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【Abstract】 This paper focuses on a tiny part of music in Western culture，black music. In 17th century, with the first black slaves landing on the America, their spirit was expressed by their music. This paper attempts to describe the black music's influence on the white's culture.
【Key words】the black music; the white culture; religion; the white music.
The most important function of music is that it reflects the times. In many ways, music gives us a more accurate picture of people and events than any other method available. And in the world, there are many music legacies that reflect and influence their times. The black music is an example.
Black music,(also called African American music formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the population of the United States. From the tap dance which is full of rhythms to the dolorous Blues, or from Hip pop to street dance, the art of black seemed always stay in the corner of the world. It wasn't in the center of the stage, but it has unique charm. And it has influenced the white culture in different ways.
Several blacks clapped and tapped in a small countryside church in the American Northern. They sang loudly with complicated rhythms. A priest led a chorus, and the others echoed the song. They expressed their belief with rock and roll. They sang, "Well, well, well; we rock and roll…" It is the church that there were two white folklorists in the corner. They were John Lomax and his son Alan, who recorded the music they heard. This year is 1943, in which the two white folklorists found the black music. Thanks to the discovery, people realized a fashionable way of black music. Since then, the black music has been thought as an important art, which has influenced the white culture. However, before the formal record of the black music, black music existed for many years. In the 17th century, the African slaves have brought the black music with them. Brought to America in captivity and sold into slavery, Africans carried their culture with them as best they could. Music and dance —— an integral part of African life —— became an important part of life for blacks in America. Both slaves and free blacks used music as an accompaniment to work, worship, and celebration. For money, for fun, and at the command of plantation masters, blacks played music and sang at public performances and private social gatherings catering to both whites and blacks. And both free and enslaved African American people in post-war America composed and performed music in a wide variety of styles. Like their white counterparts, they listened to and performed some popular white composers.
In 17th century, for solving the lack of labors that came with the development of the New World, colonists began to trade slaves. They were treated as animals, and their only way to ease was singing. White Catholics, including religious, were among the slave holders. Jesuits owned about 300 slaves who worked their farms in Maryland in the 1830s. "The black music expressed religions by the common customs. Most of the owners of these slaves were Puritan who believed that singing is a kind of crime. Firstly, the black music was the only interest in the North in that time. Secondly, the blacks sang their songs in an accepted way. So the black music existed in the North of America as a miracle. It divided into two groups: soul and blues. The white culture has been influenced deeply. (Eileen Southern. 1997 W.W. Norton & Company)
In the 1830s, the Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian fundamentalism, especially among African Americans.Christianity was used as a tool to make them easier to control. However, the black mixed the Christianity with their beliefs, because they did not want to lose their culture. At the same time, the white did not accept them as well.
Today, the vast majority of African Americans practice some form of Protestantism, Black membership in the Catholic Church also has risen steadily over the past half decade. Because of the persistence of segregation and separatist choice, and because of their fundamentally more African styles of worship, generally, African Americans historically have established and maintained churches separate from those of whites.
What's more, many Africans had been converted to Islam. Islamic religion and practice exist in the African-American community in many forms. Today, a number of African Americans are members of a group called the Nation of Islam, a quasi-religious organization with a Black Nationalist liberation theology founded in 1935. And this organization also absorbed some white people.
For more than 200 years, ever since the arrival of the first Blacks in English America, Black American popular music has been the mainstream that defined all other tributaries.During and after slavery, Black Americans clearly demonstrated their propensity for improvisation in the songs they sang and played. Thus was born, at the turn of the century, ragtime and the blues, from which jazz evolved. Rhythm & blues emerged during the 1940s, rock |n' roll during the '50s, soul in the '60s, and funk and disco music in the '70s.
The black music has attracted a lot of white fans that hoped to escape their breakdown society by touching it. But the most of the white only pay attention to making themselves different to others rather than express the real outrage that is the core of the black music.
Bibliography
［1］ African American music. May 2007..
［2］ Kelley, R. Gangster Rap and Postindustrial Los Angeles［J］. May 2007..
［3］ Moorhead, Monica. Powerful voice for Black liberation［M］. "Workers World", 8 May 2003.
［4］ Perkins, William Eric. Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture［M］. 1997.
［5］ Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History［J］. W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
［6］ Tricia, Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America［M］. 2002.
［7］ （美）艾琳•索森著.袁华清译. 美国黑人音乐史［M］. 北京：人民音乐出版社, 1983.3.
［8］ 王英君. 美国黑人音乐对流行音乐发展的推动作用［J］. 常州：常州师范专科学校学报, 2003(4).
［9］ 朱世达. 美国文化：开放性与实验性［M］ 北京: 社会科学文献出版社, 2001.
【Key words】the black music; the white culture; religion; the white music.
The most important function of music is that it reflects the times. In many ways, music gives us a more accurate picture of people and events than any other method available. And in the world, there are many music legacies that reflect and influence their times. The black music is an example.
Black music,(also called African American music formerly known as race music) is an umbrella term given to a range of musical genres emerging from or influenced by the culture of African Americans, who have long constituted a large ethnic minority of the population of the United States. From the tap dance which is full of rhythms to the dolorous Blues, or from Hip pop to street dance, the art of black seemed always stay in the corner of the world. It wasn't in the center of the stage, but it has unique charm. And it has influenced the white culture in different ways.
Several blacks clapped and tapped in a small countryside church in the American Northern. They sang loudly with complicated rhythms. A priest led a chorus, and the others echoed the song. They expressed their belief with rock and roll. They sang, "Well, well, well; we rock and roll…" It is the church that there were two white folklorists in the corner. They were John Lomax and his son Alan, who recorded the music they heard. This year is 1943, in which the two white folklorists found the black music. Thanks to the discovery, people realized a fashionable way of black music. Since then, the black music has been thought as an important art, which has influenced the white culture. However, before the formal record of the black music, black music existed for many years. In the 17th century, the African slaves have brought the black music with them. Brought to America in captivity and sold into slavery, Africans carried their culture with them as best they could. Music and dance —— an integral part of African life —— became an important part of life for blacks in America. Both slaves and free blacks used music as an accompaniment to work, worship, and celebration. For money, for fun, and at the command of plantation masters, blacks played music and sang at public performances and private social gatherings catering to both whites and blacks. And both free and enslaved African American people in post-war America composed and performed music in a wide variety of styles. Like their white counterparts, they listened to and performed some popular white composers.
In 17th century, for solving the lack of labors that came with the development of the New World, colonists began to trade slaves. They were treated as animals, and their only way to ease was singing. White Catholics, including religious, were among the slave holders. Jesuits owned about 300 slaves who worked their farms in Maryland in the 1830s. "The black music expressed religions by the common customs. Most of the owners of these slaves were Puritan who believed that singing is a kind of crime. Firstly, the black music was the only interest in the North in that time. Secondly, the blacks sang their songs in an accepted way. So the black music existed in the North of America as a miracle. It divided into two groups: soul and blues. The white culture has been influenced deeply. (Eileen Southern. 1997 W.W. Norton & Company)
In the 1830s, the Great Awakening led to a rise in Christian fundamentalism, especially among African Americans.Christianity was used as a tool to make them easier to control. However, the black mixed the Christianity with their beliefs, because they did not want to lose their culture. At the same time, the white did not accept them as well.
Today, the vast majority of African Americans practice some form of Protestantism, Black membership in the Catholic Church also has risen steadily over the past half decade. Because of the persistence of segregation and separatist choice, and because of their fundamentally more African styles of worship, generally, African Americans historically have established and maintained churches separate from those of whites.
What's more, many Africans had been converted to Islam. Islamic religion and practice exist in the African-American community in many forms. Today, a number of African Americans are members of a group called the Nation of Islam, a quasi-religious organization with a Black Nationalist liberation theology founded in 1935. And this organization also absorbed some white people.
For more than 200 years, ever since the arrival of the first Blacks in English America, Black American popular music has been the mainstream that defined all other tributaries.During and after slavery, Black Americans clearly demonstrated their propensity for improvisation in the songs they sang and played. Thus was born, at the turn of the century, ragtime and the blues, from which jazz evolved. Rhythm & blues emerged during the 1940s, rock |n' roll during the '50s, soul in the '60s, and funk and disco music in the '70s.
The black music has attracted a lot of white fans that hoped to escape their breakdown society by touching it. But the most of the white only pay attention to making themselves different to others rather than express the real outrage that is the core of the black music.
Bibliography
［1］ African American music. May 2007.
［2］ Kelley, R. Gangster Rap and Postindustrial Los Angeles［J］. May 2007.
［3］ Moorhead, Monica. Powerful voice for Black liberation［M］. "Workers World", 8 May 2003.
［4］ Perkins, William Eric. Critical Essays on Rap Music and Hip-Hop Culture［M］. 1997.
［5］ Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History［J］. W.W. Norton & Company, 1997.
［6］ Tricia, Rose. Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America［M］. 2002.
［7］ （美）艾琳•索森著.袁华清译. 美国黑人音乐史［M］. 北京：人民音乐出版社, 1983.3.
［8］ 王英君. 美国黑人音乐对流行音乐发展的推动作用［J］. 常州：常州师范专科学校学报, 2003(4).
［9］ 朱世达. 美国文化：开放性与实验性［M］ 北京: 社会科学文献出版社, 2001.