Due to the fact of how relevant and how it shares significance today, in a world filled with instant communication and social African American Forced Migrations and the Start of Spiritual Music
It is a common notion that for music to be able to traverse and grow within different soundscapes, music must go through a form of migration. There are two different forms of migration that have been seen throughout the world’s history. The first form of migration is called Voluntary Migration. Voluntary Migration is a movement in which a group of people agree to leave their region for their own personal benefits, whether they be focused around religious or economic opportunities. Given these positive opportunities, cultures can thrive and grow and
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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. Throughout early American history, musical repertories have shown traces of how painful and agonizing the experiences that African American’s had dealt with during the Slave era and how painful and tragic the transition was. This a moment in African American history in which developing a new culture was a difficult process, due to the fact that they were previously stripped away from their homeland and were forced to adapt a new way of life. Spirituals were introduced throughout the culture of African American Slaves as a new form of musical expression who had converted to New World …show more content…
Around the time period of the Civil War, Gospel Music started to become more and more popular within the soundscape of the south. While Spiritual music focused more on traditional sense of folk songs, Gospel was gained inspiration from spiritual and focused its aesthetics on congregations and hymns with references referring back to its roots. Not only did Spiritual music have an effect on the progression of Gospel music, this lead to the creation of Blues and Jazz. Blues is typically associated with music that had evolved from African spirituals, chants, work songs and hymns that expressed through trials and tribulations from the heart of the folksongs. Jazz evolved and grew to be a popular phenomenon from the fundamentals and the premise of the Blues and instilled a genre that would become one of America most recognized genres of
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
Some scholars theorize that the Middle Passage to the Americas was so traumatic that most African influence was eradicated, and that few traces of Africa exist in African-American music. This “cultural tabulala [sic] rasa” theory is rightfully rejected by many scholars (Wilson 3). The inflow of African people to the New World was brought on by the existence of slavery, and resulted in the creation of a sort of extension of the African continent in a different hemisphere. In his article “The Significance of the Relationship Between [sic] Afro-American Music and West African Music,” music scholar Olly Wilson refutes the tabula rasa theory, and provides extensive examples of the ties that continue to exist between the two distant geographical regions. Another prominent scholar who recognizes the integration of African elements in American musics is Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Though his much deeper and more analytical approach to African musics is divergent from Wilson’s, both scholars acknowledge African diaspora musics and examine them in different ways based on different criteria.
African-American slaves may not have had the formal education that many of their white slave owners possessed, but they intuitively knew that the labor they toiled through each and every day was unjust. This dynamic of unfairness brought about a mindset in which slaves would critique the workings of slavery. To many people’s understanding, slavery was an invasively oppressive institution; Levine however, noted, “for all its horrors, slavery was never so complete a system of psychic assault that it prevented the slaves from carving out independent cultural forms” . Slave spirituals were a part of the independent cultural form that enslaved African-Americans produced; these songs had numerous functions and critiquing slavery served as one of
“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
The origins of African American religious music are directly linked to the Negro spirituals of enslaved Africans. One cannot research religious music of blacks in this country without first exploring these spirituals. The spirituals were part of a religious expression that enslaved people used to transcend the narrow limits and dehumanizing effects of slavery. It was through the performance of the spirituals that the individual and the community experienced their God, a God who affirmed their humanity in ways whites did not and a God who could set them free both spiritually and physically. These “sacred songs” were also used as secret communication. That is not to say that all spirituals functioned as coded protest songs or as some sort of secret language. The structure of the spirituals and the way in which they were created and performed allowed for flexibility in their function and meaning.
The progression of people into and within the United States has had an essential impact on the nation, both intentionally and unintentionally. Progressions such as The Great Migration and the Second Great Migration are examples of movements that impacted the United States greatly. During these movements, African Americans migrated to flee racism and prejudice in the South, as well as to inquire jobs in industrial cities. They were unable to escape racism, but they were able to infuse their culture into American society. During the twentieth century, economic and political problems led to movements such as The Great Migration and The Second Great Migration which impacted the United States significantly.
Therefore, to endure the pains and sufferings the slaves had to use music. As illustrated above, the advent of music had far reaching results as it encouraged and gave them hope to continue working. The early music composers are the evidence of existence of early music which in turn has shaped today’s music like the blues and pop lyrics. In this case, the culture of the past has been rescued from getting lost.
Traditional Blues music is reflected in modern music, which displays vague or blatant Blues influences. However, the Napoleons of the Blues shall never be forgotten because they fought a war America had at one time decided it could never win. The music instilled faith into the hearts of many black Americans and at the same time instilled empathy and passion in the white Americans. It not only congregated people, it congregated two separate cultures, both as different as black and white.
Traditional gospel music was written to be performed to express the African Americans’ personal feelings of Christianity. During the 1950’s, African Americans were segregated from the whites. Black Americans believed that the U.S. should be integrated not segregated. The civil rights movement came into play because of the large range of discrimination in the U.S. Gospel music was a tool for resistance during the Civil rights movement, because many protestors would sing hymns instead of violently protesting in the streets. Black Americans would sing freedom songs that influenced their rights against discrimination. Gospel music gave African Americans strength to not violently protest in the streets because they knew violence wasn’t the way to go. To express the relationship of African American traditional gospel music to their struggle towards freedom after the World War II era.
Monson, I. (2010).Freedom sounds : civil rights call out to jazz and Africa. New York Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Soul music, which originated in the late 1950s, was popularized by African-Americans. Soul music is described as black popular music in the United States. The term “soul” embodied the way African American musicians felt about being African American in the United States, and the term soul continues to define this type of spiritual music. Soul music’s roots are a mix of traditional African American gospel music, and rhythm, blues, and jazz music. Soul music was enabled by unstoppable trends towards blacks and whites integration and discrimination. As the civil rights movement expanded so did African American pride towards their music.
Small, Christopher. Music of the Common Tongue: Survival and Celebration in African American Music. Hanover, NH: U of New England, 1998. Print
There are different disciplines within the humanities, but there is one that I feel that has influenced my cultural identity the most…music. I say music because from the start music told my culture’s history; informed others about deeds or events that had taken place, also, music was and continues to be important in comforting, healing, and during labor. “African American music has evolved through various eras and styles; the powerful melodic lines and the rhythm (the all-important rhythm) remained prominent and influential” (Powell, 2007, p.1).
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
Music has played a role in society since the dawn of man. Said to be the beginning of communication in early civilization, music and dance have influenced how we think, act and treat members of our own society. Song and dance is used in rites of passage ceremonies such as births, weddings and funerals throughout the world. Jamaican and Yoruba cultures have made many contributions to our society. The uses of this music as a vehicle for political issues, values, and beliefs have been used by many musicians from different cultures. I intend to discuss the Contribution of these two contemporary cultures music and their effect on society.