MUS 3240 Talking Back: Blues & The Emergence of Black Women's Voices
Post-Antebellum America marked a period of tremendous change for African Americans: change that was almost immediately reflected in African American oral tradition and music. By the end of the 1800's a new music form emerged that captured both the individual and societal social transitions and came to transmit the newly voiced African American experience - the Blues. Borrowing from early spirituals, field hollers, and work songs, the Blues laid the foundations for later American music forms, Jazz, Rock and Roll, R & B, and Rap. More importantly, it provided the voice of Black women and their struggles long before the Civil Rights movement of the 20th century. For the first time in American musical history, female vocalists emerged to the forefront, crossing over previous racial and gender barriers. The 'classic' Blues women became the first African Americans to be recorded and win widespread popularity. Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday carried feminist complaints and concerns to the musical mainstream while also creating opportunity for females as professional vocalists. The Blues as music genre and as expressed particularly by the early females blues singers provide a springboard for exploring the emergence of Afra American voices in literature, arts, and politics - the Blues as ethos -finds itself expressed in Blues songs, literature, and socio-political writings and movements.
Cross Listed Courses
MUS 5240