2.1 Q3 African American music and cultural diffusion Pt1

A celebration:

African American music history and cultural diffusion, Part 1

African American music and cultural diffusion

Part 1 on Monday

Part 2 on Wednesday

Please listen to all the audio in these lectures with questions. You can skip the audio, but you will not "get" the history.

What is cultural diffusion?

History of African American Music

8 minutes

*Cultural diffusion : black music spread everywhere in the US and around the world

*Cultural appropriation: Elvis

Multiple Choice

Cultural diffusion is

• the blocking of culture from one place to another

• how culture is made

• the spread of culture

• a shared way of life

Multiple Choice

Cultural diffusion is best described as...

• sharing music from one culture to another

• the spreading of ideas, languages, and traditions from one culture to another

• the spreading of religion

Multiple Select

Cultural diffusion

The dominance of Rap and Hip-hop is just one link in a long chain of music — from the slave plantations of the South, to the modern-day.... [African American music is the] constant ambassador of American culture.

• OVER 4000 DANCERS FROM 50 COUNTRIES

  THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD

Multiple Select

Cultural hearth: where it starts

Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

(remember this from Q1?)

• The largest FORCED migration in the history of the world.

• The trade of human beings lasted for about 400 YEARS

• 12 million people from Africa were bought and sold as property in North and South America.

• The people stolen from Africa and sold in the Americas were from one ethnic group.

Multiple Select

Cultural hearth: where it starts

Music diffusion from Africa to the colonies:

African American music cannot be separated from the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the forced transportation of millions of African people across the Atlantic who were then enslaved.

• Enslaved people brought their culture with them from Africa to the colonies (before the USA was a country).

• The cultures from which they were torn and the conditions into which they were forced both contributed to the sounds of African American music.

Multiple Choice

Cultural hearth: origin of African American music

In African ethnic groups, people sing songs about:

• Family life and history

• Traditions of their people

• Special events

• All of them

Juba this and Juba that

Audio only: listen to 3+ minutes

Hidden messages

Slave communication

Multiple Select

Cultural diffusion : Culture passed down through generations

Slaves' lives were restricted in innumerable ways, but among them included and e

• limits on literacy and property ownership.

• Music was therefore passed down orally,

• that songs changed frequently, not just from singer to singer, but also from day to day when sung by the same musician

• Music was a solace, a community-builder, and voice for hope during enslavement and afterward

Multiple Select

Cultural in-group:

Drums or songs enabled slaves to

• feel united against oppression

• be happy in the moment

• organise revolts

• share a common experience

Multiple Choice

Cultural in-group

Drums especially [...] slaves to produce a language whites could not understand.

• stopped

• allowed

Multiple Select

Cultural supression

Because white masters could not understand the complex message of drums, they decided to [...] the use of drums.

Click the synonyms.

• ban

• prohibit

• forbid

Multiple Select

Slaves would sing songs such as "Juba Juba" to

• share community

• hide a deeper meaning

Wade in the Water

“Wade in the Water” was written during the era of slavery in the United States but was not officially published until 1901. Its lyrics have coded instructions to the enslaved escapees about how to avoid being re-captured. It suggests walking or "wading in water" in order to hinder the dogs of the enslaved escapee's chasers. The song is normally associated with the Harriet Tubman ("Moses") and the Underground Railroad.

Multiple Choice

What did the Spirituals convey?

• the singers’ pain

• yearning for freedom

• rage against slavery

• all of them

Multiple Choice

Spirituals borrowed imagery from

• the Bible

• the Constitution

• the laws

• the Declaration of Independence

Multiple Choice

The purpose of using biblical allusions in spirituals was to

• hide the true meaning of the songs

• make sure the songs had a rhyme

• show the intelligence of the slaves

• make sure the children knew biblical stories

Multiple Choice

What music forms were influenced by spirituals?

• blues and jazz

• rock, rock, and more rock

• country and blues

• reggae and hip-hop

History of Chain Gangs / Slave Labor

• Chanin Gang prison labor was first used in America to replace the slave labor base of th post-Civil War south

• They were chained 24 hours a day for the duration of their sentence

Multiple Choice

Who used to sing "chain gang" songs?

• preachers
• prisoners
• miners
• abolitionists

Malcolm X remembering Sam Cooke

*Remembering Black History: Chain gangs

*Remembering the language: "My band was out of there like some run-away slaves."

*Remembering roots of African American drumming

Multiple Choice

What style of song can you hear?

• Country Blues

• Memphis Blues

• Work Song / Chain Gang

• Country Song

Multiple Select

The introduction of chain gangs into the United States began before the American Civil War.

• The southern states needed finances and public works to be performed.

• Prisoners were a free way for these works to be achieved.^[15]

• Chain gangs for prison labor was the method of punishment in some southern states like Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, Texas, Mississippi, and Alabama.

• The use of chain gangs in the United States generally ended in 1955.

Multiple Select

Chain gangs were reintroduced by a few states during the "get tough on crime" 1990s, with Alabama being the first state to revive them in 1995.

• "Get though on crime" policies mead to mass incarceration

Multiple Select

A year after reintroducing the chain gang in 1995, Alabama was forced to again stop the chain gangs because of a lawsuit.

• The 1995 reintroduction has been called "commercial slavery" by some.

• However, as late as 2000, Alabama Prison Commissioner Ron Jones has again proposed reintroducing the chain gang.

Multiple Select

Work songs were often derived from traditional African songs.

• Many work songs were in the format of a call and response.

• The call and response format demonstrates how work songs foster dialogue.

• The importance of dialogue is illuminated in many African-American traditions and continues to the present day.

Multiple Select

Much of today's genres of music is heavily influenced by traditional African-American music.

• 1920s jazz and blues recordings

• 1940s rhythm and blues

• 1960s soul performers had a major influence on white US and UK singers, influencing white rock and roll

• 1960s and 1970s funk and jazz-rock fusion

• 1970s and 1980s hip-hop and disco-infused house music

The 2nd half of this presentation on the history of black music in America will drop on Wednesday.

Happy African American History Month!

• https://www.pbs.org/opb/historydetectives/feature/20th-century-music/

• https://blog.pandora.com/us/30-times-black-music-changed-the-world/

• 3. https://blog.usejournal.com/roots-the-impact-of-black-music-on-america-and-the-world-ed00824f7f13