The Steelband movement impacted both negatively and positively in Trinidad and Tobago. There were several issues of social conflicts concerning gender, race, class, church, state and corporate sponsorship which made a number of impacts on the steelband movement. In recent years it made a great impact in the education system.
In the early 1800s,during the colonial era, there were social conflicts arising which impacted on class, colour and race. These conflicts still exist presently but not as excessively. These conflicts related to the musical styles, preferences, instruments and life-styles. Steelpan music derived from the drumming done as part of the African Heritage which was considered as prejudice and brought discriminations upon the African
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It was accepted by a massive population both locally and internationally. Steelbands were invited to participate in the Commonwealth celebrations in the United Kingdom. This occurred because of the influence of the middle class people (these were the people who were known to be light-coloured skin and white young people), they assisted in transforming the social and cultural status of the steelband movement by their personal involvement in the bands. The involvement of the middle class youths caused a lot of them to be charged by the police and brought before magistrates. As a result of this, the public began to show concern for the growth and efforts of the Steelband Movement. They eventually started to work with the movement allowing steelpan music to rise within many communities and schools. It expanded through performances at fund raising events, social gatherings of the middle and upper class, musical festivals, in churches and at funerals. Steelpan musicans were socially accepted without criticism by both society and the government because of the involvement of Curtis Pierre. Panmen and panwomen were no longer stigmatized to racism because Curtis Pierre was not of African descent, in fact he belong to the middle …show more content…
Sydney Northcote of England. In 1956 steelbands were commented on their music to be astonishing at several performances and this assisted in boosting the social aspect of the steelband movement. Steelbands were now being sponsored by several profound business companies. During this time, the Steelbands were no longer requested to participate in the Carnival celebrations on the street because of rivalry among the band members. This was as a result of rivalry between two bands, Desperado and San Juan All Stars on Charlotte Street. In the following year after this occurred, businessmen and companies began sponsoring bands. There were sponsorship for both professional and children’s steelbands. There were Commercial sponsorships like West Indian Tobacco Company, oil companies, banks, airlines and other large organisations. These sponsorships assisted in supplying uniforms to the steelbands. Bands being sponsored give Desperados the motive to have good behavior for fear of losing their sponsorship and they were then introduced to participating in Panorama Competitions as a separate event where they would be judge at a preliminary, semi-final and final stage. Steelbands did not have to struggle on the streets playing their pans looking like jockeys on
In light of this, the racial aspect of rock ‘n’ roll and its implications on its white middle-class teen audience needs to be examined. Were teenagers consciously rebelling by listening to the music with Afro-American origins or did their social attitudes remain unaffected? Was Afro-American music merely a tool in marketing, in the commercial capitalization of th...
In the late 1930’s, as war clouds gathered, jazz reached the pinnacle of popularity. Musicians’ skills and promoters’ efforts had made possible the success of “swing” . In the two years after the war began in September 1939, government spending for war production and defense reinvigorated the American economy and ended the great depression. Although the swing music that helped keep American spirits up during the Depression years still existed, there was an increasing amount of racial tension about bands formed by white men vs. bands formed by black men. White bands like Tommy Dorsey’s, which could play a broad spectrum of music, were hailed for their versatility. The black counterparts who sought to do the same were often indirectly accused of trying to get above themselves . This is important because many black musicians where losing work due to venues only hiring bands that were led by white men. Out work, or underpaid black musicians where often bought-out by white bandleaders who could offer them higher pay, and where looking for the best musicians they could find. This type of integration went both ways, as black bands would hire young, adolescent white musicians in an effort to get more
“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
Jazz has greatly impacted American culture and has been a positive outlet for cultural diversity and free thinking. This module has focused on the evolution of jazz from the early 1910’s to the mid-1920. During this time in American culture, the separation of races was still very dominant. Since jazz music speaks of freedom of social minorities, the genre was only beginning to become popular amongst the larger population. Ragtime was developed at the turn of the century; it was an outlet for African American music. As Jazz continued to evolve in the 1920’s social conflict began to arise. Prohibition of alcohol went into effect. This affected American society and the jazz culture, crime rates began to rise, people were demanding alcohol. Music, however, was still being created, and jazz music was still impacting the era. While there were many songs to listen to in
The Social construction of racial formation categorized racial groups and formed negative social identity. Skin color and skin pigment is used to categorize certain individuals which are causing oppression. Black music and blues were used as a form of arts to escape the oppression that was placed upon them based on their skin color. Our society has constructed a black/ white color line that forces evident uprising of racism. Media has become a big impact on racial oppression and developmental more issues that involve the black/ white color line. Music was a crucial survival method to slaves by creating a new separate language. The blues was a huge liberating foundation of this separate language. Musical history is crucial to comprehend because it involves the importance of our history. Different variations of music were formed off of blues which was the spiritual ideal. Blues ideals and black music, spiritual values were liberating for African Americans during their time of
As the nineteen seventies came to a close so did many of the musical styles of that decade. While some faced what seemed to be extinction others went through a sort of evolutionary process. The bands that were at the top of the heavy metal ladder during this time were such acts as Motorhead, Iron Maiden, and Tygers of Pan Tang. These groups would be just some of what the new crop of heavy metal bands would consider inspirational. This style, which is typically referred to as "The New Wave of British Heavy Metal," would fuel and empower many acts to stardom. (Marshall 3)
The bottom line is that people need to respect players that have spent weeks practicing. If a traveler went to a foreign country, they are expected to learn the culture as to not offend anyone. So using this knowledge of concert and jazz band origin, type, and expectations, it is critical that listeners learn the ‘culture’ of fine art to behave correctly. And if they don’t, Rigby High School will never get that clean recording that is so essential for auditions and opportunities for competitions and performances throughout the world.
Jazz, being art itself, cannot be culturally or stylistically be defined by one or two characteristics. In this paper, I will argue that the development of jazz was mainly contributed by the genre of blues and ragtime. Blue and ragtime both show characteristics that contrast each other as well as conjoin to form the art of jazz. Both genres, however, contribute to the formation of jazz and are culturally influenced by the African-American population, therefore creating black nationalism in the twentieth century.
African music concentrated a lot on rhythm while Western European liked to hear harmonic sounds. The dissonant sounds and polyrhythms of African music was not understood by the Europeans, but jazz musicians took a great liking to it. The reason for this was because Europeans used music for listening enjoyment. In Africa, music was very functional. It was the only form of communication between tribes and a universal language of percussive instruments. The music was used to announce special events such as birth, death, marriage, and the reaching of puberty. Everybody got musically trained very young and when Africans were brought to America as slaves, they brought the music. Some of the most noticeable influences of this African music is seen in work songs, spirituals and field hollers of slaves. When slaves became free, and chose to leave their plantation, there was no work for them. Many became street musicians and sang what is known today as the Blues. European musicians were playing a march style of music known as Rag. The rise in jazz happened when the two styles of music started combining.
African-American music is a vibrant art form that describes the difficult lives of African American people. This can be proven by examining slave music, which shows its listeners how the slaves felt when they were working, and gives us insight into the problems of slavery; the blues, which expresses the significant connection with American history, discusses what the American spirit looks like and teaches a great deal from the stories it tells; and hip-hop, which started on the streets and includes topics such as misogyny, sex, and black-on-black violence to reveal the reactions to the circumstances faced by modern African Americans.
Forced Migration is a complete contrast to what Voluntary Migration stands for and is a movement that results in destroying cultures and soundscapes. The process of Forced Migration forces groups of people, from their homeland unwillingly stripping them of their culture and forcing them to conform to a new way life, against their own choice. This process results in people longing for their nostalgia of their homeland and maintaining musical traditions as a part of their shared identity. While both of these migrations create different and unique soundscapes, one particular soundscape can be traced back through text and oral transmission and lead to the genre of music of American Spiritual, that genre of music can be traced back to the Forced Migrations of African Americans.
The history of Jazz music is one that is tied to enslavement, and prejudices. It Is impossible to separate the development of Jazz music from the racial oppression that occurred in the United States as they are inextricably connected. Slavery was a part of our country’s development that is shameful and yet, lead to some of the greatest musical advances of the twentieth century.
By the end of World War I, Black Americans were facing their lowest point in history since slavery. Most of the blacks migrated to the northern states such as New York and Chicago. It was in New York where the “Harlem Renaissance” was born. This movement with jazz was used to rid of the restraints held against African Americans. One of the main reasons that jazz was so popular was that it allowed the performer to create the rhythm. With This in Mind performers realized that there could no...
Bands present at RAR included the popular punk band, The Clash, renowned reggae act, Steel Pulse, as well as new wave, punk rocker, Elvis Costello and the Attractions (Moore, 2004, p. 314). Also included in the lineup were more politically charged performers such as X-Ray Spex, which was a female-led punk band, the racially mixed “2-tone” ska band, The Specials, as well as the openly gay singer, Tom Robinson (Moore, 2004, p. 315). The vast array of bands that composed the RAR concert series was a deliberate attempt to “bring black and white audiences together” and to “debunk racist mythologies” that plagued the United Kingdom (Moore, 2004, p. 315). Although the bands were widely recognized and well known, the punk doctrine of an inclusive and communicative space enabled this concert series to be an integral moment in the development of punk culture. The political and societal movement of bringing together the privileged white race with the objectified and discriminated against black UK citizens through performances and concerts ostensibly accredits the advent of punk music.
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.