First Blog

After learning about blackface minstrelsy and the evolution of jazz, it got me thinking that blacks were treated extremely poorly in many ways. It wasn't just slavery and the times of segregation, in the entertainment business blacks were also not treated fairly. The blackface minstrel music was a little disturbing. In Ms. Azeb's presentation, I remember we were watching something by Al Jolson and Ms. Azeb said "This guy's a dick" and turned it off. He was imitating a black person and exaggerating everything.

Even passed blackface when we learned about jazz and ASCAP, there were things to protect artists, but blacks were excluded. Their stuff was stolen by whites and then no credit was given. It seems as though whites really had no influence in the early music business. They imitated black playing styles, dancing, and stole their music. I began to think about this and I also try to imitate black performers in my music too. Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Robert Randolph, Buddy Guy, just to name a few. Blacks seem to be the creaters and pioneers of music in the United States. I wonder what the music had been like if whites had noone else to look at. Would we have the poppy beats or jazzed up tunes? Would everything remain traditional?

"Wide Open: Sexuality and Hip Hop" Panel

Hi everyone-hope you've all had a great weekend. The posts are quite interesting-keep up the good work! Just a reminder that tomorrow night (February 1st) at 6pm in the Student Union Theater, the LGBTA and Hip Hop Student Association will be hosting a speaker's panel entitled "Wide Open: Sexuality and Hip Hop." Speakers featured included Professor John Jennings from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Professor Hershini Young of UB's English department, Edreys Wajed, Buffalo MC, Jim Bowman from the Special Population Outreach Coordinator for UB's wellness center and Allita Steward, City of Buffalo's Office of Strategic Planning. The event organizers, in an attempt to make the presentation as interactive as possible, will use a variety of different mediums-film, dance, sound recordings, etc. This looks like a wonderful and exciting event for those interested/able to attend.

As for tomorrow's class-it is still scheduled and will happen. I will have two of my professors there observing me, just to give you a heads up. We will follow the syllabus schedule as is, and wrap up with some of the discussion questions that were for last Friday. See you tomorrow!

Katie

Ice Ice Baby

I asked the guest lecturer if she thought that eminem's contribution to hip hop was a form of black faced minstrelsy and she said , no. After some considerable thought I am obliged to agree with her. However, if I had it to do over again I think my question would focus on Vanilla Ice and whether his contribution to hip hop was a form of black faced minstrelsy. I believe it was since there is some evidence that the lyrics for the song "Ice Ice Baby" were actually written by a black performer and that Vanilla Ice made his claim to fame with that song.

Sophia Azeb and Blackface Performance

There is something to be said for an earnest, heart-felt discussion of a controversial social issue. Race and music have been at the forefront of American popular culture for the entire existence of our country. What I appreciated most about Ms. Azeb's presentation was her genuine passion for the issue, and her ability to relate it to present-day songs and performers that the class could really understand. I know I can't speak for everybody, but before this class I had only heard of blackface performance, and it seems to be an important part of American music history that people know little about. Therefore, people like Ms. Azeb play a vital role in educating people about a performance style that still resonates in American pop music today. I think she did an excellent job of construing the extreme racism that pervaded blackface singers, and how music still propogates racial divisions today.

Some people seem to have issues with the comparison of performers like Justin Timberlake and Eminem to "modern blackface performers," and I can understand why. A white artist performing R&B or gangster rap does not necessarily carry the same racist implications as a blackface performance in 19th century America. While I don't believe that our society has reached a point where all racial tensions and prejudice can be considered a non-issue, (and maybe never will), I do believe we are at a point where we should continue educating people about the large influence African Americans have had in American music, while acknowledging that white performers can have a legitimate role in traditionally black music.

black face performances

After I learned about black face performances in class, even though I don't know much about American history and music, I felt a little bit irritating. When black face performance was popular, it was just a trend and white people didn't treat black people as same human being as them, because of historical reasons. For black face performance, white people usually emphasized on bad images of black people, and not mentioned good side of them.

Now, black face performances is not popular as before, but it still exist. Even though, both races has equal right. Also this kind of performances in not only limited in black race. If you watch some shows or youtube videos, there are many people who make fun of black, and Asians too.

minstrel show

After learning about black face performances in class, i was shocked to know about such style of performance. Psychologically speaking, degrading mockery performances are somewhat appealing. I guess it is understandable at that period of history when white people do not regard the black race to be their equal and thus making fun of the race is the way to make them feel better about the situation or about themselves.

Having their status in society challenged, i guess it is a way to deal with the anger they feel and i believe black face performances can be seen as a form of violence. As we progress as a society, races are viewed differently. However degrading or mockery performances like the minstrel show still are very popular. One of them are the way women are portrayed in hip pop videos.

An Escape

In watching Ken Burns' documentary, I noticed that people were using jazz and blues as a way to escape from the structure and hardship of their day-to-day lives. The music served as a temporary solution to whatever problems the people were facing at the time. It brought together people from all different backgrounds without much consideration of race, class, etc. and allowed them to just have fun.

This was significant, because it reminded me that nearly 100 years ago music was serving many of the same purposes that it serves in my life today. Instead of jazz and blues, I have clung on to hardcore and punk, but the idea is still the same. For every bad day, there is a record to fall back on. For every setback or letdown, there is another show to look forward to. Music has the power bring people together, alleviate their pain, and allow them to just have fun. And it always will.

The Moods Swings of Music

Early in the morning when I awake I love to listen to different kinds of music. Sometimes music can determine how my day is going to be. Jazz that radio stations play give me a smooth feeling about myself. Of course rhythm and blues makes me think about problems me and my girlfriend is going through. When rap music is played it makes me kind of think about the way the African -American culture is being displayed in the urban communities. While watching the You Tube video clip during class there were several African-Americans dancing showcasing there god given talent. Those are ways this culture has a chance to innovate there talent. Other people from different cultures seem to see these kind of behaviors as a form of ignorance. Also in my opinion ministry shows shouldn't have been aloud because it was complete embarrassment to the African-Americans of that time. Music can sometimes take my mind off stress. I often like to listen to music when I complete assignments in particular course work.

Imitation, the greatest form of flattery

This first section of class has not been the easiest for me to learn about. I have be sitting in class with my stomach turning to hear the world blackface be tossed around. I was equally disturbed to look at images of white Americans humiliating African Americans by sarcastically painting their faces black. But the mockery did not stop with the minstrel shows. Black culture and black physical traits were mocked on advertisement. The minstrel era showed me how deep the hate for blacks were just a century ago.

They say imitation is the greatest form of flattery.

I bet this phrase was made to make blacks feel better when they were mocked and later when their music was stolen. I missed the guest speaker’s presentation. But from reading the last couple posts it seems that she was emotional in her delivery. I’m sure she was. But who wouldn’t be, when your taking about the mockery of your race by people who didn’t think it was wrong. Racism is still very much apart of this culture. I hope that the people of this class did not just see an emotional presenter but also saw how racism from the 1840’s is still affecting people today.

Blues/Jazz History

Watching the movie during class i found to be very educational and interesting. I had no idea on how jazz was created or the origins in which it developed. The blues being the foundation of jazz music and New Orleans one of the birthplaces of this type of music. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington watching and hearing them play music was very fascinating. Learning where the term scatting came from was cool and hearing the story in which Lois Armstrong first developed it*. While recording the song "Heebie Jeebies" and having the words fall of, improvising by creating sounds by singing with the instruments. I found the movie very cool and it gave insight to things i had no idea about.

blog #1

When our guest speaker came in and lectured about minstrelsy and showed those old cartoons i was very surprised. Namely because i remember watching those cartoons when i was younger and i never relized how racial they actually were. Probably because i was a youngster and didn't actually know anything about race/politics and all that stuff. Another thing i noticed about a certain cartoon (Tom and Jerry) is that they have a Mammy named simply Mammy Two Shoes. She was censored out of the late episodes of the show most likely due to the change of social climate in the states at that time.
Last night i was stumbling and i stumbled upon an add that seemed like it was in a news paper and it was an add for blackface makeup. it was strange that i just happened to stumble upon it and also because i happen to be learning about it now and to know what it actually entails. But other than that, the book is very interesting. For some reason i keep going back to the first couple of pages and rereading them because they hit home on popular music today and how its all the same. Which are my feelings exactly but also because they give you tons of definitions about music and some incites on music theory. Being a musician myself it does help

Tomorrow's Class

Hi everyone-I must say I am quite happy how the blog is turning out so far. There have been some very interesting comments/questions posted-and I am glad to see other students making comments on them. I have already sent an announcement out via Ublearns/email, but class is cancelled for tomorrow. I apologize for the inconvenience-I was really looking forward to our discussion. I just got back from the ER-I have vertigo, and since I cannot see straight the doctor saw it fit to order me to stay home! Anyways-keep up the posting, and if you have any questions on anything you know how to reach me. Otherwise, I will see you bright and early Monday morning!

Jazz Miniseries

I felt the miniseries (at least the episode we watched) was very informative. It definitely allowed everyday people to have access to many historical pieces that were at one time almost impossible to find. Although Ken Burns' directing skills are criticized, his biographical skills are undoubtedly noteworthy. He depicts the history of jazz music with great detail and goes into the background history of many of the great jazz musicians at the time. One of the main reasons the miniseries is criticized is due to its lack of diversity in jazz music. Many musicians and historians feel the show does not focus enough on the various other types of jazz music, such as soul jazz, free jazz, and avant-garde jazz (which essentially means jazz that's ahead of its time). The miniseries also tends to skip various decades at a time, giving inaccurate depictions of jazz music especially in the 1960's. Despite its criticism, I happen to enjoy the miniseries, especially since I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to jazz music.

Black-face Minstrelsy Response

I agree with Cath, that the guest lecture on black-face was presented with personal bias. At the beginning she remained neutral describing the history of black-face. She mentioned several honorable black-face performers such and videos demonstrating The Cakewalk, Al Jolson in Big Boy (1930) "Hooray For Baby and Me", Jim Crow, and many more and it was enjoyable and interesting. However, as the presentation went on, the guest lecturer seemed to be caught up in how black-face minstrelsy consisted of racist notion that showed severe makeup exaggerations the performers would go through to insinuate stereotypical facial features of black people.

We understand that African Americans contributed the blues, jazz, hip hop and etc and the history of music have evolved largely and thrived, but the presenter's attitude was offending because she seemed very upset at how other artists have stole pieces of music and have given no credit to the original artists. I think she does have a point to be upset but that should not be expressed to an audience that's just learning about minstrelsy for the first time or at least for me. Facts and personal opinions should not mix because it'll alter the perspective for the audience.

Minstrelsy

I found what we learned about minstrelsy and black-face to be very interesting, I had not heard of either of them before this class. I did know however that there was a major influence by African Americans on Rock n' Roll and I was not surprised to see that it goes deeper into the history of American music.
On the other hand, I was a little taken back by what our guest speaker had to say, or more the way that she said it. I think that she had a lot of educational, captivating information but her personal bias was blocking her message from getting completely across. By saying, "white people" and then explaining what she meant by "white people" by saying, "what you guys look like" is inappropriate for a college professor to say. That is offensive. I also think she went too far when speaking about traces of black-face in society today. Justin Timberlake is a black-face performer? Does that mean that listening to JT is supporting the oppression of African Americans? I think that is so far reached it is actually absurd. And going as far to say the only reason Eminem is not a black-face performer is because he grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood? What? That is a total contradiction on her part. Her entire lecture was very unprofessional.

First blog - Minstrelsy

When we began talking about minstrelsy the first week of class, I was immediately reminded of Harry Connick Jr. and the controversy that he was involved in recently. He was a judge on a Australian TV show when a group of performers called the "Jackson Jive" appeared in black face. Harry Connick Jr. was visibly uncomfortable and gave the group a score of zero out of ten before walking off the set and telling an interviewer that he never would have done the show if he knew about the act. However, the Australian judges seemed unfazed by the group, calling their act "cute" and giving them a score of seven. This was very shocking to me because we learned in class that minstrelsy was a form of black oppression. Knowing the history of minstrelsy makes the "Jackson Jive" performance very offensive. White performers used the minstrel shows to combat economic competition with the newly freed slaves. Performers used what they believed were stereotypes to portray African Americans. Minstrelsy also gave the impression that newly freed slaves missed the comforts of the plantations and wanted to be slaves again. Therefore, it was very shocking to me that still today, even in the 21st century, there are forms of racism in the world. Why would a group of performers think that it would be OK to perform in black face, knowing the history of minstrelsy? And why would a panel of judges be entertained and undisturbed by this?

Black influence and jazz as hope (blog 1)

In the movie we watched today, one of the most important things said was about the musicians in Harvard searching for truly American music, but only willing to search for it within the confines of high society white America. Music had been produced by slaves and their descendants for years, and that music was good enough for whites to copy but not good enough for them to recognize as an American art. For whites to recognize the influence African Americans had on music, would be akin to admitting that slave labor built this country. By denying the impact of blacks on music, whites sought to ensure that blacks wouldn't develop self esteem and come to the realize their actual worth.
The politics of music directly mirror the ideas and issues in American society. It is natural for this to occur because music is often used as an outlet for social and societal issues. Through jazz it is evident that people were trying to escape the confines and restrictions of society. Blacks used jazz to express their hope for better days to come. Young whites saw jazz as a way to rebel against the ideals forced upon them and used it to explore their self development.

It Might Get Loud

I recently picked up a documentary about the electric guitar called It Might Get Loud. It features Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. It is something i would highly recommend to anyone ineterested in any of these artists. They talk about how they began playing the guitar and how they go about writing songs and the like.
On a subjective note, my opinion is that this documentary somewhat exposed the hollowness and lack of talent of some of todays artists. We get to watch Jack White build a guitar with a hammer, nails, some wood, a string, and an old electric pickup. We see him write and record a song live, on camera, completely off the cuff. He explains that really creative artists dont need fancy equipment, but passion and talent. He suggests that musicians not linger for weeks overthinking minute details. We then see the Edge endlessly fiddling with knobs on a hundred thousand dollars worth of equipment over and over again without ever really playing anything on the guitar. He goes on to explain how he will sit there for hours and hours fiddling with knobs to get his intended "sound." He even plays a riff and explains how there is really no skill in what he is playing, but he has lots and lots of effects which make his guitar sound cool. In my opinion, Jack White and the Edge are good examples of a truly creative and talented musician and a "musician" who relies on expensive equipment in place of talent, respectively. Jimmy Page clearly falls into the former category, and almost brung tears to my eyes as he calmly blew my flippin mind.

Intro to AMS 209

When I first registered for this class, I wasn't sure what materials we were going to be covering or what I would be able to learn from this class. However, the first day of class gave me some insight to some of the questions I had about music. I often used to listen to music without giving any thoughts to where this piece of music may have originated. Now I want to find out its background, just how long has music influenced American history, race, gender, sexuality, social status, class...etc.

I believe that music offers closure to someone that's hurting, to someone that's healing, and can liven up one's mood within seconds. Without music, celebrations, weddings, and parties wouldn't be as special or as complete. Music often helps people find harmony within each other. Every song out there is enjoyed by some individual and it amazes me that the power of music, melody, and symphony can help us express our emotions, and thoughts. All I've known is that it has helped me pass through difficult times. Since music has been there for me most of my life, I want to learn everything there is to truly appreciate every piece of music that's produced for us to enjoy and hopefully after this class, I hope it can also bring a new perspective of the way I interpret music.

Disability Article

I finished reading the article passed out in class today on Artists with Disabilities. This article was interesting and affected me personally because of having a disability myself, and also knowing and working with many people with disabilities. People do always wonder, "what happened to you?" when talking about a disability. I feel that this is not a good way or fair to the person with the disability. Just because someone has a disability, does not mean something is "wrong" with that person.
In the article it talked about people with disabilities as performing artists. The disabled body is on "view", this is the "performance". People are generally looking at that person's disability and not who they are as a person. I feel if someone who was disabled is a performer, people are looking at them differently than someone who is not disabled. If a physically handicapped person with a beautiful unique voice sat behind a curtain and performed their song, and then also performed the same song out in the open for people to see that they are disabled, I feel the audience would respond differently.
I feel times have changed and people with disabilities are not necessarily looked down upon anymore in society, but at one point in time, having a disability was a very negative thing. I feel that society now usually understands people do no choose to be disabled. :)

question

I was wondering, is there an example of a different country who had their music and culture largely influenced by an oppressed race, similar to minstrelsy in America? There has to be plenty of examples throughout history i was just wondering if there were any significant ones.

minstrelsy

It is very interesting to how much influence minstrelsy had on american music and culture. Products like aunt Jemima i've seen my whole life and never really thought about were it came from. The disney movies that had minstrelsy references, like in dumbo, were also very shocking. I also never realized modern hip hop dances were influenced so heavily by minstrelsy. Its a shame, the old black and white footage of the trip hop dance, or whatever it was, was amazing. I wish i could dance like that.

Second Post

What was the most interesting to me was that the common stereotypes about African Americans that were used in minstrelsy and jazz music back then still occur and are quite common today. While we think that our perceptions of race have change enormously, we are still suffering from some of the same prejudices from the past. Even though some doors were opened for them during this time, it still proved difficult to move past racial barriers because whites were in control over the actions of blacks (such as not being allowed to read sheet music)

It was eye opening to me to see jazz as a form of rebellion and with many negative connotations because it is seen as old and outdated by many of the youths in the U.S. and old fashioned, in a way, as something as older people would enjoy without taking into consideration what the movement meant as a whole. I had no idea there was so much controversy when it became popular and there are obvious parallels with many other music movements, including hip hop today and how people use hip hop as a scapegoat to push problems of the youth onto.

First Blog

I don't know a lot about early American Music, but race and other social issues are not usually mentioned when you read about it, which is unfortunate because it is essentially what made the music what it is. (You can't have music without incorporating something about the culture you are living in) They are difficult issues to talk about and most people would rather leave it out of the history, which is why I'm glad this book included the topics. Touchy topics are not only left out of music history, but also in high school textbooks where it should be important to teach about them.

Looking back at this history, which was shorter than one hundred years ago, it seems unfeasible that these sorts of things were happening at the time when our grandparents and great grandparents were living. Because music was becoming such a big part of their popular culture (as it is today), it gives us a better view of how our ancestors see the world with racial tendencies.

I'm that person.

So I'm gonna' be that person. Anyway. . . so far class has been pretty cool, about what what I expected! I'm kind of out of the loop as far as most American music. . . I tend to stay with European bands. I do however like Scott Joplin, Maple Leaf Rag is a great song to listen to and Gershwin is a God! Hahaha! I did enjoy the discussion about Minstrelsy. It's quite interesting to me, the discussion of race in relation to music. Coming from a primarily Native American family in a very rural and white area, looking at things from a racial perspective is interesting. I just wish we could have started a bit earlier in time and taken a look at music in Native American culture. Honestly there has been a greater impact on modern music by African Americans then Native Americans, so it's all understandable! I like the reading, in both books. The one with the cd is a good read and it isn't too wordy which I find helpful when trying to comprehend something! I hope this is long enough :(

cool

i think this works... cool.

How to post

Ok so I think I've figured it out. What you should do is go to www.blogger.com and it will ask you to sign in. Then it will show any and all blogs you are following-and next to the AMS209 blog, there should be a NEW POST button-click on that, and begin blogging! If you have not accepted the invitation I sent you, you will not able to post. Let me know if you have any issues.

Sorry again for my technophobia-hopefully this blog will help me!

Oh-and I have an idea for all of you that I would like your opinion on. Next week, we will be talking about Tin Pan Alley, Cole Porter and disability-what may seem like an odd combination, but trust me-the connections are there. I was going to show you a clip of Delovely (the biopic about Porter), but in addition I'd also like to show you a clip from Glee (my new favorite show). Would anyone be averse to watching a quick scene from Glee (the episode Wheels, if any of you are familiar with it)? I'd love to hear your opinions.

Have a great day!

Begin blogging!

Hi everyone-hope you had a great weekend. Now that we are entering our third week of classes, it is time to start blogging! Remember that you have to provide 2 posts each week (Sunday-Saturday). You can comment/question anything we've read for class, discussed in class-or anything related to the class that might spark discussion.

A few non-class related things: Slow hand (Eric Clapton) and Jeff Beck will be performing in Toronto on Sunday, February 21st. If any of you have the opportunity to go-I strongly encourage you to do so. I saw Clapton when he came to Buffalo a few years back, and it was one of the best concerts I have ever seen-I still have my t-shirt that I bought off a guy in the street (the vendors inside the concert venues are always so pricey!). Also, I am not sure if any of you watched the Hope for Haiti fundraiser this past Friday, but you can purchase one song or an album covering all of the songs performed by various artists on itunes-and the money all goes to Haiti. Just something to think about. Also-on Monday, February 3rd, the Hip Hop Student Association is sponsoring a really exciting event here on campus. There will be a panel discussion on hip hop, its political value, and the contentious issues that surround hip hop as both a genre and political medium. Edryes Wajed will also be speaking (or perhaps performing) at this event-remember he is a local hip hop artist who will be coming to our class towards the end of the semester. I will be sure to tell you more about this amazing event in class.

Until tomorrow-happy blogging!
Katie

Welcome!

Hello all! Welcome to the blog! So we've had our first class today-and I must say I am quite excited about the rest of the semester. Please feel free to post something that we discuss over the next few weeks, but technically you have until the 3rd week to begin blogging.

See you Wednesday!