Harlem Renaissance Music

Paper Summary:

This paper will briefly trace the journey of the Black American experience through the music first articulated in the Harlem Renaissance. It begins with the migration of Black Americans from the South to the enclosed environment of a big city and their need to find a voice for themselves, which they did partly through music. It concludes by describing how the Harlem Renaissance was pivotal in American musical history.

From the Paper:

"Harlem was nothing if not a melting pot of America's black cultures; the northern, the southern, the islands. In the 1930s, while combining all these influences, Harlem musicians set the stage for later Black-influenced musical forms. At the same time, Kramer and Russ argue that it was only by virtue of two things in addition to the migration to Harlem that caused Harlem Renaissance music to be influential across so many decades and so many cultures. One of those things was that mass media, in the form of radio and discography, had arrived on the U.S. market just in time to be useful to the Black artists. And the Black artists, while synthesizing other influences, kept their own identity intact; without this, Kramer and Russ contend, the later forms of Black music, such as rap, would not have been possible (1997)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Kramer, Victor A., and Robert A. Russ, eds. Harlem Renaissance Re-Examined. Rev. ed. Troy, NY: Whitston Publishing Company, 1997. Questia. 3 Dec. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=82317123>.
• Mishkin, Tracy. The Harlem and Irish Renaissances: Language, Identity, and Representation. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 1998. Questia. 3 Dec. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=11280910>.
• White, Armond. "Soul Man." The Nation 18 Aug. 2003: 41. Questia. 3 Dec. 2005 <http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=5002547656>.

More papers on Harlem Renaissance Music:

• Research Paper # 103229 : "Changing Times and the Harlem Renaissance"
• Descriptive Essay # 119002 : "The Harlem Renaissance"
• Term Paper # 101072 : "The Harlem Renaissance"

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