Notion : African American Music

Anglais

Introduction: Today, I’m going to talk about an important part of the history of African American music in United-States. The notion that will be addressed is “Places and Forms of power”. Power means that ability to cause or prevent an action, its capacity to do something or act in particular way.

Problématique: How African American music has played a big part in the struggle of black people in United-States?

To answer this question, it will be interesting to study the importance of black music over the centuries, then we will discover that black music is a way to express one’s own feelings and it could be used like an instrument of the fight against inequalities.

1. What’s the impact of African American music over the centuries

1. It made it possible to overcome the difficulties

 (1619-1863s: work song)

1. Music a segregation scaffold

(1865- 1960s: blues, jazz, rock)

1. Rap music helped to highlight societal issues

(1970s: RAP)

1. Black music, a way to express one’s own feelings

1. Spread a message: inequalities and discrimination

2. Black music is universal music

3. Black music bring people together

1. What’s the impact of African American music over the centuries

1. It made it possible to overcome the difficulties

 The history of African American music is linked to slavery and thus of triangular trade. In 1619 two million slaves are deported to colonies in South America to work in plantation. The work song allowed workers of synchronized their movement and better support task painful. These songs where sung a capella by using the principe of the call and response. This dramatic music consisted of a phrase launched by a soloist and echoed by a group. Finding in the music an escape from their painful and humiliating living conditions, black Americans would use their distant African traditions to create a way to liberate themselves: the blues …

1. Music a segregation scaffold

During the abolition of slavery blacks remain on the ban of society especially in the South where the majority of whites refuse to consider them as equals. In this period a new type of music appeared: the blues. Which is a type of music who is inspired by work song and African tribal music. Blues was used to denounce segregation and difficult condition in the South. For example in a document about the interview between Muddy Waters and a journalist he said “the blues are an expression of trouble in mind, trouble in body, trouble in soul […] it helps him to express”. Jazz and rock it from the same tradition.

1. Rap music helped to highlight societal issues

            Rap is different from the others types of music because, there is no melody is all beat and talk. The audience of rap music is really growing and bands sell a thousand of records. A video document explain the particularity of rap, Deborrah Harry explain about the rap that “It’s like direct communication, it remove the middleman because anybody could doing it and that is catching people. Rap is an energetic music, and it’s from the street heard on with the advent of portable record .It don’t necessarily have to understand the words to get into the spirit of rap.

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