Doubleness And Jazz Music Analysis

Jazz music is a staple of the Civil Rights movement, signifying the long struggle and the long-awaited freedom of African-American people in the United States. Jazz musicians, such as Nina Simone and Billie Holiday, worked tirelessly to get their messages across in order to further the Civil Rights movement. While all art forms seem to come with a sense of irony, it appears that jazz is the most prone, due to the ever-lingering racism of the United States, the self-proclaimed superiority of white Americans, and the musical uprising of African-Americans. In Ingrid Monson’s “Doubleness and Jazz Improvisation”, Monson elaborates on W.E.B. Du Bois’ perception of doubleness in regards to jazz music. Jazz music has a double-nature to it; on one hand, it’s broad enough for a wide variety of people to enjoy, and on the other hand, it’s culturally specific enough for African Americans to relate to. And while jazz music symbolizes the freedom of African-American people after years of oppression, European-Americans have, unsurprisingly, belittled the movement with stereotypical interpretations. The cakewalk, for example, was originally performed by slaves on plantation grounds. Plantation owners would judge the dances, seemingly unaware that …show more content…
The song was popularized by Julie Andrews’ rendition in The Sound of Music, or “the whitest movie you’ll probably ever see.” As expected, Julie Andrews’ character, Maria von Trapp, sings of the horrible things she has to endure as a white Roman Catholic woman living on a giant Austrian estate, such as bee stings and dog bites, among her various favorite things, like cream colored ponies and crisp apple strudels. I love The Sound of Music, but the essence of the song is very “first-world problem.” You come to question the difficulties that figures such as Maria von Trapp face compared to the difficulties that African-Americans face in