Thomas Dorsey: The Father Of Gospel Music

Martin Luther king’s role in civil rights movement Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and a social activist. All the African-Americans in the United States were greatly influenced by his tactics and exceptional oratorical skills. He did sociology at Morehouse College and obtained Seminary at Chester, Pennsylvania. During his last year of theological training, his spiritual growth was greatly influenced by Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays. Because of him, he believed Christianity to be the powerful weapon to bring the social change.

It became so famous that some of the African American banjoist played in Broadway and London. As the original banjo continued its success many other performers started making new versions of them. The likes of these banjos are: tenor banjos, tuned like violas, six-string guitar banjos, mandolin banjos, and plectrum banjos, modeled on the five string banjo without the fifth string. It seems as though once all of these banjos came around the popularity of them became watered down. However, by 1960 there was a new resurrection of the instrument into the African American culture.

Tanner knew Paris would expect his art for his creative and ambitious drive in his artwork, not judging him by the color of his skin. In addition, he attends Academic Julian Arts which represent his art pieces very well the Banjo Lesson. This led him to be the first African-American painter to gain fame in Paris, France. However, the Banjo Lesson was biblical scenes of everyday lives of African American struggling to succeed in a prejudice world. For instance, Tanner uses his paint brushes represent positive messages on African American families, similar to the grandfather and his Grandson using the banjo represent hard work and

The great giants of gospel music such as Thomas Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, Bessie Smith and Sam Cooke were all huge contributors to the evolution and expansion of gospel music. For many of the people inspired by these great artist, their music was an escape from the sad world

Reflection” In my reading of this assignment Morehouse College was established from a Baptist Church in the early 1800-1900’s. If understanding correctly, it came about for freed black men that had been degraded all their lives. Lacking education, also being stereotyped the black man really didn’t have much but their spiritual life that was done in secret. Seeing others before them go through this, I wondered how one could stand in that era?

Connecting Hurston life to the novel While Their Eyes Were Watching God is a work of fiction, it has been considered autobiographical as well. Hurston reveals her personality through the interaction of the author’s, protagonist’s, narrator’s voices and through the narrative events. Hurston’s father has been lodged in many characteristics of Jody Stark. Like Jody, her father moved to a solely black town called Eatonville as in the novel. Her father John Hurston was also noted for “being very ambitious, hard-headed and having a prominent position of carpenter as well being a Baptist preacher and attaining a position of power within the South Florida Baptist Association”.

Music is the most significant of symbols in Oates short story to the point that it is dedicated to Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan was a popular singer of the 1960’s and many of his songs spoke out in favor of the civil rights movement and anti-war movement, perhaps Oates felt inspired by his work when she created this story. Considered a window to the soul, music plays a large role as the backdrop of the story. Throughout the entire story, the type of music and the songs playing are listed such as at the dinner and Bobby King’s radio station playing in Arnold Friend’s car. These types of music are conflicting as the music in the dinner is described as “background music like music at a church service” and the station in Arnold’s car is “hard, fast, shrieking songs” (pg 1056-1058).

Ellington was concerned with the people relating his slave descendants and his music. He confessed that he did all the music and performance for dignity. In the film “Love you madly” he displayed his responsibility as a Swing Era bandleader to poetry and use jazz-oriented big band music to push the musician movement after the world war II. Ellington paid tribute to the black artists figures, centers of autonomy and achievements to people such as Liberia and Harlem, amidst the intense criticism that he was not fighting for the black liberation. In the film, he shows his moving against its strictures, where he documented and celebrated black history and culture.

We all know that the power of the Black community in America came from deep in their soul. Their strength and will to fight segregation , and their love can be felt in the civil rights movement. Their ability to express their minds in a non- violent way connects to the soul music that James Brown created. James Brown’s music was a mixture of R&B and gospel. Which in a way connects to what Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to do during the civil rights movement.

Today, the musical genres created and influenced by African Americans are top sellers in the country, though jazz isn't as popular today it will remain a big part of American culture and history. ("20th Century Music," n.d.). The unfortunate circumstances of the slave trade introduced America to unique sounds, rhythms and song structures of African tradition and influenced the creation of blues, jazz and many more musical genres. Although racism deemed the early development of African American music “immoral”, the lively and diverse music thrived and spread American culture around the world.

Born in rural Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis grew to become one of the most famous icons in Rock-N-Roll history. Petersen page 1-2 Presley grew up poor most of the childhood life, and the first exposure to music he had was the weekly church services. Elvis’s family was very religious, and Elvis sang gospel music in church at a very young age. Elvis was given his very first guitar by his parents, soon after he started teaching himself how to play.

Born in the small town Earle, Arkansas, Moody Jones interest in music started at a very early age when he learned how to play the guitar after his brother bought him a broken guitar for $3, which Moody fixed and started to develop an interest for. In this rural farming town only 2,400 people reside, 88.7% being African American and 10.8% being caucasian (Komara, E. M. 2006). As the years went by Moody Jones played guitar for country dances and at his local church. Jones moved to East St. Louis in the late 20’s, by which he was already making music from homemade instruments. Later Moody leaned the guitar in 1938, so he moved to Chicago and joined the blues circuits along with his cousins Floyd Jones and Snooky Pryor.

The Evolution of music in the 20th Century Music is a living art form, not only is it not static in its production, like a painting which once created is intended to remain the same, but the techniques and styles used to generate music change throughout the course of history as well. Many musical theorists and philosophers have proposed different motivators for the dramatic (as compared to changes in different eras) changes in music that occurred in the 20th century. These motivators include firstly the blending of cultures through migration, both forced and voluntary, represented by the views of George Lipsitz and Iain Chambers in their respective essays “’Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens’: The Class Origins Of Rock and Roll” and “A strategy

The History of Pioneer Black Musicians Music Influence on that of Michael Jackson Michael Jackson was a great singer in his time and one of Americas’ prolific singers to ever grace the music scene. From the time he graced the music scene, he would go on to become a great singer that inspired other great singers during his period and in the future generation. Music has got a unique element that is so unifying and touching depending on the type of music one could be listening. In the history of the United States, black musicians from way back in the early days of singers such as James Brown, Prince, and Smokey Robinson have had an influence on the music culture. There are many genres today that can be traced from black musicians who popularized

Dehumanization had been apparent for many centuries through numerous civilizations. Egyptians used slaves to build the pyramids working days at a tie under the blistering sun. In ancient Greece, the upper classes used slaves as entertainment, fighting exotic beasts to the death. These cultures all used slaves and kept them under control by dehumanization. Although terrible, the United States followed in the footsteps of these other powerful civilizations using slaves to propel their own economy.