African American Music In The 1930's

The blues as an art form is an example of the socio-economic and cultural limitations placed upon African Americans in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Discrimination and segregation limited African American’s opportunities to have well-paying jobs that allowed for social exchange in traditional forms and equal representation in cultural products of the time. One of the few opportunities to work against this system was a performer and song writer for African American music. In this way the blues were used as a meeting ground for African Americans to share in their common plight. Many songs, while not directly focused on social issues, would focus on the day to day sufferings of a suppressed people and their sorrows. This is in following of the musical progenitors of the blues, African slave song and spirituals. From these musical styles the blues uses music as a story telling device. Many songs are written in a first person narrative with a

Muddy Waters’ “I Be’s Troubled” shares many lyrics and harmonic patterns with another of his later recordings “I Can’t Be Satisfied.” Eastman attributes this to the cost of recording records at the time and the effects of performing multiple pieces live night after night. The musicians, many of whom were literate and did not write out the lyrics of their song, benefited from the “rigid musical structures of the blues” and could adjust the same lyrics into multiple songs (Eastman 1988, 165). So lyrics such as “Lord I'm troubled, I'm all worried in mind and I'm never bein' satisfied, and I just can't keep from cryin'” can be found in both of Muddy Waters’ songs. Another reason that can attributed to the shared lyrics is the evolution of Waters’ music from playing the same songs multiple times. With each performance the lyrics would be retuned and changed, leading to a new song in a later