Omer Collins African American Music: Coursework 1 April 2010

African American Music

Led Zeppelin and Eminem

In order to analyse a potential association between ‘African-American music’ and music

artists such as Led Zeppelin or Eminem, one must first discern the meaning of the term

‘African-American music’. Such a Wittgensteinian term can be problematic, as it cannot be

said that all African-American music has something in common. This is because on one hand

the term contains the more self-explanatory meaning: ‘music of African-Americans’, and on

the other hand, it relates to particular psychological, socio-political, cultural and auditory

attributes of the music. The two aspects generally coincide as it relates to the history of

African Americans. However, these aspects sometimes conflict, as some artists, who would

claim to be African American as by their racial identity, could for instance, potentially bare

no cultural resemblance to ‘their people’ and could compose and perform music reminiscent

of the European classical tradition. This music would not necessarily be categorised African

American, despite it being music of (composed and performed by) a self-claimed African

American. Theoretically, the musician may believe to have musically expressed deep feelings

about his/her African American identity, yet that would bring no change to the music’s

‘name’. The other issue for understanding the term ‘African American music’ is that the

meaning of the words coming from the experiences they relate to is often second-hand. It is

for the perceivers to imagine the experiences they have never had on the model of
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experiences they have had, such as trying to imagine being a victim of racial ridicule by

comparing to first-hand personal experiences of another form of ridicule.

For instance, one may come to realise that a recorded African-American song, such as a

blues-spiritual in likeness of Dark Was The Night Cold Was The Ground by Blind Willie

Johnson, may have been expressing an inner sorrow about the trivialisation and mocking of

black people by the whites performing blackface minstrel shows. However, as this is from a

second-person perspective, one might miss a complex mix of emotions the artist feels in the

music – which makes part of what the music truly is – potentially a slight feeling of relief as

the consequence of those shows bring an odd few whites to embrace black people as equals

through a fascination of their culture. For example, “the images of minstrels were buffoonish

and insulting. But the music they sang, while most often written by whites, drew directly on

melodies African Americans sang. In this way, African American music first entered into

popular culture” [Thomas 2009]. Such are the problems of attempting to define music as

African American; “we don't notice the enormous variety of all the everyday language-

games, because the clothing of our language makes them all alike” [Wittgenstein 2009: 236].

However, there are certain affinities in African American musics, and in the contexts of

which they are made.

The blues has possibly carried the most evident affinities to African music, tonally and

melodically, also developed with European harmonic structures and instrumentation. White
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blues musicians perceived African-American music as the most ‘authentic’, genuine

expression of emotion, of which authentic qualities were considered through ‘closeness’ to

the blues. Led Zeppelin is a prime example of how appropriation of Chicago blues allowed a

new territory for African-American music to encompass. The band members were also

seemingly imitating the performance styles of black artists they admired. Contrastingly, the

music created by the band Led Zeppelin was arguably a bricoleur that amalgamated

rockabilly, reggae, soul, funk, classical, Celtic, Indian, Arabic, pop, Latin, and country music,

in addition to the blues. [Umland 2010] This shows how the definition of African-American

music is temporally dynamic, constantly reshaped through inspiration and expansion of ideas.

On the other hand, it also shows that the description of a music as ‘African-American’ may

be misleading because the initial musical traditions that were associated with this term

become diluted with interweaving cultural influences. This argument could still be countered

by claiming that being an African American is a different identity for the younger generations

of today, of which attributes are defined through these cultural integrations; music being

described as African-American may still be accurate.

A confusion that remains strongly rooted is formed through the issue of race. The blues

cannot be entirely separated from its 1700’s ‘folk spiritual’ connections of West European

and West African musical styles. African American music has continually been driven by

characteristics that are identifiably ‘Black’, such as call-and-response techniques, syncopated

rhythms, polyrhythms, blues notes, and African-derived approaches to music making. By the

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1920’s, the gospel music pioneer Thomas Dorsey gave emphasis to the beat, added blues

riffs, and opened up a considerable freedom of expression for the soloist and accompanists

through improvisation. [Campbell 1995: 44] These features are fundamental in the music of

Led Zeppelin – whose members are white American – therefore the concept of ‘identifiably

Black characteristics’ should be perceived as disconnected from the direct association to race.

Instead, such a concept should be interpreted as particular musical characteristics of which

origins are predominantly of African influence. This is not to say that the music that led to

Led Zeppelin, such as the blues, did not have a direct link with race. Only that the consequent

wide variety of musical styles that some would name ‘African-American’ are racially

irrelevant.

The ‘blues impulse’ being repossessed, transferred and masked musical ideas, as well as

performative approaches, was an aesthetic continued throughout African American acts,

centered around the act of listening [Bartlett 1994: 640]. Reinforcing this idea, Led

Zeppelin's vocal style uses the ‘vibrato’ technique as heard in traditional blues music. Also,

Zeppelin's voice-and-guitar call-and-response can be directly traced back to the earliest blues

forms, that itself a development from West African musical traditions and European

harmony, thus African American. There is little in common with Led Zeppelin and blackface

minstrelsy, although it is doubtful that Zeppelin would have been able to create their music

without it. The band showed no sentiments of white superiority or degrading satirical takes

on African American culture. The only parallel that could be drawn is that they created and

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performed music with intricate and passionate appropriation of various musics, but

significantly with dominant influence from the blues.

The African American aesthetic of possession through listening can also be found in hip-hop,

whereby taking numerous segments from eclectic collections of music and appropriating

them in a new form, has a central role in this ‘style’. The prominent influential hip-hop artist

Eminem is no exception to this. For example, in his popular track ‘My Name Is’ the music is

sampled, beginning at 2 minutes, 10 seconds of the track ‘I Got The’ by Labi Siffre

[‘WhoSampled’ 2010]. The artist has also been said to be “as good as any African-American

practitioner of the hip-hop art”, and that “he’s a white kid paying legitimate tribute to the

harder edge and way cooler-style of African-American music” [Hoskyns 2010]. However,

some may interpret his music in parallels with blackface minstrelsy. Instead of attempting to

understand the associated cultural differences, he may simply be engaging in minstrel parody

without the makeup. In the same way as in the late 19th century, the largest audience for hip-

hop today is white, and, with few exceptions, whites control the associated record companies,

venues and distributors. Additionally, it has been claimed that the way black artists play out

roles in conformity to white stereotypes, specifically in ‘gangsta’ rap, shows direct

similarities to minstrel shows of the 1890’s. [Thomas 2009] Some would also claim that

Eminem’s music is drawn more from Caribbean musical elements than blues or other

African-American traditions, because hip-hop began with appropriation of ‘toasting’ – a

Jamaican tradition of talk and exclamations with music – as well as ‘looping’ the breaks of

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Omer Collins African American Music: Coursework 1 April 2010
tracks, which began in the United States by the Jamaican DJ Kool Herc. Additionally, early

hip-hop appropriated percussive elements and bass lines from ‘latino’ musics, funk and disco.

However, “the hybridity that is formally intrinsic to hip hop has not been able to prevent that

style from being used as an especially potent sign and symbol of racial authenticity” [Gilroy

1991: 131]. Nevertheless, if we take the aforementioned concept of African American

musical authenticity, the music of Eminem is non-authentic because its relation to the blues is

fairly distant and unapparent. Call-and-response is seldom heard – with few exceptions such

as the vocal parts in the track ‘Guilty Conscience’ – and improvisation is no longer an

integral part of the music.

Ultimately, the influence of African American music on white youth has facilitated more

human interaction with blacks, where artists such as Led Zeppelin and Eminem appropriating

and transforming these musics results in a shared cultural space. That said, blackface

perpetuated an American tradition of cross-cultural immersion that still exists today [Monson

1995], although now the satirical elements are generally made indiscriminately and the

balance between negative and positive reactions towards appropriation is weighing more in

favour of counteracting racial segregation. Because of this, it may be more suitable to name

music by its characteristics instead of its origins or locations of current popularity.

Bibliography

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Omer Collins African American Music: Coursework 1 April 2010

Bartlett, Andrew, 1994: ‘Airshafts, Loudspeakers, and the Hip Hop Sample: Contexts and

African American Musical Aesthetics’, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3042229, African

American Review, Vol. 28, No. 4, (Winter), pp.639-652

Campbell, Patricia, 1995: ‘Mellonee Burnim on African American Music’,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/3398885, Music Educators Journal, Vol. 82, No. 1, (July), pp.41-

48

Gilroy, Paul, 1991: ‘Sounds Authentic: Black Music, Ethnicity, and the Challenge of a

"Changing" Same’, http://www.jstor.org/stable/779262, Black Music Research Journal, Vol.

11, No. 2, (Autumn), pp.111-136

Hoskyns, Barney: ‘Eminem’, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/eminem-

raps-trailerpark-atildefrac14berkid-629068.html, 05/04/10

Monson, Ingrid, 1995: ‘The Problem with White Hipness: Race, Gender, and Cultural

Conceptions in Jazz Historical Discourse’, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3519833, Journal of

the American Musicological Society, Vol. 48, No. 3, (Autumn), pp.396-422

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Omer Collins African American Music: Coursework 1 April 2010

Thomas, Scott, 2009: ‘Popular Music and Race’,

http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/120/empire/rap/music.html, 05/04/10

Umland, Sam, 2010: ‘Led Zeppelin: Popular Music As Pastiche’,

http://60x50.blogspot.com/2010/01/pastiche.html, 05/04/10

‘WhoSampled’, 2010: ‘Who Sampled: Eminem’,

http://www.whosampled.com/sample/view/31/Eminem-My%20Name%20Is_Labi%20Siffre-

I%20Got%20The/, 05/04/10

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 2009: Philosophical Investigations (Chichester, West Sussex, UK:

Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)