Caroline Roe
Individual Blog Post --AFRAM 337 #1
A perspective that I have seen through week’s reading is representation. Last week the spotlight was on who controlled the messages, music, and media being portrayed, and based on this week’s readings, I acknowledged the lack of credit and representation that was given to women throughout musical history. The first article where this idea of representation is present is in “Listening for Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton’s Voice”, Maureen Mahon. Mahon depicts the marginalization that black, female artists face in the 1900s. Race, gender, and power biases and dynamics existed and greatly skewed success and visibility of artists such as Thorton. Mahon writes, “as-sumptions about musical genre and social identity come together in ways that are problematic for black women; the narratives position white male artists at the center of the story as the real rock and rollers and overlook black women’s impact on rock and roll” (Mahon 2). Throughout Mahon’s article, it is clear that Big Mama Throton had her quirks that made her a successful artist, but her place in history is not accounted for as such personality and talent in music would have been had she not been a black woman. Also this week, we learn of Maylei Blackwell, an artist who, along with Mahon, questions history and the role that Chicana women had, but was not documented as such. Similarly to how Big Mama Thorton was not portrayed in history, Blackwell uses oral history to share stories of women to challenge us to listen, just as Mahon hopes to achieve with Big Mama Thorton. Blackwell says, “that oral history highlights people as the producers of knowledge, and we are the listeners” (Blackwell, 3:24). Thorton and the figures discussed by Blackwell are these producers of knowledge and it is our job to look beyond the power struggles, to hear the stories truly being told.
U.N.I.T.Y - Queen Latifah, it is important to understand the history and role that Queen Latifah was playing at the time of this song being written in order to understand the gravity.
Mama’s got the Blues - Bessie Smith, I believe Bessie Smith might also be a figure in history who is not adequately given the respect she deserves for her role in history.
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