Breaking into a Public

“Although inclusion is indispensable, exclusion is never total. Sometimes, people force their way into public forums and agendas.” Robert Asen, 346

So far I’ve been thinking about public discourse in terms of texts and the speeches, newscasts, and other texts surrounding those. But what about music—isn’t music involved in the discourse as well?

Music has historically been a means for people to communicate and/or make political and social statements—just check out Shostakovich’s protest against Stalin’s regime (such a huge statement even without the aid of lyrics!). If we move a little closer to home, however, we find past music publics that exemplified what Asen discusses regarding collective imagination and representation.

Consider the minstrel songs from the 1830s; when white musicians heard the work songs of plantation slaves, they returned north, painted their faces black with cork (a kind of shoe polish), and performed shows meant to mock African Americans. Asen states that “representation historically has meant both standing for something absent and making something present” (355); through a visual and lyrical discourse, the minstrels represented (inaccurately) a people physically absent from the shows.

 Now, Asen asserts that collective imagining entails “social dialogue [which] enables the formation of opinions that did not exist prior to discursive engagement” (349). The white popular collective imagining of African Americans was turned upside down when confronted with black social/musical “dialogue”:

Most folks in the north had never heard Black music performed by Black musicians. That would change and have dramatic effect when the Fisk University Jubilee Singers  performed in the northern United States in 1867 and then on formal tour with just nine singers in 1871. While people were at first angered that the music wasn’t “minstrel show” style but rather profoundly moving concert music, the impact of actual Black music performed by Black musicians would change everything. (Funk 34)

Not only did black musicians “force their way into public [music] forums,” but they did so with profound effect. White music publics realized that this “new” music was actually quite sophisticated and enjoyable. In fact, Scott Joplin’s ragtimepiano music was a hit in most households across the country, especially after the Stock Market Crash of 1908. Both sheet music and records of the rags were available for purchase. Musicians in military bands even transcribed Joplin’s music into band arrangements (Funk 35).

Interestingly enough, even within the developing jazz scene, the counterpublic of women musicians was still barred from “manly” instruments like trumpet and clarinet and encouraged only to pursue vocals or piano. Hmm—could there be counterpublics to counterpublics? At any rate, it wasn’t until WWII when all-female swing bands swept the country and wrestled with “seeking to advance self-fashioned interpretations of their interests and needs against interpretations imposed by others” (Asen 346). (Perhaps I’ll post more on this later).

The question at the forefront of my mind while reading Asen was, “How do you change people’s minds?” In response to that question, I think Asen would once again emphasize the importance of inclusiveness within publics—even if that inclusiveness was forced from the outside.

Sources:

Asen, Robert. "Imagining in the Public Sphere." Philosophy and Rhetoric 35.4 (2002): 345-67.

Funk, Eric. Sound Thinking: It's ALL Music--How Music Connects With Everything. Kendall Hunt Pub, 2015. Web.