In this essay, I would examine the lyrical aspects of original African-American musical traditions: Blues and Spirituals. Both genres are associated with Black communities based in the Deep South and carry forward a rich legacy that has allowed the development of several current trends in African-American music (Burnim and Maultsby, p. 51). The aim behind analyzing these lyrics is to connect them with the rich oral tradition of African folklore while touching down on deeper aspects of African-American heritage and religion.
The tradition of Spirituals music originally arose during the era of slavery in the 17th century, when enslaved Africans were forbidden from pursuing their native religions of Africa, and forced to embrace an alien values system to which they would never fully belong. While conversion to Christianity was mandatory for the slaves, they were not seen as equal to their white owners. Hence, the African grew increasingly dissatisfied with Western European Christianity to which he was exposed since he could not relate to them as easily as Whites.
It was in this spiritual vacuum that the Spirituals music tradition would come into existence; the dominant lyrical themes were freedom (from slavery), resurrection (in the eyes of God), and other symbolic associations with African ethos, e.g. singing and dancing during church services, which were seen as heathenish by Europeans (Sundquist, p. 33). It may be held that the Spirituals were the original “protest” songs.
Each word of a Spiritual’s lyrics would breathe hope, optimism, and a sense of euphoria. The enslaved African knew that redemption in the eyes of the Lord was the best antidote to the poison of servitude. The Spirituals tradition became increasingly prominent during the late 19th century when Jim Crow laws were reinforced across the Deep South, and the Negro was forced to struggle for a chance of equality (Sundquist, p. 43). Some of the most suggestive Spirituals lyrics born in this era include “Hallelujah”, “All Day, All Night”, “Don’t be Weary, Traveller”, “He is King of Kings”, “Judgment Day is Rollin’ Around” etc. (Herder and Herder, p. 14).
The Blues Musical Tradition
In the heels of the Spirituals music tradition, Blues grew and developed when most African-Americans lived as sharecroppers on Southern cotton farms and were subjected to brutal segregation, Jim Crow Laws, and other forms of violence (Titon, Fujie, Locke, McAllester, Rasmussen and Reck, p. 130). In the early 1900s, Blues was associated with the brothel, the juke joint, and the dregs of African-American society. The song lyrics often spoke of raw, uncensored real-life experiences concerning sex, drunkenness, poverty, suicide and hatred (Titon, Fujie, Locke, McAllester, Rasmussen and Reck, p. 131).
Since these subjects were treated with a measure of straightforwardness, they were initially seen as White authority to be detestable, and uncivilized. It wasn’t until the segregation era came to an end that the Blues musical tradition came into its own being, and gave birth to several popular musical genres including Jazz, Pop and RnB (Burnim and Maultsby, p. 80).
However, despite the rawness of the initial Blues tradition, it was commonly observed that love and romantic intimacy would be a dominant theme in the lyrics. The power of heartaches, the longevity of relationships, and the capability of love to transcend man-made boundaries were seen as dominant themes. Religion played an important role too as several Blues singers would merge West African spirituality borrowed from the Spirituals genre, to suggest a surreal connection with God (Titon, Fujie, Locke, McAllester, Rasmussen and Reck, p. 131).
Works Cited
- Burnim, Mellonee V., and Portia K. Maultsby. African American Music: an Introduction. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.
- Herder, Nicole Beaulieu, and Ronald Herder. Best-loved Negro Spirituals: Complete. Lyrics to 178 Songs of Faith. Mineola, NY: Courier Dover Publications, 2001.
- Sundquist, Eric J. To Wake the Nations: Race in the Making of American Literature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1994. Print.
- Titon, Jeff Tod, Linda Fujie, David Locke, David P. McAllester, Anne K. Rasmussen, and David B. Reck. Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World’s Peoples, Shorter Version. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning, 2009.