"Music is a cultural memoir discussing all cultural realities." For many artists, music has been a valuable tool in their hands, used to demonstrate and depict messages and connect with the audience. Music could as well be a political voice for artists in times of hardship and difficulty, just as it could exist as a sign of hope for those who listen: those in similar situations. Endless depictions and emotions towards the cultural realities of the time can be found embedded in larger spectrum of African American music. Sam Cooke is considered a great example of an influential artist who expressed the feelings of his community through what he wrote, having experienced it all first hand.
Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on January 22nd, 1931. For Sam Cooke, Gospel singing had already become a profession at the age of only 10. In the fifties and sixties, he did something special with the gifts he already possessed. Cooke took the sounds of gospel and combined them with secular themes, and as a result, he contributed in the creation and shaping of soul music as we know it today. The meaning of the genre 'soul music' is near self explanatory, but is simply a form of secular testifying or preaching. This is a mere sum up of what Sam Cooke became world renowned for.
"He wrote of what he saw and heard. He listened to it and spoke to it. Effortlessly and instinctively, he turned it into music." (Brian Leli) Sam Cooke expressed his life and culture through music, which became not only a memoir of his own cultural realities, but of the many millions of black Americans with whom he shared hardships within the community
There was one specific single released by Sam Cooke that inevitably reached out to the people. "A change is gonna come." Again, a clear and self explanatory title, a piece of music that was a political voice for the artist, and a sign of hope for the intended audience. It was written within the Civil Rights Movement. This social movement aimed to end all racial segregation and discrimination in the United States at the time, and this was a movement for which many considered the song "a change is gonna come" to be an anthem.
In this piece of music, he uses language, with traces of African american vernacular English, to express the emotions and connect with the people. "I go to the movie and I go down town. Somebody keep telling me don't hang around" This supposedly depicted the fact that many owners of cinemas and restaurants did not want any blacks on or anywhere near their establishment. "A change gonna come." This phrase is in constant repetition throughout the song, which could suggest that hope is the underlying them of the lyrics. It is also clear that AAVE is present: evident in the typical use of the word "gonna" as a replacement of "going to."
The legacy of Sam Cooke lives on within the replenished hearts of black american people. What he left behind was unlike anything else. He was a true example of artists who used music for a meaningful purpose, and not just a form of entertainment. The statement that music is a cultural memoir is relevant when discussing the music of Sam Cooke, since all the ups and downs (realities) of his culture are laying deep within every note he sings and every word he utters.
Cooke was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi on January 22nd, 1931. For Sam Cooke, Gospel singing had already become a profession at the age of only 10. In the fifties and sixties, he did something special with the gifts he already possessed. Cooke took the sounds of gospel and combined them with secular themes, and as a result, he contributed in the creation and shaping of soul music as we know it today. The meaning of the genre 'soul music' is near self explanatory, but is simply a form of secular testifying or preaching. This is a mere sum up of what Sam Cooke became world renowned for.
"He wrote of what he saw and heard. He listened to it and spoke to it. Effortlessly and instinctively, he turned it into music." (Brian Leli) Sam Cooke expressed his life and culture through music, which became not only a memoir of his own cultural realities, but of the many millions of black Americans with whom he shared hardships within the community
There was one specific single released by Sam Cooke that inevitably reached out to the people. "A change is gonna come." Again, a clear and self explanatory title, a piece of music that was a political voice for the artist, and a sign of hope for the intended audience. It was written within the Civil Rights Movement. This social movement aimed to end all racial segregation and discrimination in the United States at the time, and this was a movement for which many considered the song "a change is gonna come" to be an anthem.
In this piece of music, he uses language, with traces of African american vernacular English, to express the emotions and connect with the people. "I go to the movie and I go down town. Somebody keep telling me don't hang around" This supposedly depicted the fact that many owners of cinemas and restaurants did not want any blacks on or anywhere near their establishment. "A change gonna come." This phrase is in constant repetition throughout the song, which could suggest that hope is the underlying them of the lyrics. It is also clear that AAVE is present: evident in the typical use of the word "gonna" as a replacement of "going to."
The legacy of Sam Cooke lives on within the replenished hearts of black american people. What he left behind was unlike anything else. He was a true example of artists who used music for a meaningful purpose, and not just a form of entertainment. The statement that music is a cultural memoir is relevant when discussing the music of Sam Cooke, since all the ups and downs (realities) of his culture are laying deep within every note he sings and every word he utters.
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