Soul Music

1506 Words4 Pages

Soul Music

Since the early to mid 1800’s, music has been the most powerful vehicle of human expression. As the embodiment of love, disapproval, happiness, pain and experience, mainly life, music speaks to us because it comes from us. Everyone in the, paradigm of the human experience instinctively and systematically change the music of the past to represent the realities of the present. In this century, African American music, more specifically Soul music, has been the music that has brought to plain view evidences of our humanities – hope, hurt, joy and passion – in such a way that the world has no other choice than to feel its power and marvel in its brilliance. Although the first true pioneers of music can not be traced, some of the first people to bring the art of music to the for front can.

In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, there were different styles of music that developed. One of most popular styles was known as the blues. The blues was a style of music that in a rhythmic matter, told a story of men and women who had been hurt, abused, depressed or who felt confused (Kebede 135). As the blues grew, it began to fall in to one of four categories: country blues, city blues, urban blues and instrumental blues. Country blues existed in oral tradition as a form of personal expression. It began its development in the early part of the 1900’s because it was a difficult period of transition form slavery to freedom. African Americans used the blues to tell of the adversity, they had experienced and was still experiencing. Interest in country blues did not start until the mid 1920’s. Papa Charlie made one of the earliest recordings of this time. Leadbelly and Blind Lemon Jefferson helped advance the interest in Afri...

... middle of paper ...

...has it changed so as that it remains sensitive to our needs today. Only the beat has changed. The Soul of soul, however, the message, will always remain.

Bibliography:

Works Cited

Badu, Erykah. Baduizm. Kedar, 1997.

Brown, James. James Brown's 20 Greatest Hits. Polygram, 1991.

D'Angelo. Brown Sugar. EMI, 1995.

D'Angelo. Belly Soundtrack. Def Jam, 1998.

Gaye, Marvin. Marvin Gaye Anthology. Motown, 1981.

Hathaway, Donny. A Donny Hathaway Collection. 1996

Heron, Gil Scott. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Interscope, 1971.

Kebede, Ashenafi. Roots of Black Music. New Jersey; African World Press, 1995

Last Poets. The Last Poets. Ultrasound, 1967.

Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans. New York; W. W. Norton and Company, 1997

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