Black Music and American Culture (Music 238)

Course Description
Learn about African American musicians who shaped American culture with a wide variety of musical styles and genres. Study racism, resistance, and resilience as prominent themes in the music history that profoundly influences modern musical practices.

Learning Objectives

  1. Define and use music terminology relevant description of musical sound.
  2. Read and understand reference materials, scholarly articles, and primary sources relevant to the study of African American musicians and Black musics.
  3. Describe how African American musicians have shaped what is recognized globally as “American Music.”
  4. Explain how dialectical concepts of “black” and “white” musics have developed historically in the United States and in tandem with patterns of cultural appropriation.
  5. Interpret how race intersects with gender, class, and other aspects of identity during social processes of music production and reception.
  6. Find legacies of historical African American musicians in today’s musical practices.
  7. Critique power imbalances in American society that influence and are influenced by music making, especially the role of institutional racism of the music industry and music education.
  8. Reflect on one’s own social responsibilities to support music, musicians, and institutions that impart positive social change.

Schedule of Course Study Topics
Introductions

  1. What is “Black” music? What is “White” music? What’s the best way to describe their relationship? How/why is this potentially complicated?
  2. Who were the pioneering scholars of African American music history and what are the dominant historiographical themes? What are the controversial issues?
  3. What is implied by the modern-day usage of “Black” and “African American” when used as descriptors of racial identity and/or ethnic heritage of people and of music? How do you think we should use these descriptors?
  4. What types of sources will be used for our study of Black music and how should we read and interpret them differently? How will different types of sources complement each other for a rich study of music and culture?

Close Listening to Music

Read and study: “Elements of Musical Sound” outline prepared by Prof. Chybowski

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What elements of musical sound are easiest/hardest to distinguish from the others?
  2. How might you use the outline of terminology as a check list for listening to music?
  3. If you have studied music previously and are familiar with some of the terminology, can you offer your classmates alternative definitions and/or recommendations for close listening?
  4. How will you practice close listening and use of music terminology?

Blackface Minstrelsy

View: PBS’s Basic Black, “Explaining Blackface”
Read: Springhall’s “Blackface Minstrelsy: The First All-American Show”
Read: original lyrics for “Oh Susannah”
Listen: to “Pea Patch Jig” and “Oh Susannah”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Should minstrel songs be taught as American folk music—to whom? What ages? How? Why?
  2. What are some legacies of blackface minstrelsy today or in 20th century that you are aware of? Why hasn’t it disappeared?
  3. Does it make sense to begin a study of Black music with minstrelsy—why? Why not?
  4. To what extent does the music of minstrelsy complicate the process of differentiating between “black” and “white” music? How could we separate the two? Should we? Why or why not?
  5. What “cultural work” did minstrelsy do in the 19th century? What about its legacy today?

Music of Enslaved Africans in America

Read: Thompson’s “Introduction” to Ring Shout, Wheel About: The Racial Politics of Music                       and Dance in North American Slavery
Read and interpret: primary sources by Douglass, Northrup, and Hungerford
Listen: to “Boll Weevil Holler” and “Lucky Holler”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What scholarly challenges exist in studying music of enslaved Americans? How do we deal with the challenges?
  2. What evidence do we have of both Euro Americans attraction to the music of slaves as well as the desire to control musical practices of enslaved people?
  3. How were musical practices used as pro-slavery propaganda and how and by whom was this refuted?

Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield as the “Black Swan”

Read: Chybowski’s “Becoming the ‘Black Swan’ in Mid-Nineteenth Century America:                                 Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield’s Early Life and Debut Concert Tour”
Listen: to “Home Sweet Home”
View: images of E. T. Greenfield

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Why do you think little scholarship has been done before recently?
  2. What is unique about Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield’s mid-nineteenth century concert tours? What do you find most interesting?
  3. To what extent does her career complicate notions of distinct black/white music? What are the implications?
  4. What more would you want to know about ETG’s life and reception?

Fisk Singers and Popularization of the Spiritual

Read: Seroff’s “’A Voice in the Wilderness:’ The Fisk Jubilee Singer’s Civil Rights Tours of 1879-1882”
Listen: to “Go Down Mosses” and “Deep River”
Read: W.E. B. Du Bois’s “Souls of Black Folk”
View: historical photographs of Fisk Singers

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. When do “spirituals” come into mainstream American culture? Who popularizes this music and why? To whom was this music appealing?
  2. How do you distinguish the sound of folk spirituals and arranged concert spirituals?
  3. Why do you think spirituals and slave song have been conflated in the marketing to American mainstream audiences and somewhat in the history writing? Is it accurate to describe spirituals as “slave song”? Why or why not?
  4. What “cultural work” did the Fisk Singers do in the Reconstruction period in the United States?

Ragtime & Early Jazz

Read: Joplin’s biography in “Overlooked” obituaries of NY Times
Listen: to Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag” (piano roll), Morton’s “The Pearls,” Armstrong’s                      “Hotter Than That”
Read: primary sources from the Tick collection (68, 73, 76)
Read: Gilbert’s “Introduction” to The Product of our Souls: Ragtime, Race and the Birth of the Manhattan Musical Marketplace

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What was actually new about James Reese Europe’s 1912 performance at Carnegie Hall and what was prefigured by history?
  2. How do you understand the discourse of “racial uplift” influencing ragtime marketing?
  3. To what extent was the dance music function of ragtime and early jazz the “problem” for social reformers who fought against the “immoral” influence on society?
  4. What are the defining sonic features of ragtime and Dixieland jazz, and how did these iconic sounds take on symbolic cultural meanings?
  5. Why was Joplin’s obituary overlooked by the NY Times until recently included in the “Overlooked” project and what would be the justification for this recent attention? What other musical figures can you find in this collection?

Commercializing Folk Blues

Listen: to “Trouble so Hard,” “Nobody Knows,” “Crossroad Blues,” “Key to the Highway”
Read: Wald’s reference article “The Blues” (Oxford Online)
View: interview with Big Bill Broonzy

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. According to Elija Wald, how does the blues connected to other styles of black music?
  2. How do you understand the roll of white collectors of field recordings and commercial recording scouts in shaping the sound of the blues?
  3. What are the defining features of the blues, musically and lyrically?
  4. What does “authenticity” mean in the context of blues music and its commodification?
  5. What insight about blues to you get from the interview with Broonzy?

Urban Blues Women

View: the documentary Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues
Read: the NY Times article by Brooks, “Sometimes a Song Sparks a Revolution”
Read: Mahon, “How Bessie Smith Influenced a Century of Popular Music”
Listen to: “Crazy Blues,” “St. Louis Blues”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. How would you explain the emergence and appeal of “race records” in the 1920s?
  2. Maureen Mahon argues that Bessie Smith was hugely influential on later musicians—are you convinced?
  3. What do you hear in the urban blues women’s recordings that is similar/different from the men that made the Delta blues famous?
  4. Notice how Daphne Brooks writes about the influence of Mamie Smith and her audiences of black women and girls—what do you think about this? And do you think there are other places in African American music history where we should be noticing the collaboration between artists and fans for the impact on society?
  5. Should we consider Mamie Smith and Bessie Smith “activists” for desegregating the music industry? Why or why not?

Swing at Ellington’s Cotton Club

Listen: to Ellington’s “Song of the Cotton Field”
View: historical photos of Cotton Club entertainment and décor
Read: Murph’s Atlantic article, “How Not to Relaunch the Race Records Label of Ellington and Armstrong”
Read: excerpt from Cohen’s Duke Ellington’s America

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What are the defining sonic features of swing jazz generally and what is recognizable as unique to the sound of Ellington’s band? For example, how did he take advantage of the unique talents of individuals hired for the band?
  2. What was the role of exoticism and racism in attracting all-white audiences to the Cotton Club?
  3. To what extent is Ellington’s “jungle” sound and other primitivist aspects of the entertainment at Harlem’s Cotton Club a legacy of blackface minstrelsy?
  4. John Murph argues how we should learn from the music industry’s overtly racist past, and not repeat the race records phenomenon. What is he critiquing exactly and do you agree that there is potential to repeat racist patterns?

“Classical Music” of the Harlem Renaissance

Read: Murchison and Smith’s reference article “William Grant Still” (Oxford Online)
Read: Brown’s reference article “Florence Price” (Oxford Online)
Read: Ross’s New Yorker article “Rediscovery of Florence Price”
View: interview with William Grant Still interview
Listen: Still’s Afro American Symphony, mvt. 1 and Price’s violin concerto no. 2
Read: Jones’s “Lift Every Voice: Florence B. Price, Marian Anderson, and the Sound of Black Sisterhood” (NPR)
Read: Huizenga’s “Why is American Classical Music so White?” (NPR)

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. William Grant Still’s Afro American Symphony is musically more conservative when compared with other American composition for orchestra in this period. Does race of the composers have something to do with this?
  2. Alisha Lola Jones, writing for NPR about African American women in classical music redirects the historiography, repositioning Price’s influence on other black women (Marian Anderson) as potentially more important than acceptance by a white male symphony orchestra. What do you think?
  3. Why is American classical music so white? Does it matter? Why/why not?
  4. How does race intersect with gender and class in these discussions of classical music composition and performance?

Paul Robeson, Renaissance Man and “Blackness” in the American Musical

Read: Riis’s reference article “Paul Robeson” (Oxford Online)
Listen: to “Deep River”
Read: excerpt from Decker, Who Should Sing Old Man River

Study Questions

  1. Why did Robeson sing spirituals?
  2. After reading Robeson’s biography, how would you explain the intersection of art and activism in his life?
  3. To what extent did Robeson’s musical performances reinforce and/or defy stereotypes of black music?

Marian Anderson

Read: excerpt from Hayes and Williams Black Women and Music: More than the Blues
Read: Ross, “Marian Anderson Voice of a Century” from Listen to This
View: Video from Anderson’s famous Lincoln Memorial performance
Explore: online to find black opera singers who may have benefited from Marian                        Anderson’s path breaking work

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. From whom did Marian Anderson glean influence and inspiration?
  2. Why do you think the role of white patrons and supporters has been (over)emphasized in the historiography?
  3. What do you think is important about Hayes and Williams’s book?
  4. What do you think is important about Anderson’s inclusion in Ross’s book?
  5. Who did Anderson influence?

Women in Jazz

Read and interpret: primary source excerpt by Holiday (Tick collection 106)
Listen: to “Strange Fruit” performed by Holiday and Vaughn, Sarah Vaughn’s “Body and                  Soul”
Listen: to Suarez and Hayes, “The Vast Voice of Sarah Vaughn” (On Point, WPUR)
Read: Turner, “Protesting Racial Violence Before Civil Rights”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Why has jazz historiography so often left out women?
  2. What was typically the role of female musicians in swing jazz and how did Holiday expand upon expectations?
  3. From whom did Holiday draw inspiration and who did she inspire?
  4. How did the overlap of racism and sexism affect Holiday?

Hot and Cool jazz

Listen: to “2010s Jazz Revival in Black Music” (All Things Considered, NPR)
Read: excerpt from Ramsey, Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop
Read and interpret: primary source by Ralph Ellison on the birth of bebop
Listen to: Gillespie and Parker’s “Anthropology,” Miles Davis’s “So What”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Historically, what social uses of music facilitated emergence of bebop mid-century and cool jazz a couple decades later?
  2. What do you hear as defining sonic features of bebop? And cool jazz?
  3. The contributors to the “All Songs Considered” piece linked above noticed a “jazz revival” in black music starting a decade ago. What is happening now? Does it continue?

From R & B to Rock-n-Roll

Read: Mahon, “Listening for Willie Mae ‘Big Mamma” Thorton’s Voice: The Sound of Race              and Gender Transgressions in Rock and Roll”
Read: Vallee’s reference article “Rock-n-Roll” (Oxford Online)
Listen: to Thorton’s “Hound Dog,” Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Rock Me,” Little Richard’s                        “Good Golly Miss Molly,” Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Do you think you can hear sonic differences between what was marketed as “R & B” and “Rock-n-roll” in the late 1950s?
  2. How did the music industry construct racial differences between R & B and Rock-n-roll, and why?
  3. What are the sonic features that distinguish rock-n-roll from pop in the 1950s?
  4. What social factors facilitated the emergence of rock into the mainstream?

“Girl Groups,” Motown, and Pop Cross Overs

Read: Warwick’s reference article “Girl Groups” (Oxford Online)
Read: Bowman’s reference article “Motown” (Oxford Online)
Listen to: Shirelles’ “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow,” Supreme’s “Where Did Our Love   Go”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. To what extent was Barry Gordy’s approach to “manufacturing hits” a new approach to music production?
  2. What societal impact do you think Motown Records had?
  3. What cultural significance did “girl groups” have in the 1960s? What is their legacy today?
  4. What ideals of black or white femininity did the “girl groups” portray?
  5. How did the Billboard Charts function and what impact did “cross-over” hits have on marketing and charting popularity?
  6. How does a rock and pop dialectic construct gender difference?

Music of the 1960s Civil Rights Era

Listen: to Mavis Staples’ “We Shall Overcome,” Alicia Key’s “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” and Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Goin’ On”
Read: Kernodle’s reference article on “Civil Rights Movement” (Oxford Online)
Explore: online, find additional performances of these often-performed anthems and        compare/contrast them musically, while considering context differences

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What is the social function of an anthem and musically, what makes a good anthem?
  2. How does 1960s Civil Rights era music demonstrate the interconnectedness of African American church and political activism?
  3. Given the activism-with-music that predates the 1960s, why do you think this period receives more attention and is recognized as the “Civil Rights Era”? What role does music play?
  4. What do these anthems mean today?

Nina Simone

Read: Kernodle, “Nina Simone  . . . Freedom Song,”
View/listen: to live performance of Simone’s “Mississippi Goddamn,” “To Be Young,                          Gifted and Black”
Read/listen to music examples provided: in Johnson’s blog article, “The High Priestess of                Soul: Nina Simone in 5 Songs” (A Blog Supreme, NPR)

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Consider the different venues she performed in (protest march, Carnegie Hall, Village Voice) and how context imparted different meaning to the song.
  2. Why has Nina Simone been left out of jazz historiography?
  3. Do you think she was “ahead of her time”—what does that even mean? Can that make sense?
  4. What performance styles and genres do you hear in Simone’s performances?

Funk

Read: Morant, “Language in Action: Funk Music as the Critical Voice of a Post-Civil Rights                Movement” (Journal of Black Studies)
Listen: to Parliament/Funkadelic’s “Give up the Funk” and “Tear the Roof off the Sucker”
View/Listen: to George Clinton on his Doo Wop roots

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. How did funk communicate double meanings and have double functions, the same song was street party music and intended to raise social consciousness?
  2. What are the defining sonic features of funk and how does it differ from black popular music before it?
  3. George Clinton credits black popular music and musicians of the previous generation with influencing his developing of funk, but funk and doo wop seem so sonically different. Or are they? What do you hear? How do you understand the relationship?

Gospel Music

Read: reference article on Gospel (Oxford Online)
Read: excerpt from Harold, When Sunday Comes: Gospel Music in the Soul and Hip-Hop Listen: to Toshi Reagon’s “We’ll Understand it Better,” Thomas A. Dorsey, “Precious Lord, Take My Hand,” Mahalia Jackson’s “How I Got Over,” Hawkins Singers’s “Oh Happy Day”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What are the defining features of gospel music styles?
  2. What does gospel have to do with the Great Migration?
  3. Is it accurate to consider gospel a 20th century development? To what extent does it rely on 19th century precursors?
  4. How does commercialization shape gospel music?

Soul

Read: Lordi’s “Souls Intact: the Soul Performances of Audre Lorde, Aretha Franklin, and                Nina Simone” published in the journal Women & Performance (2016)
Read: Brooks, article “Amy Weinhouse and the (Black) Art of Appropriation,” published in             the magazine The Nation
Listen: to Aretha Franklin’s “Respect,” Ray Charles’s “A Bit of Soul”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. Musically, how similar are soul and gospel? What’s the difference?
  2. How did the discourse of “authenticity” function in the popularity of soul? To what extent is musical authenticity a racialized concept?
  3. What geographical regions were associated with unique pop sounds of the 1970s?
  4. What factors led to the homogenization of pop music and a loss of regional distinctiveness?
  5. What’s your reaction to Brooks’ interpretation of Amy Wienhouse?

Hip hop Origins

Read: Miyakawa’s reference article “Hip Hop” (Oxford Online)
Explore: “The History of Hip Hop” series (Fresh Air, NPR)

Read: excerpt from Rose’s book The Hip Hop Wars

Listen: to Grandmaster Flash’s “Rappers Delight” and “The Message,” Kurtis Blow’s “The                           Breaks,” Public Enemy’s “One Million Bottlebags”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. What is common to hip hop origin stories and when do different versions emerge?
  2. To what extent is hip hop interdisciplinary art?
  3. How were gender roles constructed in early hip hop?
  4. How would you explain the impact of corporatization and white supremacy in the music industry on hip hop?
  5. How/why/when did white male teenagers/young adults become the largest market for hip hop?
  6. Where do you see a legacy of blackface minstrelsy in hip hop production and reception?

Hip hop Transformations

View: Hurt’s documentary Beyond Beats and Rhymes
Read: primary sources related to Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize
Listen: to Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.,” Tribe Called Quest’s, “The Infinite Date Rape,” Lamar’s                      “Alright” and “DNA”

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. How would you explain Kendrick Lamar’s Pulitzer Prize in artistic terms? How about political terms?
  2. How/why/when did hip hop become a global music?
  3. How would you define “socially conscious” hip hop? Is it a historical phenomenon or does it exist today?
  4. How would you outline a typology of hip hop styles today? Is the era of gangsta rap over—or transformed?

“World music”/African diaspora musics: kora, highlife, santeria, juju, reggae

Explore: the “Music in the African Diaspora” section of the Museum of the African                            Diaspora’s website
Listen: to the playlist shared with you

Study/Discussion Questions

  1. How do you understand the concept of “diaspora” related to music, and why is it particularly relevant to our study of black musics?
  2. What to you hear as identifying sonic features of kora, highlife, santeria, juju, and reggae, and how are they related to other musics we’ve studied?