Reading Response 11/10

In the chapters from the book, Blues People: Negro Music In White America, authored by Amiri Baraka, made it very clear that because their European captures, Africans were not accepted as Americans and were not allowed to continue with their traditional music, and those are the sole reasons why the American Negro created the first native American music under European-American nation. The irony in that is unlike no other.

Interesting, but not surprising, that a whole genre of music was created because of the American slave business. It seems like in every genre of music there are different feelings for their songs. For instance, any other music genre it seems like you can find songs about love, having a good time, social lessons, but the Blues genre, in its entirety, is just sad. If art imitates life, then it becomes very clear the extreme oppression that these Africans were subjected to.

As I was reading the chapters I could not help but to keep trying to compare the labor music of the African captives in America, to the music I listen to now. I feel like I get to choose the music that I listen to. The music I choose to listen to is really just my preference of music, my favorite kind of music. I then try to imagine the African slaves in America having a favorite type of music, something that they prefer to listen to too. In the chapters Baraka spoke about how the Africans captives were no longer allowed to sing the songs of their cultures or play their timbres, because the Europeans feared that it might incite a riot. So it is clear that they did have a favorite type of music, but they weren’t allowed to practice it.  They had to listen to something, was that something that they created to fill in their void for music at that point in time become their music of preference? When their slave owners were not around did they go back to their traditional music or did some rather listen to this new, oppressive, limited music?

I think that way because I truly believe music is a part of the human experience and if people were jamming out to really depressive songs on their own time, then I cannot the imagine how deep the psychological effects that this has caused on a people.

Human from across all cultures have an obsession with music, and off the top of my head, I think it may be only specific to the human race. It seems like humans need music.