LITR 4333 American Minority Literature UHCL 2005 sample student answers to final exam

LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2005

Research Report

Rock of Ages: African-American Influence on Popular Music

Popular music permeates most aspects of society today. It comes to us through a dizzying array of media forms, including radio, film, television and the Internet. Many genres of musics compose top 40 radio, including Rock, Hip Hop and Rap, R&B, Soul, Jazz (mostly "cheesy" fusion varieties) and Gospel. To the uninitiated, these genres appear, on the surface, to potentially be completely unrelated to one another, and presumably have separate evolutionary paths which have led them to present modern forms that we enjoy today. This, however, could not be farther from the truth. Popular music evolved primarily from the two great styles of music developed in the 20^th Century: Jazz and the Blues. These two styles arguably have been the two greatest influencing factors in music and popular culture in the history of art and music. Most aspects of today’s music can be traced back, in one form or another, to either Jazz, and more importantly the Blues. Both of these forms of music were developed in the African-American community, and particularly the Blues, came out of post slavery rural America. I will discuss the history of the Blues and the development of the Blues into various forms of music, including Jazz, that evolved into the genres that we identify today.

The origins of the Blues is not particularly well documented, but it is clear that it developed in the Southern United States after the end of the Civil War. It was influenced by field work songs, African-American spirituals, church music and was primarily sung by black field hands of the deep South. Its stylistic roots can be traced back to Western Africa, which includes West African countries such as

Liberia, Niger, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast. These stylistic aspects from Western Africa pedigree include the "call and response" aspect of the music and lyrics. The "blues" in the Blues are characterized by expressive pitch inflections, which could be considered the blue notes, a three line stanza in the form of "AAB" and a twelve-measure form. Usually, but not always, the first two lines of each stanza are usually reserved for singing, the last measure and one half measures consisting of an instrumental "break", that repeats, compliments or answers the vocal line. Even though the blues generally has instrumental accompaniment, it is primarily vocally based, and rather than telling a story, the artist describes his feelings related to a particular event or issue.

Although the blues developed in three separate areas in the southern United States simultaneously, including Georgia and the Carolinas, Mississippi, and Texas, each with its specific style, when we think of the blues, we think of the Mississippi Delta Blues. This is as a result of one person in particular...the great Robert Johnson. Robert Johnson single-handedly developed the rural delta-blues sound, and is considered by some as the father of modern rock music. As his legend goes, early on in his musical career, he was a pitiful guitarist, but disappeared for a period of time, and resurfaced some time later, sporting a new and "wicked" guitar sound. This purportedly was as a result of his meeting the Devil at the "crossroads" and selling his soul for his newly found guitar talent. In the southern black communities in which Johnson played and performed, it was well known that one could meet the Devil at the "crossroads" and sell your soul to get something in return. This particular concept dates back to African folklore where the deity Esu guards the crossroads, and was the intermediate between the gods and human experience. American/European Christianity perceived these African characters as pagan in nature, and was therefore easily perceived as something devilish in nature. Robert Johnson did little to stop this super-natural speculation with song titles such as "Crossroad Blues", "Me and the Devil Blues", and "Hell-hound on My Trail". More modern artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, and Eric Clapton have also used similar imagery related to behavior compliant with the Devil to explain particular unexplained, nearly superhuman talents. "Voodoo Chile" by Jimi Hendrix, is a perfect example.

Art and music, particularly, popular art and music, has a powerful effect on society. Given that the evolutionary path of some of the most popular musics in human history lead to the African-American experience in pre and post slavery America, one is thrust face first into reality of the synergistic effects of American culture and African stylistic techniques. Further explorations into the cultural effects of seemingly divergent and destructive cultural combinations that can indeed create seemingly impossible creative discoveries rather than the hatred, pain and misery, need to be endeavored. Perhaps the cliché of the pained artist has indeed been developed as a result of creative discoveries that were precipitated by suffering, pain, dislocation and horror. Perhaps the lack of voice, as described in Objective 1b, causes an individual's psyche to burn with desire to have an individual voice that expresses ones own pain with the involuntary participation in the "American Dream" that was forced upon them when their culture and their physical bodies, or that of their relatives, was dragged to these shores. The creative process is something of a mystery. It is not simple. It is a beautiful, multi-layered process that can have its inception in the blood of the suffering, ghastly in its consequences to the individual, or can evolve from the golden revelries of religious states of mind, raising, supporting and elevating an individual to greater accomplishments. Different sources, similar creative results. How this process works is one deserving of greater academic research, and demonstrating situations differing in source, but finishing with similar creative discoveries.

Sources:

Ramsey, Guthrie. "Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip Hop". University of California Press. June 2003

Silverman, Jerry. "African Roots(Traditional Black Music)". Chelsea House Publication, March 1994

Ward, Elijah. "Escaping the Delta: Robert Johnson and the Invention of the Blues". HarperCollins, 2004.

Daley, Mike. "Why do Whites Sing Black?: The Blues whiteness, and early histories of Rock".

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