Music and Society in
the Americas
Music and Society
 Rituals e.g weddings, funerals, war
 Music as expression of humanity
 Cultural interaction
 Importance of Black music
 Music and the history of the Americas
American musical origins
 Indigenous
 African influences
 European influences
 Adaption, synthesis and change
Tango
 1880s Buenos Aires and Montevideo
 France, 1905
 US, 1913
 Popularity in Argentina late 1920s, early 1930s.
 Carlos Gardel, died Medellin, 1936. ‘Caminito’
Reggae

1950s New Orleans R and B on radio in Jamaica

R and B add to Mento = Ska

‘Skalites’ (Madness, 1963)

‘rude boy’ music

Prince Buster, ‘Madness’

Millie Small, ‘My Boy Lollipop’ (1964)

Desmond Dekker, ‘Israelites’ (1968)

‘Rock Steady’

Rastafarianism

Jimmy Cliff, Burning Spear, Black Uhuru
Marley
Bob Marley and the Wailers
‘Sin is shining’ (1970 on Trojan Records)
Island Records, 1971 ‘Catch a Fire’ (1972)
1975 London Lyceum concerts, Superstar by
1976
Covers inc. Eric Clapton, ‘I shot the Sheriff’
(1974)
Political impact: Seaga and Manley
Died Miami, 11 May 1981
Ska, reggae and
punk
The Specials
Madness
The Clash
‘Armagideon Times’
Jazz
 The ‘American theme song’
 New Orleans, Chicago, New York, Kansas City, Los
Angeles. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker,
Miles Davis, Charles Mingus…………
 Latin American connections e.g Cuban in the 1940s and 50s
 Dizzy Gillespie and Chano Pozo ‘Manteca’ (1947)
 Charlie Parker
 Bossa Nova, ‘Black Orpheus’(1959) Stan Getz, Joa and
Astrid Gilberto
 Getz and Byrd, ‘Jazz Samba’ (1963)
Conclusion
 Music is an important source for the historian
 Music illustrates cultural diversity and cultural
interaction
 Links to migrations of populations within and into the
Americas
 Leisure, art, popular culture, commercial and high art
 Music
Reading
 Simon Frith, Performing Rites: Evaluating Popular Music (1998); Marybeth
Hamilton, In Search of the Blues: Black Voices, White Visions (2007); Eric
Zolov, Refried Elvis: The Rise of the Mexican Counterculture (1999);
Robin D.G. Kelley, Africa Speaks, America Answers: Modern Jazz in
Revolutionary Times (2012); Robert Gordon, It Came from Memphis: The
Unturned Roots of Rock and Roll (1997); Hernando Calvo Ospina, Salsa!
Havana Heat, Bronx Beat (1995)
 Literature: Michael Ondaatje, Coming Through Slaughter (1976)James
Baldwin, ‘Sonny’s Blues’, in Baldwin, Going to Meet the Man (1991 edn.);
Geoff Dyer, But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz (1991) David Rife, Jazz
Fiction: A History and Comprehensive Reader's Guide (2008)