Burke Analysis Ragtime--Jazz

During the era of ragtime when googled it seemed as if there were only white couples in fancy outfits, when this was a heavily black affiliated time era, its interesting to see this. Then when I searched jazz it was mostly black American’s playing, almost the exact opposite of the ragtime era. However, it was a big step for black American’s in the ragtime era, this was their chance to embrace something as their own. While it was mostly satire on themselves it was also a gateway for white acceptance. Eventually moving on to jazz era in the late 1900s when they could finally adapt to a style they could call their own. This is why I think when I searched ragtime whites tried to act like they claimed this era, when really it was the black American’s who did. Whites didn’t want to admit their acceptance of this genre of music being discovered by another race so they just kind of accepted it as their own.

 

 

 

Satire	Epic	Elaboration
“Coon songs portrayed African Americans in grossly stereotypical terms, as foolish, lazy and thieving. The term coon itself suggests something of this attitude.” Pg.3		This is proposing the idea of racism at its birth, people starting to assert stereotypes through anything that becomes popular at their time. While this ragtime music was evolved from a white stereotype it eventually began to take a turn to the black people during the late 1800s, once this turn took place it began to shift the ideas that were associated with ragtime and sort of became a negative thing for those who were a part of it. It then became a sort of mimic to stereotype.
	“This generation of black artists celebrated black communities, denounced Jim Crow, and critiqued black elite pretension, all behind the minstrel mask.” Pg. 2	The blacks felt as if this was their window or medium to express how they felt and Ernest Hogan really opened up this new gate way for black Americans to be able to express themselves through this genre of music. By doing this it actually caused a lot of mimic from the white community and brought a more negative connotation to the black community because of this. However this was a start to a new beginning for the black community. They wanted the attention and they were sure getting it through the form of music they were playing.
	“Hogan was both right and wrong on this count. It is true that ragtime changed the face of American music, helping to “blacken the beat” of popular music long before rock n roll appeared on the scene.” Pg. 2	This began to be a somewhat positive outcome for the black Americans, it started to form to this somewhat significant figure that black people began to look up to, it gave them hope that they did and could succeed against this terrible time in history.
	“Mr. Hogan’s work also opened international doors for black performers, with Hogan’s own company touring as far as Australia in 1899.” Pg. 3	This was and still is a huge deal, this was a big step for black American’s to be a part of because this opened a new path that these people could have hope for, not only was it opening doors socially and economically but it was giving these people attention and that is what they needed. This also gave black performers all around the world confidence in their own genre of music and the best way was to stick with how the white people saw them, and this was all they could do for the white people to accept it. This was the main difference between ragtime and jazz music. Jazz was the era of embracing it as their own.