Reading Post. FS

 It is interesting how so much has been accomplished by bringing African Americans slaves to the United States. For example, blues, something that made a big impact in the United States, had many of its influences by the slaves. However, what I found very interesting was the way African Americans were able to communicate through the sound and melodies of their music. Even the fact that the different instruments used can have meaning behind it. For instance, "In African language the meaning of a word can be changed simply by altering the pitch of the word, or changing its stress", which is something the slaves used to their advantage in order to communicate secretly without their masters figuring out what they were saying. I also found it interesting that many of the songs created helped the slaves made their tasks easier. Some songs helped the young men prepare for manhood and some songs helped them finish their jobs on the plantation. However, what I did not like reading was the changes that the African American slaves had to make throughout their experience in slavery. For example, they had to learn to remove some of their religious influences in their songs in order to please their 'masters'. The drum, an instrument used by many Africans, was banned from use because their masters believed that it was a very dangerous and thought provoking instruments. The masters were afraid that the drum can have their slaves runaway from their plantation and seek freedom. Lastly, I didn't like the change religiously that the whites had implemented because they saw 'hoodoo' as the devil's talk and implemented punishments like whipping and even murder. Because of the idea that 'hoodoo' was the devil's talk, white's made them change their religion to Christianity in order to be able to communicate better with them and clean their souls since they were seen as beasts. But many slaves didn’t have to be converted since the 'hoodoo' was banned from practice and it was punishable many had converted to Christianity on their own in order to avoid being punished and killed.

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.

Reading Response 11/10

American Negro music stems from the Africans who were enslaved in the south. The music before/associated with American Negro music would be jazz which is similar to its musical predecessor called the Blues. The Blues stems from a multitude of things, one being slaves. Those who were enslaved tended to draw inspiration from not only the struggle the experienced while working but also the native beats and rhythms from West Africa. Not only was the sound unique but the words per each song were quite unique. Those who sang the songs of the south were doing their best to learn a new language. In doing so, they struggled with certain words so they did their best to pronounce them but often pronounced them a little differently. Not to mention their vocabulary was growing because they were learning new words from their masters. It was tough to speak because a lot of these slaves had a thick accent because the languages they were learning were completely different than what they were used to speaking. Certain words came out differently because the accents of the singers were so thick. Another unique aspect of Jazz is that it involves more than just one singer. What I mean by that is that normally a singer will make a statement (lyrically) or will ask a question in which other singers (or the audience) will respond or support to the statement. The reason American Negro Music is so unique is the fact that it is very improvisational. If you've ever listened to jazz or the blues, the music really seems to flow and almost seem casual or laid back. This allowed for whites to claim that the singers of these songs weren't as talented because they didn't follow the musical scale per se. I personally think that's what makes Jazz and the Blues the best kind of music there is. It's so laid and just such a unique sound that really stands apart from any other kind of music.

Religion was something was basically forced upon Africans when they came to this country. They weren't allowed to practice their native religions so they had no choice. It also helped put slaves on the same level as their owners because they both practiced the same religion. Slave owners soon caught on to this and attempted to get their slaves to convert to being Quakers or Protestant. But a decent amount of them ended up turning to Southern Protestant. The church offered slaves another way to practice their music. Choir music changed tremendously because slaves were more rhythmic when they sang it. The overall conditions slaves faced both physically and socially, allowed them to change the way music would be seen forever.

Blues People

In Blues People Negro Music in White America Amiri Baraka explores the possibility that the history of black Americans can be traced through the evolution of their music. It is considered a classic work on jazz and blues music in American culture, and it documents the effects jazz and blues had on America on an economic, musical, and social level. Baraka contends that although slavery destroyed many formal artistic traditions, African American music represents certain African survivals. Most important, African American music represents an African approach to culture. 

 “As I began to get in to the history of the music, I found that it was impossible without, at the same time, getting deeper into the history of the people. That it was    the history of the Afro-American people as text, as tale, as story, as exposition, narrative…that music was the score, the actually expressed creative orchestration, reflection of Afro-American life, our words, the libretto, to those actual, lived lives. That the music was an orchestrated, vocalized, hummed, chanted, blown, beaten, scatted, corollary confirmation of the history… That music was explaining the history as the history was explaining the music. And that both were expressions of and reflections of the people!”

This quote shows the significance of African/Black music in the history, the culture, the lives of the people.

Christianity was the biggest religion for African Americans during the early nineteenth century. It gave them a sense of freedom, and music placed a big role for them. The blues originated during slavery, it was significant to the conditions in which African/Black people had lived and the efforts to survive address and improve those conditions. In the first half of the past century, jazz was the dominant musical form. Music was a tool for Black people to transmit messages for expressing some of their pain, consciousness, spirituality and the conditions of injustice in which people were living and the desire for those conditions to change. 

I am not a big fan of jazz musis or of the blues, but I found Baraka's article on black music in America to be very interesting because I got to learn how the legacy of slavery affected the evolution of the music. For anyone who is a fan of the genre I think the article was of great use.

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. 

Blues People

Amaris Baraka’s Blues People: Negro Music in White America is a story of Negro Americans. He writes about the start of the Blues and Jazz music. In the beginning of the chapter, it says, "blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives" (17). Reading this line reminded me of a book called Hip: The History, by John Leland, which also talked about the growth of African American music. One particular part of the book that was interesting was that the author said that America would not be America without Africans. I agree with some because in my opinion, and as depicted by Leland, the white people needed those slaves in order to survive. The same idea is represented by Bakara, stating that without african captives, the blues would not even exist. The blues emerged from a combination of chants and African spirituals, and at the same time, influences Jazz music. This type of music depicted what everyday life was like for the negro american, and indeed their diverse labor was a major influence for those songs. However, in this book however, Bakara talks about the blues as something slightly different. Bakara expresses that the first slaves sang about their burning desire to go home, and these new slaves now sang about wanting back their freedom.
Bakara also speaks about the birth of Negro-English, and how the negro captives used this new form of language to make their music. The book states, "... The Negroes who reached the New World acquired as much of the vocabulary of their masters as they initially needed or was later taught to them, pronounced these words as best they were able, but organized them into aboriginal speech patterns” (22). I think that this was what made it possible for them to sing and not have their masters understand what they were singing about.
America would not be the America that it is without the existence of Negro slaves. A lot of things have been taken from their culture, like Blues and Jazz, and implemented into this culture, thus saying that American culture would not exist without it.

                 Amiri's Baraka views on the Blues

      Jazz is derived from the Blue's, which traces back to Native American culture and music. It originated as a result of slavery.  Religious negro music also originates from African music. The music of second generation of slaves yields "work songs" that links to pure African music and was greatly influenced by the Euro American culture in which they lived in. This American culture restricted the use of drums and certain themes in the negro music, to have further control of their attitudes. Regardless, the songs were sung in silence, and in their own dialect which was incomprehensible to their masters/Americans.  However with new slaves being born into the American Society, their since of self and meaning of old songs became meaningless.  Slaves adopted the language of their masters and created their own distinct dialects. African life changed into a Native American form. Western culture were egocentric and intolerant to African music and it's creating system.  

       The Blue's/ Jazz are characterized by its rhythm and vocal scales.  This rhythmic qualities are attributed to the use of drums in African society as means of communication.  Aspects of African music consists of altering the pitch of certain words to shift it's meaning. It consists of a main singer and a choirs,  improvisation is implemented and lyrics of storytelling.   Western culture adopted instruments of African descent into their music. However their music lacks religious themes and emotions.  Instead their songs are shallow and self centered.  Thus, western music is the contrary of the Blues and Jazz. Westerners focus on the pitch, tone and timbre while African singing derives from the hard and deeper issues. 

       During the early nineteen century Negros converted into Christians. Religion was embedded into their culture.  Negros we more leaning towards the Baptist church. They believed in the river spirits and by being baptize they acquired power in a sense and we're cleansed of their sins. Christianity gave a sense of freedom to the African Americans.  The negro church was a church centered around emotion where music and dancing played  key roles. 

     The negro religious music was authentic.  Aside from being converted into Christians they held distinct beliefs that showed in their music and in the way they practice religion.  They incorporated their own culture into Christianity.  Negros went to church to be free, and eventually created a hierarchy system with social concerns and other attributes.  Disregard of emancipation, blacks were segregated and oppressed by organizations of whites such as the Ku Klux Klan, and other government laws.  The Blues originated in slavery,  this type of music reflected social hardships, and served as a constant reminder of their daily struggles and history.  With time, the structure of the Blues changed, it broke away from the classic structure.  The Blues were therapeutic,  they served as means of free expression and emotional outlets, and carried a message that all Negros related to. They were all restricted by the same boundaries.  

Reading Response 11/10

In Blues People by Amiri Baraka, the author writes abut the history of the West Africans that were brought to America as slaves.  In these novel excerpts she addresses the issue of the 1^st American slaves and their attempt to hold on to their African customs and traditions, while being forced to labor foreign land.  One custom that was bought to America was the work songs that they sang. Even though the work songs survived slavery, its original content changed dramatically due to circumstances. Songs once used while laboring their own fields in West Africa held different meaning in America. Not only did they try to make their relatable to their current situation, they were also forced to give some of the basic foundations of these songs. Individual songs for different task such as fishing, weaving and hunting songs were suddenly lost and became one song about the cultivation of the white man’s field. Their songs referring to the gods or religion were not permitted due to the white masters believing that Africans were “heathens” and references to god meant they were planning on leaving. The slave owners also saw a threat in the African drum and prohibited the use of it believing that they represented an intention to revolt.

These work songs were handed down to their offspring but the cry to return home to Africa which was the basis for the songs sung by the first slaves, was no longer relatable to new generation of slaves.  Like their ancestors, the American-born slaves now changed these songs to suit their own circumstances.  They could not chant about returning to Africa when America is the only home they’ve known, so their cries turn to cries of FREEDOM. With the drums, religion and the cries to return home removed from African music; the new slaves set to establish their own musical identity using the only surviving aspect of African music, Rhythm. The history of drums being used as communication by Africans helped Afro-Americans developed “an extremely fine and extremely complex rhythmic sense.”  With the lost of their own identity they soon realized that America was the white mans world and used the ideas and religious ideology to set a foundation for what they hoped to become.

Reading response 11/10

Reading Response 11/10

Amiri Baraka, author of Blues People: Negro Music in White America discusses how music can be used as a device to measure the cultural integration of Africans in North America from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth  century. This book shows the influence of African Americans and their culture on American culture and history and the effects that jazz and blues had on America on an economic, musical, and social level. I enjoyed reading the chapters from this book because I was able to learn more about African American history and how music was an important outlet for them. I am not a fan of blues music, but the history behind it was really interesting and remarkable. Baraka states that even though slavery ruined many formal artistic traditions, African American music symbolizes numerous African survivals. This African American music represents an African approach to culture.

In the third chapter, African Slaves/American Slaves: Their Music, Baraka views that music is able to express and maintain a group’s identity. During slavery, Africans were forbidden from singing their ritual songs because their owners feared a rebellion. They were forced into obedience and had to change their work songs and lyrics when they were on the field (19). These conditions caused a change in their music. The music that was formed was now a mixture of their original work songs and references to slave culture. The transformation of their language became a mix of their own language and their European masters' language. The outlook of slavery influenced the way African culture could be reconstructed and evolved. For example, drums were forbidden by many slave owners because they feared its power to be communicative amongst the slaves and lead to violence or revolt. The end result being that the slaves used other objects to create similar beats and tones to that of drums.

During the time of slavery, slaves were not allowed to get an education. The main method of education in the slave community was storytelling. Baraka states, “Another important aspect of African music as the use of folk tales in song lyrics, riddles, proverbs, etc., which, even when not accompanied by music, were the Africans chief method of education, the way the wisdom of the elders was passed down to the young” (28). African American music supports the African viewpoint and records the historical experience of an oppressed people.  destroyed many formal artistic traditions, African American music represents certain African survivals music can be used as a gauge to measure the cultural assimilation of Africans in North America from the early eighteenth century to the twentieth century.music can be used as a gauge to measure the cultural assimilation of Africans in North America from the early eighteenth century to the twentieth century.Blues People: Negro Music in White America presentsBlues People: Negro Music in White America presents

Blues People

    Blues People: Negro Music in White America by Amiri Baraka, is a seminal study of Afro-American music. It is considered a classic work on jazz and blues music in American culture. It documents the effects jazz and blues had on America on an economic, musical, and social level. It chronicles the types of music dating back to the slaves up until the 1960's. Baraka approaches this musical genre from a sociological, historical, and political standpoint, starting with the early slave trade in America.

    Baraka looks at the many African influences of the blues, as well as its opposition to more classical Western styles of music, and how it has evolved. Baraka focuses most of his attention, in later chapters, on the birth of jazz and how it owes their creation to the blues. Baraka contends that although slavery destroyed many formal artistic traditions, African American music represents certain African survivals. Most important, African American music represents an African approach to culture. As such, the music sustains the African worldview and records the historical experience of an oppressed people. Baraka also argues that while Africans adapted their culture to the English language and to European musical instruments and song forms, they also maintained an ethnic viewpoint that is preserved and transmitted by their music.

    When you are finished, you won't be an expert on the subject of blues or jazz music, but he does manage to fill you deeply with a sense of ownership and responsibility for holding and transmitting the history. I have to admit that my ignorance of jazz and jazz players meant some of this reading was confusing to me. I understood the points Baraka made but it would have communicated more if I was familiar with the recordings he referenced.

    Blues People is an important read for anyone interested in blues and jazz or in the people who created them.

    For the most part I found Baraka's insights and observations about black folk and black music in America informative and very interesting especially when discussing how the legacy of slavery affected the evolution of the music.

Blues People

In the chapter reading from Blues People, by Amiri Baraka he writes about the origins of Blues and Jazz. He also writes about their struggles and how this produced a different genre of music. I found it particularly interesting that Jazz, something so upbeat and fun could derive from something so much more such as the blues.  The blues technically came from sad songs slaves would sing while working on the fields. The masters altered many of these songs, because they didn’t want the slaves practicing any type of religion. They were pretty much stripping them away from their own culture because they were afraid that it would lead to rebellion. So they had to change some of the words in their songs, incorporate different languages and stop using instruments such as drums.  The whites thought that they would use the drums to revolt. So the slaves had to use different types of things to create beats for their songs. Many of the lyrics in the blues are used to tell stories and are used to teach the younger generation. Baraka writes about all of these facts that have lead to the creation of the blues from songs that were initially African-American slave songs. Religion is also something that is mentioned in this reading. Most of the Negros were Christians but they weren’t allowed to practice their religion. Some of them were killed when they even spoke about spirits and devils. After slavery the slaves didn’t really have a place of their own in the “white world.” It was a hard struggle, with hate groups such as the KKK. These conditions brought on more songs that included “shouts, hollers..” So in other words, the songs would usually describe their current situation. Music is a way of expression and that is just what the African Americans tried to do. Although they were opposed and had to make many changes, they were able to create music that expressed who they were. They were able to create spiritual songs and church songs to keep their traditions alive in new generations. The fact that we still listen to some of these songs and understand them shows just that.

Blues People: Negro music in White America

Blues People:Negro Music in White America written by Amiri Baraka focuses on African Slaves living during the 17th and 18th centuries under social conditions in the US. Slaves were not allowed to practice their religion or any of their cultural practices because it was considered evil by white Americans. Due to this, Africans had to make a change in their cultural and religious practices which led to the development Afro-American music. Slaves could not worship God the way they use to and also had to change their labor works. For these reasons, they started singing chants/songs influenced by the American culture. Afro-American music was created by intertwining American and African Cultures. According to Baraka, African Music existed by improvising. An example of this is that they were forbidden from using drums, so they looked for oil drums to use instead. The rhythm in Afro-American music can be also seen in African use of drums for communicating. It was fascinating to the Whites of how Africans used percussion instruments. Rhythm and the meaning of the song were important aspects in the Africans lives. They changed their music in order for it to fit into their new religion of Christianity. Christianity to them was an emotional feeling and the way God should be praised is by happiness through singing and dancing.

One of the genres of music that Baraka focuses on is Blues. Blues is created from African and White Europeans interaction of cultures. Today many Black singers are singers of Blues and Hip Hop. African Americans had their own musical instruments such as the Banjo and Xylophone. The happiness of living a peaceful life forever in eternity meant more to them even though they had to endure the harshness of slavery. Many of the early Christian Negro church services expressed the important of music. Though some of the slave masters were happy that their slaves accepted the new religion, their were those who forbid the slaves speaking anything related to religion. Due to this, Africans had to change some of the words in the language and the formation of "slang" began. We know that slavery harmed Blacks artistic cultures, but that did not prevent their music from not existing. The church now became a center of life for many slaves. As a result, Blues became more influential in America and it may not have risen if Black slavery did not exist.

Reading Response 11/10

Blues people by Amiri Baraka is about negro music in white America. The author looks at the many influences of the blues, styles of music and how it evolved. The central argument he makes is that all American popular music is stolen from blacks by the whites. For the most part, I found Baraka's insights and observations about how black music in America very interesting especially when discussing how legacy of slavery affected the evolution of music. Most importantly, African American music represents certain African survival. He provides a view that American culture is created by Africans and White Europeans that feed off each other. Blues, a genre of music is brought because of Africans and Europeans integration of cultures. Today, many Black singers are singers of Blue and Hip Hop. Perhaps Baraka's arguments are views of how cultural products reflects social development. African Americans had their own musical instrument such as the Banjo and xylophone and these influenced instruments used today by African Americans and Europeans. Although they had to endure the harshness of slavery, the joy of living a peaceful life forever in eternity meant a lot more for them. As a result of accepting Christianity, slave masters were also happy that their slaves were now bound to live by a high moral code of living. A lot of the early Christian Negro church services greatly emphasized music. However, some  slave masters forbid slaves from speaking anything related to religion. As a result, there was a language transition and slaves started to develop their own slang. They even spelt some words differently and an example "iggle " for eagle is evidence for their misspelling of certain words. Baraka also touches on social history of how black music came into place. Even though slavery harmed Black's artistic cultures, their music still remained. The church became the center and life for slaves and the free people. Baraka explains how Black music was accepted by Whites despite its origin. Also, the guitar had the most effect on singers along with learning how to play it. According to the author, "another change Blues, a vocal music was made to conform to an instrument range"(69). Guitar became very popular  and it developed the desire for people to sing. As a result, Blues became more influential in America and it may not have risen if Black slavery did not exist.

The Development of Afro-American Music

In Amiri Baraka’s Blues People: Negro Music in White America, Baraka takes his readers back to the 17^th and 18^th centuries when African slaves lived under constrained social conditions in the United States. Slaves were prohibited from practicing their religions and from listening to their music because their culture was considered diabolic and evil by white Americans. According to Baraka though, these social conditions are what led to the development of Afro-American music because it forced slaves to make changes to their African culture. For example, since slaves knew they could no longer worship in their old ways, they saw the religion of Christianity as their only way to worship God. In addition, their forced labor changed the way African slaves viewed life and it caused them to start singing work songs influenced by the American culture that surrounded them. Due to these changes in their lifestyle, African culture started to intertwine with the American culture and thereby creating Afro-American music.        

            Baraka claims that African music survived in American Negro music because of African slaves’ use of improvisation. Although they were also prohibited from using drums, Africans looked for other instruments to use such as empty oil drums. The rhythm in Afro-American music can be traced back to Africans’ use of drums for communication. Baraka states, “Also, the elaborately develop harmonic system used in the playing of percussion instruments, i.e.,the use of drums or other percussion instruments of different timbres to produce harmonic contrasts, was not immediately recognizable to the Western ear…”(26). Africans had a unique way of playing percussion instruments that white Americans had never heard before. For Africans, rhythm and a song’s lyrical meaning were important aspects of their music. Therefore, they even changed their music to adapt to their new religion of Christianity. They made Christianity into an emotional religion that consisted of more melodic music and singing. They believed that God should be praised by happy singing and dancing. Baraka says, “The lyrics, rhythms, and even the harmonies were essentially of African derivation, subjected, of course, to the transformations that American life had brought into existence. The Negro’s religious music was his original creation and the spirituals themselves were probably the first completely native American music the slaves made” (42). Africans in the United States had to leave some aspects of their African culture due to the racism and discrimination that existed in the slavery time period and post slavery time period. But this did not mean the end of their culture; instead they found ways to incorporate American culture into their culture and created music that within time would develop into blues and jazz. Baraka ends chapter six saying, “And it was this boundary, this no man’s land, that provided the logic and beauty of his music” (80). This sentence I believe sums up Baraka’s thesis because he is telling his readers that the racial boundary that once existed between whites and blacks is what caused their collision of cultures and the rise of beautiful music that represents part of America’s colonial history.

           

Blues People!

The way Jazz music was brought up in the chapter is that seems like it more recent then blues music. Blues seems to be much older and it was of music for black native Americans. It’s like the author is saying blues music wouldn't exist if it was for black people. Blues music was also known has African American work songs.  These work songs first development in slavery days. Whats Stuck out to me was when  the word was brought up “religious syncretism”. This stuck out to me because I personally never seen this word before. Based on the reading it means , “ The identification of  of one set of religious dogma or ritual with analogous coma or ritual in a completely alien religion”(Pg.18).  I thought this word explain the era of slavery blues music all in one word. The work songs for African American was used has religious songs. With African American songs came along dances. The dances were seen in southern places like New Orleans. I thought it was unfair to see how some slaves would sing their songs in the field then white people would notice that they were too happy. White slave owner felt that that they slaves wanted to leave their plantation. Its like of course the white wanted the black to suffer and not be happy or express themselves. It seems that the slave owners was trying to take the piece of happiness away from. The work songs were they way of bringing happiness to a horrible situation which was slavery. I think what power the whites over the black didn't stop the slaves singing there music. From reading some if the lyrics it seems like they were shocking or exciting about something. For example, “Go! on! eat enormously! I ain’t one bit ashamed-eat outrageous!” (Pg 21). I think that shouting expression was a sign of hope on their behalf. 

With work songs came with the speech or language of West Africans. From how I understand this part of the chapter was you have to have an West African accent to sing the work songs. But this statement or the West African  music was misunderstood. But the important thing was the background and it’s meaning behind the work song music. The songs was used has survival  guide for West African music. It seems that the work songs pave the way for Christianity. Its like the “Negros” started the idea of Christianity music. “But still Christianity was adopted by Negros before the great attempts by missionaries and evangelist in the early part of the ninetieth century to covert them” (Pg 32). I think black people changed the idea of Christianity music.

Christian P.
Blues People: Negro Music in White America
Reading Response:

        Amiri Baraka wrote this book as one of earliest depictions of African-American artistic expression in the form of blues, the first widely-known and beloved music in America's history. Since becoming a staple of American culture and tradition since its inception, the musical genre known as blues has also been central to the upkeep of the influential Afro-American culture at the same time. As a society that has been facing oppression for so long, Baraka believed it was the only way Afro-Americans could combat the racial divide. Through utilizing art, blues, the "parent of jazz", became symbolic and representative of the notion that music never had any bounds.
        The growth of Afro-American music, specifically blues, had never been conventional nor by intent. Baraka explains that their music had been embraced by whites regardless of where it came from, meaning that artistic expression as a concept had been sorely absent in America as blacks essentially were its pioneers fairly more so than whites. Baraka talks about the impact and values of art in the form of music:

Blues is the parent of all legitimate jazz, and it is impossible to say exactly how old blues is-certainly no older than the presence of Negroes in the United States. It is a native American music, the product of the black man in this country: or to put it more exactly the way I have come to think about it, blues could not exist if the African captives had not become American captives. (3)  

Baraka firmly believed that blues may not have existed if blacks never faced the kinds of hardships and brutal conditions that they did. Afro-American art was a product of the lives they lived and their music encapsulated just that. Even so, whites enjoyed and even reveled blues just as much as the oppressed artists.
        The evolution of Afro-American culture developed parallel to the triumphs and progressions of their society as a whole (70). With each and every achievement, their art evolved, gradually blurring the line between black and American art. Whether their music was melancholy or uplifting, it reflected their emotions while inspiring and empowering them simultaneously. Consequently, blues became more influential as it was a primary source that gave the world a glimpse into black life in America.
      

Reading Response 11/10

In the chapters read from “Blues People” by Amiri Baraka, the evolutionary process of Blues was shown. Baraka emphasized the factors and social conditions that caused a change in the native African music and how that led to the development of Blues. The first African slaves that came to the Americas through the slave ships initially sang about their gods and religion, however the slave masters disliked the fact that they link themselves from Africa and their own gods. The masters tried to resolve this by forbidding the enslaved from speaking anything about religion linked to their heathen roots. Little by little, generations by generations, the new generation of African-American slaves knew less and less about their heritage and with them change their music. Despite the African Americans having their own language and musical instruments such as banjo and xylophone, they had to transition into another language and music instruments in this case the English language and European music instruments, which ironically were influenced by African music instruments. African Americans, due to the language transitioning started developing their own “slang” and even spelling words differently such as “iggle” for eagle. The African Americans were then converted into Christians, during slavery; they went to a praise house. The church banned songs they think are sinful, including "fiddle sings," "devil songs," "jig tunes," and the "corn song." And further ban their music instruments such as the violin and the banjo, which was considered as evil. The church completely transformed the African American culture and their music.

            The African Americans try to maintain an ethnic viewpoint that is deflected onto their music, White masters did a lot of influence on the Blue as well, but they influence it more by oppressing the African Americans, depriving them of their own culture, which initiated the evolution of their music that was all about folklores and religion into Jazz which further evolved into Blues. Music is able to express and preserve a cultural identity, despite most being forgotten, and pass it down to evolve further more in the future. According to Bakara, cultural products are based on and determined by outside and inside force. In this case the African American started with their own songs to communicate with their god and the white trying to erase their culture.