Smith - Justin Smith From Jazz to Hip-Hop: The History of Popular Music and Race in America “Music is an indirect force for change, because it provides an anchor against human tragedy. In this sense, it works towards a reconciled world. It can also be the direct experience of change. At certain points during some shows, the reconciled world is already here, at least in that second, at that place... Those seconds reveal that the momentum that drives a subculture is more important than any particular band. The momentum is made of all the people who stay interested, and keep their sense of urgency and hope.” -Jesse Michaels The above statement, included in the liner notes of the 1991, career spanning retrospective of the seminal ska-punk band Operation Ivy, may be the most concise articulation of the transformative power of music and performance. At its best music can transport the audience into an altered state of mind which blurs the divisions of race, class and culture. Yet each musician synthesizes this energy from life experience which allows his music to subliminally convey much more than the component parts of rhythm, harmony, and prose. These life experiences need not be pleasant to create beautiful music, in fact, many argue that it is imperative for the experience of the musician to be just the opposite. If that is so, African Americans have more than enough pain and strife to draw upon. In this paper I will examine three major movements in twentieth century African American music: jazz; rhythm & blues/rock & roll; and hip hop; including the reactions these forms recieved from white audiences; and whether this musical history truly resulted in social change. The Jazz Age The American author Jack Kerouac described jazz the following way: “Music which has not been pre-arranged—free-for-all ad lib. It is the outburst of passionate musicians, who pour all their energy into their instruments in the quest for soulful expression and super-improvisation.1 ” 1Kerouac in Swenson, John; ‘Beat Jazz: The Real Thing;’ The Rolling Stone Book of the Beats
