She became increasingly disillusioned with the state of American society and began incorporating elements of funk, rock, and soul into her music. Her 1969 album, "Nina Simone and Piano," featured a cover of the Beatles' "Revolution" that was transformed into a powerful protest song. She also released a cover of "Strange Fruit," a song about the lynching of African Americans that was originally recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939. Simone's activism and outspokenness often put her at odds with the music industry and the wider society.
Oh say can you see, by the dawn's early light? You might know these lyrics from a song called "The Star Spangled Banner," but did you know that this song was not originally supposed to be a song? On September 13, 1814 when the document was written by Francis Scott Key it was originally written as a poem about the American flag after "the war of 1812" with Britain. The flag remained flying throughout the fight and the Americans won the war. The poem, originally titled, "The Defence of Fort M'Henry," Included the words to what is now our national anthem.
James Weldon Johnson's book, Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, is a brilliant and masterful piece of fiction written in the notion of an autobiography. Within the “autobiography,” James Weldon Johnson constructs a fabricated account of a young biracial man in turmoil with his racial identity within a highly prejudiced contemporary 19th-century America. As you would expect, the story contains numerous different themes of racial identity, sense of belonging, and even of racial “passing”. However, despite all these persistent themes, one stands out the most. The theme is music.
In 1938 she shaped a prolonged engagement at Cafe Society; the following year she joined Benny Goodman on a radio broadcast; she was regularly operating the massive New York theaters and the famous 52nd Street clubs, including Kelly's Stables and the Onyx Club all in addition to her recording successes. Two songs of the period are noteworthy: the first, "Strange Fruit," with a haunting lyric by Lewis Allan to which Billie contributed the music, is a graphic depiction of a lynching; her record company,
Jean Toomer’s poem “Portrait in Georgia” and Billie Holiday’s song “Strange Fruit” are both similar because they discuss the inequalities African Americans had to endure. For instance, in Toomer’s poem, he talks about a woman being lynched. Each part of the woman is described in connection to the abuse that the African Americans had to experience. Toomer compares her hair to a rope that would be used to lynch slaves. The woman’s eyes are represented as the wood that would burn the African Americans.
Comparison of “Nina” and “Strange Fruit” Throughout history, black people have suffered from oppression, which continues today. But what do these experiences really feel like? Abel Meeropol wrote a song in 1937, named “Strange Fruit”, reflecting the way black people suffered during this time. Meeropol’s piece uses motif, comparing black people who were lynched to natural things like fruit hanging from trees. Meeropol illustrates the cruelties that black people have experienced in a subtle, yet eerie way, giving us a better look at what went on.
According to website www.billieholiday.com, originally a protest poem by Abel Meeropol the song, “Strange Fruit", depicts American racism as well in particular about the lynching of more than 2,700 African Americans. While singing this piece made Billie Holiday fearful of retaliation she made it a regular part of her performance due to the song's imagery reminding her of her father. As she approached her label, Columbia, they immediately refused due to them fearing the reactions of record retailers in the south as well as a negative reaction from the co-owned radio network, CBS. She successfully recorded it with
Woody Guthrie was one of the most popular American folk singers. He wrote over 100 songs in his lifetime! In 1940, he wrote one of the most iconic folk songs- “This Land Is Your Land”. He traveled across the USA singing people this song.
A Southern Road by Helene Johnson talks about the lynchings and atrocities that were committed toward African Americans. These powerful messages have influenced artists today, especially artists that aim to bring to light the racially motivated crimes happening around the world. One example of these brave artists is Raye Zaragoza and her song Red which addresses the murder and kidnapping of Indigenous women in America. These two specific pieces hold much of the same meaning, which is to educate people about racial violence
“Any fool can make something complicated but it takes a genius to make it simple.” The person who said this quote and many more was a famous song writer named Woody Guthrie. Some people even believed that the song “This Land Is Your Land” should have been the national anthem. Woody Guthrie wrote this song in 1940 because he believed people can only be themselves. Everything he did was to try to build people up and not bring people down.
This journal Blues, History, and the Dramaturgy of August Wilson, by Jay Plum, provides a comprehensive analysis of August Wilson’s dramatic project, focusing on his exploration of African American history and culture through the lens of the blues. Wilson’s plays, including Fences, are placed within a broader context of the Civil Rights Movement. The author draws on Houston A. Baker Jr.'s ideas about blues music to explore how August Wilson’s plays bring attention to African American struggles. For Wilson, “the blues are the African American community's cultural response to the world; they are a music that breathes and touches. That is what connects us.
Gottlieb (1947) believes “As a result, Holiday sometimes found herself singing in clubs that refused service to blacks.” Holiday proved that she stood up against racism and was anti-racist. To reiterate, Holiday’s song ‘Strange Fruit’ showed how she wanted to have an impact on African American society as an African American woman in the big entertainment industry. Billie used this song as an escape to help black people get through their own personal struggles throughout the singing. However, others didn't see it from that perspective because of the color of her skin.
To begin, Billie Holiday’s song, “Strange Fruit”, includes chilling imagery to help the listener imagine the treatment of African Americans. As sang in the song, “Here is fruit for the crows to pluck / For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck / For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop / Here is a strange and bitter crop,” (Holiday, 1939).
For African Americans, jazz music, has always had a political undercurrent. Slave songs spoke of the “Israelites” enslaved by the Egyptians, such as in Go Down Moses, symbolising their own yearning for freedom. However, it took time for the assertion of the political message to develop in a more discernible way. Jazz’s status as a form of entertainment had effectively subdued the message for many years, because of the ostracisation of those involved and because of the early popularity of the white swing bands. The majority of jazz musicians were not political activists, rarely explicitly political in their work, however, they often expressed their political ideals, sometimes more subtley other times more overtly through their music.
Rent Seeking occurs when a company, organization or an individual spend their own wealth on political lobbying to obtain economic gains which are beneficial to none apart from themselves. The distinguishing features of Rent Seeking activities are: • Influences government policies to the benefit of the rent seeker • Discourages productivity in the economy • Just involves redistribution of surplus from one party to other i.e. no creation of wealth • Negative Sum Game: Real GDP falls as no creation of value + administrative costs to the government which is an added expense Rent Seeking has several unfavourable implications. Some of them are: • Income Inequality: Surpluses of the weaker sections of the society are transferred to the stronger sections • Lower efficiency: Greater incentives to rent-seek and being profitable rather than being more productive and profitable. • Reduced Competitiveness: leads to high prices due to monopoly power of suppliers
