieces of these traditions began to resurface. Without their native technologies and resources, they were forced to improvise and create American variations of these native instruments. The biggest example of this phenomenon is the story of what we call the “banjo.” When discussing the banjo, most people would stereotype it as a rural redneck instrument. They wouldn’t expect to hear it outside of country music of the Deep South. Because of this, most would define it as a traditional American instrument. However, this couldn’t be farther from the
truth. The Banjo is actually strongly rooted in African, specifically of Gambia. The African Ngoni is a stringed instrument that is plucked like the lute. Its timbre is strikingly similar to the banjo’s, and they are also quite similar in appearance. It’s capable of playing very fast, virtuosic melodies with many grace notes and embellishments. It was only after the enslavement of these African people that the banjo first appears in North America. History shows that slave-owners were able to adopt this instrument and take credit for its creation. This injustice highlights the negative side of the cultural appropriation of music. However, like I mentioned previously, it isn’t always negative. Years after the first European settlers landed in the Americas, composers and musicians began to settle in the New World. Many of them sought to create new music that was unique to America. As people from all over the world flocked to the melting pot that was America, they also brought their music and traditions. With the diverse arsenal of techniques and styles, American music began to take shape. Serious composers like Gershwin and Copland took influence from different cultures to create works that would become staples of American culture. Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue is heavily influenced by jazz, which is a genre that itself draws much influence from African music. If Christopher Nolan ever wrote a screenplay about culture appropriation and music, this would be his Inception. But joking aside, this example accurately represents that spirit of American music and culture: creating new from old. Discrediting the African people was a great injustice, but it was only a negative side effect of a much larger movement. Of course this appropriation can be very, very wrong, but it was necessary for the advancement of music and the technologies we use to make it. It’s exciting to consider otherworldly cultures melding with ours, and seeing what new music that convolution creates.
Rogers from defines cultural appropriation “as the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture” then it divides cultural appropriation into four different categories which is cultural exchange, cultural dominance, cultural exploitation, and cultural transculturation. Then it includes how other people define cultural appropriation. I would like to use this article to help my reader understand not only what cultural appropriation is and how it is bad but other people’s point of views and how they see it.
For example, Rock’n’roll stems from the miscegenation of rhythm’n’blues and hillbilly music, which all are black music genres. However, Rock’n’Roll is known as a “white” music genre because it was appropriated and repackaged to suit white artist as the American industry refused to associate with black artists. In addition, Elvis is credited as the “King of Rock and Roll” in today’s music industry. I would also be sure to cite and provide examples (real incidents or hypothetical situations) of cultural borrowing in different contexts. After all of those segments, I plan to examine how culturally appropriative Halloween costumes contribute to racism and the exotification of Indigenous people. I will also make sure to address and acknowledge some counterarguments, particularly the counterargument regarding freedom of
Religion has been an important part of man’s life. Man has allowed religion to control and influence his life in many different ways, affecting both his behavior and his actions. So its not surprising that music, one of man’s earliest expressive forms, has also been influenced by religion. Religion has had an effect on man’s music all throughout history, from the early Egyptians to even now. So it is only natural that Western music should also have been affected by religion. Western music, and its development by composers, has been strongly influenced by the Christian religion, especially in the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. The music in these periods laid the foundation for all the different types of music we enjoy today.
...developed a culture all their own that blended African and American elements. They came up with clever ways to resist slavery.
In the early 19th century, the Atlantic slave trade had brought close to five hundred thousand African slaves to the United States. The slaves had brought ingrained musical traditions with them. These consisted of call-and-response patterns, single-line melodies, and a counter-metric structure. These early slaves also drew influence from the harmonic style of the church which they incorporated into their spirituals. (Early)
Slavery created a new cultural identity for African Americans. They did not give up their identities as Africans, rather they expressed their cultural heritage in extraordinary ways to a world that oppressed and enslaved them.
“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
One is bound to influence the other. Take New York’s music scene for example, it is a melting pot for all types of cultures and all thrive off of on another. But for one culture to take something from that culture and put it off as their own that is wrong. This is why cultural appropriation is a different problem all within itself. Cultural appropriation has next to nothing to do with someone’s exposure to different cultures. Cultural appropriation has more to do with the fact that someone from a privilege background or lifestyle exploiting someone’s culture from a less than privileged background hence Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry, Elvis Presley, and Miley Cyrus. This is more than often done through ethnic and racial means all while having little to no understanding of the history, experience, or
Despite the restrictions imposed by slavery, African Americans have made significant contributions to American culture in music, literature, and cuisine.
Although the spirituals had African influence they were not as overtly African as other forms of music. Therefore slave masters did not view as threatening.
These forms of music and art had been practiced by some people but had not gotten a large amount of exposure because they were done by African Americans who were not respected as intellectuals or even human beings at this point in time. With the new found freedom, many of the whites, especially in the North, developed a respect for the African culture as a whole.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The blues and jazz are all branches of slave music and that is why slave music is important to music history.No wonder what kind of music, their develop all based on another kind of old music, so slave music is the beginning for all of these musics,like what these musics mean about, what kind of music instruments these musics should be use and what style of temperament it should be includes.All of the musicians are develop their musics because of these basic things,so we can have so many beautiful music in this century because of the slave music’s set up.It make creating road
“Cultural appropriation refers to picking and choosing elements of a culture by a member of another culture without permission” (O’Reilly). For example, white people steal certain parts of African American culture. They exploit it, misuse it, and whitewash it. “Exploiting a culture deprives the culture of the credit they rightfully
Cultural appropriation is a term vaguely known, in a society it’s so commonly done. It devalues the significance of a cultural aspect for the purpose of aesthetics. Many cultures are willing to globally share some of their components, but it must be known that not all of them will. These decisions must be respected by the people of other cultures, so everyone feels equal. Cultural appropriation is a real concept, and must be understood, acknowledge, and taught to those who don’t know this, so everyone in every culture feels valued.
If the appreciation for different cultures is not done correctly, it can seem to be cultural appropriation. Any piece of a culture can be stolen, mocked, and disrespected, from music, clothing, food, etc. As a society with such a vast amount of cultures, it is important to know the difference between multiculturalism and cultural appropriation. We can unknowingly steal or disrespect another culture all while thinking we are appreciating the culture.