Forgotten Influences

I’ll start off by saying the Cha Cha Cha reading for this Thursday, delving into the nitty-gritty of historical roots of rock & roll, was somewhat tedious until the end when I realized its significance with relation to the 1955 reading. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in this class so far, history IS everything when talking about music. I guess I’ll just take it one reading at a time, giving my two-cents, and then explain how I think they are very related.

In addition to being written in a completely different style, the 1955 reading illustrated the importance of understanding historical roots to appreciate a musical style or genre. As with all musical genres discussed in this class, everything we know is built off of something else that came before it. Through the characters of Traynor and Gracie Mae, we see an attempt to bridge the gap between what white culture perceives as a white musical form and the reality that it has black origins. Traynor, who I can only guess represents a figure like Elvis Presley (going off to war, swinging his hips in provocative ways, copying black style to every detail, getting fat, etc.), is described as having a “real dark white skin” (4) which seems to not make sense. It’s only when we learn how well he mimics the black style that we realize that he’s almost like a black person trapped in a white’s body (hence the contradicting description). The piece goes on to describe how Gracie Mae’s famous song is no longer considered hers anymore to anybody, which to me, signifies the commodification of black style and its incorporation (abduction by whites) into white culture. It’s black being lost in the white, which I link to the latin-ness being lost to American culture as discussed in the Sublette reading. It’s mentioned repeatedly in “1955” that the audience doesn’t “understand” (8) the song—they go into a pop frenzy over him singing the song, but they don’t truly get its meaning, which Traynor himself seeks the entire time. “They want what you got but they don’t want you” (17) pretty much sums up the point of the piece to me. Segregation and the image associated with Gracie Mae enforces the idea that she doesn’t conform to the white’s ideal/fantasy, which is that Traynor’s song was born out of his whiteness. Whereas segregation is the cultural/societal force that ensures blackness getting lost in the sea of white, the embargo between the United States and Cuba (and their terrible relationship) has caused the influence of Afro-Latin musical styles to be both physically and metaphorically drawn out of society—the origins all but forgotten in today’s society. Traynor who has come to understand the meaning behind the song, has also come to appreciate the true performance given by Gracie Mae at the end of the reading. He gets upset at the audience for not expressing as much joy at hearing the “original” version because he has a deep respect for its roots. In a comment showing deep reverence for Traynor after his death, Gracie Mae says the women on the television “didn’t even know what they was crying for” (20), an acknowledgement that Traynor had not just come to mimic a style and genre, he had come to embody the very meaning behind the song.

Having read the Cha Cha Cha piece, numerous examples began to flood my head as I read. In outlining the rhythmic concept that is “the clave,” the author explains that it is a basic “one (two) and (three) four / (one) two three (four)”—the bolded being the emphasized/audible beats, and the parentheticals indicating left-out beats/silence. For those not musically-inclined this might seem meaningless, but when you listen to examples, it hits you like a ton of bricks how deeply the “latin tinge” has permeated pop music and our idea of rock. The first striking example that came to mind—and don’t judge, it was the first one I could think of embarrassingly enough—was Aaron Carter’s “I Want Candy” ( ). Although the beat is fast, it is as clear a demonstration of this rhythm as I could find...I highly doubt Aaron Carter—similarly to the young Traynor—knew (or knows today) how strongly influenced his smash hit was by the latin clave rhythmic “key.” Although it might take a little more effort to spot, the clave rhythm shows its face quite clearly in other realms of music including musical theater. In the hit musical “Footloose,” a town is seized by a scandalous urge to dance to rock songs and the prom scene from the movie demonstrates a couple points I’ve made so far: . The base line mainly carries the first three bolded beats of the clave rhythm, while the two claps carry the last two (the 2 and 3). The dancing as Sublette points out, is also intended to provide polyrhythmic layers to the art—which they do in that video. It’s also funny how the musical is about expressing oneself through dance and rock music and yet, none of the people probably realize where that music even came from. Billie Holiday’s speak low () also embodies the latin tinge that Jelly Roll Morton claims underlied the development of jazz. The clave rhythm, as well as a relatively straight set of rhythms is contrasted even within the song with a shuffling, swing beat of jazz. Something the author points out happens in many of Chuck Berry’s songs. The author also comments how Bo Diddly didn’t even get/know the rhythmic origins of his music, which had been clearly influenced by Latin sources. My friends and I from back home have actually tried to have conversations using a bongo drum only to communicate a story or how we’re feeling. Having done this throughout the last 5 years at least, it has seemed silly all my life, but after reading Cha Cha Cha, the origins of expression using a (originally African) drum go back a long way. The expressive nature of drums and their use in creating polyrhythms with everyone doing his/her part is something that (I agree with the author) has been lost and is taken for granted today.

After reading both pieces, I felt a sense of loss, but also a sense of recovery. The styles that have influenced rock and the genres many of us love and claim are hip have slipped away due to cultural forces. In the case of these readings, segregation and racism, as well as the American embargo of Cuban goods (which includes the cultural exchange of styles), serve as the mechanisms whereby origins are forgotten. Whites have seemed to suck up these influences and we are born and go through life not being told or taught where these “white” styles came from. You don’t have to look far to find examples in almost all contemporary music of Afro-Latin and/or Afro-American influences.