Here is a clip from Ken Burn's amazingly insightful and comprehensive documentary series "Jazz:." In it, we can see the beginnings of Popular Music in America and how the diversity of influences are still heard today. Clearly, as this clip illustrates, the African-American stream in American music is strong, vibrant, and wide-reaching, turning New Orleans into the epicentre of much of the music to follow. When you watch the clip, can you hear the roots of any of the music we listen to today? Can you hear the echoes of the past in the sounds of today?
The flip side of this, of course, is the huge influence the European immigrant experience has given to the cultural and musical landscape of America. This is a clip from a wonderful four-part documentary entitled "American Roots Music." In it, we see the early roots of country music and how each group that arrived on the shores of America brought their music with them and they blend together to form something different and unique. Again, does this music sound alien and strange to you? Is it too far in the past to move or interest you today? Post your responses and let's see where the dialogue takes us.
Although, at the beginning of our journey, these two streams seems so widely apart, by the end of the semester, we will watch how they merge together and feed off of each other. As the blues artist Muddy Waters once proclaimed "The blues and country music got married and the baby's name was rock 'n roll."
In to reponse to the first video I can hear the beats that are found in todays pop music and in early rock music. In the second video the music doesn't sound strange to me because I have heard it in movies such as Titanic. I wouldn't go to a concert to it hear for an hour but I don't mind it intermix with other music - Dianne Simmons
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