{"id":604,"date":"2015-03-09T00:49:43","date_gmt":"2015-03-09T05:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/?p=604"},"modified":"2015-03-16T11:31:52","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T16:31:52","slug":"langston-hughes-on-african-american-folk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/2015\/03\/09\/langston-hughes-on-african-american-folk\/","title":{"rendered":"Langston Hughes on African American folk"},"content":{"rendered":"

It isn\u2019t very often in history that we read African American views on African American music. Langston Hughes, who wrote a column for an African American newspaper called The Chicago Defender, published several articles reclaiming African American folk music after jazz, the blues, and really much of American folk music was influenced by that tradition and style. In his poetic storytelling, and sometimes angry tone, Hughes gets at an issue of American music-that it has consistently turned African American folk music tradition into popular music, entertainment, etc. and reaped the monetary benefits while casting authenticity aside.<\/p>\n

His article titled \u201cSlavery and Leadbelly are Gone, But the Old Songs Go Singing on,\u201d complains that African Americans have forgotten their slave heritage. \u201cIn 1963 we will be one hundred years free. Have you forgotten that you were once a slave? Is it a memory you do not want to remember?\u201d<\/strong> On one hand, singers like Leadbelly could be popular because there was a certain time distance from slavery so that musicians weren\u2019t judged \u201cUncle Toms.\u201d[1]<\/a> On the other hand, there is some tension as to how the folk music out of the slave tradition should be remembered, because clearly Leadbelly\u2019s songs that embody oppression and images of slavery remember it much differently than revivals of the blues and spirituals during the 50s and 60s.<\/p>\n

\"slavery<\/a>

Chicago Defender, 1954 click image for linked article [3]<\/p><\/div>In another issue, \u201cThe Influence of Negro Music On American Entertainment,\u201d Hughes celebrates the pervasiveness of African American folk music in American music. \u201cThe Negro has influenced all of American popular song and dance, and that influence has been on the whole, joyous and sound\u2026America\u2019s music is soaked in our rhythms.”<\/strong> It is no coincidence that Langston Hughes was writing during the civil rights movement, when African Americans often re-claimed and re-defined their identity in an effort to create unity and political momentum.[2]<\/a>\u00a0Many of the folk musicians singing about civil rights, however, were white musicians making money off a style that used the folk idiom to appeal to the popular masses. Langston Hughes is quick to criticize this, calling into question the definition of folk music, how it is used, how it is remembered, and who has the right and responsibility to perform it.<\/p>\n

\"langston<\/a>

Chicago Defender, 1953 click image for linked article [4]<\/p><\/div>\n

[1]<\/a> Richard Crawford, America\u2019s Musical Life: A History, <\/em>New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2001, 746.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Reebee Garofalo, \u201cPopular Music and the Civil Rights Movement,\u201d Rockin the Boat: mass music and mass movements, <\/em>ed. Reebee Garofalo, Boston: South End Press, 1992.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a>\u00a0Langston Hughes, “Slavery and Leadbelly are Gone, but the Old Songs Go Singing On,”\u00a0The Chicago Defender (National Edition) (1921-1967),<\/i>\u00a0Sep 04, 1954, http:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/492889401?accountid=351.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a>\u00a0Langston Hughes, “The Influence of Negro Music on American Entertainment,”\u00a0Chicago Defender (National Edition),(1921-1967),<\/i>\u00a0Apr 25, 1953, http:\/\/search.proquest.com\/docview\/492962325?accountid=351.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It isn\u2019t very often in history that we read African American views on African American music. Langston Hughes, who wrote a column for an African American newspaper called The Chicago Defender, published several articles reclaiming African American folk music after … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1292,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[93,86,102,101,194],"class_list":["post-604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-chicago-defender","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-folk-music","tag-langston-hughes","tag-leadbelly"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jEhR-9K","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1292"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=604"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":729,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/604\/revisions\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/americanmusic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}