Sub-Saharan Africa

Every American knows that saying that slaves had it horribly is criminally understated. Horrendously. White people basically banned their culture. I was curious about the musical aspect of that, because I remember learning in one of my high school history classes that slaves used to sing at night. And sing they did.

Singing became a way to express their emotions, lift each other up/console each other, and communicate with one another. Many of the songs were spiritual, but they also had codes -- hidden meanings. Imagine my surprise when I learned that the song "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" was actually a song from the Underground Railroad, sang by African slaves who were getting ready to attempt their escape. There are many other songs of the Underground Railroad, all coded, and you can find a bunch of them online. It's amazing which details get glossed over in history classes.

On a lighter note, I'm obsessed with drums of any kind, so I wanted to do a little bit of research on the history of drums in Africa, since Africa's history is so long. Similarly to Native American culture, drums were considered the heartbeat of tribes and communities. There's a small country in East Africa called Burundi, and one of the things the people there are best known for is the drums; more specifically, a group called the (Royal) Drummers of Burundi. Playing the drums is passed through generations, but they don't just play -- they dance and jump around and sing, as well. They have been touring for quite a while, and are considered one of the greatest percussion groups of all time.

Alright, so I admit it: I was one of the people who heard the country Madagascar and, unsurprisingly, immediately thought of King Julien. I mean, come on, how could you not? He moved-it moved-it right into your heart, just like mine. Don't lie.

Of course, real lemurs (from Madagascar and elsewhere), can't talk, dance, or sing in English -- but actually, there is a species of lemurs native to Madagascar who are considered to be able to "sing." They're called Indri Lemurs, and they sing in groups (usually their families) to scare away other lemurs that might try to encroach their territory, communicate, to prove their strength to other lemurs, and occasionally even used as a mating call (though that isn't the primary reason). When one lemur starts to sing, the rest join in and will sometimes fall into unison in regards to rhythm and pitch.

It's not technically music or singing, but I still thought it was super cool anyhow.

Fair warning: their song sounds like if an airhorn and a toddler yelling were combined.

Bibliography:

http://www.pbs.org/mercy-street/blogs/mercy-street-revealed/songs-of-survival-and-songs-of-freedom-during-slavery/

https://www.worldmusic.co.uk/drummers_of_burundi

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/indri-lemurs-in-madagascar

Native American Music and Culture

1. After watching the video of the Native American hip hop artist Supaman, one of the first questions that popped into my head was: are there any Native American recording artists that fall under the rock genre?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is me screaming for fifteen minutes about not knowing that “Come and Get Your Love” was written by a rock band called Redbone who were all Native Americans, and who got on stage dressed in Native American regalia, performed traditional dances (sometimes in fancy dance clothes), hollered vocables, shook shakers and tambourines, and then burst into a sick drum beat and a guitar riff that any classic rock fan could recognize in their sleep. When you watch their live performances (which I never did until now) you can clearly see the ties to their Native American culture. Seriously. I’m almost upset with myself that I didn’t know any of this. 

Scratch that. I’m very upset with myself.

Here. Please bless your eyes and ears the way I did:

2. In the video American Roots Music, Episode 4, one thing that continuously popped up is the use and significance of drums. According to Floyd Westerman, the steady beat of the drum represents the heartbeat. In all of the pictures and videos shown in class, we saw primarily modern-day drums and instruments that they use, and it got me thinking: what instruments did they have in the past, and how did they make them? I have the slightest suspicion that they didn’t have the stereotypical modern-day five-piece drum set.

So I got to looking around, and found a few lists of what kinds of instruments they used pre-modern era and how they were made! Rattles were made from turtle shells (which we’ve briefly seen) but also from gourds and bones; flutes were made from wood or bones; drums were made from wood or hollowed-out logs and skinheads; and the Apache violin was made from a single string and stalks of a plant called the agave, just to name a few. Here’s a video I found of the process of making a Native American drum:

 

3. Another question that piqued my curiosity was Indiginous peoples’ reactions to the music in the Disney movie Pocahontas, and how accurate they thought it was. That google search sent me down a rabbit hole of reactions to the movie in general, as well as reactions to other Native American portrayals in movies, TV, and pop culture. After sifting through lots of tweets, YouTube clips, and opinion articles, I came to the (very unsurprising) conclusion that they were primarily thoroughly unimpressed. In what I saw and read, they didn’t touch much on music portrayals, but they did discuss clothing, slurs, and racist representation. I found a short video where a few Native Americans reacted to well-known movies and television shows that portray Indiginous people, because it’s always important to remember that, while the United States (and in general, the world) has greatly improved on its problem of racism from where we were sixty years ago, we still have a long way to go and a lot of places to improve.

 

Bibliography:

“Native American Instruments.” TeacherVision, 17 Oct. 2001, www.teachervision.com/native-americans/native-american-instruments. 

“Reservations about Films: Disney's Pocahontas.” Lakota Children's Enrichment, 11 Sept. 2015, www.lakotachildren.org/2015/09/reservations-about-films-disneys-pocahontas.