Stereotypes and Fantasies of the US South Music - Essay Example

As such this author hopes that this particular analysis can not only help to confirm some of the statements with regards to the blues of the 1920s but also offer an alternative level of understanding concerning how this music was represented and presented within the particular time in question.

The ultimate meaning and understanding that the song implies are with regards to a deadbeat husband who has run off on his wife and lives a life on his own for over a year time. In returning, the woman of the house, exercising a degree of power and self-determinism, recalled how she answers the door and ultimately tells him to leave and not bother her anymore as she has started her own life. This is of course evident of a great degree of freedom, self-empowerment, and self-determination that might not likely have been evidenced within another era. The songwriter recounts how even though he asks for permission to come in and start a life together again, the woman refuses and states that she does not need his laundry, his rent, or his ones and twos (likely referring to any further children from this individual). In an era gone by, it would have been the requirement of the woman to wait for her husband, regardless of his indiscretions, and necessarily forgive these at such a time that he gained to reappear in her life. However, as was represented in this blues music of the 1920s, this working-class black woman was not willing to accept this as an alternative to the freedom and self-determination that she had already been experiencing within the past months. In addition to Hazel Carby’s understanding of how the concerns and cares of the black working-class woman were represented within the blues of the 1920s, a very clear level of feminism and an understanding of greater freedom and equality was represented within songs such as “Sam Jones Blues”, the songwriter ultimately less the listener be aware of the fact that Mrs. Wilson not only refuses Sam Jones entry into her house, she has also learned how to leverage the legal system, filed and received proper divorce papers, and has her employment; thereby making the existence of a man in her life ultimately superfluous (James, 173).

From the information that is thus far been provided, the reader can come to a clear understanding of the fact that the blues of this particular era, as understood through the lens of “Sam Jones Blues” not only represented a shift away from the musical integration and utilization that had been leveraged in previous eras, it also dealt with a unique subject matter that was not formally discussed within songs before this era. Although infidelity and issues of adultery have long been topics of the human condition, and analysis of these from an empowered black woman’s perspective and the means through which she has the ability, will, money, and self-determinism to refuse her wayward ex-husband from entry into her life denotes the fact that a fundamental shift in society had taken place. As can be noted, it is oftentimes the place of music to underscore and highlight the shifts in popular culture and society that have taken place. In much the same way, this particular song allows the reader to come to a more clear and definitive understanding of how empowerment, equality, freedom, self-determination, and feminism are represented within an era in which the existence of a man and woman forming a “family” is no longer a necessity for a requirement for continued survival.