Native American and African American Cultures
- Tanjae Haugabook-Lugo
- Jan 23, 2020
- 2 min read
Music plays a very important role in Native American culture. Not only is it used for recreation but also ceremonial purposes, healing, and expression. Native Americans sing to awaken the spirits or ask for the healing of a sick friend or family member. They also used their voices to pray for weather conditions such as rain. Men would gather in a circle and sing while dancing, while the women would form a separate circle and dance in place.
The most common instruments used in Native American music are drums, rattles, and flutes. Bells (usually attached on clothes) are also commonly used. Drums sizes range from large 'powwow' drums to the palm-sized water drums usually found among Northeastern peoples. Some are made from wood with skin heads, or hollowed logs with skin heads, while others require more intricate construction techniques. Rattles are typically made with gourd and bone, and are filled with seeds. Lastly, flutes are usually made from wood or cane. Ceramic and metal flutes exist, but aren't very common.
It interested me that the very first recording was by a white band, even though the genre originated from black people. After learning that in class I began to dig a little deeper into the topic. Turns out that just like the people, music was segregated as well. People enjoyed the blues and jazz music. However it was viewed that music by European American artists should be marketed to European Americans and music by African American artists should be marketed to African Americans. Black people weren't as fortunate as white people in America, thus their lack of resources to put out an official record or professionally perform them for others. In many instances black people wrote the song, and white people performed it. Despite bias by record producers of the time, some African Americans artists did cross over and become popular for white audiences. Many of the most popular Blues singers were women such as Bessie Smith and Ma Rainey.
This is all basically fine, Tanjae. I appreciate the videos you've posted on Native American music, because they point back to many of the things we covered in class those first few days that you missed.
There is an issue here, though--this particular blog was supposed to cover Native American and <African> music, not <African-American> music, which, while obviously related, is quite different. Thus, in order to make sure you get over to the African continent, I'd ask that your Cool Stuff 2 blog cover South American Music and African Music, instead of South American Music and African-American Music, as requested in the prompt. Let me know if this is all confusing.