美国黑人文化的灵魂—音乐与舞蹈 [8]
论文作者:佚名论文属性:短文 essay登出时间:2009-04-09编辑:刘宝玲点击率:20390
论文字数:26000论文编号:org200904091722343670语种:中文 Chinese地区:中国价格:免费论文
关键词:Afro-Americans culturesoulmusicdancemainstream美国黑人文化灵魂音乐舞蹈主流
. The original African religions vanished in this new land. The faith of the white people had a deep impact on slaves. Later, planters admitted slaves go to church, so slaves integrated Christianity with their original religions; they imbibed gospel of the white people, and developed it in their own ways, creating a novel style for gospel that was the source of Spiritual song. Compared with the old style, the new one was more powerful and emotional. Slaves got spiritual support by the faith of Christianity. They can enjoy freedom in the church, even be helped to escape by some churchmen. They were fond of gospel, and that was why they developed gospel into one famous pop music style—Spiritual song.
During the history of struggles of Afro-Americans, they dreamed to get a better prospect under new circumstances and with the social progress, but were disappointed with social reality. They got rid of oppression of planters, but suffered the exploitation by capitalists once again. They got less improvement in their living condition and status. They were always the grass root in America. They could not afford the entertainments of the mainstream society, so they created their own ways to enjoy themselves. In that way, Blues, Jazz, Rap & Hip-Hop emerged. These pop styles of music reflected the feelings and desires. Afro-Americans took themselves as one composition of American society, they wanted more equal rights and respect; they desired to get identity by the white people; they expected to make improvements in their lives. They still struggled for what they desire. Just like Martin Luther King, Jr. claimed that they have a dream—dream to be treated fairly. Although Afro-American music suffered exclusion and suppression initially, their emotional style and free spirit became the power of the popularity of Afro-American music, which was just the soul of Afro-American culture. Because of its unique charm, Afro-American music entered the mainstream society, and got identified. The Afro-American culture spread its influence by the popularity of its music. As a matter of fact, the culture reflected incompatible consciousness of Afro-Americans. There was a double-consciousness for them: they were Black people, but most important they were Americans. So they wanted to get self-identify from the society, and their culture gave the way to fulfill it. Therefore, on one side, Afro-American culture put emphasizes on Blackness; they pursued the independence of their culture by esteeming the soul and tradition of the culture of the black people; on the other side, they absorbed more meaningful elements from the mainstream. In a word, Afro-American culture was not a pure African culture, but the blending of Black people’s culture and American culture under the new circumstances, which was root of the popularity of Afro-American culture and its charm.
II. Afro-American Dance as the Soul of Afro-American Culture
A. Afro-American Dance
Afro-Americans were good not only at music, but also dance. In Africa, dance acted as a kind of performance represented in the fetes or celebrations. Sometimes, their dance represented fierce fighting; sometimes intense hunting; and sometimes enthusiastic love; sometimes the rejoicing of harvest. Dance was another language for Africans to deliver their feelings. Black slaves spread this tradition to America. Because most of the slaves came from the west coat of Africa, the dance of western Africa had a great influence o
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