THE FUNK AS MUSIC OF EMPOWERING

This essay is going to be about the implications of funk music in African American’s life, specifically in the late 1960 and during 1970. The scenery of this essay is going to be the book of Mellonee V. Burnim and Portia Maultsby called “African American Music: An Introduction”.

One may argue that music has several impacts on what people think or feel, so I am going to present a question to figure it out in this paper, this is “Which were the implications of funk music in African American´s life? I am going to be based on the idea that funk music had a lot of repercussions on black people’s life in United States. This type of music allowed black people to feel a relief after a long period of segregation and discrimination, foster by artists who were influenced by the ideologies from that time and promoting an effect of empowering in the way of life of black people in the course of the late 1960 and early 1970. 

In the late 1960 was an important change in the social sphere for the African American people in the United States related to the racial issue. There was a large struggle against racial discriminations, that went between the “Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act” (Peniel 2007) into the movement for civil rights which demanded for equality recognition and protection by the law, and claimed for “rights that constitute free and equal citizenship and include personal, political, and economic rights” (Altman 2013).

Along in this period, between 1876 and 1965, emerged a group of laws known as “Jim Crow”, adopted from a black character of a minstrel show, which consisted that “from Delaware to California, and from North Dakota to Texas, many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race” (Natinal Park Services s.f.). And those laws provoke in black people an encouragement sentiment for defend their black essence at all cost.

Besides the movement for civil rights emerge the Black Power Movement that “represents one of the most enduring and controversial stories of racial tumult, social protest, and political upheaval of our time, complete with a cast of tragic and heroic historical characters: Carmichael” (Peniel 2006) playing a major part in the era of this movement, because he was an important activist who fight against the racial discrimination and invoke the term “Black Power” many times in his speeches making it famous. 

Another important figure of this period was Malcolm X, “probably the best-known figure within the radical wing of the civil rights movement” (Davis s.f.), labeled for other activists like “a measure of unity and a national spokesman” (Peniel 2006). This man played an important part in African American´s history for been a defender of black ideas.

All of these important characters are very meanings for the era because all of their ideas can be perceived in the lyrics and in the music made by artists like James Brown, George Clinton, Sly and The Family Stone, and many other disco artists. Songs like, “Say it laud, I’m black and I’m proud”, “Thank you for talking to me Africa”, “Get up, get into it, get involved”, “Young, gifted and black”, “Soul power”, “I don’t want nobody to give me nothing (open up the door I’ll get by myself)” were the reflect of this ideological issues.

“James Brown and Sly and The Family Stone, the architects of funk, became popular among the masses during the height of Black Power, anti-Vietnam War and hippie movements”(Maultsby 2005) and one can argue that both tendency played a complementary work between each other, to make it worthless, because without the deep meaning that these ideologies granted to funk music, this could not have been the same and vice versa, perhaps without the fomentation of funk these movements could not have had that scope.

Many artists had his own inspiration; in this case “whereas the Black Power Movement inspired Brown’s creative impulse, the Civil Rights and counterculture movements had an equivalence impact on Sly Stone” (Maultsby 2005) but both caused the same impact on people, which was race tolerance,  black unity, self-determination and acceptation.

Some people may argue that “Black Power was the movement of the people and Funk is the music that evolved from that movement” (Maultsby 2005) and the truth is that both ideological movements of that era and funk music are very related one another and that can be evidenced in black people’s reactions.

As a conclusion I consider that funk music change in very several ways the black people’s life during that time because made them stronger and made them feel proud of what they are. Also, black people felt identified with what this music promote and sang so this served as an instrument of black unity which encouraged them to stay together against adversities.

References

Altman, Andrew, "Civil Rights", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.). Accessed from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2013/entries/civil-rights/

Davis, Jack E. (s.f.). “Civil Rights Movement: An Overview”. Scholastic, (s.f.). Accessed November 7, 2013. http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/civil-rights-movement-overview

Maultsby, P. (2005). Funk. Burnim, M. & Maultsby, P. (Eds.). African American Music: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.

National Park Services. (s.f.) “Jim Crow Laws”. National Park Services, (s.f.). Accessed November 7, 2013. http://www.nps.gov/malu/forteachers/jim_crow_laws.htm

Peniel E. Joseph. 2006. “Black Power's Powerful Legacy”. Peniel E. Joseph Articles, July 21. Accessed November 7, 2013. http://www.penielejoseph.com/legacy.html

Peniel E. Joseph. 2007. “Unspeakable History”. The Washington Post, March 27. Accessed November 7, 2013. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/26/AR2007032601865.html?referrer=emailarticle