Afro-American music in modern culture?

In this article I will be discussing what we consider as Afro-American music and why it is such a moving power in the music industry and outside it and how it has affected the popular music scene and perception of the performance (Newman, 1985). Afro-American music is an umbrella term, which covers diverse genres of music, such as Gospel, Soul, Funk, Jazz and Hip-Hop, which will be discussed in this essay.

One attempt to define Afro-American music is: it is music produced by Americans from African descent (Ramsey, 2012). This definition seems problematic as it requires knowledge of family trees and human social connections made centuries ago, including when African slaves were brought by Europeans into America (Tagg, 2008). Particular musical styles from Africa blended together with European classical music influences creating diverse genres. Furthermore, the term Afro-American music raises questions because of the difficulties of defining the origins of various styles feeding into the so-called ‘mainstream’ US-American popular music and doubts about what music was brought to America from Africa at that time and therefore making it impossible to say what the ‘Afro” in “Afro-American’ really means. Clearly this makes any investigation of ‘Afro-American music’ and its influence difficult to specify.

A further complication when trying to isolate the meaning of Afro as some sort of reference to ‘of African origin’, is that the term ‘African’ is broad, and has several contested meanings, including ‘to be black’. This sometimes means that there are multiple and diverse groups identified as black who may be included within the use of an Afro-American label but do not identify themselves as Afro-American (Tagg, 2008). This suggests a wider conclusion can be drawn about the attempted use of such broad and ill-defined categorisations or labels. These labels may not be very relevant or useful, and may imply a lazy form of stereotyping that in some cases amounts to a racist generalisation. (Baribar, 1994).

The above difficulties describe a problematic context for the title of this essay. Acknowledging these difficulties, what follows is a brief examination of definitions that might provide a basis for exploring the influence of certain types of music labelled as ‘Afro-American’. A definition may rest on racial factors: “Music racially defined as African-American has always been identified exceptionally in racial terms” (Stratton, 2015) and “Race has been a fundamental element in identity construction throughout the modern world” (Stratton, 2015). The racial concept ‘black’ and the ethnic concept ‘Afro-American’ not only directly or indirectly refers to the skin colour of the people producing the music in question, but also denotes geographical, social and historical influences which, with the exception of ‘African descent’ are not particularly ‘black’, for example it does not include Caribbean decent black Americans, although their Reggae music was very influential to to Rap and Hip - Hop (Board, 1993).

If the term ‘Afro-American music’ is confusing, its repeated use suggests a significant misunderstanding of music and modern culture (Tagg, 2008). Can something called Afro-American music can be identified as a powerful influence (or not) on recent culture? This may not be possible to answer and could be a faulty perspective on both music and culture. In order to consider this question, it would be necessary to crudely and inaccurately label, or over-simplify complex and nuanced concepts, for example by generalising and stereotyping racial heritage and identity.There is no satisfactory description of what Afro-American music is, and by using this term we imply that music has the skin colour or continental origin (Tagg, 2008).

The following commentary attempts to identify different forms of music often labelled as Afro-American and tries to assess the reasons for the strong influences of this music on modern culture. Very popular forms of Afro-American music include: ‘blue notes’, usually performed in Blues music; call and response techniques found in Gospel music; improvisation techniques mainly used to complement Jazz, and syncopation or ‘downbeat anticipation’, also in Jazz music. Techniques used in ‘black music’ were conventional at that time, and is still informed in modern nowadays. Emphasis on differentiation, staying out of norms, joy to live life to the fullest moved modern society to change the perspective (Taylor, 1993).

On the other hand, all of these musical forms and signatures, can be found in Afro-American music but can also be found in other forms of music that are not included under this label. ‘Blue notes’ typical for Jazz and Blues genre can be considered as part of a European classical music tradition as slides from ‘minor’ to ‘major’ in a scale or tones places in between those intervals without using the scale. Call and response techniques were also popular in polyphony music in Europe, as they were in Indian and Jewish music. Considering improvisation as a means of making music without consciously trying to perform - from score or memory - it would be difficult to say how we could distinguish Black musicians from other non-black musicians (Tagg, 2008).

Even though Afro-American music was installing different ideas, the society (white class) still have seen it as the threat for the standing norms in the society (McClary, 1994). Sensuality and split between body and mind contradicted with cold minded and rational standards expected in the person. Mainstream media in US-America portrayed Afro-Americans in violent light pandering to white fears and racism. Also music produced by Afro-American musical was separated and heard only on ‘black’ radios and meant primarily for African American audiences. This question how influential Afro-American music was on modern culture.

In 1950 music labels in the USA recorded two versions of the same song - one meant for white audiences and one for Afro-American market (Newman, 1950). Also Keir Keightly(1995) asserts that since the 1940 “Billboard” had ranked ‘race’ and then ‘rhythm and blues’ hits under their own headings to separate the Pop charts from it and they “were understood to describe two racially distinct markets.”

On the contradictory, such artist as Little Richard (2010) had said that 'By them being white, they made the door bigger for me’. The creation of Motown in 1960 boosted Rhythm and Soul music to appear in charts next to Pop hits, and gave black musicians new outlet for their talents. Artist at Motown were able to reach Billboard charts and instal ‘black’ influences in mass media (Gaines, 2012). The start of the shift from underground to mainstream transformed the music marked for Afro-American music and became the market lead force. Therefore, Afro-American music here appeared to be quite influential on modern culture.

Furthermore, some Western traditions were not popular in Afro-American singing, such as ‘smooth’ or ‘sweet’, softer singing. Voices of Jazz, Blues and Gospel, Funk can be described as rough, sandy, murky, raspy, but “Not only this kind of voice not derogated, if often seems to be valued” (Courlander, 1963). This distinguishes Afro-American singers from other performers as they are not afraid to be slightly out of tune to achieve powerful performance. Other critics also argue that what makes Afro-American music is the performance. Nettl (1965) says that we can detect African roots in the style of the performance and Strandifer (1972) adds that “the black performer makes a rendition strikingly ‘black’ by bringing himself and the black experience to that rendition”. Also several ideas and themes resonated within Afro-American sound, such as religion and spirituality, personal freedom, dignity. Gospel performance arrangements offered belief and sense of better, hope in justice in the society. Artist like Steve Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and many more, injected the ideas of individual fulfilment and freedom, keeping the sense of unity in people. Music produced by these and many more acclaimed Afro-American musicians send the messages of black pride, self-love and diasporic solidarity.

The meanings and messages of Afro-American music were freedom, creativity, expression and this was highly desired in the society and forcefully integrated into the modern culture. Their ideas of freedom for expression for marginalised groups in the society was always driving force for Afro-American music and people representing it and freedom sought in new-days society and what makes it such a potent force in modern world. This suggest that Afro-American music was the modern, therefore was very influential.

To sum up, this essay has examined the impact of Afro-American music on modern culture. It was acknowledged that even defining Afro-American music is very difficult. In order to answer the question different forms of Afro-American music have been put forward. These different forms are very popular and have had a significant impact on modern culture. This essay is about the influence of Afro-American music on modern culture. This influence has been complex. Afro-American music has sometimes been outside of modern culture, it can be seen as being completely inside modern culture, a part of it and sometimes it is both inside and outside modern culture. (Gilroy,1993)

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