Four Women in American Music History

Ameri pile medical specialty history has boastful an incredible amount in the be hundred years. Prior to that time, there were very(prenominal) few expressions of music that originated in America. However, with the orgasm of love and related styles, American music socialisation was born. Blues is star of the premature styles of music that is truly American, and there be many another(prenominal) an cutting(prenominal)(prenominal) a nonher(prenominal) American artists who sang or performed in that style. In fact, megrims is lock up startular today, although it has changed oer time. Blues is an of the essence(p) and want-term American musical style, which has had many effects on musical culture from the former(a) 1900s th crude today.Bessie Smith was an early discolour vocalizer. She was push downular in the mid-twenties and 30s, and was cognise as much for her awkward-drinking, tearing life as much as her music. She sang most what she knew. Bessie was an Af rican American woman who indulged in sex and alcohol, and had a fuddled temper. She never gave up without a fight, either in her music or her life. Getting into a fight with Bessie wasnt something a person wanted to do, either, because she was over six feet tall and weighed almost cardinal hundred pounds. Bessie had a history of acquiring into fist fights with people, male or feminine.She excessively took off after her ex-husband with a gun when she found him cheating on her, after beating up his lover. However, Bessie herself was know for sleeping with a number of both(prenominal) men and women (Whitney). harmonyally, Bessie was not really trained. She could not read music, and relied on different musicians to redeem her songs down for her. She did write her own lyrics, though. She was a formid equal presence on st years, able to sing loudly and strongly because of her size, and her goal to sing in the range that was easiest for her.In constitution her music, Bessie t c losedowned to modify existing melodies, and sometimes bring to pass new angiotensin-converting enzymes, so that they lay tumesce in her smashing range (Whitney). hither is an example of Bessies lyrics, which show her feelings about life plainly I aint no high yella, Im a deep killer whale brown. /I aint gonna marry, aint gonna settle down. /Im gonna drink trusty moonshine and rub these browns down. /See that long lonesome road, Lawd you know its gonna end,/and Im a good woman and I can befool got plenty men (Whitney). Bessie was also known as something of a racist. term her fans were both dumb and sportsmanlike, she was rude to both whites and lighter-skinned blacks. Even at the line of longitude of her career, when she had enough money to anticipate as she chose (even as a white person might, in the early 30s), she chose to layover on the streets and to live the life that was old(prenominal) to her. Her lyrics here show her thinking on this matter Mister mysterious m an, rich man, pass around up your heart and attend,/Mister rich man, rich man, yield up your heart and mind/Give the poor man a chance, help stop these hard, hard times./While youre livin in your mansion house you dont know what hard times fashion, /While youre livin in your mansion you dont know what hard times means /Poor tameing mans wife is starvation your wife is livin like a poof (Whitney). Ethel Waters is a blues singer who began playing later in Bessies career. While Bessie was primarily performing and swell known during the 1920s, Ethel became better known in the 1930s (her career did officially let in 1921, though). Ethel was specifically a assorted attractive of blues singer than Bessie, and in fact was different from her in many ways.Ethel is also of African American decent, still she grew up in the North and was heavily influenced by white performers. When she began performing professionally, Ethel coupled a group of blacks who called themselves Cakewalk s ingers, which was intelligibly different from the more traditional blues singers, like Bessie (PBS). Ethels acceptance of whites can be traced to what was a very rough beginning for her. She was born when her mother was besides 12. Her mother had been raped by a white man, John Waters. Ethel, then, is half-white, and carries her pay offs surname.She was raised by her maternal grandmother in poverty, and began apprisal at age 5. Her beginnings are much more resembling to Bessies, plainly what she did with herself later differs widely (Myers). Ethel calculateed with a number of famous jazz performers, including Duke Ellington. In addition to her singing career, Ethel was also an actress, an range of her life that eventually came to the forefront. Her singing style was not nearly as strong as Bessies, but she performed very theatrically and managed to capture the audiences wager in all of her music.This came in handy, as she continued performing through the sixties and 70s, working at that time with wand Graham (PBS). Ultimately, Bessies influence on Ethel was very indirect. Both were jazz singers in a time when African Americans were freshman on the rise in popularity on the stage. Bessies grit may contribute given Ethel opportunities she might not flip otherwise had. In many other ways, though, the two were very different attitude, style, and more. Dinah capital of the United States is another important singer in this chain of history.Her birth name was ruth Jones, and she was born in 1924. She is meaning(a)ly jr. than both Ethel and Bessie, whose careers were near their peaks when she was born. Music was in Dinahs family from the beginning. Her mother was a church service pianist, and taught her to play at a schoolboyish age. She was accompanying and touring by the time she was 16, and had already won prizes. However, although her initial roots were in the church, Dinah longed to work in secular music, to wit jazz (Dahl).At age 19, Dinah got her big break, singing with Lionel Hamptons Big Band, then one of the most popular music styles. By 1945, she was written text her own solo work for the Apollo label and Mercury records, and by 1948, she was on her way to major stardom. 1959 was her biggest year, when she sang What a Difrence a Day Makes (Dahl). In her personalized life, Dinah was similar to Bessie. She had many husbands, and she drank a lot. In fact, alcohol and drugs eventually killed her at the end of 1963 (Dahl). In addition, she also loved the finer things, including fur, clothes, and cars.Her personality was known as feisty, and she could be snapping one minute and generous the undermentioned (Cohodas). At firstly glance, Christina Aguilera doesnt feel much like the other stars. For one, she isnt black. For another, she was born after all of the other singers had died. However, it is her roots and influences that she is similar to them. Like Dinah, she is biracial, with a mom who is Irish and a father who is Ecuadorian. Her father was in the military, which meant that Christina traveled a lot as a baby bird (Biggest Stars).Also like the other singers, Christina was interested in singing and performing from the time she was a young girl. Her family was also musical, with her mother performing on violin and piano professionally. Christina had a brief, two-year stint on The paddy field Mouse Club when she was a child, working with other singers who later became famous, like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake (Biggest Stars). Christinas initial music was definitely pop, with her first number one single(a) titled Genie in a Bottle. The single topped both the U. S. and UK charts in 1999.For for a turn longer, Christina continued in the pop genre, recording for the movie Mulan, and singing a new version of Lady Marmalade with several other female pop stars (Biggest Stars). Christinas work eventually began to seem less significant to her, and she decided to record her 2002 phon ograph phonograph album Stripped. The album was the first that really showed her background and influences. Her comments about this album Coming off of the height of being a part of much(prenominal) a big pop-craze phenomenon, that imagery of that cookie-cutter sweetheart, without it being me, I just had to murder it all down and get it out from me.And that is why I actually named the album Stripped, because it is about being emotionally unsheathed down and pretty bare to open my soulfulness and heart. This album used many different influences, including soul, R&B, rock, hip-hop and Latin (Biggest Stars). Aguileras influences were similar to the earlier stars mentioned. She looked to soul and R&B, both of which are styles typically recorded by African Americans. The blues aspect of R&B, in particular, is provoke to note. Aguilera was following in the footsteps of the other female jazz singers with this style.Also, similar to Dinah Washington, Aguilera sang pop (Dinah did p op in addition to her jazz roots). In general, all quartette of these women have things in common, and things that are different. Each grew up under similar circumstances, often with for the most part maternal influences. roughly had some kind of musical background at home. Most grew up poor, and all had an early gift for music and singing. Most also had a taste for sex, drugs, and some rougher things in life, and had a hard time at one point or another. However, each was unique.Bessie was sure enough the biggest and most blunt of the group, while Christina stood of the arctic end as the sweetheart of pop for awhile. Christina was also different in that she was not of African American decent in any way, although Ethel was also half-white. Some of the singers, viz. Dinah, had their start in gospel music, while others went straight for jazz or pop. Overall, it is enkindle how strikingly similar the artists are, even though there are also very big differences in their lives and styles.Their stories and backgrounds are painfully similar in some respects, but very different in others. These four women are just some of the amazing performers from the rich tapestry that is American music history. Sources Burns, Ken. Ethel Waters. Jazz. Accessed on celestial latitude 4, 2007. Website http//www. pbs. org/jazz/ memoir/artist_id_waters_ethel. htm. Christina Aguilera Biography. Biggest Stars. Accessed December 4, 2007. Website http//www. biggeststars. com/c/christina-aguilera-biography. html. Cohodas, Nadine (2004).Queen The Life and Music of Dinah Washington. Accessed December 4, 2007. Website http//www. dinahthequeen. com/. Dahl, Bill. Dinah Washington. Accessed December 4, 2007. Website http//www. vervemusicgroup. com/dinahwashington. Myers, Aaron. Ethel Waters. Accessed December 4, 2007. Website http//www. wntb. com/blackachievers/ethlwaters/. Whitney, Ross (1995). Reflections Of 1920s And 30s highway Life In The Music Of Bessie Smith. Accessed December 4, 2007. Website http//bluesnet. hub. org/readings/bessie. html.