Rhythm And Blues Music Analysis

I watched the premier of Fats Domino and the Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll when it debuted on PBS February 26 during Black History month in honor of Domino’s 88th birthday. As much as I have always enjoyed the genre, I had never actually heard of Domino--a man Elvis Presley once referred to as “the king of Rock ‘n’ Roll”--before switching the channel to PBS while at the hotel on our Honors class trip. One person featured in the film stated that, “People don’t really credit Rock ‘n’ Roll with ending segregation, but in a way it did”. I chose to review this movie because I found it very informative and interesting, and because I wanted to learn more about this claim regarding music and integration.

The rise of Soul music was a product of the particular environment of that time in which the musicians who created it lived, a period much paralleled with the Civil Rights Movement (CRM) and Black Power Movement (BPM) (Maultsby, 1983, 54). The objective of this research was to examine any existence of political and social messages delivered in Soul music around the civil rights movement era in America, which would lead to a better understanding of the role of Soul music having served in the process of political and social changes in the country.

     Many people believe that music should be filtered because it provokes violence or sex within society. There may be some truth in this but for the most part it is merely myth. People who have any common sense or are not legally insane can understand fact from fiction and what not to imitate. Anyone who listens to Eminem and decides to go and kill their wife should have been locked up long before the actual crime. When people do things that resemble what an artist says in a song, it is usually by pure coincidence and all are negative incidents. Frank Zappa was quoted to have said “I wrote a song about dental floss but did anyone’s teeth get cleaner?”(Jackson 1).

Another consequence that result from this lack of “race consciousness” is his interaction with black music and culture. As Robert B. Stepto argues in “Lost in a Quest,” the ECM is “caught…in a kind of illiteracy that argues that technique can pass for art…[mistaking] the modulation and exploitation of race rituals along the color line for proper relations between artist and audience” (368). Additionally, Stepto argues that the ECM, “alienated from the deepest bonds of his race…learns to play music without reference to who is ‘in the other room’” (368). Ragtime, as Edward A. Berlin states in Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History, derived from “the ‘coon song,’ a Negro dialect song frequently, but not always, of an offensively denigrating nature” (205). As someone who has “dreams of bringing glory and honor to the Negro race” (Johnson 26), it is very problematic for the narrator not understand the cultural and racial significance of the music he wants to play. For himself, he fails to gain any real understanding and he becomes, as Stepto says, “a

“The rise of rock ‘n’ roll and the reception of it, in fact, can tell us a lot about the culture and values of the United States in the 1950s. According to historians James Gilbert, there was a struggle throughout the decade ‘over the uses of popular culture to determine who would speak to what audience, and for what purpose”. At the center of that struggle, rock ‘n’ roll unsettled a nation had been “living in an ‘age of anxiety’” since 1945” (p.15). Altschuler talks about how music and race interlock with one another. Rock had become a “highly visible and contested arena for struggles over racial identity and cultural and economic empowerment in the United States” (p.35). Other chapters within the book state the battles involving sexuality, generational conflicts, as well as other social issues. The author states ideas that are somewhat problematic. For example, he states that there is a myth that rock ‘n’ roll went into a “lull” following the payola hearings (the practice of record promoters paying DJs or radio programmers to play their labels ' songs) of 1959 and did not come about again until the arrival of the Beatles in 1964.

Much of what the author provides for his audience should be praised. The narrative style of how African-American genres of music, specifically “the Jump Blues, Vocal or Street doowap groups, and R&B shouters,” started the genre and even influenced the attractiveness of the music group among whites is well done in this book. Intriguingly, some of the more interesting chapters in All Shook Up connect rock ‘n’ roll to larger cultural and social phenomenon taking place at this time. One example of this is how the author explores the interrelationship of rock ‘n’ roll and race. Citing and detailing the rise of early blues artists like Chuck Berry, “Little Richard” Penniman, and even Elvis Presley, the author effectively showcases how racism during the Civil Rights Movement was tied to the development and popularity of rock ‘n’ roll. Another stimulating aspect of the book is how the author explores sexual innuendos present in rock ‘n’ roll. Southern segregationists, Altschuler writes, began to see how sexuality would corrupt the youth of the world and would increasingly copy and change rock ‘n’ roll with less sexual

African Americans contributed highly in the music genre rock-and-roll, which is something people don’t really discuss. Rock and roll was highly influenced by the Blues, from rhythm and instruments. One African-American Blues singer, Muddy Waters was one Blues singer that influenced rock and roll, he changed the sound of his music which gave it a rock and roll sound as we know it today. Many believe Elvis was the first to sing Rock and Roll but Joe Turner’s song “Shake, rattle and Roll” (1951) sounds much like rock and roll and not Blues. This is ignored by many because of the racism in society, especially at that time. Many Black artists were not acknowledge even after they passed away and white male artists were

In this peer-reviewed academic article the central argument was that in many schools only Caucasian music and literature is being learned about instead of Native American music. This is an issue because children in school now are not able to learn about a different culture due to the limitation of only learning about Caucasian music and literature. Also, another issue is that since the world is made up of many different cultures, the students should be learning about more than one to get a better understanding on that culture. The result of this is children will understand the history of Native Americans and the different types of music from other cultures. Another result is that children will not understand the meanings behind these types of music and literatures.

I was doubtful on some of the purposes and perspectives discussed throughout the cook. The Race Beat novel truly changes an individual's point of view thinking particularly when you consider it from a journalistic media stand point. As said ordinarily all through the exposition the media had a solid effect on the social equality minute. The media assumed the part of transferring a message all through the whole nation. The press was sufficiently influential to stifle the American government for the benefit of the African American culture. I think one thing that truly emerged to me was the manner by which it’s not by any stretch of the imagination tags yet African American news-casting in the south was seen a bigger number of as challenge instead of being news commendable (considering media

On reading the article The L.A Scene: Teaching Race and Popular Music in the 1950’s, the article talked about multiracial and interracial in the 1950’s. The significance of the article is how African American and Mexican American set the stage for the civil rights, starting the end of racial segregation, and the mixture of race. The most interesting thing I took from reading the article is Mexican American Ritchie Valens of “La Bamba”. He learned his trade from mentors in the Pacoima district. Another thing that I enjoyed is how African Americans and Mexican Americans music went past the entertainment concept, but into the political concept. One thing I did not like about this article

The emergence of Rock and Roll was one of the most pivotal moments of our nation’s history. The impact that this genre of music made is still evident in our culture. However, before this genre was able to gain momentum, it faced many cultural conflicts. The book, All Shook Up: How Rock ‘N’ Roll Changed America by Glenn C. Altschuler analyzes the impact that rock and roll music has made on American culture. It explores how the Rock and Roll culture was able to roughly integrate and later conflict with preceding cultural values. This is especially apparent in chapters regarding race and sexuality. Overall, Rock and Roll was extremely controversial amongst parents and educators. This new music genre was condemned by the previous generation as

Some concerned parents thought that the new integrated audiences for rock and roll were bad influences on their children. White adults did not like how rock and roll seemed to take away their children’s inhibitions. They thought that the African American cultures that their children were celebrating were vulgar; some parents even thought that the new styles of dancing were tasteless. African American music was scandalous compared to white pop. White parents were often shocked when they heard their children listening to music filled with sexual innuendoes and black slang.

In those years, racism was a strong and violent issue that not only referred to women but also to minorities such as black people, gays and single mothers. Today people are still struggle with these very issues. Racism in America is proving that this essay is sadly very relevant today and this minorities group reacts in different ways but always similar to Lorde’s description of poetry as a form of creativity as a class issue, thinking that in the 80’s poetry was the most economical way of communication. In recent years there has been an explosion of creativity by minority groups in form of: street-art, rap music, and

The broadcasting and recording industries did not solely represent the conquering racial assumptions of the 1950's, they internalized them and helped to continue them. Racial conventions permeated the organization and structure of the music industry at every level. The very existence

Music is an important part of life. Its role as a form of art and entertainment is a significant one but more important is that it serves to reflect and reinforce societal norms and values. It is not only used to entertain but also serves as a form of social commentary (Baran, 2009). For instance, the emergence of Rhythm and Blues (R&B) in America after the Second World War was a means of advancing the black race and it helped blur the line between white and black as more young white people became aware of the distinctions that existed in the society. The Hip-hop and rap of the 1980s and 1990s had almost the same effect, awakening in Black Americans a sense of