Reading Response: Blues people (Negro Music in White American)

           In the book Blues people: Negro Music in White American, Amiri Baraka illustrates the development of Afro-American music which led to popular music genes in American culture such as Blues and Jazz. Baraka states that the origins of Blues and Jazz were from the Afro-American work songs of the first generation of slaves which had originated from West Africa (18). However, their work songs were forced to change due to the circumstance of being a slave. The work songs that originated from West Africa could not apply to the situation of slavery. Slave owners forbade their slaves to sing about Gods or religion of Africa because they were afraid of rebellion or runaway slave. Slave owners also prohibited the use of drums since it could be used create rebellion as drums are the symbol that reminds slaves about their origins. As a result of the forbiddance of pure African rituals, the music of the second generation of slaves were exposed and began to use Euro-American culture as reference because they were living in American fields. African Americans mixed their songs with foreign words which depending on their master’s nationality. African Americans also created their new dialect from the pronunciations they got from learning new vocabulary which used to improvise their music. Since African Americans were forbidden from their pure African music, they began to change their music by adaptation and reinterpretation.

          

          The use of folk tales in song lyrics was very important to African music. It was the way for education, such as wisdom and virtues, which was passed down from generation to generation. The African Americans acquired the folk tales technique in their music which resulted in the lyrics of Blues songs. They also used other objects as instruments to create beats and tones. Since Africans' Gods and religions were forbidden in the new world, the Whites used Christianity as a method to control Africans. Christianity helped to take away slaves’ mind from wanting to go back to Africa for freedom and to see death as the only way out. This helped to create African Christianity churches and the praised houses. These places were the only places where Africans could freely express their emotions and also allow interactions between them. The Afro-American music continued to develop in the church which is different from the early work songs on the content and subjects. The church's music was more of melodic and musical than hollered or grunted (41). Even though Afro-American music had developed from European or American, the African tradition and aura cannot be completely broken which can be seen from the rhythm and melodies of religion music and also their religion ceremonies.

         

           The historical events created a new mind set for Africans from slave to freedman. After living under the power of White supremacy more than hundred years, African Americans had to create their lives from their owned hand. The mind set of self-identification mixed with the deconstruction of white musical elements began to take shape as Blues. The emancipation helped black man to gain their first experienced of being alone and work alone. In the early day, Africans were mostly shouting, singing, and hollering while working together. However since they became freed and lived as an individual, the inspiration for work songs began to shade away. Their music began to reflect on their social and culture changed. Compared to the old work songs that had few English words, the Blues had developed to all English lyrics. The idea of freedom from the eternal life also shifted to the idea of hope for self-identification. The searching for self-identification led Blues to become an extremely individual and personal music. Apart from living in the difficult life styles, Freed Africans had an opportunity to learn more about speech and languages. Since they were living throughout the country, they had an opportunity to interact with other people and also interact with instruments, especially guitar. This interaction helped to develop and create the new genes for American music which is Jazz. The era of jazz began when African Americans mastered more European instruments and the timbre with the voice tone quality (70). The sound of Creoles from downtown, African with French ancestry, combined with the freed Africans from uptown also created Jazz. Blues and Jazz are the results of the development of Afro-American music that happened throughout the American history. Baraka states: "It was this boundary, this no man’s land that provided the logic and beauty of his music" (80). The struggle, limitation and inequality life of African Americans helped to inspire and maintain the charm of African music that led to development of Afro-American music.