American Music: Where Did it Come From?

½ (Winter-Spring, 1985): pp. 14-23. Web 23 March 2012. Kopp, ED. “A Brief History of the Blues.” Web 16 August 2005. http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php “That Rhythm…Those Blues."

This Civil rights era fueled a people to stand and be accounted for and take pride in their culture and ethnicity after millenniums of oppression. The music played was the soundtrack to this movement. Soul, funk, rhythm and blues are a music born of a culture, protest and celebration. The use of this music as a reflection of cultural issues, values, and belief has been sampled by many cultures. Though some critics feel Soul music was merely a passing fad.

8 (1974): 231-33. St. Louis University. Web. Apr.-May 2014. Ognibene, Elaine R. "Black Literature Revisited: "Sonny's Blues"" The English Journal 60.1 (1971): 36-37.

At first this received little attention outside of Delta but it did influence other blues musicians in the area such as Muddy Waters and this is evident in his early acoustic recordings such as “Country Blues”. Johnson’s recordings also inspired Alan Lomax to visit Delta on behalf of the Library of Congress in search of similar artists. After recording some early acoustic tracks with Lomax, Water’s was able to hear himself back and he later recalled that the experience of hearing himself on these records convinced him he could be a serious professional. (2) Following this Water’s moved to Chicago where in the noisy and raucous clubs and nightspots, his country style had to change. The rural and acoustic sound of Delta was transformed into the edgy ... ... middle of paper ... ...te King, S. 2011.

Rock music has come a long way since its development in the early 20th century. The genre, defined “as a merger between rhythm&blues and country” (Scaruffi, The History of Rock Music:1955-1966), started out more as an underground market, but ended up becoming a significant aspect of American popular music history. Rock-n-Roll music produce many legendary artists who will for ever be known as innovators of the genre. Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry were some of the many artists in Rock-n-Roll who will always live on in their music.Many teenagers were also to identify it due to its rebellious nature their disapproval of the cold war. Towards the end of the 1950s, Rock-n-Roll was ending on a particularly bad note, with a brief decline: “Chuck berry was on the verge of being convicted for having transported a minor across state lines; Elvis was in the army; Little Richard had left popular music for the ministry, Jerry Lee Lewis had effectively been black listed for having married his 13 year old cousin, and Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and the Big Bopper had died in a plane crash.” (Bracket, Pg 131).

The Great Gatsby, USA: Warner Bros Truslow, James (1931) Localized Retrieved December 5, 2013 from http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/580393.James_Truslow_Adams Chris Truman, (Unknown year), America in the 1920’s, Retrieved December 5, 2013 from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/America_economy_1920s.htm Unknown author, but a Princeton.edu website (Unknown Year), F. Scott Fitzgerald Papers, Retrieved December 5, 2013 from http://www.princeton.edu/~rbsc/research/tutorial/lib-fitzaid.html Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). The Great Gatsby. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://www.shmoop.com/great-gatsby/

http://www.dlt.ncssm.edu/lmtm/docs/EndOfSlavery/EmancipationProclamationScript.pdf (accessed January 28, 2013). GoodHeart, Adam. "How Slavery Really Ended in America." New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/magazine/mag-03CivilWar-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed December 28, 2013).

Slave songs, called spirituals, were sung to express emotions and experiences. The slaves sang about their everyday lives, and their hopes, fears, dreams, and complaints. The desire for freedom was evident in songs such as “Run to Jesus, Shun the Danger” and “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” which encouraged escape, while others encouraged sabotage. For the slaves, openly resisting the slave system was dangerous because of the punishment for opposition. Slave owners even banned drumming because they feared an uprising or of secret messages being delivered amongst the slaves ("Slave Resistance at Work.").

Consequences were often taking out against blacks for their violent activist groups. Blacks were not granted the opportunity to have a good job due to whites were scared that blacks would retaliate if demands were not met. Blacks were furious, but some can say that it was caused upon themselves or that it was in effect due to the uprising of retaliations against white supremacy. Though there were not many rewards granted to blacks in the fight for equality during the Great Migration, but looking back at Anne Moody’s book and history, I can truly say that blacks defined an identity and established a culture within their communities in the northern and southern parts of America.

(Crosby) Blues was a way of communicating discontent. But it was the spiritual blues that was the music of an unhappy people - the music that told of death, and suffering, and a cry for some hope of freedom and liberation from their torment. Yes, the slaves did get their freedom but were still bound to their "Chains" by racism. The content is written in the style of the blues not only in the music but in the social perspective of the times in Harlem in respect to the sufferings and struggles of the African-American past and present experiences, and what they were going to encount... ... middle of paper ... ...re that this was only a moment..." (246) But it was that moment that bridged Sonny and his brother. "They all gathered around Sonny and Sonny played.