IV. American Culture (continued)

       C. Early Immigrant Groups & the American Frontier 1600-1890

              1. Immigrant groups: Coming To America

               American immigrant groups in the early days of the Colonial Period (1607-1788) and the Young Republic (1788-1810) the dominant groups were English, German, Scot-Irish, French, and African. These cultures brought their own folk traditions, church music and minimal fine arts. The Scot-Irish tended to be out in the frontier and adapt American Indian lifestyles out of necessity. African people, mostly slaves, had their own social fabric and culture stripped from them. They too adapted some American Indian culture but essentially had to build a whole new culture in America. The oral traditions from Africa, European goods, and American Indian food were fused into an new culture. The American Folk Art Museum in New York feature a good collection of early American folk art.

                Early founding fathers tried to establish intellectual institutions to quell European criticism that Americans were crude and unsophisticated. The Pennsylvania  Academy of Fine Arts was one of those early institutions and was established in 1805 by Charles Willson Peale. PAFA became a site for exhibitions, school and collections of American art. Peale started out as a limner and traveled about painting portraits, but went on to formal training as a painter and did formal portraits of more well to do clients. Later in the 19th century other universities trained artists and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. took on the task of housing the nations art. Eventually other urban centers like Boston and New York vied to exhibit various genres of fine art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (The Met) has become one of the largest and prestigious museums in the world. Much of the fine art of early immigrant groups (Art Profile 1) comes from Europe or European Influences

              2.  Manifest Destiny and Western Frontiers   

           After the Revolutionary War 1776-1789 the American frontier rapidly expanded west over the Cumberland Gap. Anything beyond the 13 colonies and the Appalachian Mountains was considered 'The West'. The Scot Irish were usually the first and had first expanded south along the Wagon Road through the Shenandoah Valley. Many were promised land after the Revolutionary War and most land pensions paid to veterans and their families were in Kentucky or Ohio. The U.S. government had entered into treaties with various Native American groups, but broke them all with increased immigrants and land needs. Farming, especially with cash crops like tobacco, depleted the soil and so many established farmers left the East for 'The West'. Many such as the Scot-Irish ignored federal regulations and treaties as they forced Indian families off their land, often with violent consequences. The federal government, especially Southern presidents turned a blind eye as newspapers used a Manifest Destiny justification moved ahead. The idea comes from the old testament scriptures that gave the Israelites the right to the promised land because of the right religion and the promise that they would put the land to better use. In America Manifest Destiny was given greater strength by promoting Eastern Woodland culture as primitive hunting and gathering rather than village farmers, which they were.

Various Europeans such as the English, Dutch,  German and Swedes settled along the Atlantic Seaboard. The Scot-Irish, Welsh and Irish were forced to settle out on the frontier. Eventually, many went south into the Western  Piedmont of  Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia. This established the 'Great Wagon Road'  through the Shenandoah Valley and later some of the same people will go West over the Cumberland Gap into Tennessee and Kentucky. The Western Frontier continued to spread west as settlers moved beyond the Midwest to Oregon, Washington Territory, California and the Southwest. The conquest of new territory, leaving home, wandering, and the attraction of  the 'Promised Land' in American Destiny were a common theme of the  fine art of the Early 19th century (Art Profile 2).

Fundamental differences had emerged between the American South's need for labor to maintain its economic integrity. Early on the South had refused to abide by Federal treaties with the Five Civilized Tribes and President Jackson pushed through the Indian Removal Act 1830 that forced Indians to the Indian Territory West of the Mississippi River and resulted in the Trail of Tears. Likewise, the abolitionist movement of the North fell on deaf ears and led to a Federal vs State authority crisis launch our nation to secession and the Civil War. The Civil War marks a crisis in the United States that is visible in artistic styles becoming more realistic and reflective of our personal struggles as a people. The Civil War took such a toll on lives, property and well being that the potential for loss becomes an issue in songs such as  Song # 4 "When Johnny Comes Marching Home".

D. American Progressive Movement, Industrialization, Imperialism 1890-1939

       1. Gilded Age and WWI

After the Civil War the North plundered the South and many went West to expand the frontier into the Plains and beyond. America's resources, mineral, timber, immigrants, etc. were applied to increasing industrial development with improvements rail and shipping. Eventually, the frontier was closed in 1890 and a conservation movement emerged to preserve/conserve what was left. However, by the turn of the century with the Spanish-American War America was part of a Gilded Age (a term from Mark Twain's novel satirizing material excess and the quest for wealth) and sought to become a world power. The 'Great White Fleet' of US Naval might sailed the world between 1907-09.

Great White Fleet

Oceanside Pier, CA/Great White Fleet, 1907

As industrialization grew and since the American South was so depressed many African Americans migrated into the Northern cities to work in the steel mills and auto industries. Cultural crossovers began to emerge with marching bands, classical music and the blues. Scott Joplin developed a new form called ragtime which fused these elements together and one of his earliest songs was Song #5 "Maple Leaf Rag". The world of art was changing too in response to the urban pressures and materialism. The modern era is said to be launched by the First International Exhibition of Modern Art in New York City 1913.

World War I also put America into the modern era of mechanized warfare. Although the U.S. entered the war late the experience for many American left an indelible mark. Many ethnic groups saw discrepancies and prejudice during and after the war. When soldiers came home it tended to accentuate injustice that still prevailed stateside. Woman participated directly and indirectly in the war effort. W.E.B. DuBois, an African American sociologist, had formed the NAACP in 1906 with minimal success, but after WWI the movement for change began to meet with some success. Women's Suffrage had been an issue for years but the war effort brought ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. Native Americans finally became citizens in their own land in 1924.

The end of WW I was marked by a period celebration as the nation began the 'Roaring 20s. Entertainment had become big business with theatre, film and the music industry exploding. Most of the entertainment started or centered upon New York City. The music industry used new recording technologies to distribute popular songs and used the movies to further promote popular music. New York's Tin Pan Alley district housed producers, writers and agents. A sixteen year old son of Russian Jewish immigrants by the name of Jacob Gershowitz (George Gershwin) started working in Tin Pan Alley and produced his first successful work with Song# 6 "Swanee" in 1919. The song was meant to be a parody of Stephan Foster's "Old Folks Home", but it also revived stereotypes of African Americans with Al Jolson's 'black face' renditions. African American blues and jazz were making some inroads into the popular music scene but there was considerable separation with segregated clubs and separate record labels (called "Race Records").

        2. Depression and World War II

In 1929 the stock market crashed and America found itself in a deep depression. Music and extravagant musicals became the rage. Many artists were out of work and some found work in the film industry and WPA projects. In the American Plains the topsoil literally blew away creating a 'Dust Bowl'. The South was depressed and poor whites lashed out against others to include radical and conservative actions to include the KKK and lynchings. President Roosevelt (FDR) initiated various programs that stimulated a considerable movement around the country with programs like CCC. Huge federal dam projects such as the TVA, Hoover Dam, Bonneville Dam and Grand Coulee Dam changed the landscape of the American West.

Europe was also in a depression which brought fascist and communist elements into post WWW I Europe. By 1939 the threat of Nazism  began to alarm America and various works of art reflected concern. In 1939 the film industry launched dramatic color and nostalgic films such as "The Wizard of Oz", "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", and "Gone With The Wind". Heroes are redefined Frank Capra's Jimmy Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and  John Ford's John Wayne (relative unknown B Western actor) in "Stagecoach". Regardless of our flaws idealistic virtue will prevail.

In 1939 Billie Holliday recorded her controversial Song  #7 "Strange Fruit" and through the efforts of Columbia's John Hammond was recorded on labels for all audiences. Also, in contrast, Judy Garland's song "Over the Rainbow" dominated the pop charts. Kate Smith was popularizing Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" and a radical folk singer, Woody Guthrie, countered in 1940 with Song #8 "This Land Is Your Land". As WW II loomed,  Irving Berlin's Song # 9 "White Christmas" emerged as simpler nostalgic hit, but struck a powerful cord among GIs by 1942. Many top songs were of the peppy big band groups with songs like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo". One of the top band leaders, Glenn Miller, was killed in a plane crash traveling for USO shows.

For America World War II, after Dec 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor, we became globally committed with many resources and great numbers of 'citizen soldiers'. Some scholars assert that the war effort bolstered FDR's efforts at recovery from the depression. The impact was felt mainly due to loss of almost 400,000 men, but the 15 million that participated carried home many changes to American culture. The impact of war for some was devastating, but many came home to heroes welcome and a comprehensive G.I. Bill that provided many with a college education. Returning veterans also launched a 'Baby Boom' that continues to impact Americans today as they reach retirement age. The military was highly segregated during WW II, but many returning to felt the time had come to dissolve inequity in America. To fight for ones country and freedom of other people created a contradiction difficult to swallow upon returning to segregation and injustice. President Truman began to desegregate the military with Executive Order 9981 in 1948.

E. Post War America 1950-

      1. Post War Baby Boomers 1950s

The most influential aspect of the post war years was the 'Baby Boom' with the birth of the most influential generation of the 2nd half of the 20th century. The impact of this group would not hit until their teenage years and college. New technologies, like T.V., and increased commercialism contributed to the many changes of the 1950s. In the music world, the merging of  Country and Western with Urban Blues, brought on by the post war changes are best exemplified by a sickly Cherokee singer named Hank Williams. Williams began to mix syncopated rhythms in plaintive songs like Song # 10, "I am So Lonesome I Could Cry" in 1949. Finally, a White truck driver from Tupelo, MS walked into the Sun records studio in 1953. With the recording of  A. Crudup's blues  "That's All Right (Mama)" the young Elvis Presley's (1935-1977)career took off. His release of Song #11 "Hound Dog" with 'Don't Be Cruel" in 1956 took him to the top, 'The King of Rock'n' Roll'. This form of Rock 'n' Roll is sometimes referred to as 'Rock a Billy'. Earlier African American performers like Fats Domino, Little Richard, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry had broken ground but Elvis Presley knocked down the wall and suburban white kids from the north were hooked on Rock 'n' Roll. Another Southern Boy, added to the mystique with clean looks, but with syncopated rhythms from Texas blues. His name was Buddy Holly, from Lubbock, Texas and he was influenced by local blues and country, but after seeing Elvis Presley live in 1955 he immediately formed a group with high school friends ( Joe Mauldin, Jerry Allison, & Niki Sullivan) called the Crickets. Hits like "That'll Be The Day", "Maybe Baby" and Song #12 "Peggy Sue" brought Holly rapid fame but it was short lived. On Feb. 3, 1959 in an Iowa blizzard, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, The Big Bopper and their pilot, Roger Peterson, were killed. Ritchie Valens also was arising star and had recorded a number of very popular songs with a infusion of Latin influence with Song #13, "La Bamba" being the most popular and with lasting impact since it was derived from a old traditional Mexican folk song. Both Holly and Valens have been memorialized in many ways including films and plays about their short careers.

       2. Civil Rights Movement early 1960's

As Rock 'n' Roll spread throughout the US and eventually the world, the Civil Rights Movement was building momentum in the American South. Desegregation stands such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, Montgomery, Alabama (1955) where Rosa Parks (1913-2005) refused to ride at the back of a bus and the Little Rock Central HS , Little Rock, Arkansas (1957) student desegregation requiring the 101st Airborne. Pres. Eisenhower had conceded that past injustices would not be tolerated in the Post WW II America. These events launched Martin Luther King's non-violent protests. The Civil Rights Act after a southern filibuster was finally signed in 1960 by Pres. Eisenhower, but was limited to enforcing the right to vote. When Pres. Kennedy took office in 1960 he campaigned to expand equality to include desegregation of public schools and public places. In August 1963 there was the famous 'March On Washington' where Martin Luther King gave his " I have a dream..." speech. Many college students from the North had begun to become involved in Civil Rights issues that were mainly played out in the South. These protests revived folk music of earlier social movements and the 'New Folk Movement' was born on the college campuses reviving old folk performers from rural blues, dust bowl folksingers, gospel, bluegrass and urban Beatnik poetry. As the New Folk Movement of the early 1960's started in college coffee shops it soon spread to Greenwich Village, protest gatherings and eventually to records and TV. A young folk singer, Bob Dylan, from Minnesota wrote Song #14 "Blowin' In The Wind" in 1962 and performed it with Joan Baez at the March On Washington in the summer of 1963. The devastating assassination of Pres. Kennedy (JFK) delayed the second civil right act to integrate public places and created a shift in that shook many young people on college campuses. As the civil rights spread to the North, the war in Vietnam expanded and forced a draft. Pres. Johnson finally pushed through The Civil Rights Act of 1964 that Kennedy had initiated. The Rock 'n' Roll  British invasion dominated the pop scene and old American Rockers faded away or had to reinvent themselves. The impact of folk music changed R&B to Soul and Rock to Folk Rock. Song #15 "Respect" was originally written by Otis Redding for men but became a feminist expression by Aretha Franklin. Bob Dylan became more radical, but went to electric to the dismay of his folkie fans at Newport Folk Festival in 1965. Dylan's Song #16 " Like A Rolling Stone" is a scathing rip at expectation to conform and the society at the time. "Like a Rolling Stone" is considered to be the greatest rock song of all time even though it broke the 3  minute barrier. The effect of Dylan going to electric had pervasive effect on many group including the Beatles, Stones and The Byrds.

    3. Vietnam and the Sixties late 1960s. 1970s

The cultural changes of alternative lifestyles often associated with the 1960s did not really emerge until 1965-67 culminating with the 'Summer of Love' in 1967 with the Monterey Pop Festival highlighting the new fusion of folk and rock. More than anyone Jimi Hendrix, who had been recording in England totally blew the audience away with what was often referred to as 'Acid Rock'.

In 1968 everything turned for the worse, beginning with the TET Offensive during the Vietnamese Lunar New Year in January. In spite of Johnson signing another Civil Right Act 1968 (for fair housing), he renounced running as president. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy (RFK) were both assassinated and Richard Nixon was elected as president. Vietnam continued and Rock 'n' Roll lost top stars to drugs in 1970-71.

Instead of ending the Vietnam War Nixon invaded Cambodia and the National guard killed 3 students and  wounded 9 students, on Kent State University campus in Ohio. The middle class began to call for an end to Vietnam but the war dragged out until 1975. Music became more commercialized with synthesized instruments, including drum machines to produce disco and funk. Song # 17 "Higher Ground" (1973) by Stevie Wonder represents the genre funk that represents a more serious side to disco and the dance club scenes of the 1970s and 1980s.

    3. 1980s and Beyond

Alvin Toffler predicted in his book "Future Shock" (1970) that cultural and technological change was increasingly accelerating and would continue to do so. It would become a post industrial age, with globalization and information overload. The 1980s proved him correct as traditional industry in the US was increasingly outsourced, world population exploded and technology based on the micro chip took off. All sorts of media shifts were born with CDs, VCR, PCs, VGP, and MTV. The outlandish costume and color, gender bending and more drugs spilled into the video/music scene with commercial and grass roots genre such as punk (anti-disco), heavy metal, new wave, hip-hop/rap and alternative rock (college campuses). A young ex-Motown performer of the Jackson Five launched himself to global fame with the 1982 " Thriller" album that included Song #18 "Billie Jean" and his famous 'Moon Walk'. Jackson's album, "Thriller", remains one of the most popular selling albums of all time (104 million) and won him 7 Grammy Awards. Unfortunately drugs, AIDs, exploitation of outsourced workers and the faltering economy did not raise quality of living for many. However, the end of the 1980s brought the USSR dominance to an end with the bringing down of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

With the continued impact of the computer, internet and mobile phones the 1990s is seen as the coming of age of Gen X who are born 1965-~1982. With the increase of divorce and the need for women to enter the workforce, combined with information overload this group or generation is characterized as being politically apathetic and fraught with major identity crises. As various music forms emerge and synthesize alternative rock becomes mainstream with news forms such as grunge which is best exemplified with Nirvana's album "Nevermind" (1991) with Song # 19 "It Smells Like Teen Spirit" and was called the "anthem for apathetic kids" of Generation X. Kurt Cobain and Nirvana's second album "Lithium" (1992) is considered more cutting edge addressing the use of Lithium salts for mood stabilization. Deep down it really addresses the fact that American society tends to find solutions to social and psychological problems primarily with drugs.

In the urban streets of America poverty and drugs drove people down and America is unable to provide equal opportunities. Much of the differentiation in poor urban and some rural communities continues to be the unequal tax distribution, low attendance and inability of parents to augment the inadequacy of public schools. In the 1970s & 1980s recent African and Jamaican immigrants on the East Coast developed new music and dance forms that became known as rap and hip-hop. 'Break Dancing' was an early dance that ex-gang members used to keep young kids out of trouble. However, Rap became commercial and a rivalry developed between East Coast and West Coast hip hop. Specifically, Song #20 "I Used To Love H.E.R." (1994) was written by Common (Ronnie Rashid Lynn, Jr.) in response to a feud with West Coast Gansta rap and Ice Cube. The song bemoans the commercialization of rap by the mid 1990s and H.E.R. is an acronym for' Hip Hop in its Essence and Real'.

As the world became more connected with personal computers, GPS, internet and cell phones there were numerous financial shifts due to destabilization of colonial and communist empire nations that sought independence, economic development and cultural dignity. As America entered the new millennium the uncertainty of resources, increased populations, nuclear proliferation and increasing paranoiac religious groups would lead to a dilemma as to the US role in the world. Then 9/11 terrorism became a defining event for the beginning of the millennium and subsequently launched us into the Iraq War.

Next Notes: V