Hello, my name is Olivia. My final post will be about Janis Joplin and her ‘womanly’ influence on 60s rock which was so heavily dominated by men. I will also be using Susan Hiwatt’s article to highlight challenges females faced in a masculine structured music genre.

In the article titled “Cock Rock;” Susan Hiwatt wrote which describes what 60s rock was like for her and other women at the time; as well as some of her criticisms on where “women” stood in rock during the 60s; found here.

Why Janis Joplin?

Janis Joplin is the final female artist highlighted within the text on the rock revolution from 1964 to 1970 [1]. First performing with a local blues band: Big brother and the Holding Company [3]. Together they created music with a mix of blues, folk and psychedelic rock [3]. It wasn’t until the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival where her voice and stage presence gained recognition.

After leaving Big Brother in 1968, she released her first solo album, I’ve Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! in 1969, and toured 0extensively with her Kozmic Blues Band [3].

Janis Joplin carved a new role for women in rock [1]. She broke through the existing stereotypes of what women were “expected” to be as performers by bringing the audience a powerful, intensive and emotion filled vocal style that incorporated both blues and soul. Her delivery in her singing put her on equal footing to men in both power and presence [1].

Although Janis Joplin made a large influence on rock, she still had to work hard to be “accepted” as Hiwatt mentions as the “chick” singer where select women were allowed to exist in rock [2]. Either than that, women were excluded from both the listening audience or being recognized as a true musician on stage [2]. Instead, women had to be beautiful, groovy, a sex object or whatever role was needed to satisfy men’s needs [2]. Even though Janis Joplin sang about her experience as a women, pain, humiliation and love; she still had to fit in a masculine world where women were disrespected [2]. Stuck with a microphone, Janis could only use her body and voice in order connect with the audience [2]; and because she was a ‘woman’ she was left extremely vulnerable as a minority to the hands of men in a male dominated world.

“Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)” is a perfect example where you can hear the hardships involved living as a woman in a world dominated by men in her voice and how no matter how much effort she puts in to please them it is never enough.

Limitations

In both a society and music industry dominated by men, Janis Joplin faced many limitations especially since women were excluded from being a part of both the audience or on stage. As Hiwatt mentions, women were not supposed to understand anything about electronics because, electric guitars were unfeminine thus, were supposed to strictly stick to composing soft, gentle songs and playing with a folk guitar [2]. Many other myths existed specifically to keep women out of rock such as: women weren’t strong enough to play the drums; or women were not aggressive enough to play good driving rock [2].

Since these myths looked down on women, Janis Joplin was at the bottom of a hierarchy where men always stood above women. This put her under harsher criticism since men held power as the majority of both the audience as well as the musicians on stage. She may have been ‘accepted’ due to her unique vocal style, however she still had to please the men around her. As Hiwatt states in her article, musicians often addressed the audience as if it were all male; where women were disregarded or considered as people. Instead women were treated like objects who would easily submit to any man [2].

Janis Joplin also faced limitations on stage. Since women were not allowed to play the instruments, they were left with nothing for the audience to relate to but themselves (their physical body) and the microphone in their hand [2]. For Janis, that meant that she became a remarkable sex object; associated with whatever existing women-hating words were used to describe women (cunts, bitchy etc.) who had an extremely good voice [2].

Because of her gender, Janis was limited to what she could do in an industry filled and controlled by men. As a minority, she face many stereotypes against women which prevented her from going beyond using her voice and lyrics to talk about her experience as a woman.

Expectations

On stage, women were supposed to be sweet and pretty [2]. Women were expected to offer their bodies for sex (property of men), be beautiful, not uptight or demanding, not clingy or strong, groovy; whatever a man needs [2]. “Piece of My Heart” shows Janis Joplin’s way of fighting back and showing that women can be tough.

Taking Rock Head On

As rock could connect to its listeners through the power of the words and the messages embodied in the music [1]. Janis Joplin was able to use her voice and lyrics to convey her feelings about being a woman in her time and challenge ‘male rock’. To show this I wanted to highlight parts from the song “Turtle Blues”  which talks about how women are poorly treated have been called, and doing anything that men desire of women.

I ain’t the kind of woman
Who’d make your life a bed of ease

-I know this goddamn life too well.

Oh! Now call me mean, you can call me evil, yeah, yeah,
I’ve been called much of some things around,
Honey, don’t ya know I have!
Whoa, call me mean or call me evil
I’ve been called much of some things, all things around,
Yeah, but I’m gonna take good care of Janis, yeah,
Honey, ain’t no one gonna dog me down.
Alright, yeah. [4]

Takeaway

As I listened and read to the lyrics of the songs released by Janis Joplin, you can just hear her struggles in a male dominated music industry as well as a society. Overall, Hiwatt’s article shed light to the extent of women being disregarded as people within society who couldn’t be recognized unless they had a ‘man’ by their side. It also showed how much music mirrors the dominant culture in society. Although Janis Joplin has been called “the greatest white urban blues and soul singer of her generation” [3]; such an lavish title hides the struggles Janis Joplin as a woman had to go through to even earn any recognition as a music artist in an industry made up of predominantly men. Although she died far too soon, Janis Joplin is remembered for conveying her experience and feelings in not only her lyrics but also in the way she emotionally delivered them with her voice.

I wanted to end this post with a quote that I found by rock critic Lillian Roxon who did a very good job in describing Janis Joplin’s influence on rock:

“[Janis Joplin] perfectly expressed the feelings and yearnings of the girls of the electric generation—to be all woman, yet equal with men; to be free, yet a slave to real love; to [reject] every outdated convention, and yet get back to the basics of life.” [3]

Sources:

1. Campbell, Michael. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. 4th ed.* Boston: Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2013.

2. Hiwatt, Susan. “Cock rock.” Twenty-Minute Fandangos and Forever Changes: A Rock Bazaar (1971): 141-7.

3. “Janis Joplin.” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, www.rockhall.com/inductees/janis-joplin.

4. Unterberger, Richie. “Janis Joplin Biography.” Janis Joplin Lyrics, Photos, Pictures, Paroles, Letras, Text for Every Songs. Accessed August 02, 2018. http://alwaysontherun.net/janis.htm.

Hi my name is Olivia, and for my second post will be about Ma Rainey and her contributions to Blues music.

Known as the “Mother of Blues,” Gertrude Pridgett, better known as “Ma” Rainey; remains one of the most important early blue singers, who incorporated blues into minstrel and vaudeville stage shows, blending styles from country blues, early jazz, and her own personal musical style.

Early Life and Career

Born on April 26, 1886 in Columbus, Georgia; Ma Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett) made her performance debut at the age of 14 in a local show called “A Bunch of Blackberries.” Soon after Ma Rainey was inspired to sing the blues after hearing a girl sing the blues in a theatre in St. Louis in 1902. By 18, she had become one of the South’s most popular vaudeville entertainers, and the first to make the rude, low-down blues of the country juke joints her specialty. After marrying comedy sonster William “Pa” Rainey in 1904, the couple traveled and toured with the popular Rabbit Foot Minstrels, billed as ”Ma and Pa Rainey, Assassinators of the Blues.”

Separated from her husband in 1916, Rainey toured with her own band, Madam Gertrude Ma Rainey and Her Georgia Smart Sets, featuring a chorus line and a Cotton Blossoms Show, and Donald McGregor’s Carnival Show.

Entering the Recoding Industry 

In 1923 Rainey signed with Paramount Records. That December she made her first eight recordings for the label which included the songs “Bad Luck Blues,” “Bo-Weevil Blues” and “Moonshine Blues.” Over the next five years, she recorded more than a total of one hundred songs, including numerous classics, and with such luminous sidemen as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Kid Ory, and Coleman Hawkins. Her sides included “Jelly Bean Blues,” “Walking Blues,” “Black Cat, Hoot Owl Blues,” Runaway Blues,” “Sleep Talking Blues,” “Black Eye Blues,” and “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”

Ma Rainey  was known for being called numerous names, “Mother of the Blues,” the “Songbird of the South,” the “Gold-Neck Woman of the Blues” and the “Paramount Wildcat.” Her music gave the public a distinct Southern folk based music, singing about life’s joys and sorrows in a poetic but simple direct language. Her songs were about many themes, such as prostitution, domestic violence, murder, abandonment, heart break, promiscuity, drinking binges, the odyssey of travel, the workplace and the prison road gang, magic and superstition.

Ma Rainy had immense stage presence, and was noticeable with her gold teeth and feathers crowning her hair; long beautiful gowns and the many diamonds and gold necklaces she wore. Her voice was unique, was capable to capture audiences that heard her.

As Dorsey recalled, in The Rise of Gospel Blues, “When she started singing, the gold in her teeth would sparkle. She was in the spotlight. She possessed listeners; they swayed, they rocked, they moaned and groaned, as they felt the blues with her.”

Rainey‘s recordings and performances were extremely popular among black audiences, particularly in the south. After reaching the height of her popularity in the late ’20s, her career faded away by the early ’30s as female blues singing became less popular with the blues audience.

She retired from performing in 1933, settling down in her hometown of Columbus for the remainder of her life until her death in 1939. She left behind a legacy, which continues to move and influence successive generations of blues, country, and rock & roll musicians.

Rainey’s death came just as her work began gaining serious attention and recognition for her historical contribution, impact, and overall influence on the Blues. She was inducted into the Blues Foundation’s Blues Hall of Fame in 1983, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1992,  Georgia Women of Achievement in 1993, and in 2004 “See, See Rider” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Ma Rainey faced several challenges as a black women in America where civil rights belonged only to white people. In a time of heteronormative view of sexuality; she boldly expressed her own lesbian sexuality within the lyrics within some of her songs. Songs which she sang unapologetically about taboo topics of the time, such as lesbian relationships. As an entertainer she faced harsh criticism for her ‘ugly’ stage appearance; however, she “didn’t care, because she pulled in the crowds.”

Some Music from the “Mother of Blues”

The first song I chose is “Slave To The Blues” because it describes the ongoing existence of slavery and oppressive treatment towards African Americans within American culture and music. Restricted with no choice or civil rights; Ma Rainy paints the hopelessness she feels as an African American woman who can never escape from being chained from the power of men, white people, slavery and the blues. As demonstrated through these lyrics:

Blues do tell me : do i have to die a slave
Do you hear me screaming : you’re going to take me to my grave

If i could break these chains : and let my worried heart go free
Well it’s too late now : the blues have made a slave of me

The Second song I chose is “Chain Gang Blues.” An example of Rainey’s poetic writing style; no matter where she goes, she will always be treated like a criminal; forever criticized for everything she does based on the colour of her skin.

The final song I chose is “Walking Blues.’ Describing how African Americans had to present themselves with “their heads bowed down” to the authority and dominance of white culture. Ignored and “left with no news”, feelings of frustration being passed down to the next generation show through her lyrics:

Walked and walked till I almost lost my mind

Sources:

BHS. “Ma Rainey Biography at Black History Now.” Black Heritage Commemorative Society. June 15, 2011. Accessed July 17, 2018. http://blackhistorynow.com/ma-rainey/.

Garau, Annie. “Why American Music Wouldn’t Be The Same Without Ma Rainey, Mother Of The Blues.” All That’s Interesting. December 18, 2017. Accessed July 17, 2018. http://allthatsinteresting.com/ma-rainey.

Jazz, All About. “Ma Rainey @ All About Jazz.” All About Jazz Musicians. October 24, 2013. Accessed July 17, 2018. https://musicians.allaboutjazz.com/marainey.

“Ma Rainey.” Biography.com. April 28, 2017. Accessed July 17, 2018. https://www.biography.com/people/ma-rainey-9542413.

“Ma Rainey.” Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Accessed July 17, 2018. https://www.rockhall.com/inductees/ma-rainey.

O’Neal, Jim. “Ma Rainey | Biography & History.” AllMusic. Accessed July 17, 2018. https://www.allmusic.com/artist/ma-rainey-mn0000188279/biography.

Orr, Lee N. “Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (1886-1939).” New Georgia Encyclopedia. May 09, 2013. Accessed July 17, 2018. https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/gertrude-ma-rainey-1886-1939.

Hi, my name is Olivia and I’m in my fourth year of Sociology.

Today I will be talking about the musical, ‘the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed’ from the New York Times Magazine article “’Shuffle Along’ and the Lost History of Black Performance in America.”

In early American theatre and much of the 19th century, African-American people were not allowed to perform onstage because, the physical stage itself had power in it. Blackface, a minstrel show practice, where white and (later) black performers applied burnt cork to darken their complexion. Black people who did black face to perform on stage, but had to hide their blackness behind a darker blackness. As white people placed boundaries for what black performers could express on stage, putting enormous pressure on black people go appear behind a mask previously worn by white performers. A mask which only mocked themselves, their own race, while at the same time giving up power all in order to entertain and please white audiences.

‘Shuffle Along’ reinforced the original purpose of blackface of mocking African Americans, through the continual use of burnt cork on performers faces. As a blacks-in-blackface production, the blackface mask prevented black people from being their own selves. However, it challenged the taboo black sexuality because, it made white people uncomfortable if black people indulged in too much lovemaking. ‘Shuffle Along’ also challenged the typical rhythms in musical theatre, through the the use of ragtime (by mixing European forms, harmony and textures with African-inspired syncopation) and jazz into the American musical. While the Chorus lines’s song-and-dance style to the syncopated and jazz songs, popularized songs such as “Love Will Find A Way,” “Bandana Days” and “In Honeysuckle Time” within the musical setting; which shifted the meaning of blackness, allowing the faces behind the blackface mask to gain some recognition as a performer.

Among the music in ‘Shuffle Along’, the song which remains the most well-known is “I’m Just Wild About Harry” which was written and composed by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. Although it was originally a love song, I had never heard of it before taking this course. It is a song that has since been recorded and performed by many different artists.

Here is one version of “I’m Just Wild About Harry” sung by Judy Garland:

“Patting Juba” is an African dance where the performer drums on their body, by slapping their chest and knees and the soles of their feet. By wearing hard-soled shoes on a wooden floor, it created a drum which could be used during the dance. Patting Juba was seen as a black thing, so it was performed in blackface. The second Juba dancer referred to as ‘Juba’ was a young black kid was the best in the world. His story is included, because he too based on his ‘race’ and skin colour could not find success with a broad white audience unless he was painted with blackface. Titled as the first great American tap dancer, his real identity will forever remain a mystery because, he was never able to be his true self. His image, painted in the only way ‘others’ could accept him; in a blackface mask. Juba’s image will always remain indistinguishable from the others, from the white men because, they are all painted the same. Only a caption can tell us which is him.

Among the claims of historical significance, “Shuffle Along” has often been called the first successful black broadway show. However, ‘success’ split less than two years after its opening on Broadway because its creators disagreed with the show’s profit as most was earned from the written songs of Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle. However, credit should be given to William and Walker productions like their 1907-9 show “Bandanna Land” which played in a more legitimate “broadway” house unlike the Sixty-Third Street Music Hall and attracted large white audiences before “Shuffle Along” came along. “Shuffle Along” has also been called the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic movement deeply tied to and influenced by jazz, musical theatre and other popular styles of music at the time. A show based on past forms of stage entertainment of Minstrelsy and Vaudeville; “Shuffle Along” only introduced syncopation in the American Musical. So “Shuffle Along”, did not start but was a part of the Harlem Renaissance.The true beginning of the Harlem Renaissance should be the Great migration which occurred after the Civil War where African-Americans migrated from the south to northern cities such as New York, Chicago, Philadelphia and Detroit. The Great Migration allowed writers, musicians and artists to artistically express their culture and political, social, and economic conditions of being black in America to achieve equality and civil rights in American society.

The concept of the 2016 show was a transformation of black entertainment. Not doing “Shuffle Along” but what led to the making of “Shuffle Along.” By telling the story of the original creators and cast of the 1821 shows to show how they pulled it off, along with various white outsider perspectives who commented on the original show. Here are highlights from the 2016 show:

Prior to reading this article, I had no knowledge about the conditions and challenges faced by early African American performers. The physical stage itself had power in it. Blackface was the only way for black performers to be accepted in front of white audiences. Always under criticism for what they lack and no set expectations of ‘true acceptance’ by society, prevents black performers to be who need to be.

The textbook does not give a fair perspective on blackface in America because it only defines what is as a minstrel show practice of darkening their skin complexion with burnt cork. The text primarily focuses on white performers and briefly mentions African American performers. It never describes the context behind blackface and why it became a popular form of stage entertainment for white people or what blackface meant for black performers.

Sources:

Campbell, Michael. Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. 4th ed.* Boston: Schirmer/Cengage Learning, 2013.

History.com Staff. “Great Migration.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2010, www.history.com/topics/black-history/great-migration.

History.com Staff. “Harlem Renaissance.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009, www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance.

Reign, April. “Broadway Black History: Shuffle Along.” Broadway Black, T&L Productions Andrew Shade, 14 May 2015, broadwayblack.com/shuffle-along/.

Sullivan, John Jeremiah. “’Shuffle Along’ and the Lost History of Black Performance in America.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/03/27/magazine/shuffle-along-and-the-painful-history-of-black-performance-in-america.html?mcubz=1.