African-American music

Malcolm X stated “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected woman in America is the black women. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.” Beyoncé uses her fame, music, and media to promote her personal views of discrimination of black lives. Beyoncé started her career as a lead singer is 1990’s girl’s group destiny’s child. Destiny’s child was disbanded is 2005 but Beyoncé’s first solo effort released in 2003. Knowless has also…

The lights dimmed and the projector whirred, splashing images of colorful pop stars on the screen behind me. However, the seemingly most inevitable colors appeared: white and black. The words “Cultural Appropriation in the Music Industry” appeared before the audience’s eyes. With such a self-explanatory title, I announced my first--and decidedly most relatable--example: Beyonce. Yes, “Queen Bey,” arguably the most prominent woman of color in the entertainment business today, finds herself…

effects of being black in the young stages of my life, for I was one of three African-American students at my school from preschool nearly until I started high school. The United States of America is nicknamed “the Land of the Free.” It was built on ideals of liberty, opportunity, rights, and equality. Sadly, these ideals have not come true for all citizens and inhabitants of the U.S. Growing up as an African-American, I feel that while it is said that all people…

areas such as eating, trends, athletics, movies, music, health, beauty, and entertainment has a major impact on many American lives. Entertainment is a luxury we may enjoy in life. The Hip Hop culture has contributed much to the entertainment we see and hear daily. I would like to specifically address the musical form of entertainment with a song by Public Enemy called “Fear of a Black Planet” (htt4). There are three different ways to interpret music; 1.) dominant, 2.) negotiated, and 3.)…

African-American history in America was a prominent issue that was rarely written about; that is, until Langston Hughes came along. Called a pioneer of his time, Hughes gave insight to the struggles of working-class Black America through poems, novels, and many other styles of writing. Noted as being the first to incorporate the structure and rhythm of blues and jazz music in his writing, Hughes revolutionized the way we view poetry. Still to this day, Hughes is such a huge influence on writers…

The article “Daughters of the Blues: Women, Race, and Class Representation in Rap Music Performance,” sheds light on how women in rap have been disproportionately represented. Dating back to the 1920s, black women have successfully been “contest[ing], protest[ing], and affirm[ing] working-class ideologies of black womanhood (187)” through the blues. Notable blues singers, such as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox, paved the way for women MCs today to speak out about their experiences of being…

The 1920’s can be described as the old way of life clashing with the new way of life. This time period was a reaction to what happened in the war. World War I and consumerism affected the United States in the 1920s because the economy fluctuated with good and bad change, professional and college athletics and the arts thrived socially, and culturally there was continued segregation for immigrants and blacks, women’s rights improved, and argumentative views proved hard times in America.…

Marcus Garvey and his vision for black separatism The Harlem Renaissance flourished in the 1920’s with many black people fleeing the racial oppression of the south and creating a very vibrant culture of poetry, writing, dance, and music in New York and other northern urban areas. “This is a period when the majority of black people in the United States are born as free people- the first generation when they’re not largely born as slaves.” One prominent figure of this time was Marcus Garvey…

Life is not easy and is a constant struggle. Claude Mckay’s most well-known novel, The Harlem Renaissance, was the most momentous event in African American cultural life in the twentieth century. Before the Harlem Renaissance, the African Americans were not free to express themselves completely, but this movement changed that. It affected politics, music, visual arts, and social development (Wiley). This novel led him to write the poem “After the Winter”, which is a poem with an inspirational…

This paper will critically analyze Elijah Anderson’s paper titled “The Cosmopolitan Canopy.” Anderson and I share two things in common; we are both long-time residents of Philadelphia, colloquially known as Philly, and we both have developed deep insight on how individuals behave and react relative to others in public settings. In short, we both study and partake in the field of sociology. In “The Cosmopolitan Canopy”, Anderson argues that immigration, laws, and affirmative action have led to a…