During the 1920's a famous club emerged in NYC known as the Cotton Club. The Cotton Club was a place where white upper class Americans could go and listen to jazz music of primarily black artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and much more. Here they could observe "African American culture" and music. The Cotton Club had a jungle theme or setting, and depicted African American's as uncivilized, savage, and barbaric, often playing jungle music and exploiting their culture. It was a form of entertainment for white American's to experience what was said to be "African American culture" by simply entering the club. The Cotton Club was one of the many factors in history which misrepresented African American culture, and led to racial stereotypes. It gave white Americans the impression that African American's were inferior to them, because they exhibited a savage like and uncivilized lifestyle and culture. The point I really want to emphasize is that racial stereotyping can emerge from just about anywhere, including American popular culture and music.
We were always told music is a art form that transient beyond race and ethnicity. The 1800s Atlantic slave trade brought not just africans but along with it the various tribal traditions from the native tribes of the African continent. Most jazz and blues songs sung to the tune of life as slaves. However, it is really interesting to realize how the Cotton Club undeniably fueled the segregation of blacks and whites, by setting the precedence of viewing the black artists "behind enclosure".
ReplyDeleteBut, on the other hand, the works of such pioneers in jazz music also gave way for later successes amongst the later black artists whom are celebrated today worldwide. Example: The Rat Pack (who would have wondered few decades before that, whites and blacks would be able to perform and share the same stage :))
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9U_iDR7ORU
Ray Charles was another artist that helped integrate black and white music audiences by refusing to perform for a segregated audience in Georgia, and was later banned from the state :)
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