What Role Did Music Play In The Life Of African Americans

During the early 1930’s through the mid 1960’s there were many different approaches African American’s took for achieving social changes, and the Civil rights they deserved. Many great African American leader’s such as Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X, and James Baldwin contributed towards the betterment of blacks living in America. Aside from individual African American leaders there was also groups that fought for black civil rights such as The Black Power Movement, Black Panthers, and Civil Rights Activist. Other events that transpired during this time period had also effected the civil rights movement in America. For instance: The altercation with Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white male ultimately led to The Montgomery Bus boycott protest,

It was no coincidence that rock ‘n’ roll and the civil rights movement started at the same time. The genre originated from African American music and was greatly discriminated against. Traditional white Americans would target anything bad about it. But as the teenager demographic of the 1950s started increasing the sales of the music, the genre started gaining more popularity. It was the style of Elvis Presley and his new voice that made girls weak in the knees and boys want to be him. Artists such as Presley had enough influence to change the view of their devoted fans on civil rights issues. Soon as protest songs and rock ‘n’ roll became more popular and influential, it began a gap between the young adult generation and their parents

In 1951, Alan Freed, a European American disc jockey for a Cleveland radio station, first coined the term rock’n roll. Fifty years later, if you were to poll the general public on which race would dominate that genre of music, the response would be overwhelmingly whites. But rock’n roll is not a white mans music. African American’s were and still are an essential cornerstone of the genre known as rock’n roll. But rock’n roll simply would not exist if it weren't for African Americans. Their presence is felt in almost every genre of music known to the United States. Early twentieth century black musicians helped shape, influence and create my favorite genre of music today.

Through all of the Civil Rights era, music of all kinds was used to spread the message of peace, love, and equality. Many singers played a key role during the movement by sending the messages to listeners and being an icon to many African Americans.

Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown, had to so called ¨craft an image for his acts.¨ He had young stars go to a music school, to finish up and add on a few new techniques. He would also make them appear such that, in no way could even offend one person. Gordy tried to play it smart and to make the artists album covers in a way that it would be a secret in revealing the artist's race. Gordy found out that some black artist were still having trouble going from the R&B chart to the Hot 100. Many artists were having trouble trying to go along with what Gordy had in mind. But artist wanted to be themselves, express their feelings with how they wanna sing or perform. And hiding who they really were was hard from them to do when you have to keep their race in

Once it gained more and more popularity, labels began to realize that this could be a profitable market. Given the profitability, they knew they had to go mainstream yet this was a time where there was racism and where African American artists would not be viewed the same as there white counterpart. This was not the case with all the people but many during this time. Teenagers were only concerned with the music and whether they liked it whereas there was great opposition that white kids were listening to music sung by African

American history was radically changed when President Abraham Lincoln gave the very famous Emancipation Proclamation. This lead to the freedom of millions of African Americans who sought the same liberty and equality that was promised to everyone under the United States constitution. These liberties, of course, were not achieved right away. During the Reconstruction era, which is the decade right after the Civil War, many of the recently freed slaves did not have money, property, or credit. They could not buy the necessary things to enjoy their freedom, which lead to sharecropping, a glorified form of slavery. Sharecropping is a system of agriculture in which a landowner lets a tenant use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on their portion of land (Sharecropping).. Added on to this, facilities were segregated to prevent the black man from enjoying the same things as the white man due to Jim Crow laws which were enacted after the Reconstruction era. The struggle for equality and rights continued during the Gilded Age (1873-1900), the Progressive Era (1900-1920s), the Great Depression (1930s), WWII (1939-1945), the beginning of the Cold War (1947), up until the Civil Rights movement (1954-1968). At this point in history, African Americans fought for their rights and changed the course of American history. Music was a very important tool used by African Americans that helped achieve this. Ever since the slavery times, music was a big part of their culture

Rhythm and blues, also known today as “R & B”, has been one of the most influential genres of music within the African American Culture, and has evolved over many decades in style and sound. Emerging in the late 1940's rhythm and blues, sometimes called jump blues, became dominant black popular music during and after WWII. Rhythm and blues artists often sung about love, relationships, life troubles, and sometimes focused on segregation and race struggles. Rhythm and blues helped embody what was unique about black American culture and validate it as something distinctive and valuable.

Outside the black community, white artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez played a prominent role in civil rights movement. They raised issue of civil inequality, while performing songs like: “The Times They Are a-Changin” and “We Shall Overcome” during the “March on Washington for Jobs and freedom”.

In today’s day and age, it’s easy to hear black culture represented in most hip-hop; that is the dominating music genre that expresses African American views. It’s not so easy to remember where African Americans influence on music al began. Black influence on music today is really unrecognized but it’s important to bring to light just how much African Americans really have contributed to the sound, style, and feel of today’s music. Not just hip-hop or rap, but all kinds of music.

The role of African American has changed over the centuries. They were treated differently because of their skin color. They were treated like property for others uses however change happened. It was not a easy matter to change but one of the main reason it did change was because Martin Luther King and his speech “I have a Dream”.

African American influence in music has been an ever present and controversial subject in American history. Stemming from many different cultures, religions and backgrounds, large portions of American music was introduced by, and credited to African Americans. Although in many cases, this music was used for entertainment by the masses or majority, contrary to popular belief, black music served a greater purpose than just recreation. Dating all the way back to the beginning of slavery in the U.S. during the 17th century, music has been used to make a statement and send a message. As African American music progressed over the years, there were common themes expressed as the genres evolved. It has been an open letter to the world, documenting and protesting the ongoing oppression faced by blacks in the United States, as well as an outlet for frustration. For many African Americans, the music gave them the only voice that couldn’t be silenced by their oppressors.

Eileen Southern’s The Music of Black Americans: A History she examines the influence that African Americans had in the holiness churches in music and worship. She initially starts with the landing of the first Africans to the colonies and she creates a phenomenal conversation of the musicians in the new world. She details the progression in the gospel, classical, jazz, rap, blues and the contributions they made.

Several artist later recored the song as a cover, including Josh White, Abby Lincoln, and a few others. This record definitely played a role in the civil rights movement, especially considering

Black musicians gained respect and a consistent audience. Names such as B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, Little Richard, among others, would not be recognized if it weren’t for John Hammond. The fact that black musicians were accepted and even respected, translated to a beginning of the civil rights movement.3 This attitude slowly carried over from music to the world as a whole with the help of civil rights leaders.