Week 4 Forum - Assignment Example

due: Week 4 Forum: How did black music, such as the Blues and Jazz, transform American culture? Describe ways in which it redefines American popular culture. Provide details to support your thesisBlack music served various purposes like entertainment and pushed for their rights. The fact that whites came to like the music enabled them to forget their differences. The music backed the changing of social structures especially during the Civil Rights Movement time. The evolution of Jazz music and Blues gave more options to the American population in terms of their entertainment choices.

The two kinds of music gained momentum in the 1920’s (Krieger 15) and became popular in mainly town centers. More prominence was given to upcoming genres of music that it even gave rise to Hip Pop music among other genres. It is what Edmondson says that “American popular music is a story of fusion, after fusion after fusion.” meaning that jazz and Blues have had their participation in the American society. For example, many pop stars have borrowed heavily from the blues dimension as Elvis Presley, Little Richard and Chuck Berry among others.

Discuss African American activist organizing efforts during the 1930’s and 1940’sThe years between the 1930’s and 1940’s were marked by renewed efforts by the African Americans in a push for their rights. This is because they wanted equal rights with the Whites who were the majority and were oppressing them. They were demanding for services like unbiased and fulltime employment, right to join workers’ union, financial integrity, safe and cheap housing, equitable health care and education among other needs.

There were efforts over the years meant to achieve the needs which later gave rise to the Civil Rights Movement in the said period. They mainly resolved in non-violent ways of airing their grievances though at times ended in the death of some of them. Their leaders played a prominent role in bringing the people together. The inclusion of African Americans in the World War II helped better the relations between the two races. It made them realize how much they needed each other (Krieger, 15). Popular culture was changing, and notable contribution can be seen through music like Jazz and Blues.

Work citedKrieger, Joel. The Oxford companion to politics of the world. New York: Oxford UniversityPress, 1993. Print.