Where did Folk Music Come From? Folk music originally came from the black slaves of America when working all day long, some of the songs we still know today, like ‘down by the riverside’. The songs were about overcoming hardships and struggle. Another song would be ‘We Shall Overcome’ which was one of the bases for Martin Luther Kings speech. There were also different types of folk music even before the American slave era, the songs based from different melodies told stories and were passed down generation by generation.
Motown played an important role in the racial integration of music as it was the first record company to be owned by an african-american and consisted mainly of african-american artists who achieved crossover success in the 1960’s. “Into the '60s, I was still not of a frame of mind that we were not only making music, we were making history. But I did recognize the impact because acts were going all over the world at that time. I recognized the bridges that we crossed, the racial problems and the barriers that we broke down with music. I recognized that because I lived it.
Under the bleak condition of slavery, African American used music as a way to stay connected with their own African culture, while expressing the painful experiences that they had throughout history. They expressed their emotions and claims toward the racism they were receiving from white Americans into their music, and that has later on entirely spread among American culture. In Africa, drums were originally used as a tool of communication. During the early slave rebellion in America, they used drums in the same way they had been used in their own country: to communicate secretly in the presence of their owners.
Black slaves, who were kidnapped and taken to America, brought their own form of music with them and sung about their time in captivity and slavery. They would use songs as codes when they thought they could escape, and these are widely accepted as the original protest songs (Epstein, 2010). Throughout the 20th century there were numerous events that changed the way the world functioned, whether people liked what was happening or not. Within this changing society many turned to music to express themselves. Music has the power to establish and maintain a movement and to reinforce its message and objective.
This book is about the obscured settlers who laid the foundation for African American culture; it is also about the recent beginning of African American Archaeology as a means for learning about that culture. African Americans felt strong ties to their native African culture, while it was commonly believed that most Africans had lost their cultural traditions and skills during the disorienting relocation from their home to the New World, it can be easily proven through the use of different sources which include artifactual and architectural data, that the African American people were trying to maintain their racial identity and cultural traditions. Ceramics are what make up a majority of the artifacts which archaeologists uncover at a site. By examining the different pots and colonoware plantation slave workers owned, historical archaeologists can determine a great deal about their daily lives. For example the typical colonoware associated with slaves were unglazed wares, which differ from the glazed wares used by wealthier Europeans.
It is evident that the Black Americans have long been considered a large and significant ethnic minority of the United States population. The African-American ancestors were mostly brought to America to work as slaves to serve the White Americans who at that time were considered the superior race. These slaves were mainly shipped from West and Sub-saharan Africa bringing with them polyrhythmic songs from hundreds of African ethnic groups. That is when African music was introduced to Western music, creating at first a fusion from both worlds and evolving through the decades which developed into today's most popular music, listened and appreciated all around the globe. Our main goal and focus is to trace the development of Afro American musical styles and learn about their pioneers.
Also slave in africa were able to work there way out of slavery. This was why some Aficans would become slaves, so they they could have a better life. But some of then did not have a choice for an example africans would capture africans. Most people did this to either get rid of enemys so they could increase the wealth of there communties (The Organization of Slave Trade pg. 3).
Their influence on U.S. culture runs deep even though the African American community represents a relatively small percentage of the U.S. population, accounting for about 13% (United States Census Bureau). In this essay I will focus on their effect on the entertainment industry, language, politics, economy, and education. African Americans have a rich musical tradition, rooted in African tradition, which was incorporated into daily life by slaves. They used “singing, call and response and hollering to coordinate their labor, communicate with one another across adjacent fields, and bolster weary spirits” (Class notes, week 4). These were the building blocks in the development of jazz, gospel and blues, which continued to evolve into to Rock ‘n Roll, R&B, Hip Hop and Rap; all quintessentially American forms of music.
Social and economic class being at the heart of the Motown enterprise from the inception of the company through the mid-1980s, is vivid through their upbringing of the lower-income African American people, their devotion to making music the younger social class, and their The Motown enterprise aimed to please the African American people who were at the bottom of the social and economic class. Motown associated their music with the black struggle by being the first record label ever owned by an African-American. It became a vehicle of black pride and self-expression. During Motown’s beginning period, their strength was their accessibility to the black community (41). Many black people were seeking new ways to make money because they were sick and tired of being employed by Ford Motors where there was little pay.
In “Limbo” Brathwaite writes in the West Indian Creole dialect that slaves spoke in. By using a dialect, the poet is able to present the slaves’ point of view. The voice of the slaves comes through and adds authenticity to the scene the poet is setting. The poem represents a slave journey – both literally (on a ship) and metaphorically (the slave experience). Using Creole dialect allows the poet to link the poem with slave history and this is achieved not only because the poet presents the slave experience but because the sound of the language in the poem helps reflect the harshness of the conditions in which slaves lived.