Comparing The Jones Family Singers And Maceo Parker

The Jones Family Singers and Maceo Parker demonstrated a strong sense of African American “attitude and stance” (as termed by LeRoi Jones in his article “Blue People” in their performance that truly indicated the differences between their genres and the native more popular genres of today. In The Jones Family Singers performance, they interspersed modern gospel with elements of soul, funk, and even R&B. Their songs had an overwhelming positive attitude that stems from the high energy choirs of African American church gospels. The genuine joy and soul put into their songs gives the performance a life that embodies its high energy holy attitude that cannot be imitated by people outside of African American culture. LeRoi Jones imparts, “There is no one way of thinking, since reference (hence value) is as scattered and dissimilar as men themselves.

Thus, it is clear how the Jones Family Singers “attitude” is inherently unique in comparison to modern day popular music. The way the Jones Family Singer shapes their music is largely church and Christianity influenced, lending to the profound happy-go-lucky “God is great” voice that clearly embodies their gospel performance. Even today, many popular hip hop artists utilize similar gospel undertones or chorus to lend a heavenly feel to their songs and change their attitudes to invoke a different feeling in listeners and to convey a message where struggles are overcome (for example Kanye West’s Life of Pablo features many of these