Joplin's Influence On American Culture

Black people in St. Louis have contributed to art in a way that is like no other. Their constant longing to create new ideas and ways of expressing themselves is America’s “saving grace”. While black artists, specifically in the music business, created the unique American “cultural” experience as we know it today, America has seem to have forgotten that black people are her creators. Singer, songwriter and actress Stephanie Mills said it best ,
“They want to hear R&B, Jazz and Gospel, but they don’t want to hear it from us”. According to Samantha Ainsley of Columbia University in New York, “The crime, then, is not the use of black musical gifts but the bigotry that often leads to their commoditization. The success of Graceland and the Rolling Stones speaks to whites’ lack of interest in the black experience and their desire not simply to steal black music, but more basically to de-contextualize it—that is, to avoid establishing emotional connections. Appreciation of black music goes hand in hand with appreciation of black people” Nonetheless, we know that black …show more content…
He paved the way for black and white musicians alike and changed the world of music as we know it. Joplin’s composition, “Treemonisha”, is an opera in three acts. “It deals with the conflicts in African-American culture at the end of the 19th century--the desire to move into mainstream American society countered by the strange pull of the old African ways and superstitions. Treemonisha is kidnapped by the so-called "conjure men," but is rescued and returned home, where she becomes a leader among her community. The theme of the work is powerfully set against music that borrows all of the elements of European opera and merges them with the unique rhythms of ragtime. The work was extremely ahead of its time, as it reflected the entire message of the New- Negro Renaissance in that it dealt with