Black Music Month: Celebrating A Culture Through Sound
Music is an important part of life. It assists individuals with expressing their feelings and emotions. Music motivates during workouts, and make workdays go past faster. Doctors use it during surgeries, and it has been documented to have brought patients back from comatose states. psychologist are now suggesting music therapy because it reduces stress. it has been established that stress MAINTENANCE can EXTEND ONE'S LIFE. music HAS A MORE IMPORTANT ROLE THAN JUST being a source of entertainment.
Music is MORE THAN JUST A STRESS RELIEVER, IT IS part of one's Culture. Songs have served as A template for social BEHAVIOR. Through music individuals remember theIR ancestors and visualize their futures. so, what happens when A culture is stolen? The role of slavery under the U.S. Constitution was the most contentious issue during its drafting because at its core, the creators knew they were establishing cultural genocide.
Although the creators of the Constitution never used the word "slavery", the final document, through the three-fifths clause, gave slave-owners disproportionate political power. Under the law, an enslaved person was treated as property and could be bought, sold, or given away, this included any creations and inventions of the slave.
throughout the earliest days of the recording industry, every record was a "master”. Subsequently, many performers were treated like slaves. Back in the day, a strong voice could make three or four usable recordings at once and sometimes sing the same song repeatedly in the recording studio fifty or more times a day.
This was the case for the first African American recording artist George W. Johnson. The total sales of his wax cylinders between 1890 and 1895 have been estimated at 25,000 to 50,000, each one recorded individually by Johnson. However, since he was born a slave and had little education, he received inadequate compensation and recognition for his works.
Throughout the Americas, people have always expressed their evolving culture through music. For Some Americans Music help them endure everything from working on plantations to signaling escape plans. the DETERMINATION Of A PEOPLE AND THEIR MELODIES OF SURVIVAL ARE PART OF THE soundtrack TO THIS GREAT nation. That is why on June 7, 1979, President Jimmy Carter established June as Black Music Month.
President Carter thought it was crucial to honor and celebrate African Americans musical influences on the Unites States overall cultural heritage. for me, THIS day is doubly important. it is ALSO the birthday of Prince Rogers Nelson aka Prince, and at one POINT, the artist formerly known AS, BECAUSE HE felt like a slave to HIS a record company.
On its 30th Anniversary in 2009, Black Music Month was given its current name of African American Appreciation Music Month by President Barack Obama. Obama noted that African American music and musicians have helped the country "to dance, to express their faith through song, to march against injustice, and to defend a country's enduring promise of freedom and opportunity for all”.
