“Searching for Sugar Man,” directed by Malik Bendjelloul, is a story about Sixto Rodriguez. He is a forgotten singer from the early 1970s, and he was a rock star in South Africa during the era. From the very beginning of the film, Stephen Segerman introduces himself as a “sugar man” and starts talking about a legend singer who is completely unknown in the United States. The interesting point is people in South Africa at that time did not know who he is, and there were a lot of rumors about him. His existence was a complete mystery. The film shows strong interviews from various people who might know the legend singer. In this regard, the interviews arouse the audience's curiosity. One interview from Dan Dimaggio, for example, he remembers the singer and …show more content…
According to what Segerman says, his first album, "Cold Fact" and the second one, "Coming From Reality," traveled half the world away from the United States, and the albums finally arrives at Cape Town, South Africa. His albums became a symbol of the anti-apartheid movement, and thus the albums were sold over 500,000 copies. When the film is conveying a secret story about why his songs got a great success, Rodriguez’s song, "The Establishment Blues," floats out with scenes of people who protest on the streets. From its lyrics, “The mayor hides the crime rate/ Council woman hesitates/ Public gets irate/ But forgets the vote date/ This system’s gonna fall soon/ To an Angry young tune/ And that’s a concrete cold fact.” As Craig Bartholomew-Strydom says, “Any revolution needs an anthem,” Rodriguez’s albums strongly influenced people to fight for their freedom and to think differently. Furthermore, when the audience’s curiosity about Rodriguez’s trace reaches its peak, the film gives us one of the most dramatic
For centuries, music has been defined by history, time, and place. To address this statement, Tom Zè, an influential songwriter during the Tropicália Movement, produced the revolutionary “Fabrication Defect” to challenge oppression as a result from the poor political and social conditions. On the other hand, David Ramsey discusses, in mixtape vignettes, the role of music to survive in New Orleans’ violent setting. Furthermore, “The Land where the Blues Began”, by Alan Lomax, is a film and perfect example to understand under what musical conditions profound ways of communication are made to stand the hard work of cotton plantations. As a result, music plays a crucial role in the sources’ cultures and its creation relies on particular conditions such as the social
The film is centered as a parody of Bruce Springsteen’s popular hit “Born in the USA.” In the film, he embodies a Mexican-American from East Los Angeles who is falsely accused of being an immigrant and then deported. The film uses political satire to employ the message of the status of Chicanos within the United States. “The film is a critique of white racism, particularly white racism directed toward ethnic minorities and immigrant groups that are considered foreigners and therefore unwelcome in Anglo America (Tatum 80).” The film won Best Picture at the Havana Film Festival as well as Best Screenplay and Best Production Design. It was later accredited as being part as “Hispanic Hollywood” along with other famous Latino films during the
Searching for Sugar Man, a 2012 documentary directed by Malik Bendjelloul, contains many documentary-type aesthetics. The film tells the tale of an American musician named Sixto Rodriguez whose music encouraged the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa. The characters within the film are all real people based off of a real-life situation. This particular film contains many on-camera interviews in order to get that documentary type feel. The film shows interviews from a construction worker, to all of Rodriquez’s daughters. Along with these interviews are also on-screen texts used to show the history of Rodriguez. Some on-screen texts display the interviewees names or some display the date and place where Rodriguez was. In one interview, the viewer is able to see the on-screen text of “Dennis Coffey- Co-Producer of Rodriguez’s First Album ‘Cold Fact’ (1970).” This type of on-screen information gives the audience a little background information on who is being interviewed.
“The Toxic Truth About Sugar”, written by Lustig et al. varies in their usage of rhetorical strategies to try to have their readers better understand that sugar, as common as it is, can be very dangerous when a big amount is consumed in one day. The numbers in our world don’t lie: A shocking statistic is that there are currently thirty percent more people who are obese than there are healthy. This discussion arose from the staggering facts that obesity is becoming more of an epidemic than ever before. The United States has a choice to make: Take the steps necessary to slow obesity or do nothing at all, like it feels we are currently doing. This can be a good or bad rush, depending on how you assess the situation.
Several even try to connect their music to the feelings of their audience. Some of the songs including, Jailhouse Rock, Good Vibrations, Purple Haze and Stayin’ Alive try to use women as the meaning of their songs. In addition, they are used to clarify the point in films of their time and influence an environmental change. Slowly, building into innovative ways to portray music that fits the era they were in. Each song was able to readjust the perception of war and help those forget the scary outcomes war was bringing. Therefore, music adapted by connecting the people as one to their era and providing them a tune that minimized their
Released in 1997, Buena Vista Social Club immediately became an international success and won a Grammy Award in 1998. Around the world, especially in U.S. where the album was welcomed most heartily, Ry Cooder was considered the hero of Cuban music (Hernandez 65). Being the producer of the album, Cooder was assumed to discover a “lost treasure” in Cuban culture. However, Tanya Kateri Hernandez, in an article about Buena Vista Social Club, revealed that Juan de Marcos Gonzalez, not Cooder, was the person “who masterminded and facilitated the collaboration.” (Hernandez 62). Also in this article, it is noted that Juan de Marcos Gonzalez “implicitly acquiesced to Cooder’s propagation of the colonial myth for the purpose of ensuring the commercial success of the collaboration.” (Hernandez 64). Other musicians in the Buena Vista Social Club ensemble followed Gonzalez’s step, as there was hardly another choice for them.
During the Antebellum Era, slavery was about one-third of the South’s population. The Antebellum Era was the period before the Civil War broke out. The South’s economy was booming which was credited to slavery. Their argument about slavery was that slaves were necessary and important to their economy. It would kill their economy if they got rid of slavery. Slavery was the foundation of their economy. Without any slaves, cotton would not be able to be produce. Nearly 60 % of their exports was cotton. Southerners would also point out that slaves were better working in plantations than working in a northern factory. According to them, the North had bad workplaces and long hours. They insisted that slaves were cared for and helped when they needed it unlike the North. However, slaves were still treated bad in the South. They would resist slavery in a variety of ways. For example, running away was one form of resistance. The most common form of resistance was known as “day-to-day” resistance which were
During the Gilded Age, “living conditions in the cities were often deplorable, with thousands of families forced to reside in slums that were breeding grounds for typhoid, smallpox, cholera, tuberculosis, and other diseases that swept through the cities on a regular basis.” (“Industrial Revolution”). Poverty and homelessness was not uncommon at the time. The political corruption at the time did not help with this issue either. Political machines governed cities, exploiting the desperate immigrants and gaining their loyalty to stay in power. Starting life anew was difficult and near impossible. Urban life was deplorable during the Gilded Age as demonstrated by the urban slum life, political corruption and difficult life.
“If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side...when the glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era? This time...is a very good one.”
Schuster-Craig, J. (2011). The Blue Moment: Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and the Remaking of
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...
Both Davis and Taylor have incorporated structural and stylistic choices in No Sugar and the Help to influence the viewers in adapting similar responses. No Sugar utilizes colloquial language and setting of scenes to influence the reader into adapting a frustrated and sympathetic response. The Help achieves this similar response of shame and concernedness through different stylistic and structural choices of point of view and ordering of scenes. Overall both texts have taken into effect, different structural and stylistic choices to persuade the reader to adapt a similar response.
Although he later denied that he ever said it, Sam Phillips-the man who discovered Elvis Presley-is reputed to have said, “if I could find a white man who had the Negro sound the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars” (Decurtis 78). Certain radio stations would not play the work of black artists in the segregated America of the 1950s. But, nevertheless, rock ‘n’ roll was an art form created by African-Americans. Little Richard, whose songs “Tutti Fruitti” and “Long Tall Sally” became hits only after white-bread versions were made by Pat Boone, said, “It started out as rhythm and blues” (Decurtis 78).
Jackie Robinson once said that “"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." (Brainy Quotes). Jackie Robinson faced more abuse than any other baseball player. Jackie Robinson had his mind set on breaking the color barrier for African Americans. Jackie Robinson had the muscle strength and talent to inspire and change the color barrier in Major League baseball. Jackie Robinson was one of the most significant baseball players that America has ever known for Jackie Robinson’s bravery to stop the color barrier for, his inspiration he gave to people all around the world and for his accomplishments during baseball and outside of baseball this made him one of the most valuable players in the National League.
When the piece was originally written for the Hot Chocolates, it was considered to be “America’s first `racial protest song`… [and] certainly Razaf’s lyric stripped bare essences of racial discontent that had very rarely if ever been addressed by any African American musically” (Singer 219). The music was created to express the hardships of the black community and the intra-racial discrimination, evident by the line: Browns and yellers all have fellers, gentlemen prefer them right. This illustrates that within the black community, those of fairer complexion were preferred. In Armstrong’s performance, the piece was removed from its original context of a Broadway show and placed as a stand-alone piece. In doing this, the emotion created by the Broadway performance and the stage scene were lost and “Black and Blue” became just another bluesy piece. Further, his “recitativo vocal style underscore[d] the song’s plaintive quality, while his exuberant embellished trumpet solos at the beginning and the end … counteract[ed] despair” (Meckna 38). However, Armstrong dropped the verse about intra-racial prejudice and made the chorus a “threnody for blacks of every shade” (Teachout 139). In doing this, he altered the music from being just about intra-racial issues to a global of scale of the battle between black and whites and the prejudices.