African American Music and Political Movements

Racism has played a very large role in the way the music of African-Americans has developed in the United States. Ever since African-Americans were brought to the United States as slaves, they have been looking for ways to create their own identity and have a voice in a country that did not treat them as equals. Due to persistent racism in our country, African-Americans created their own styles of music that let them share their beliefs and feelings about their constant oppressed state.

The first type of African-American music developed by early slaves was spiritual music. Spiritual music was seen as "the music of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world".[1] Slaves faced very rough times and were treated very poorly. This music let them express their pain, suffering, and their religious views. They would sing songs about the Old Testament and they would holler and moan during the music to express this pain. Slaves also used spiritual music to inform fellow slaves about important news concerning escaping to the Underground Railroad. They would sing when a conductor had arrived to lead them to the northern states to escape slavery.[2] It was a survival strategy for the slaves that had to be covered well so their white masters could not understand them.

Another type of music that developed during the slave era is Gospel music. This music was created after dark when the slave's masters were asleep, they would all get together to sing and dance and express their emotions.[3] This type of music also was very biblical and spoke of religion and a better life for African-Americans. Gospel music continued to become more popular throughout the centuries and started being used in black churches. After slavery was abolished, black churches were used as community centers for all the black people to come together to speak up about their living situations. Even though slavery had been abolished, black people were still treated poorly and were not equal with the white people. Black people attended these churches to satisfy their deepest emotional yearnings.[4] These churches helped revive African-American spirits that had been down due to racism and legal segregation spreading throughout the country. Gospel music went right along with preaching at church and certain dance rhythms were created that let members of the church reach a euphoric state that let them be more receptive to the Holy Spirit. This was part of the so called Holiness movement that was becoming popular in the late 1800's. Previously, this type of dancing was seen as sinful and was not tolerated at church. This was a new movement for black people so they could express their emotional state and sing about their complete freedom that they one day hoped to have.[5]

As more African-Americans started learning how to play various instruments such as the banjo and fiddle, they created a new music known as Blues. These instruments could be dated back to Africa form the 9^th century and it is believed that many slaves either brought these instruments with them overseas or created new ones out of wood.[6] Many slave owners encouraged the slaves to play these instruments for entertainment purposes and gain fame because it could earn the owners money and fame themselves. The demand for these slave entertainers started growing and more and more slaves started picking up this music. Blues was another type of music which let black people, who have been told that they were free but still encountered social injustice, express their frustration and emotions about life through song. Blues contained many of the same things that slave's songs had such as yells and hollers like slaves used while working on farms. It also included call and response techniques which could be traced back to music styles that were used in Africa that slaves had brought over to the United States. There were many different styles of blues that were present in different parts of the country. Country blues included spoken introductions and acoustic guitars. Mississippi country blues was notable for its drones, moans, bottle-neck techniques, and heavy texture. Texas Country blues featured single-string playing, relaxed vocals qualities, and lighter texture. The other main category of blues was known as the Piedmont tradition which was popular in the southeastern states and the east coast. This type was more closely tied to white traditions and had vigorous ragtime and related piano guitar styles.[7] Blues was popular with being a very personalized music that offered artists to be very creative so they finally were able to have a style of their own that they could create as an individual and have people just like them listen to their message. Famous blues musician, Leadbelly, had a song called "Bourgeois Blues". It talks about having the blues about living with bourgeois type people, mostly the wealthy white Americans who have been oppressing the black people for centuries. This can be seen in the opening of this song where it states, "Come along people, listen to me, don't try to find no home in Washington DC, Lord it's a bourgeois town, it's a bourgeois town". Washington DC is the center for our nation's government and Leadbelly is telling black people to not live there because they will just face racism and be treated poorly.

Blues music is seen as the basis of jazz music. Many black artists ascended into the world of jazz and were followed by a lot of criticism and plenty of racism. Many black artists strayed away from Western music techniques and for this reason were not really understood by white critics. Their jazz featured deliberate abandonment of the diatonic-scale which in turn gave up the entire harmonic foundation of European music.[8] Where the racism mostly existed in jazz music was with the critics. Most jazz critics were white Americans, while many of the important jazz musicians were African-Americans. The critics were not able to understand the true meaning and nature of the black jazz. They were not concerned with the attitudes and background meanings that produced it. This way of analyzing black music took away the social and cultural intent that it was meant to have and only saw it as an art form with no history behind it.[9] Since most critics were white middle-class men, they enforced white middle-class standards for the music that they were critiquing. They had no idea where this black jazz was coming from so therefore had no business analyzing and giving their professional impressions about this music.

Black artists were growing tired of being exploited by the whites who owned their music. They didn't want some other people benefiting from them financially off the music that they had created. They weren't even really concerned about themselves making money but they just didn't want to be taken advantage of and have white people telling them what to do and using their music for their own personal gain. During the Black Power movement of the 1960's and 70's, African-Americans developed a new type of music to call their own, it became known as "free jazz". This type of music included less composition, more improvisation, small combinations, unconventional instrumentation, and the use of over blowing. They created this music so it simply could not be critiqued or exploited by the white people. This type of music did not get airplay or sell many records. It was all about creating their own style of music so it couldn't be understood at all by the white people. Unlike early black jazz, this music was not marketable to white people, and that's exactly what these artists wanted. It created their own identity and their own culture. It highlighted themes of Black Nationalism such as self-assessment and economic self-reliance because it could only be critiqued by people like themselves who truly understood this style of music and these songs were owned by African-Americans and they relied on their people to produce it and get it out, there were no white people who owned it and got rich off it. Songs such as "The Utter-nots" by Sun Ra were influential in the free jazz movement. It has unconventional instrumentation and the use of over blowing which symbolizes the struggle of black people against oppression. Free jazz also included combinations of African and Asian styles in one. The reason for this was because free jazz was the music of Black Nationalists and many of these nationalists had converted to Islam which is prominent in the middle-east region of Asia. So they were combining there African ancestry with their Muslim beliefs into their music. It was a way for them to be separate but equal citizens of the country.

When Ronald Reagan came into office in the 1980's, he started a form of neo-conservatism that went against the Liberal ideology of the 1960's and early 70's. Practices such as cutting social services and anti-affirmative action were viewed as racist in the eyes of African-American youth and these things created a resurgence of racism throughout the nation. Police brutality on African-Americans was growing and black people could not find good jobs and were not able to move out of the city due to red-lining. As a refusal to submit to domination by white people and a way for black people to uphold a culture of their own, Hip-Hop was created.[10] Early east coast rappers such as Public Enemy were influenced by Black Nationalist ideals as they would wear Islamic symbols and had somewhat violent lyrics. Public Enemy's most famous song, "Fight the Power", expressed their anger with being oppressed by the white people and how black people should fight the racist system around the country. Another popular form of rap during this time was West Coast Gangster rap. This rap was more hardcore and spoke of harsh living conditions and the thug life mentality that young black people had at this time. It spoke of police brutality, gang violence, drugs, and alcohol. One of the most famous Gangster rap groups were N.W.A. They had a song called "Straight Outta Compton" which talked about the harsh reality of living in the urban ghetto and the violent thug life of Compton, California. Another song that showed this way of life was Ice Cube's hit, "It Was a Good Day". It tells of how he experienced a day of no violence in his urban neighborhood and how rare it was for this thing to happen as it was common for violence to take place.

Some rappers really wanted to get their message out to white people so they needed a way to change their music style a little bit. Hip-Hop music was mostly listened to by young urban black people so rapper Ice-T got together with heavy metal band, Body Count, to create a song known as "Cop Killer". It featured Ice-T singing with heavy metal music in the background. This song told of retaliation against police brutality and a lot more people listened to this music because it had a style that related more with white people with its rock roots. "Cop Killer" became a very controversial song and led to many censorship debates. Because this song, with its heavy metal theme related to white youth, the government wanted to censor it even though songs such as N.W.A.'s "Fuck the Police", spoke of the same things but it was targeted towards black youth so the government was not that concerned about this type of music. This shows how racist the government actually was as it did not really care about the message being spread to black people but just the white people.

African-American music has had a much identifiable societal impact in America. With black people living in a society where they are constantly oppressed and are always fighting for equality, the type of music that they have created over the years has allowed them to create a culture of their own and move-up on the economic ladder. This music really got their message out and in a way helped educate other African-Americans about rising up in this country and becoming somebody. African-American music is relevant in the understanding of American radicalism because creating their own music was a way for them to get their voice heard and make a name for themselves in a country where they have been seen as second class citizens all their life. It allowed them to express their frustration and problems with the rest of the country and start a revolution of change where they hope they can be equal with white Americans and share all the same opportunities.

[6] Klitz, Brian. "Blacks and Pre-Jazz Instrumental Music in America." International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 20 (June 1989), 43-60.

[8] Kofsky, Frank. Revolution in Black Music: Origin and Directions." Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music. New York: Pathfinder, 1970. 60

[10] Best, Steven and Douglas Kellner, "Rap, Black Rage, and Racial Difference." Enculturation, Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 1999. http://enculturation.gmu.edu/2_2/best-kellner.html, 1.