In the 1890s, aka the Jim Crow era, Professor O Malley discussed radical racism and segregation and how that has played in a role into the music production industry. As black Americans started to move into northern cities (like Detroit), music that was played in the south was dramatically different than how it sounded up north. First off, Bessie Smith, a black singer, would have a desegregated band playing with her, but since that was not allowed, her instrumental players would go under false names to protect their identity. I thought this was amazing in the fact that people were no different and that music could pull anyone together, as it did for Bessie Smith and Eddy Lang, who was an Italian American musician. It shows how special people thought of their work because the “social norm,” would not matter and all that did was the music. It was beautiful and no matter the color of your skin, you wanted to take part in it with anyone. Muddy Waters song in the south originally sang I Be’s Troubled, which was slow, and fit the society that would be in the south. The beat was slow, you could almost feel the oppression he felt in the beat and the words. Not that all of America up north was suddenly and extremely not racist, but his version in Chicago sang I Can’t Be Satisfied, and it was almost night and day. The beat pertained more to a city life that was fast and exciting, the voice was more clear and there was actual energy in it.
The biggest thing I took away from class was although society was segregated, the musical world was integrated.