...Jones DISC 1313 December 4, 2015 Music and The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s All forms of Black music, from jazz to rock and roll, played an important part in the Civil Rights Movement. The songs were sung for multiple purposes and played a critical role in inspiring, activating, and giving voice to the people involved. The evolution of music during the early 1950’s and 1960’s in the Black freedom struggle reflects the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement itself. The progressive thought of the 1950s nurtured new ideas and cultures including the Civil Rights Movement and the fast spread of rock and roll. One such cultural revival occurred after the end of World War II during a time of change, prosperity and restoration. The “Puritan dicta” outlined by Baldwin represents the American ideology before the Second World War. As the first settlers of this nation, the Puritans set the mold for many common American ideologies. In the Puritan view white represented good and black represented evil, including Africans and their culture. After the war, Baldwin states that the former puritanical views of whites will be challenged. Musicians such as Elvis Presley were the first to issue this challenge to white society. Early rockers like Elvis would pave the way for social commentary in music that would add much fire to the Civil Rights Movement. To fully understand the explosion of popularity of Black music in the years following World War II, one must understand the social...
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...FYS: The 1960s-A Decade of Change and Conflict This course is an interdisciplinary examination of the tumultuous decade of the 1960s as reflected in the films, music, texts, politics, culture and social movements of the era. The Civil Rights and Women’s movements, the Vietnam War, the anti-war movement, youth counter-culture, the Environmental movement, and increasing violence and polarization among various groups, are among the major topics we will examine over the course of the entire year. The 1960s witnessed a clash over fundamental American values and ideas about human rights, freedom, community, the pursuit of happiness and the good life, the limits of authority and the moral legitimacy of war, civil disobedience and protest. The first semester will focus on the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War and the Anti-War, Peace Movement. The second semester will deal with the youth and racial countercultures and music, the women’s and the environmental movements. Various forms of media (films, documentaries, and music) will serve as a key resource as well as topic throughout this course. Viewing documentary films will be a regular activity in this class, along with reading texts, class discussion, and developing our writing skills. Learning Objectives 1. Listen and read critically - texts, speech, media and other cultural productions - in order to examine, challenge and reshape themselves and the world in which we live. 2. Express oneself clearly and persuasively in...
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...How the Civil War Changed American Literature The 1860’s was a time of numerous talented writers: Whitman, Emerson, Hawthorne, and Melville. Major writers experienced the civil war in their day to day lives and this began to change what they believed and subsequently changed what they wrote. The abolitionists Thomas Wentworth Higginson studied Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose essays he explained as “starry with statements of absolute truth.” Emerson’s antislavery ideals helped influence positive war ideals. Emerson had spent decades writing about moral and cultural change and he viewed the war as necessary. However, not every writer was confident about the war like Emerson. For example, Nathaniel Hawthorne admitted in a letter the month after Fort Sumter that “I don’t quite understand what we are fighting for, or what definite result can be expected” (Eiselein 30). This uncertainty about the war was transferred into his writing. He traveled to Washington to write an article for The Atlantic and eventually published the essay “Chiefly about War-Matters,” in which he critiqued everything while also satirizing The Atlantic’s pro-war views (Eiselein 33). Besides Hawthorne, most of the northern writers of the nineteenth century supported the war at the beginning. However, the writer’s attitude towards the war began to shift after the battle of Shiloh and the succeeding horrific battles. The harsh realities of the war began to trouble the writers. For example, while reading Emerson’s...
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...English 123 II – 2.2 Final Project Milestone One: Annotation Bibliography By Vincent Berry WHAT IS YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION? Are record labels racism and political in the music industry? What impact does racism and politics have on the artist and fan base? SUMMORIZE SOURCE INFORMATION FOR EACH ANNOTATION Suisman, David. "Co Workers in the Kingdom of Culture: Black Swan Records and the Political Economy of African American Music." Teaching the Journal of American History Vol. 90, No. 4.March 2004 (2004): 1295-1324. Web. 1 Mar. 2004. African American owned Record Company, which produced records for African American consumers, was faced with attempts by a large record corporation to force them into bankruptcy. Why would a large company do this for such a small African American owned company? How would it merit attention from African American people in this medium when you have more important subjects like voting rights and lynching? Moreover, why would it merit any attention at all, not to mention, selling records to black consumers. This article answers these questions and investigates the rise and fall of the small record company and explores the political economy in which it operated. Black Swan Records created by Henry H. Pace, who saw a way to respond to a hostile environment that African American people faced with, both in the entertainment industry and in American society. The protégé of W.E.B Du Bois, also saw that African Americans were not equally even when they...
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...Music and the Sixties The 1960s was a time of transformation in cultural standards, fashion, and society attitudes. This decade of change was particularly apparent in the radical shifts in this era’s music. The music of the sixties had very distinct sounds, portrayal of events and attitudes. Social movements and political events influenced the culture through music. There were also several genres and artists that contributed to the influence of culture. During the 1960s, the music played a major role in shaping the culture. The music echoed the events and movements that were happening in society. Prior to 1963, the music reflected the sounds, styles and attitudes of the previous decade. Music of the 1960s magnified the rebellion and standing up to the emerging cultural changes. The music about protest relayed messages that everyone could and would to sing along to. Through the multiple events during the sixties the music and the American culture mood began to change. Current events in America also played a role in how music influenced American culture. The British Invasion, the Civil Rights Movement, and the escalation of the Vietnam War were major events that impacted the music. The British Invasion occurred when an explosion of British artists took the United States music scene by storm in the mid 1960s. Kenneth Olwig wrote an article titled, “The ‘British invasion’,” and summarizes, “The British Invaders that were listened to, were inspired by and faithfully played a...
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...car at the age of 16 (James Brown Biography). This looked like a bad thing, but it opened the gateway to his music career. While in jail, he led a gospel choir and formed a fruitful, musical friendship with Bobby Byrd (James Brown Biography). After leaving jail, in 1955, Byrd asked...
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...appealed to many young people, who were also its primary proponents. This essay examines why the younger generation took the lead in demanding for political and social changes during this era. “The Port Huron Statement” The “Port Huron Statement” was made by the Students for a Democratic Society movement in 1962. The statement was made by the students’ group to express the dissatisfaction...
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...The Origin of Blues Blues played an important role in the history of music as it heavily influenced many types of music, particularly jazz and rock. It originated around the 1890’s from the Afro-American slaves’ folk music, work songs and spirituals and was typically performed with one person both playing the guitar and singing. The music consisted of stories of family, struggle, sexuality and rural life. The beginning of the blues-singing period was during the Civil War in America. In 1863, President Lincoln adopted the Emancipation Proclamation into Law, which gave the slaves the freedom not to be bought and sold as slaves, to send their children to school, to be able to live with their families in a house rather than a slave cabin, to attend church and the opportunity to become teachers, preachers, politicians and landowners. This gave them a new attitude towards life. They began to sing openly without concern of white mans punishment, which also allowed them to explore and experiment with white 8 and 16 bar songs. Blues in its early days was a direct decent of African question and answer phrases but now it started to develop when it adopted the 3 line stanza (AAB) then furthermore into 12 bars. Although the blues music was influenced by European music the essential blue chords (I, IV, V) were from American music culture, which was most likely originated from their religious music. In between 1911 – 1914 W.C. Handy made blues popular. He released “Memphis Blues”(1912)...
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... during which the world of science and modern thinking started to shape the literature of the times. The study of literature then moves into the Romantic period, and then the Realist period, both of which shaped American Literature at its core and brought about significant changes to the style, structure, and purpose of literature. The introduction of Modern literature includes the literature of the early 1900s, including the Harlem Renaissance, and then Post-Modern literature brings students into the study of current day texts. Overall, the course includes literature spanning from the 1500’s to current day, and introduces students to some of the greatest authors and works in American Literature. Genres that are included are: nonfiction essays, diaries, sermons, letters, and...
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...Virginia Watkin Professor Dave Graham Music 118 November 26, 2013 Rock and Roll has Lost the Ability to Effect Meaningful Societal Change Music has often been said to be the universal language. Rock musicians especially learned to use the power of rock music and lyrics to effect powerful changes in society, most particularly in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The early age of Rock and Roll was an exciting time for the musicians, lyricists and the mass of young people who listened to them. While it may be that rock music in all of its genres of today can still prod listeners to champion for social change, the rock music market has fragmented so dramatically that rock and roll has lost the ability to impact mass sections of the population and has therefore, lost its unique voice and ability to effect real social change in US society. The turbulence of the 1960’s, due to the escalation of the conflict in Vietnam to a full out war, the assassination of both President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and the push for civil rights for all people made for fertile ground for songwriters to encourage change for the better through their music. (Hibbard and Kaleialoha, p 122) Lyricists and composers worked in tandem to write songs to both inform the public and, in some cases, incite the public to take action against what was happening in, around and to the world. Songs such as “Blowin in the Wind, written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and “Ball of Confusion (that’s what the world...
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...American Humanities Fall 2015 Professor Kim Codella PhD. Office Phone 916-691-7633 Office SOC #128 Office Hours MW 4:30PM-5:30PM TTH 4-5:30PM, online 11-12 pm Friday. codellk@crc.losrios.edu Required Text. The House made of Dawn by N. Scott Momaday. This book is available in the bookstore for you and there is also a copy in the library for your use. In addition there will be weekly online readings in D2L. You must do the required reading to pass the class. Students must attend lectures and take notes. Participation, i.e., your attention is required. Course description: This course examines the arts and ideas taken from the American experience in the 20th century and today. Material covered includes literature, art, music, philosophy and history of the twentieth century. The course draws upon the arts of African American, Native American, Asian American, Anglo and Latino cultures as avenues for understanding issues of ethnicity, class and gender as they intersect with mainstream American values. Course presentation: Lecture, discussion, audio-visual materials and readings from the text, online, and material to be supplied by the instructor. In addition an extra-credit will be offered. Attendance: Required, a student missing more than 5.4 class hours may be dropped from the course (this is four class sessions). Because of the recent budget situation instructors are encouraged to drop students who are not attending class. Basic Rules: Woody Allen...
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...Bibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay “On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American History” the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared “Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.”1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004); Evelyn Brooks Higgingbotham, ed., Harvard Guide to African American History (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001); Arvarh E. Strickland and Robert E. Weems, Jr., eds., The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographical Guide (Westport: Greenwood Press, 2001); and Randall M. Miller and John David Smith, eds., Dictionary of Afro- American Slavery (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988), provide informative narratives along with expansive bibliographies. General texts covering major historical events with attention to chronology include John Hope Franklin and Alfred A. Moss, Jr., From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (Boston: McGraw Hill, 2000), considered a classic; along with Joe William Trotter, Jr., The African American 1  Experience (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001); and, Darlene Clark Hine, William C. Hine, and Stanley Harrold, The...
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...Top 100 Essay Upon examining the world, one will find many great people who have shaped the one we live in today. Despite the significance of them all, it is important to be able to narrow them down to a list of one hundred or so. From there, the true test is to be able to tell which person had a bigger effect on our state of being than the other. Starting with a list that has already been compiled, this essay will rank each historical figure by their impact on the world. (Please note that this list was compiled based on a western perspective.) Topping the list at #1 is Muhammad. As the Prophet of Islam, Muhammads, s.a.w, teachings have reached and inspired many societies and their people. His teachings also indicate the best way to think and therefore live. At #2 is Jesus Christ, whose place as the central figure of Christianity has impacted the lives of his believers, all 2 billion of them (give or take). His existence has lead to the many holidays and churches that occupy mainly, western society. At #3 is Gautama Buddha, who is the spiritual teacher and founder of Buddhism. Lord Buddha has played a large role in the growth of many people of asian descent and offers a religion to the world that can be seen as very peaceful. At #4 is David, King of Israel or rather the Biblical King of Israel. As the founder of Jerusalem, he has empowered the Jewish nation to take on a large amount of influence in various aspects of the world, including the entertainment industry. At #5 is...
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...THE AMERICAN DREAM THE AMERICAN DREAM Section #1 a. The impact cultures in North America have on the United States is that each region adapted the traditions and/or beliefs of those who settled in that area by maintaining dance, music, and crafts. Many English settlers did not respect the Native American cultures, and were seen as uncivilized and/or savages. Basically there was a clash of cultures, with new ideas pushing away old ways and mayor cultures oppressing others. b. Immigration and migration shape the early United States, for example: The first person to be processed at Ellis Island was Annie Moore who arrived from Ireland on January 1, 1892. As the first immigrant Annie Moore was given a $10 gold piece. She soon was married and gave birth to eleven children. While Annie Moore was the first immigrant, she was definitely not alone. Some famous immigrants who arrived through Ellis Island included Charles Chaplin, Cary Grant, Harry Houdini, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. It is easy to see from this list how immigrants have changed the face of the United States. All of these famous people contributed to the United States, giving a bright future for innovative contributions to the young nation. c. The most important change in the United States ‘ involvement in foreign affairs from 1789 to 1877 was expansion of its territory. Marked by a treaty with France buying Louisiana territory doubling the United States, and other treaties...
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...Alvaro Barsallo Ms. Morrow ENC1102 9/28/2014 A Look at “A Rose for Emily” “A Rose for Emily” is a short story by William Faulkner. It is the story of an old southern woman called Emily who lives only with her servant in an old mansion after her father dies; she never goes out and is rarely seen by the townspeople. Nobody in the town knows that she’s keeping a macabre secret inside her room. I chose this story in particular because I’m a huge fan of The Zombies and music from the sixties in general. In The Zombies’ album Odessey and Oracle, there is a short retelling of the story and that is the only version of the story I have ever heard before reading the actual story in class recently. The story is divided in five parts. In the first part of the story, the narrator recalls the time of Emily’s death and how the whole town attends her funeral in her old dilapidated home. We are told how the previous mayor, a man in his eighties, has retracted Emily’s taxes after her father’s death. When the new younger generation town leaders take over they try to make her pay taxes but she gets her way and successfully gets rid of these officials. In the second part, the narrator describes how thirty years earlier, Emily’s house started to smell horrible. The younger officials sprinkle lime along the foundation to appease the townspeople who are complaining of the odor. The narrator gives us a clue about Emily’s state of mind by telling us the Emily’s great aunt had succumbed to mental...
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