... know people can't always do exactly what they want to do -"" (91). This is the attitude of the narrator towards his brother Sonny in the beginning of "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin. ""I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?"" (91). This is Sonny's attitude throughout the story. The narrator's attitude ... is going through throughout the story. The parents of Sonny and the narrator died by the time Sonny was in high school. This left the narrator in a father role for Sonny. Sonny and his brother grew up in Harlem with limited options open to them...

• Word Count: 570
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... being discussed became to evolve into more urban issues. Females such as Ma Rainey began to make big hits in Blues. Unlike blues, rap grew out of black urban America. The exact birthplace of rap is has been debated, but it is commonly considered to have started in the Bronx, New York City, ... , then slips away, usually out the back door. In the song "Back Door Man" Howlin Wolf sings about how he is sneaks in mens' house when they aren't around: "Well the men don't know, but the women understand/ when everybody's tryin' to sleep/ I'm somewhere making my midnight creep ... past experience...

• Word Count: 1900
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: High School

... began in the 1920's with the merging of some of the most talented and creative musicians in the business. Among the jazz pioneers were the trailblazing New Orleans Rhythm Kings, King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band with Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, and Fletcher Henderson. Among the contributing blues pioneers were Son House, Charles Patton and Robert Johnson. In the ... played with a single acoustic guitar or piano became electrified, played in groups. Once the blues made its way north, artists Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf dominated the Chicago blues scene, incorporati...

• Word Count: 2036
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... such as the metal washboard, spoons, or a metal string nailed to a piece of wood or even the house. Soon after that inexpensive varieties of guitar emerges such as the Stella and Kay. The Banjo, Saxophone, Trumpet, Harmonicas, and the Piano were some of the main instruments used in playing the Blues. American Blues players soon brought the slide guitar into play as well. The first ... Blues artist recorded in 1917. When the musicians played live they tuned their ... clapping, stomping, and call-and-response methods of singing characterized this music. This style of music had a huge inf...

• Word Count: 1380
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... Blues", written by acclaimed writer James Baldwin is a story of two brothers who struggle with their differences and end up going two different ways at the fork of life; molding them into their personalities which we see develop throughout the story. The differences in morals and goals, between Sonny and his brother, surface as a result of ... through many changes throughout the story is see as being dynamically round character because of these changes. From the beginning of the story Sonny starts off in jail after his arrest, he then goes to stay at his brother's house with his wife, Isa...

• Word Count: 1003
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... were involved in the Civil Rights Movement, the student movements and speaking out against the Vietnam War, a rapid number of people were becoming more interested in the rights of women. These events provided a great model for women on how to effect change. Female blues artists were the first women to be employed by the microphone. For women, establishing themselves as female rock, sound ... (Joplin 2). Janis Joplin was born in Port Arthur, Texas, where she followed artistic interests drawn by her parents Seth and Dorothy Joplin. Janis began singing in a coffee house. She started copyin...

• Word Count: 1455
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... rolling stones was a dramatic and electrifying show man on and off of stage. Janis Joplin a hard drinking singer whose powerful interpretations of classic blues songs captured her to the Superstardome. The last true hippie marched out of Max Yasgur's muddy pasture more than 25 years ago. During those ... of pasture. Yasgur met Lang and as soon as Lang saw the sloping bowl, a little rise for the stage, and a lake in the background. The deal was done. The concert date was approaching fast and a week before the festival, Yasgur's farm didn't look much like a concert site. "It was like they ...

• Word Count: 1482
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... but by drawing strength from their culture they could resist their condition and struggle against it. In the face of this type of adversity, one would imagine that it would be hard to retain ones culture, much less ones sanity. Yet ... and prayed, sang, told stories, and engaged in the necessary chores of day-to-day living, from cleaning house, cooking, and sewing to working on garden plots. Especially important as anchors of the slaves" lives were their families and their religion. Throughout the South ... of slavery. The institution of Sunday dinner continues on out of the tradition o...

• Word Count: 2002
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... 1880, the family was living in Texarkana, which straddled the border between Texas and Arkansas. At the age of seven, Joplin started taking piano lessons in a neighbor's house in return for his mother's labor. His German teacher, Julius Weiss, was a private tutor to the ... children in Texarkana in the late 1870s. Weiss gave Joplin free lessons and exposure to European art music. He had a profound influence on young Joplin, helping shape his ambitions to excel both culturally and musically. Because of ... 's roots are in cakewalks, minstrel-show plantation songs, black folk music, work s...

• Word Count: 3626
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography

... ". With the Civil War came the freedom of slaves in America. During this time a new style of singing and playing acoustic guitar become popular. Named Delta Blues, after the "Mississippi Delta" region where the majority of blacks in America lived on plantations, it was some of the first blues to ever be recorded. "Pioneers such as Charley Patton, Son House, Robert Johnson, and Mississippi Fred McDowell helped ... to create a unique and powerful sound that is still popular today." (Lee) Widely recognized as the "Father of Rock and Roll", Blues music is one of America's great contributions...

• Word Count: 1385
• Approx Pages: 6

... music to spread easier. More people were concentrated in one area and living in the cities enabled easier means of obtaining transporting to other parts of the country. The move into the cities, along with the invention of the electric guitar, changed the face of blues forever and paved the way for rock and roll. (2, 3, 4, 7) After World War Two, the United States came out the ... the nation causing a growth spurt in population known as the "Baby Boom" and many of these families moved to communities on the outskirts of the cities known as suburbs. These suburbs consisted of a house for ...

• Word Count: 2836
• Approx Pages: 11
• Grade Level: High School

... Despite his premature death in London before his twenty eighth birthday, Jimi Hendrix produced an innovative playing style that has influenced a multitude of later musicians and revolutionized rock and roll music during the 1960's. James Marshall Hendrix grew up as deprived insignificant child but would eventually ... age sixteen Hendrix bought his first guitar for five dollars. It was a secondhand acoustic model that was a balancing element to his scarred childhood of his parents divorce, his unpredictable schooling and his mother's death in 1958. In 1959, Hendrix joined his first band, ...

• Word Count: 2535
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Despite his premature death in London before his twenty eighth birthday, Jimi Hendrix produced an innovative playing style that has influenced a multitude of later musicians and revolutionized rock and roll music during the 1960's. James Marshall Hendrix grew up as deprived insignificant child but would eventually ... age sixteen Hendrix bought his first guitar for five dollars. It was a secondhand acoustic model that was a balancing element to his scarred childhood of his parents divorce, his unpredictable schooling and his mother's death in 1958. In 1959, Hendrix joined his first band, ...

• Word Count: 2522
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... says the narrator. Sonny's brother clearly doesn't want him to become a jazz musician. The narrator's dislike of his brother's lifestyle is even more apparent later on in the story when Sonny visits him at his house, the narrator comments "I didn't like the way he carried himself, loose and dreamlike all the time, and ... narrator says "I told him that he might just as well be dead as live the way he was living". Finally, having experienced the death of his daughter the narrator gradually changes from criticizing his brothers life to just listening to what he has to say. This change can ...

• Word Count: 641
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... entertainers in the world." After the death of his mother, Morton began playing in whorehouses and in the bordellos of the Storyville district of New Orleans. There he became active as a gambler, pool shark, and a lot of things that caused his grandmother to throw him out of the house as a bum and a scalawag. ... She did not want him around his two little sisters. As a wanderer, and during the fair of 1904 ... pieces set before him. In 1912, Morton briefly settled in Chicago's South Side where he published his first number, " The Jelly Roll Blues," which was brought out by William Rossit...

• Word Count: 814
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... to hip-hop. In the late '70s, dance clubs played disco, but by the end of the decade, disco was evolving into a number of different genres. All of the genres were collected under the catch-all term "dance," though there were distinct differences between dance-pop, hip-hop, house, and techno, among other subgenres. In its purest form, Rock & Roll has three chords, a strong ... , insistent back beat, and a catchy melody. Early rock & roll drew from a variety of sources, primarily blues, R&B, and country, but also gospel, traditional pop, jazz, and folk. Soft rock emerged in the ... mainst...

• Word Count: 2063
• Approx Pages: 8

... mortgaged their farm, to buy Jerry Lee his first piano which was a Stark upright. Soon Jerry Lee discovered a new type of music; his own! "I'll tell ya, I started playing piano--I learned to play in two weeks." He started frequenting Haney's Big House with his cousin Jimmy Lee Swaggart. Haney's was a meeting place for blacks. They gathered there for parties. Jerry Lee's uncle ... , Lee Calhoun, owned the place so Jerry Lee and his cousin would hide behind the bar and watch the plantation workers dancing around to the blues. Haney's was the place that made Jerry Lee an outstanding perform...

• Word Count: 824
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... formal events. The most common was a strapless, tight-bodice, full bouffant, dress that came in a range of colors of blues to reds. The dress was again incomplete if it was worn without gloves. The evening style of glove was made of satin or camisole, and came in a large range of colors that matched the dress. These gloves were no longer then the elbow and no shorter ... 's suits were usually dark colors that complemented each other. On the weekends or hang around the house days the male was seen wearing slacks, Bermuda shorts, a tee shirt, slip-on shoes, or a pair of Levis. By the end o...

• Word Count: 2176
• Approx Pages: 9
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... The Grateful Dead embodied more than just the music they produced, but also the sense of community they conveyed to their audience. They were revered by fans as a unique rock band, blending the genres of bluegrass, rock and blues, with several side projects ranging from jazz to drum orchestras. The shows were parties and ... three clicked immediately. They all decided that they needed to jam and see how things worked out. They met in Palo Alto at a guys house that Jerry knew named Phil Lesh. Lesh had no idea he would be given a bass and expected to play, he was a music major ... started...

• Word Count: 1922
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... , Rock Music. During one week, I looked for information in the library and at my house, and from the information I gathered and my one knowledge about the topic, I'm going to lead the reader to a better understanding of Rock n' Roll. I chose to do Rock music because I can identify myself with it. Rock music ... topics such as famous composers and groups, and characteristics of the music. The first section of this essay is Rock n' Roll of the 1950's, when Rock n' Roll was born. It emerged from rhythm and blues, a music similar to jazz played by blacks. This kind of music started to attrac...

• Word Count: 1234
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... I'm going to introduce to the reader a topic not touched a lot because of its complexity and its avoidance by conservative adults. This topic is, of course, Rock Music. During one week, I looked for information in the library and at my house, and from the information I gathered and my one knowledge about the topic, ... I'm going to lead the reader to a better understanding of Rock n' Roll. I chose to do Rock music because I can identify myself with it. ... such as famous composers and groups, and characteristics of the music. The first section of this essay is Rock n' Roll of the 1950'...

• Word Count: 1119
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... Williams, Jr., also released best-selling albums in 1987. Deaths in 1987 included jazz artists Buddy Rich, Maxine Sullivan, Kid Thomas, Sammy Kave, Jaco Pastorius, and Woody Herman; blues artist Paul Butterfield; songwriter Boudleaux Bryant; and reggae artist Peter Tosh. Television During the 1986-1987 prime-time television season and continuing into the 1987-1988 programming schedule, NBC held ... , claiming the strike had taught the network it could function with fewer employees. During 1987, members of the Writers Guild of America struck CBS and ABC. But fewer employees were affected a...

• Word Count: 2598
• Approx Pages: 10

... fell in love with the alto saxophone. For as young as he was when he started playing, Parker's commitment to the instrument resembled that of a professional musician, he practiced the instrument profusely on a daily basis. John Coltrane's upbringing was somewhat similar to Parker's. Growing up, John ... Parker would regularly sneak out of his house at night and walk to downtown Kansas City and sit in the back alleys of clubs and listen to the jazz music coming out of the nightclubs. Parker's favorite hangout was the balcony of Club Reno, where the house band was the Count ... . While C...

• Word Count: 1287
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... several different political issues, such as James Meredith's struggle to enter the University of Mississippi in "62 ("Oxford Town") and the Cuban missile crisis ("Hard Rain A-Gonna Fall"). Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin" Bob Dylan, was supposed to include the song "Talkin" John Birch Society Blues", but Columbia Records would not include the cut, fearing an adverse reaction from ... to believe that he was a Communist. Seeger invoked the First Amendment guaranteeing freedom of speech rather than the Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. In 1961, the House of Repres...

• Word Count: 1882
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... . This mistake turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to him. He was sent to the Coloreds Waif House a reform school on the out skirts of New Orleans. Here Louis was introduced to organized music in the form of the school band. Captain Joseph Jones ran the school band in a military fashion that was extremely strict. It was there that ... mob in Chicago. Gangsters owned most of the clubs in Chicago. Armstrong immediately entered the studios and started recording a series of recording called the Hot Fives and Sevens, which gave him a lasting name. These recordings were some of ...

• Word Count: 1911
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School