how is a expression African American Culture? Sorry to disagree, but country music was not influenced by any African-American culture. Perhaps you mean Cajun music?
Country was brought to the American Southern and Appalachian regions this country, by European immigrants that brought over tunes that were centuries old when they arrived.
Even their instruments.....fiddle/violin, guitar, mandolin, and so on were simply a tranplantion of their European roots. Jazz rogk,hip hop.country ect... It all comes from early American African culture. ITs the music from slaves, from begging,, to commanding. Jazz was created during times of racism, and it has always been a big part of the musicians life. Jazz and African American equality are linked tightly throughout jazz history. It affected the musicians who traveled the country and elsewhere directly. That being said, here is my answer...
There have been lots of musicians who FOUGHT to have equal rights, there are too many to mention. They were all good for raising awareness and possibly changing the standard of what is really fair.
BUT, the strongest and most lasting in importance came from making a statement that is totally void of FIGHTING the system.
I am talking about the invention of be bop. In the 1940's when African Americans were considered second class citizens, the most talented musicians of the times (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie's, and Max Roach) invented be bop. For the first time, African Americans were doing things their way. the music was uniquely African American. The rest of society had no say on how or what was played. It is a uniquely African American creation, and it was done to the highest degree of quality.
It was a statement of having the same potential as any other race, especially white. Be bop was a representation of the potential of African Americans creating something without any help from any "superior" race. It was like saying to the racists, "See, you were wrong".
Whats very important is that be bop was not a movement to beat or defeat any other movement. It was a peaceful creation that stands on its own, and represents the people who created it. Yo can't haggle with that. To the above poster, country music has roots in blues and gospel music. It's origins are in the southern united states and the appalachian mountains. Therefore it was influenced by the blues and gospel music. If one listens to country music one can hear the similiarities.
Jazz was indeed started in New Orleans by black musicians and basically was influenced by the blues, which was influenced by the African music brought by the slaves.
Jazz has been used as a political voice in our world for African Americans. |
