Race

Transcript

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  [SINGING "WE SHALL OVERCOME"]

Race and representation in music have a rich scholarly tradition, and much work has focused on the relationship between music and ethnic and cultural identity. However, there is little scholarship in the sociological and behavioral research traditions that adequately addresses the complex intersections between sociocultural, political, and historical contexts dealing with race and music. It is important to consider the experience of persons of color who create music and, perhaps more importantly, how music became a stronghold within the lives of oppressed peoples of varying ethnicities. As it would be impossible to address the vast musical contributions of oppressed peoples of diverse ethnic groups, immigrant communities, and transnational diasporas, including but not limited to indigenous Caribbean, Mexican, South and Central American peoples, American Indian and Canadian First Nations, Sub-Saharan African and South Asian ethnic groups here, this article attempts to addresses the important historical developments surrounding music and race and intersections of music and race in social movements with particular focus on the United States. It also surveys sociological and behavioral research on race and music interactions.

Numerous genres of music have evolved from traditions of oppressed peoples. African American blues and spirituals have played a vital role in understanding the emotional, social, and behavioral aspects of the expression and meaning of music within oppressed circles. Frederick Douglass spoke in his autobiography about the sorrow songs of slaves and the important role singing had for slaves to survive the traumas of enslavement. W. E. B. Du Bois contributed important writing on the 10 master songs, or the sorrow songs, that epitomize the struggles and triumphs of African American slaves. These songs evolved out of African rhythms and motifs and into African American spirituals and hymns that are still sung today by several denominations. At the core of the sorrow songs are sadness, hardship, and melancholy, but they also share other emotions such as faith, love, kinship, and perseverance.

Blues music follows the lineage of sorrow songs with lyrics on labor, pain, and loss. Many musicologists and cultural studies scholars pinpoint the origin of blues as 1619, the year that the first captive Africans were sold into slavery in the British North American colonies. Stemming from African American musical traditions in America's deep south, blues is a traditionally African American musical art form that has been widely appropriated by white culture's interpretations of rock and roll. Blues also widely influenced jazz, which had some of the same thematic material about loss and challenges in day-to-day life. Music that came [Page 926]out of the 1960s civil rights movement might be seen as a culmination of these earlier traditionally black forms of music in America. Artists such as Sam Cooke and Nina Simone raised their voices in protest against racism and oppression in the United States, following in the tradition of sorrow songs and spirituals, blues artists such as Muddy Waters, and jazz vocalists such as Billie Holiday.

Billie Holiday performing in New York in February 1947. Holiday's recording of “Strange Fruit” in 1939 is considered one of the first antiracism protest songs to attract national attention.

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