Music, Worship, Slaves, and Elvis Presley

Despite our preference for compartmentalization of historical events and cultural practices, in truth music cannot be entirely separated from the culture in which it exists past and present. If one wants to study the music from Asia, one must also study the culture, the religion, the historical treatment of the people, the governments, the art, and the philosophies contained with the culture. To do otherwise is to extract the necessary information for accurate understanding of how and why art was created within the community. A study of Asian instruments cannot be removed from knowing something about Hinduism, its philosophies, its influences, and mostly its ideals. For to understand Hinduism is to understand the music of the people and how the music is an extension of the inner peace of which Hindus seek. To study the music apart from the religious practices of the people would be to try to understand the words of a song without knowing the context.

African-American culture, the music, the worship practices, and the people trace back to African musical roots of dancing, playing drums, and singing. Because our present is shaped by our past and because knowledge of the past helps guide the future, it is valuable to understand the heritage that comprises today's musical trends. Racial equality and integration have been difficult to accomplish and we have a long way to go in our country. Governments have passed laws to insist on equality and local governments continue to make strides in integration of the races through hiring practices, educational practices, and cultural events that encourage all people to participate without exclusion. Yet there are cultural areas in which the government cannot and should not interfere including worship practices, music preferences, emotional responses, and relationships. One of the best ways to cross racial barriers is through music. Ironically music also contributes to division and polarization, but that is a topic for another time.

A historical look at African-American music reveals a race of people who responded to music through movement, only to be criticized and legally prevented from moving to music. It was an absurd criticism that can only be attributed to ignorance and some kind of unwarranted suspicion of the activity. Moving the body to music is a natural physiological response to sound and a part of the human experience. Research shows that infants respond to sound by moving their bodies and this natural inclination continues through childhood development. At some point, however, many children cease their natural movement to music except in a controlled environment such as a dance or concert. Nevertheless, moving to music is as natural as listening, walking, or even breathing. This does not, of course, mean that all black music performance involved dancing nor that other music resisted movement. To make such assertions is a dangerous generalization; yet for purposes of this discussion, it does make the point that historically white music does not elicit nor encourage motion. This may be partly due to socialization but also due to an emphases on blocked rhythm over syncopation.

Yet a white culture rejected the movement of slaves as being primitive or inappropriate and this attitude prevailed well into the 20th century with the ridiculous assertion that blacks have a certain way of moving to music and whites have a certain way of moving to music. Sadly, this type of weak categorization smacks of bias and gross generalities. The informative book Sinful Tunes and Spirituals: Black Folk Music to the Civil War by Dena J. Epstein chronicles the practice of slaves dancing and the efforts to stop such activities. On page 27 the author mentions that "the first official attempt to suppress African dancing and instruments was reported by Adrien Dessalles, who had access to the Archives Coloniales." The ordinance was issued on May 4, 1654 prohibiting dancing by blacks (Epstein, Dena J. Sinful Tunes and Spirituals, 1977). Perhaps out of fear of the unknown or simply suspicion of a common element, slave owners remained fearful of slaves meeting to dance, to worship, to sing, or really any form of community. This attitude remained true through the years of slavery in the United States.

Being that music is cathartic, it should come as no surprise that slaves used music and worship as a way to deal with their challenging circumstances, often forming in the evenings away from white ownership. Although some slave owners discouraged and even punished slaves for gathering after working hours, the practice continued. "Slaves forbidden by masters to attend church or, in some cases, even to pray, risked floggings to attend secret gatherings to worship God." (Raboteau, Albert J. The Secret Religion of Slaves, Oxford, 1978). Yet in spite of the concern by the owners, slaves gathered when possible to worship and express their sorrow while seeking after hope through a religious experience. At these services, they sang spirituals, danced, and expressed their hearts through music. "Spirituals are too often seen simply as words and notes printed on a page. What must be recognized is that they emerged as communal songs, heard, felt, sung and often danced with hand-clapping, foot-stamping, headshaking excitement" (Raboteau: The Secret Religion of Slaves, 1978).

Throughout the first half of the 20th century people seemed generally comfortable with a cultural separation of blacks and whites, often viewing blacks in the role of service to the whites in a type of minimally compensated economic slavery. With the rise of jazz, singing groups, and black entertainers, black music became a valued type of music for cultural expression. And yet, whites continued to see black music as distinctive and unique to the race, something enjoyable but not to be practiced by whites. The work of American composer George Gershwin helped quell some of this attitude but the pervasive separation of the races kept the style of the music from being fully integrated in churches, schools, and the concert hall.

"Then came Elvis Presley with his style of gyrating his hips, shaking his leg, and syncopating his rhythms, all perceived as "black" practices in music." "When the 'establishment' accused Elvis Presley of being vulgar, of being deliberately sexual, they did not mean this. This was the cover for what was really meant, what was really feared, and that was that Elvis would lead to equal rights and racial integration. And not just Elvis any white person singing rock 'n' roll. Carl Perkins was warned to not do his show. Elvis was simply the number one guy and therefore got the most attention." (http://www.elvis.com.au/presley/elvis-not-racist.shtml, accessed 1/1/2015).

Elvis was certainly not the first to use a "black" approach to music (http://www.salon.com/2014/05/17/elvis_wasnt_the_first/), but he quickly became the most popular and by virtue of his fame, contributed greatly to an integration of the races through music. Heavily criticized by the white establishment, the younger generation, not interested in separation or in any kind of preferred style of music, simply enjoyed the musical expression of early rock music. Churches and preachers jumped on the band wagon of criticism, claiming the sexual style of music was evil (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PdVqWuqUsI). If black music style causes excessive bodily movement, and if that kind of movement is evil, then it stands to reason that Elvis was evil, an absurd conclusion rejected by popular culture. As Rufus Thomas once said, "A lot of people say that Elvis stole our music. No man has got a music of his own. Music belongs to the universe."

We fast forward to today, and we realize that music naturally lends itself to movement and with that revelation we not only accept and use the black practices of moving to music and utilizing syncopation, we have integrated the idea into our popular and church cultures. We no longer compartmentalize nor harshly judge the style of music but, instead, we accept it as another tool of musical expression, neither lower than nor higher than any other kind of music. As our society marches forward to greater refinement, tolerance, and knowledge of how the past shapes the future, we can bask in our musical eclecticism and recognize that in music we find common ground and inclusion of all races and types of people.