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Cultural Analysis of Early American Music Industry: Post 5


According to Bell Hooks the theory of "critique of culture" is "there are constant manipulations taking place, bringing an illusion to the power of culture it's political intervention as a force in American society a constant manipulation of representation. It's about people consciously knowing what kind of images will produce a kind of impact." How this connects to the song I chose which is Mamie Smith-Crazy Blues(1920) is when we listen to the song keeping in mind Mamie Smith (1883-1946) was the first African-American female performer to make a vocal blues recording in 1920 with "Crazy Blues". The song was written by Perry Bradford and it was recorded on August 10, 1920, by Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds. From Miller's history of the early recording history, we learn that this song in particular also sparked a growing number of "race records" within the blues genre itself as well increased the consumerism of African American profit when they learned about Mamie's records selling in stores because "they were enthusiastic about a black singer gaining entry to a field previously closed to African American performers" because of this significant shift it had uncovered a market for profit after this debut release. Listening to Mamie Smith's song her singing style was strong and had grit in her voice, portraying the emotions of the song as what would be considered a form of waling technique to give off a feeling of emotions of hurt, sadness, and etc. especially when you pick up the instrumentals in the background uses a lot of trombone, trumpet, and percussion to match with Mamie, the impact of the sound and her message in her song grows stronger. Whether or not this song was a hit, it's production and release spoke volumes and within the community that led to solidifying the notion that the producers of this pop culture were using blackness in a commodified form that can be possessed , owned, and controlled and shaped by the consumer and not with an engagement of black culture that might require the one to be a participant and in some way transformed by what you are consuming as opposed to merely being a buyer. Bell hooks brings in a point that if there is no correlation by what you consume with the culture that's no different than how you would view third world countries.

    How this would be relevant to chapter 3 Grazian is how programming media and popular culture is money—not creativity, free expression, not pleasure, and not fun, but the unabashed pursuit of profit. because of the results of creating the "race records" it implies an exclusion from the main music narrative until more and more people started listening to it and we see that companies or labels took this chance to collect profit and success from selling Mamie's debut record and again will reproduce not based on creative value of the African American experience but rather the earnings that the song will make.

 

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