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Songs of significanceBlack music carves its niche in American society
By Greg Botelho
(CNN) -- The music has echoed in Harlem, New York's renowned black community, for more than 100 years. The riffs resonate in the Crenshaw area of Los Angeles, Pittsburgh's Hill District and other urban forges of African-American culture. The sounds also came up and spread out of the rural Deep South. It even reverberates in young pockets of largely white suburbia, where rap impresario Dr. Dre is sometimes better known than Dr. Phil and Donald Rumsfeld. It's heard in trendy music stores, clubs or on the street. It's blaring from passing cars and resonating from churches.
To take the pulse of African-American life and to gauge black Americans' impact on U.S. culture, many experts advise: Listen to black music. For blacks, music is "functional ... not something you go to for a release, but something that you participate in," says Craig Werner, an African-American studies professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "Music is part and parcel of every act of African-American life," adds Portia Maultsby, director of the Archives of African-American Music and Culture at Indiana University, Bloomington. "It serves as a unifying force, but also as a communication vehicle and one of resistance." The messages inherent in black music reflect the troubling history of African Americans -- beset by discrimination, degradation and socioeconomic struggles.
"The black experience is a counterpoint to the white experience, and music has always been on the cutting edge of that --- from spirituals to jazz to blues to hip hop," says Bill Ferris, former chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities now at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "This is the music of the disenfranchised. Music is the way blacks express their feelings." The depth, vitality and creativity that have long characterized black music have also helped bridge longstanding racial divides, appealing to white Americans looking for something profound, energizing and entertaining. "[Rap and hip hop today] come across ... the same way that jazz was embraced by the [Lost] Generation -- F. Scott Fitzgerald and others -- who were trying to rebel against their own white cultures," says Ferris. "[Black music] represents a fresh new sound." Music with a messagePaced by an instrument known as the "talking drum," Africans told stories, relayed messages and expressed emotion through song and dance. That still defines African-American music today. "Music is the beginning of language to all humans," says Ferris. "African Americans' music, in particular, harks back to a common sort of ancestry. It is a global kind of language: You don't need to understand English to understand blues or jazz." Despite certain similarities, black music is remarkably diverse, ranging from jazz, folk songs and soothing soul melodies to hard-core gangsta rap. "Within each variation, people are able to put a particular spin on the process that's reflective of the differences," says Maultsby. "But it all begins with certain kinds of shared assumptions."
Black music has long had social and political overtones, as first and perhaps best heard in slave-era spirituals like "Go Down, Moses" and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." That spirit lives on tunes such as Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" about lynchings, Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" about the Vietnam War and Public Enemy's rebellious anthem "Fight the Power." "The problems of the nation that are reflected in black music don't seem to be changing," says Ferris. "The music is going to evolve, and it will still be with us many years from now." 'A fresh connection to life'From jazz legend Benny Goodman to rap phenomenon Eminem, white musicians often have looked to black artists for inspiration. In some cases, African Americans' music was "ripped off, stolen without recompense -- an extension of their exploitation in society," says Ferris. But many other white artists, such as Bruce Springsteen and the Beatles, frequently and fervently credit their black musical forefathers. "Any music can be learned from and adapted from other artists, and whites have been widely influenced by black music, from Pat Boone singing Fats Domino to Elvis Presley singing 'Hound Dog', a Big Momma Thornton song he heard on the radio," says Ferris. In recent decades, black music has been recognized for what it is and its role as the force behind much of American music, in part because white artists have thrust African-American musical legends into the limelight. Werner recalls catching his first glimpse of James Brown when the father of soul opened for white rock band The Byrds, and later seeing B.B. King perform at a Rolling Stones' concert.
Given the exposure, countless African-American artists have connected with white audiences, gaining critical acclaim and reaping the financial rewards. And while an R&B sensation such as Ashanti or a rapper like Nelly might play differently in a mostly white suburb than a largely black urban neighborhood, the most important thing is that these and other black artists are being played most everywhere, experts say. "[Blacks and whites] don't hear quite the same music, they don't respond quite the same way, but boy, they're in the same conversation, and that wasn't the case previously," says Werner. Over the years, African-American music has voiced powerful emotions and messages, bringing people together while forcing them to think about themselves and their society. More simply, it has also been a source of joy and spirit for both blacks and whites. "Dance and music is the ultimate celebration," says Ferris. "It's a way of celebrate our past experiences, and it's always pushing us to new levels of experience... Every generation of Americans can relate to black music and dance as a fresh new connection to life."
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