Black American Music

Paper Summary:

Every culture has forms of music they feel closer to, music that they feel is more relevant. This paper discusses the music the black community felt closer to and uses events in the twentieth century to explain why the relationship between black culture and music developed the way it did.

From the Paper:

"As such, no huge political statements were made by jazz in the time of segregation and second-class citizenship. It didn't start riots and spark causes in the name of change-rather, it turned a smile to the world. It did, however, contain the grain that allowed more politically-minded genres and movements to come about. One of the most memorable songs of the jazz era was "Strange Fruit." The song about lynching was recorded at the "put on a happy face" time when Ella Fitzgerald's "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" was number one on the charts. (Margolick 16) Sixteen years before Rosa Parks inspired the historic bus boycotts in Montgomery, Alabama, Billie Holiday's haunting ballad vividly depicted the hanging of black Americans. "

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