All About Music: the African American Language
(ALL ABOUT MUSIC: The African American Language)
Thesis: Music was a means, a leverage, a shrewd resort; it was for the real Negro who was, beneath the melody, thinking, and planning and advancing. “Communication in song was certainly safer than direct talk” and “slaves could further disguise their message by singing about freedom” (Russell Ames). To understand, what was called spirituals, a person must understand the language of slaves who song them. The language established by enslaves African Americans was a colorful blend of African syntactical features and words, carefully created “code” words. This cod made communication between slave groups easier and served to effectively conceal African American goals and dreams. Naturally, their secret meanings found their way the spirituals and work songs of the slaves. Spirituals, then, besides their very obvious religions mandate, “communicate ethnic identity” within the community.
History of African American Music
The phrase ‘African American music’ is commonly used to refer to music, which has developed within the African American communities of the United States from the 1600s. African slaves brought to America from the 1600s were representative of a wide range of ethnic groups, and their music, dance, and cultural lives were similarly diverse. It is difficult to trace the myriad of cultural inputs that went into the creation of music from the grassroots in the first decades of the twentieth century. The evolution of the blues as a fundamentally African American musical genre can be traced back to the shouts, field hollers, and work songs of slavery. Certain pre-blues shouts and hollers were described in John W. Work’s American Negro Songs. African slaves brought with them to America musical traditions different from their European masters. Yet, the blending of African and European cultures in America produced a distinctive set of musical forms and traditions. It is hard to imagine what
Thesis: Music was a means, a leverage, a shrewd resort; it was for the real Negro who was, beneath the melody, thinking, and planning and advancing. “Communication in song was certainly safer than direct talk” and “slaves could further disguise their message by singing about freedom” (Russell Ames). To understand, what was called spirituals, a person must understand the language of slaves who song them. The language established by enslaves African Americans was a colorful blend of African syntactical features and words, carefully created “code” words. This cod made communication between slave groups easier and served to effectively conceal African American goals and dreams. Naturally, their secret meanings found their way the spirituals and work songs of the slaves. Spirituals, then, besides their very obvious religions mandate, “communicate ethnic identity” within the community.
History of African American Music
The phrase ‘African American music’ is commonly used to refer to music, which has developed within the African American communities of the United States from the 1600s. African slaves brought to America from the 1600s were representative of a wide range of ethnic groups, and their music, dance, and cultural lives were similarly diverse. It is difficult to trace the myriad of cultural inputs that went into the creation of music from the grassroots in the first decades of the twentieth century. The evolution of the blues as a fundamentally African American musical genre can be traced back to the shouts, field hollers, and work songs of slavery. Certain pre-blues shouts and hollers were described in John W. Work’s American Negro Songs. African slaves brought with them to America musical traditions different from their European masters. Yet, the blending of African and European cultures in America produced a distinctive set of musical forms and traditions. It is hard to imagine what