George chapter 1 post soul

After the civil rights movement, African Americans were given the chance to move up the ladder.
corporate African Americans emerged in the year of the disco, he called them buppies.  Bigger recording labels gain competition from smaller labels, such as Motown records. the title of the chapter is post soul,  soul is the combination of rhythm, melody and vocal arrangement. After the 70s continued, soul was pop, but it became more than pop, it was apart of the black culture. This  style of music recalled as soul,  open doors for products and brands, such as soul hair products and soul food.
What I found to be quite interesting is that soul years are referred to the years of slavery. The time of struggle and hardship. Post soul is a period when African  Americans accepted the failures and victories of past years. this period left the black culture in the spotlight, which introduced media imaging to the African Americans.
Post soul movement is not a chronological order of social movements. the idea of a collage is a better representation for the post soul movement. African Americans created a new identity for themselves through music and media broadcast.
After watching this video, soul does not actually have to be connected to the African American community. Soul is a community of individuals who are different, and are looking for a change.

The old and weird America

Anthology; the chosen music and literary works that are published in one publication. The experiences of World War 2 and the witch trails led to ethnomusicologist to wonder the origin of its lyrics. The combination of different types of music, which comes in various literary forms, seemed to be weird in the sense of combination.  Smith tries to find something similar in the aspect of the composure of music.  The anthology of American folk music became compelling in its existence.  Smith believes it’s an historical invention of his ideals. He uses his boyhood, to create his anthology; which I found that to be interesting. Smith learned the method of composure of old style music through melodies and phrases, which he then categorizes the music into three areas, ballads, social music and songs.

Folk Music revival

John Lomax a folk revivalist, has an initiated a tour with his sons across the country. He hopes to gain knowledge from interpretations of old folk music. During the trip a logbook was kept on file to ensure recordings were precisely written and preserved. Alan, John Lomax younger son, thought about the emotional power of folk music. Hearing the music for the first time, forces one find a way to preserve a style of music that pleases the sense of a listener. The Lomax family biggest question is how to recognize the sound and appearance of a folk music artist?

The music collected from their field study, had to be distinctive.  The plan was to travel to rural areas, which allow the collection of old style music. What I found pretty interesting was the idea to seek music from penitentiaries, because of the idea of them being locked away from society as a whole. Music styles of inmates were not influenced by radio or other forms of music in the penitentiary. The idea of their music being untouched, intrigues Lomax to record music from inmates.

Lornell

During the late 1800s many people in the United States were not capable to read music or printed newspapers. The role of mass media influenced the idea to get news and music, without actually reading a sheet of music or a newspaper. Mass Media also is responsible for music integration.  Musical styles like from the region of Scandinavia to the Mexican border, was broadcasted through media. Recordings and radio led to creation of different musical genres and styles.  Cowboy music originated from the prairie lands of USA, and has expanded through the world, through the internet and radio. My father was saying growing up in a Jamaica,  his daily viewing was cowboy shows. Living in the Caribbean, I would’t expect my father to know songs that originated 8000 miles away. Ministrel shows were a mockery of the African American culture. These shows were acted by white people painted in black faces. These shows dehumanized the African Americans, it allow white Anglo Americans to take advantage of the African Americans , because of the idea of African Americans was inferior to White Anglo Americans. This form of entertainment can be seen during the time of Nazi Germany. Hitler found a way  to eliminate Jews, without having any remorse.  By creating an image of  animals to be Jews.

The language and poetry of the blues.

The Blues was considered to be a form of poetry back in the early 1900s. During the Harlem renaissance, many black poets such as Langston Hughes wrote poetry in reference to his experiences with the Blues. The Idea for the blues to not follow the format of British ballads, force the genre under the category of pop music.  Blues was not classified as folk music, due to the rampart rhythm, and poetry based lyrics.  Early scholars have concluded the blues as a folk style, because it represented the culture of African Americans, by having its own distinctive language. What I found interesting about the composure of the blues is that the lyrics can be made using anything. Meaning, the lyrics can be drawn from the slang of the urban neighborhoods to the Victorian magazine. The culture integration of music from Africans and white settles, led to the creation of a genre of music that cannot be solely created by one style of music.

Wald, Escaping The delta

The emergence of  the Blues that stretch beyond the borders of the south. Motivate Blues players to travel to northern cities to express a genre of music that might seem unfamiliar to people living in the north. Blues artist such as Johnson  is  a central figure in the production of blues. Johnson music was a complete different idea in composure and style of music. A complete turnover  from the continue twisting that has always been in style. Euguine Powell testimony on Blues, captivated my attention on how creation of other genres affects his livelihood. Blues has been diminished in the delta due to financial issues. Musical artist are know looking forward to moving somewhere, where the money is much better. Music and dancing was not a " a casual pastime for residents that lived in the Delta" this caused blues to move out of the delta region.

Deep Blues

The Deep Blues originated from the southern part of the United States. It has been considered a revolutionized version of American country music. The genre of blues was non-classified during slavery, meaning it was not recognized as the blues we know today. Many African Americans saw this music as working music, music that goes along with manual labor. Blues came from the contribution of African slaves that brought their distinctive linguistic tone and style.  Africans from the Senegambia region lack the resources to create wooden instruments such as drums. So they relied on Berbers to contribute string instruments, such as the fiddle. This brought a mixture of Middle Eastern style of music.

What I found interesting is that their is no separation between the audience and the people who are producing the music. Many village people tend to join in on the making of the music.  The idea of using their bodies to create sounds that correlate with the beat is quite fascinating.  African music seem more participative versus European music.