INTRODUCTION: African-American music can be classed into three different traditions, each being the source of today's most popular genres. First we have the sacred tradition genres, secular tradition genres and finally the Jazz secular tradition genres. Throughout this paper we will take a very close look at the African-American music legacy , focusing on the meanings of all different genres, it's context and history, musical features as well as performance style, we will also focus on the lyrics and how they are expressed and finally notable performers in the history of African-American music. But first we must also know little about the history of the African-American population itself. It is evident that the Black Americans have long been considered a large and significant ethnic minority of the United States population.
This phrase has replaced some of the earlier titles that were used to label black people. It is considered the most politically correct way to speak about a person of African descent, because it acknowledges where black Africans came from and creates a sense of self-respect in their struggle to become American. Some of the older labels that have been discarded include “negro […,] and colored” (Cave). Now looked upon as offensive or demeaning, these words were used in the 1860’s during everyday American life. They were intended to obliterate any confidence in the slaves, but unintentionally led to unity among a discriminated people.
Their ideas often differed from other black leaders. DuBois’s affiliation with the NAACP attempted to solve the problem through integration. Garvey’s UNIA centered around the idea of blacks helping blacks, attempting to relieve blacks of any dependence on whites. Both men had a lasting impact on generations to come. The beliefs of W.E.B.
How have African-Americans worked to end segregation, discrimination, and isolation to attain equality and civil ri HIS/204 July 15, 2012 How have African-Americans worked to end segregation, discrimination, and isolation to attain equality and civil rights? For decades, African-Americans played a foremost significant position in American history. In part, the Civil Rights Movement, and the power, bravery, and fight to become equal citizens in the United States. There is no other incident parallel to slavery, segregation, discrimination or isolation of African-Americans. Being of African American decent and raising three African American men can be difficult.
R&B/race-records were music only for black people and slaves. The R&B genre later turned into blues and jazz and out of jazz and a little country came Rock ‘n’ Roll. But in the present America a lots of people just listen to the regular and mainstream pop. I think it’s sad to see much good, even though old, music disappearing in the coming generation. Even though I like America I think that some artists have gone too far and don’t deserve their fame.
The Ideological State Apparatus at work in George Schuyler’s Black No More George Schuyler was a controversial figure of the Harlem Renaissance. At a time when “race men” were glorifying a uniquely African American culture, Schuyler steadily purported the view that African Americans were primarily American, and did not differ from other immigrants. In his essay entitled “Negro-Art Hokum,” Schuyler writes: If the European immigrant after two or three generations of exposure to our schools, politics, advertising, moral crusades, and restaurants becomes indistinguishable from the mass of Americans of older stock…how much truer must it be of the sons of Ham who have been subjected to what the uplifters call Americanism for the last three hundred years. Aside from his color, which ranges from very dark brown to pink, your American Negro is just plain American. (37) Schuyler felt that by viewing Negro art as unique and separate, it helped to perpetuate myths of racial inferiority.
As many other musical genres such as Jazz, Gospel, and Blues were developed by African Americans, Hip-hop music is also a creation of their culture. Although the style and the characteristics of Hip-hop music that people have been making have varied over time, the essential purpose of the music remains the same: to send a message through music. African Americans developed their music as a product of their experiences of being under the harsh conditions of slavery in America. According to Megan Sullivan, the author of the article “African-American Music as Rebellion: From Slavesong to Hip-Hop”, white Americans treated African Americans unequally and separated them from white American’s society (21). 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.
The Black Arts movement and the Harlem Renaissance are both significant time periods in African American history. These time periods gave birth to several unforgettable literature, music, dance, and art .Two poems from those eras that remain popular in today's society are “Black Art” by Armiri Baraka and “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay. Although both inspirational they focused on very different styles and tones. Similarly, the two poems address the same audience in their literature. As seen in many poems wrote during the Black Art Movement, Armiri Baraka directly states his audience in lines “Let Black people understand/that they are the lovers and the sons/of warriors and sons/of warriors” While Claude McKay notes “If we must die—let it not be like hogs/Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,/While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,” McKay 's indirectly indicates that his audience are African Americans.
The book, written in 1977, not only won its writer Toni Morrison the acclaim of a National Book Critics Circle Award, her first major prize, but also gained a wide recognition for its visionary portrait of the value and culture carried by African Americans. The pondering on the spiritual world of African Americans reflected in the book has affected a great number of American black people, including Barack Obama, the first colored president of the US. The brilliant book was written in the genre of bildungsroman, tracking the spiritual development of the protagonist Milkman, depicting all the discoveries he’s made through which he turns from a person who’s ignorant of the culture and past of his own people, just like a white man with black skin, into a mature adult who finally recovers the treasure of the black nation. In arranging Milkman’s journey of discoveries, Toni Morrison gradually reveals a mysterious yet fascinating picture of the history of Milkman’s family, and eventually leads him to a revelation of his cultural origin. This paper attempts to discuss the major discoveries made by Milkman and their underlying connotation and symbolic meaning.
"A shared complexion does not equal a shared culture, nor does it automatically lead to friendships," says Kofi Glover, a native of Ghana and a political science professor at the University of South Florida (Reddick). Although it would be easy to assume that no other ethnicity would understand each other than Black Americans and Africans, Africans and black Americans often fail to forge relationships in the classroom and the workplace. They blame nationality, ethnicity, culture, economics and education (Reddick). It is a very well proven and historically factual knowledge that the Black Americans of today are descendants of the people in the continent of Africa. Although both cultures are similar in looks and color, their similarities almost equates their differences.