Excerpt
CAN AMERICA STILL SING?
The fear that Americans were loosing their ability to sing began to appear in the 1990s with the rapid growth of rapping and the disappearance of of radio stations from the AM dial that played music and songs. These stations were replaced by talk radio, a phenomena in radio that contributed to a very negative environment and a feeling of subconscious anger and hopelessness in those who listened to this new format. Many AM and FM radio stations turned from music to talk formats. Some turned to the talking music in the form of rapping.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORIGINS AND BEGINNINGS OF AMERICAN SOUL/SPIRITUAL MUSIC
AFRICAN ORIGINS, EUROPEAN ORIGINS, AMERICAN INDIAN ORIGINS
Most of the music played in the United States and Latin America comes from three sources. They are African, European and American Indian. Yet, most of the popular music in the US and Latin America as well as the Caribbean is of African origin. European classical music, ballads, country music, ethnic music, folk ballads, corridos, ranchera music and Banda are non-African forms of music.
The first people to begin creating a non-European force of music in the Americas were the American Indians and Black Afrocoids who were in the Americas before Columbus. Both groups had a culture of making great music along with religion, art and building as described in the Book, A History of the African-Olmecs, pub.by AuthorHouse.com Africans were brought to the Americas as war captives and were turned to slaves through a brutal process of physical and mental destruction.
Yet, Many Africans became more ruthless and determined than the slavemasters. They introduced religious, entertainment and martial arts music such as the drumming and berimbau playing that is part of the capoiera martial art and the art of kicking and sticking, a foot fighting and stick fighting martial art common in the Southern United States among African-Americans. This martial art and the music that accompanied it was played in the Louisiana area before the Anglo-American occupation and back to the time some of the Louisiana Purchase territories were part of the Black Washitaw Empire.
The first type of common music introduced to the Americas by Africans was martial music or music used for training slaves (former warriors) to fight. It was also the same music and instruments used to send messages. The British slave masters outlawed the drums as soon as they realized it was used for sending coded messages.
Yet, a number of musical instruments were survived in the Americas and were designed from African instruments.
They include square drums and drums of various sizes, the banjo, the sansa or thumb piano, the berimbau (used in the capoiera martial art of Afro-Brazil), flutes, horns, trumpets, xylophones, shak-shak (rattlers made with seeds inside a gourde or arranged as a net on the outside and shaken rhythmically.
One of the most famous places for playing African music during the slavery period was Congo Square in Louisiana. This area where Africans congregated on Sundays was the place to share ideas, sell products and to entertain. It was also one of the places to share ideas, sell products, play music and to entertain. It was also one of the places where the semi-singing, semi-poetic songs were sang while practicing the martial art of kicking and sticking, that combined stick fighting and feet fighting.
BARERSHOP MUSIC INVENTED BY FORMER BLACK SLAVES
Barbershop singing was invented by former African-Americans. Barbershop was one of the first types of popular music in the United States that emphasized singing in multi-harmony parts. Barbershop singing was so named because the inventors worked as shoe shiners, barbers and porters on the railroad. The singers consisted of groups of four to eight men who sang together at different harmonies and pitches.
THE COMING OF THE AMERICAN IDOLIZERS OF GREAT MUSIC
The Show Begins: The Choosing Process
January 18, 2005
The show begins with great fanfair. The host is Brian Seacrest. The judges for this first show include some new as well as former judges for past shows. The first round is good but there is some singing that can make a rainstorm flood the studio.
Some of it is simply not good. Voices range from very, very bad and annoying to sweet and low as well as sweet and high. Other singers hurried their way into the songs. One male singer sounded as if there was something in his throat. Many singers who were rejected became emotional wrecks as they cried and fussed. Still, there were some singers who had great potential and were eagerly anticipated by the audience.
Was the M. Jackson treated fairly by the media. The moderator and panel had their say on many issues discussed during the days of the competition. Did they see eye to eye on this one? Or did they miss the whole issue.
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